Animag was one of the first published anime magazines in North America. I first found out about it from one of the staff of this first issue Toshifumi Yoshida, former producer at VIZ and Bandai and now a producer at The Pokemon Company International. Another staffer in this issue is Carl Horn, Dark Horse Comics Manga Editor. I got curious and found several of these issues for sale online. I had to get them.
Each issue is PACKED with information. 6 anime shows are featured. Each have an introduction, then full character profiles and a really descriptive summary of each episode. This first issue covered Area 88, Fight! Iczer 1, Mobile Suit Gundam Movie Trilogy, Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Castle in the Sky, Laputa. There is a 3 page write up of “History of the Mobile Suit”
This first issue had several ads – mail order and mainly California stores. I scanned in the first page of each feature so you can see how the magazine looked.
The first thing you have to do is read the Editorial and the Back Page Content. You really get a sense that this is a passionate labor of love project to increase the awareness of anime.
“Sources of anime items need not be protected like uranium mines, if the clientele increases, there will be more for everybody. Eventually, our fandom will take its place alongside SF and Comics. But for now…ANIMAG…Hasshin!!
I remember reading Animag way back in the day and loving the detailed episode guides about anime I hadn’t even seen before. I could only dream about watching Zeta Gundam or Gunbuster back then. I wish I hadn’t lost all my back issues of Animag and Animerica during a move, but as is common in life, you get older and your interests and priorities change. Anime is so different now compared to back then, both content wise and business wise.
Do you also have the Ronin Network papers that they included with some issues? I’m really interested in seeing those.
I am also building an archive of anime nostalgia.