''Otaku USA'' is a bimonthly

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

published by Sovereign Media, which covers various elements of the "

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in ''Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorativ ...

" lifestyle (such as

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 ...

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 ...

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

, cosplay and

Japanese popular music J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

) from an American perspective. The issues were accompanied by a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

featuring three anime episodes but as of 2009 the DVD feature was dropped and the double sided poster feature of the Magazine was also dropped starting with the February 2010 issue. ''Otaku USA'' began publication in August 2007. The editor-in-chief of the magazine is

Patrick Macias Patrick Macias (born 1972 in Sacramento, California) is an American author and co-author of several titles on pop culture fandom, specifically relating to Japanese culture and culture in America. Macias is also a correspondent for NHK World Te ...

. After the shutdown 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, ''

Anime Insider ''Anime Insider'' was a monthly magazine published by Wizard Entertainment, consisting of news and entertainment pieces relating to the Japanese anime and manga subculture. In its earliest incarnation it was published from Fall 2001 till Fall 20 ...

'' in March 2009, '' Shonen Jump'' in April 2012, and the discontinuation of ''

Protoculture Addicts ''Protoculture Addicts'' was a Canadian-based anime and manga themed magazine published by Protoculture Inc., an Anime News Network company. The term "Protoculture Addicts" was also used by the Zentradi (an alien race that appeared in the ''Macro ...

'' since August 2008, ''Otaku USA'' is the only remaining anime news magazine published for the North American market. Its only remaining trans-Atlantic competitor is '' Neo'', a British-based title that cover similar topics and is sold in American stores.

Content

Each issue includes an otaku section, and reviews and commentary on various anime, manga, video games and

live action Live action (or live-action) is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live-action with animation to create a live-action animated film. Live-action is used to define film, video ga ...

films and TV shows. The otaku section informs readers of releases of BDs, video games, cosplay items and related goods. In each issue there are two manga previews printed in black and white featuring the original art with English text. There are also a small number of in-depth anime reviews, most of which are four pages long. Each issue of ''Otaku USA'' is over 100 pages and includes a 32-page insert containing new manga excerpts from leading North American publishers, including

VIZ Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

Dark Horse A dark horse is a previously lesser-known person or thing that emerges to prominence in a situation, especially in a competition involving multiple rivals, or a contestant that on paper should be unlikely to succeed but yet still might. Origin Th ...

Yen Press Yen Press, LLC is an American manga and graphic novel publisher co-owned by Kadokawa Corporation and Hachette Book Group. It published '' Yen Plus'', a monthly comic anthology, between 2008 and 2013. In addition to translated material, Yen Press ...

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

and

Vertical Vertical is a geometric term of location which may refer to: * Vertical direction, the direction aligned with the direction of the force of gravity, up or down * Vertical (angles), a pair of angles opposite each other, formed by two intersecting s ...

. Notable titles recently featured in the magazine include ''Tiger & Bunny'' (VIZ), ''Blood-C'' (Dark Horse), and Moto Hagio's seminal

shounen ai ''Yaoi'' (; ja, やおい ), also known by the ''wasei-eigo'' construction and its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created b ...

work ''The Heart of Thomas'' (

Fantagraphics Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint. History Founding Fantagraphics was found ...

Availability

The magazine is available in a print edition at

bookstores Bookselling is the commercial trading of books which is the retail and distribution end of the publishing process. People who engage in bookselling are called booksellers, bookdealers, bookpeople, bookmen, or bookwomen. The founding of librari ...

newsstands A newsagent's shop or simply newsagent's or paper shop (British English), newsagency (Australian English) or newsstand (American and Canadian English) is a business that sells newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, snacks and often items of local ...

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

, and select comic

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

ers. It's also available in digital format on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

for the

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...

and iPhone, as well as formats compatible with Kindle, Android, PC, and Mac computers. Both print and digital editions are also available by subscription. ''Otaku USA'' is available all over the world, with international distribution by

Curtis Circulation Curtis Circulation Company, LLC (abbreviated as CC), is a magazine distribution company. History Curtis Circulation Company began as the circulation department of the Philadelphia-based Curtis Publishing Company, publisher of ''The Saturday Even ...

. In addition to the print publication, ''Otaku USA'' publishes a regular e-newsletter from Japan containing current industry news, as well as interviews with anime creators, travel-style cultural pieces, reviews of theatrical anime films, and more. Subscriptions to the newsletter are free and delivered by e-mail. The official website acts as an extension of the magazine, with new material pertaining to anime, manga, cosplay, events, games, and Japanese pop culture. Features include companion stories to many of the stories published in the magazine, as well as regular columns from contributors covering anime, weekly manga releases, cosplay, convention reports, and more.

Sister magazines

Anime USA

''Anime USA'' started out as a bonus issue of the main magazine before being split off into a separate entity in May 2015. In the original bonus issue, editor Joseph Luster called the issue "special", saying that it would turn its focus towards Anime. Some of the reviews in the issue include Terraformars,

Parasyte -the maxim- is a Japanese science fiction horror manga series written and illustrated by Hitoshi Iwaaki and published in Kodansha's ''Morning Open Zōkan'' and ''Monthly Afternoon'' magazine from 1988 to 1995. The manga was published in North Ameri ...

Mysterious Joker is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hideyasu Takahashi. The series was originally published as a one-shot, then later began serialization in Shogakukan's ''Bessatsu CoroCoro Comic Special'', ''CoroCoro Comic'', and ''CoroCor ...

World Trigger , also known in short form as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Daisuke Ashihara. It was initially serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from February 2013 to November 2018, and transferred to ''Jump Square'' in December ...

Gugure! Kokkuri-san is a Japanese manga series by Midori Endō, serialized in Square Enix's ''Gangan Joker'' since 2011. It has been collected in 12 (plus 1) ''tankōbon'' volumes until 2016 when it ended. An anime television series adaptation by TMS Entertainme ...

, and

Tribe Cool Crew is a 2014 Japanese anime series produced by Sunrise, and later by its subsidiary, BN Pictures. The series, directed by Masaya Fujimori, aired on TV Asahi between September 28, 2014 and October 4, 2015. The series is licensed in North America ...

. The adapted magazine continues to be issued quarterly with various reviews on the latest anime series.

Cosplay USA

''Cosplay USA'' was published once for the Summer of 2013 as a special issue to the main magazine. The magazines cover features a cosplayer dressed as Hatsune Miku, and features editorials such as "The History of Cosplay", and "My Life as a Cosplayer". In addition, there are also galleries of various known cosplayers from both the United States, and Japan.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Otaku Usa Bimonthly magazines published in the United States Anime and manga magazines Magazines established in 2007 Magazines published in Virginia