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Presentation PA #82We at Anime News Network have long wanted to have a print companion to the website. Not a print version, but a companion, something that would complement the website, not just transfer it to a different media format. After all, we're very happy with the online format for ANN. Even newspapers are only printed once a day, whereas we can and do update multiple times a day. But there's still something to be said for paper; you can sit in bed and read a magazine, take it with you to the café and sip coffee while reading, read it in the subway on the way to work, and so on... Sure, technically you can do all this with digital devices, but the reading space available on a PDA is rather limited, and compared to a magazine, a laptop is big and bulky. Who wants to take out a laptop to read on the subway? Regardless of what certain digerati would have you believe, paper media still has the upper hand over digital media in a few areas, and it will be a while yet before digital media is portable, ergonomic, and economic enough to completely replace paper. So this is why we wanted to one day have a magazine counterpart to Anime News Network. Flash forward to the summer of 2003, and I was speaking with Claude J. Pelletier at the Fantasia Film Festival. Claude confided in me that he was thinking of getting out of the printed magazine business sometime in the next two years. It took very little time for me to decide that, if at all possible, Anime News Network's print companion would be Protoculture Addicts, and I had roughly two years to make it happen. It was an easy decision to make, Protoculture Addicts was, by far, my favorite anime magazine on the market, it was geared towards the same audience that I always tried to gear Anime News Network towards. In fact, it was geared towards me... or rather the demographic that I was a part of. It was the only magazine on the market aimed entirely towards an older demographic that put content above gloss. I never cared how pretty a magazine was (or wasn't), what was important was that the magazine provide me with a couple of hours of reading enjoyment and teach me a few new things in the process. Protoculture Addicts always did this. What's more, Protoculture Addicts has a certain heritage that other anime magazines simply don't have. Although PA wasn't the first anime magazine in North America, it is the oldest remaining anime magazine in North America (18 years this year!). For many anime fans, and industry professionals, PA was the first anime magazine they picked up. An industry friend of mine recently told me that he still had his copy of PA#1 at home. To me, this heritage is unquestionably something worth maintaining. So here we are, early 2005, and Protoculture Addicts is now "Anime News Network's Protoculture Addicts." Perhaps the biggest question you might have right now is, "what's going to change?" Very little actually, Protoculture Addicts will continue to be produced in the same vein as always, where content, not gloss, comes first. Of course we intend to make some modifications, but these will all be geared towards improving the magazine, not changing it. The most important thing that will not be changing will be that Claude J. Pelletier, the man that founded Protoculture Addicts in 1988 and has been at the helm ever since, will continue as the editor in chief of Anime News Network's Protoculture Addicts. In short, it will remain the "same old Protoculture Addicts, only better." Thank you for picking up this copy of Protoculture Addicts, and please let us know what you think of the magazine. You can write us by e-mail at comments@protoculture.ca. Christopher Macdonald * * *This first issue of Anime News Network's Protoculture Addicts is introducing you to eight (8) new anime titles! First, it features spotlights on Appleseed, Samurai Champloo, and Scrapped Princess. It is also offering lots of reviews of books (4), manga (22), anime-related products (12 CDs, 4 models), anime DVDs (58) and live-action movies (11) and it covers several festivals (more on the movies seen at this year's Montreal World Film Festival and at Fantasia) and conventions (Project A-Kon, Anime USA, SugoiCon). Also, more anime are presented in the "Anime Stories" section: Fuujin Monogatari, Otogi Zoushi, Re: Cutie Honey, Samurai 7, and Soukyou no Fafner! Finally, this issue highlights the latest anime & manga news (more than ever)! Enjoy! Next Issue: Five Star Stories, Gankutsuo (The Comte Of Monte Cristo), Grenadier, Gunbuster 2, Rozen Maiden, Shura no Toki, Yakitate!! Japan and more!! Don't miss it! Check the Upcoming Issues section for details! Claude J. Pelletier |