PA #93: Letter From The Editor

Hello again, Protoculture Addicts!

You may have noticed that this monthÕs issue is a little late finding its way into your hands; you found yourself scouring the magazine rack at your local bookstore, week after week, wondering where your bi-monthly PA fix was. Why are we late this time? The answer is simple.

Convention season.

Every summer, we -- meaning the staff of both Protoculture Addicts and Anime News Network -- find ourselves hopping all over America (well, okay, Baltimore and Southern California, respectively) to cover the yearÕs biggest anime conventions. This year, Anime Expo, Otakon and San Diego Comic-Con all fell within the same month -- meaning we were on the road more than half of the month of July. I slept in hotel beds more than my own.

For most people, conventions are a chance to unwind, see your friends, buy some merchandise in the dealerÕs room, attend some informative panels, check out the latest industry acquisitions and maybe catch a glimpse of some brand-new anime. For the press -- and the industry as well -- convention season is a nonstop whirlwind of browbeating labor. WeÕve got to attend every major panel, cover every major event (and a lot of the minor ones), interview everyone at the show whoÕs worth talking to, do the requisite post-show drinking and schmoozing, and then wake up the next day and do it all over again. This year, things were extra complicated thanks to Anime News NetworkÕs brand-new video content, which had our video editors (along with PA associate editor and on-camera personality Bamboo Dong) up until 6am every evening. ThereÕs fun to be had, surely, but itÕs a heck of a lot of hard work, and everything -- and I mean everything -- else gets shoved aside to focus on the task at hand.

After San Diego Comic-con, which concluded at the tail end of July, your faithful PA staff -- jetlagged, bloodied, bruised and beaten after a solid month of airports, airplane food, starchy hotel linens, second-rate hotels, and several gallons of cocktails each, still had a mountain of work left to do on Protoculture AddictsÉ hence why we were a wee bit late this time.

Still, thereÕs a lot to look forward to in this issue. Freshly-minted contributor Carl Kimlinger lets us in on the secrets of love shonen style, Brian Hanson ponders why heady anime like Mind Game never seem to get licensed for US release, and Bamboo Dong takes us on a tour of Japanese literary history with The Story of SaiunkokuÉ all that plus the usual truckload of content youÕve come to expect from us.

Our next issue, due this Holiday season, is special: itÕs Protoculture AddictsÕ 20th anniversary, and weÕre celebrating in style. Look for some fun exclusives, a look back at the last two decades of PA, and a big fat article on the history of Protoculture AddictsÕ namesake, Robotech. Although IÕve only produced a handful of issues of this magazine and I register as barely a blip in the magazineÕs history, itÕs an honor to be working for the only anime magazine in English that can claim to have been around since 1987. WeÕre really excited about the 20th anniversary issue, and so should you be!

Once again, consider this a heartfelt apology for the lateness of this monthÕs issue. WeÕve healed our wounds, gotten a decent nightÕs sleep, sobered up thanks to months of intensive rehab our collective will of iron, and weÕre ready to attack the next issue head-on. See you in 2 months!

Zac Bertschy
Managing Editor, Protoculture Addicts

You can give your comments on this issue either on the magazine's forum or via e-mail at comments@protoculture.ca