Animerica
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Animerica is one of the original magazines reviewing anime and manga in North America. It is published by VIZ Media (formerly Viz Communications) and predominantly reviews material produced by Viz. Volume 1 Number 00 was released in November 1992; with Vol.1 No.1 following in March 1993, officially launching the monthly magazine.
In April 2005, Animerica announced it would no longer offer a newsstand edition for sale. Instead, the title continues as an ad hoc giveaway at anime conventions and as quarterly digest-size compendium given away free at Borders, Waldenbooks and Best Buy stores. The last newsstand issue appeared in January 2007.
Animerica uses a non-standard romanization system (a modified form of the Hepburn system), replacing the macrons used in Hepburn with circumflexes.
Two manga magazine complements to Animerica called Animerica Extra, and Pulp were published at one time, but are now defunct. However, Viz has returned to publishing monthly serialized manga magazines with both an American edition of Shonen Jump (aimed at the young male demographic), as well as a spin-off magazine, Shojo Beat, that combines the serialized manga magazine format with the teen girls' magazine format, featuring shoujo manga similarly to the later volumes of Animerica Extra (which had converted to a shoujo lineup before ending publication) as well as horoscopes and information on fashion, makeup, and Japanese slang and cultural trends. Both Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat now also have accompanying graphic novel lines from Viz.