''Anime Insider'' was a monthly magazine published by

Wizard Entertainment Wizard Entertainment Inc., formerly known as GoEnergy and Wizard World, is a producer of multi-genre fan conventions across North America. The company started as the holding company for Strato Malmas' interests in the energy business. Gareb Shamu ...

, consisting of news and entertainment pieces relating to the Japanese

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

and

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

subculture. In its earliest incarnation it was published from Fall 2001 till Fall 2002 as a series of quarterly specials under the title ''Anime Invasion'', then became a bi-monthly magazine in November 2002, and was renamed ''Anime Insider'' in April 2003. The magazine was changed to a monthly release schedule in July 2005, which remained its current cycle until it ceased publication in 2009. Wizard touted the magazine as "#1 anime and manga magazine in America" in circulation. While containing informative features, such as interviews or exclusive reporting, articles dedicated to satire or humor were often also included. A trademark feature in Wizard publications, word bubbles were added to printed pictures. With the demise of ''

Newtype USA is a monthly magazine publication originating from Japan, covering anime (and to a lesser extent, tokusatsu, manga, Japanese science fiction, seiyuu, and video games). It was launched by publishing company Kadokawa Shoten on March 8, 1985, with i ...

'' in February 2008, it was cited as the English-language anime magazine with the highest distribution and sales across North America.

History

The magazine began in 2001 as a one-shot special publication under the name ''Anime Invasion'', but soon changed its name to avoid trademark infringement with another company's brand. ''Anime Insider'' was a quarterly magazine during its early years, and it eventually turned into a monthly magazine and remained on that schedule for the last half of its eight-year history. The magazine dropped its cover price in winter 2007 to $4.99 for the U.S. and $5.99 for Canada. On March 26, 2009, it was announced that ''Anime Insider'' would be ending publication after running for eight years. Rob Bricken, a former editor of ''Anime Insider'' magazine, wrote that Wizard Entertainment was ending publication of the North American anime and manga periodical. The editorial staff has been laid off.Anime Insider Ends Publication After Eight Years
''Anime Insider'' was also published in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

since 2003. This anime magazine releases except Wizard Magz. Both the magazines are available on

Alfamart PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk or Alfamart is a primarily-franchised Indonesian convenience store chain. As of May 2021, it had over 17,000 stores spread across Indonesia, 4 million daily customers and tens of thousands of micro, small and medium ...

store, but the magazine will be ceased in May 2011, that means 2 years after the original of ''Anime Insider'' was ceased first in 2009.

Content

News

The News portion covered events and trends in the anime & manga industries as well as coverage of conventions. Factual column Coming Soon consists of licensing announcements and expected releases, while By the Numbers incorporates digits relating to Japanese culture, video game, and anime/manga headlines, and Con Job lists upcoming conventions by location and programming. Entertainment columns within this section included Death of the Month (a character death from a selected series), Top Five (editors' praise for something related to anime culture), and Gratuitous Fanservice (a chosen pair of male and female characters designed to appeal to fans due to their appearances).

Reader contributed material

Animail, a combination of the words "anime" and "mail", was a section dedicated to answering questions submitted by readers. Results from ''Anime Insider''s monthly web-poll, reader comments, and selected fan art are posted here.

Anime features

The feature A.I. Five summarized a popular anime title debuting domestically that month by suggesting the top five reasons why viewers would enjoy this particular series/

OVA , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

/movie. In their Flash in Japan segment written by

Andrez Bergen Andrez Simon Bergen is an Australian musician and writer. , Bergen lived in Tokyo, Japan with his wife, Yoko Umehara, and their daughter Cocoa. He has performed and released electronic music as Little Nobody. Biography Andrez Simon Bergen, ...

, an anime series that was currently airing on TVs in Japan was profiled for American audiences, prior to licensing in the U.S., with quotes from the shows' directors. The article Last Man Standing was a fictional story that put two anime characters that are similar in nature (ex. ninjas) but are from different shows against each other in a type of imaginary match.

Manga Preview

Each month, a new manga title scheduled to be released in America was previewed in ''Anime Insider'', publishing a chapter from an upcoming volume. Some manga included ''

Trigun Maximum is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yasuhiro Nightow. ''Trigun'' was first serialized in Tokuma Shoten's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Monthly Shōnen Captain'' from April 1995 to January 1997, when the magazine ceased ...

'' and '' Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl''. The 41's manga preview was ''

Disgaea 2 is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Nippon Ichi Software for the PlayStation 2 video game console. ''Disgaea 2'' is the sequel to 2003's '' Disgaea: Hour of Darkness'' and was released for the PlayStation 2. It is also th ...

''.

Main sections

DVD

Dedicated to information regarding domestic DVD sales, this section had a listing of new releases for that month. Recurring segments include Lip Service (interviews with voice actors), Eastern Egg (extras in Japanese DVDs), ''Must See'' (new release recommendation), Free Swag (merchandise sold with discs), and Disc Drive (Japanese releases).

Theatrical

This section focused on theatrical releases of Japanese-produced films and anime. Casting Call (suggestions for actors portraying anime roles) is the recurring column for this section.

Manga

Offering a listing of English releases and publishing news, the segment included What's the Difference (comparison of titles in both anime and manga forms), Must Read (new manga recommendation), and Read on Arrival (manga not available in English).

Television

This portion concentrated on anime broadcast on television in English-speaking countries and Japan. The Tune in Tokyo (profiles of anime new to Japan) piece was located here.

Music

Music incorporated Backstage Pass (profile of a Japanese artist), Face the Music (new soundtrack releases), and Pop Top (top-selling musical recordings according to

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

, Japan's equivalent of the

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

charts).

Video Games

Video games covered both Japanese and non-Japanese games and news on consoles and game producers. Columns in video games consist of Continue (news brief), Must Play (new game recommendation), and Import Report (anime related or odd Japanese games).

Stuff

The heading Stuff was used to describe the portion on anime merchandise, anime figurines, and collectible card games. The only column was Thanks Japan (funny anime-related products from Japan).

J-life

This section discussed Japanese lifestyles and youth culture. Segments on commercially packaged food, drinks, and other products were under Eat It, Drink It. Interesting and occasionally unusual locations and travel hot-spots were profiled by Tokyo Correspondent Andrez Bergen in Tokyo Travelogue, and lessons in Japanese are given in ''JPN101''.

Other sections

Other sections included From the Top (an editorial column) and Parting Shot (a bizarre photo of an event/place in Japan).

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
(archived)
''Anime Insider'' & Wizard Forums
Bimonthly magazines published in the United States Monthly magazines published in the United States Anime and manga magazines Defunct magazines published in the United States Magazines disestablished in 2009 Magazines established in 2001 Magazines published in New York (state)