Tasunke here, just got my first issue of PiQ, and at first glance, it’s a bit of a letdown compared to what I was used to with Newtype USA (rest in peace, old friend). (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, you might want to check out the Wikipedia link above and read the ANN articles it links to. Short version, those who had Newtype USA subscriptions will have the remainder of them fulfilled at 2 for 1 with a PiQ subscription.) However, as they say, you shouldn’t just judge a book by it’s cover.

Let’s discuss the obvious differences to start with. First off, the new magazine is printed in the normal western style and is bound differently than Newtype USA was. Yes, gone are the centerfolds, posters, monthly giveaways (sigh), etc. (But what do you expect for a magazine with half the cover price of Newtype USA?) The pages (for the most part, which I’ll get into later) are still full-color glossy, however.
The magazine seems to have the same staff as Newtype USA did (at a cursory glance, at least, I haven’t actually sat down and compared the staff lists in the magazines). And they still have that same quirky sense of humor. Case in point, in the fine print on the table of contents page, over in the lower-right corner, in the fine print, there is a little something extra under where it says “Printed in USA”. A little amusing sentence, “Printed in the great city of Houston, where I only shot two or three people on the way to work today.”

One of my favorite things about Newtype USA was the monthly columns. You learned so much about not only some of the inner workings of the industry, but also deep delving into the historical and cultural backgrounds that have influenced many anime series and the Japanese culture in general. Unfortunately, those same columns don’t appear to have made the transition to the new magazine.

However, it is only the first issue, and the majority of that section of the magazine has been devoted to addressing a very important issue: the current state of the anime industry, and fan fears of a complete collapse, what with first the Musicland Group (which was a huge distributor of anime), then one of the fixtures of the domestic anime industry since the early years, Geneon, going belly up. And then of course, the subject of this post, Newtype USA dying and being replaced by the half-as-expensive PiQ.

PiQ also has broadened their focus compared to Newtype USA (as promised), and now covers more games (not just ones that are anime-based or have alot of buzz in the otaku community); American comics; and even unrelated American TV shows, both animated (Avatar: The Last Airbender, for example) and live-action (Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, among others). They even have an article on LARPing.
Another expression of that sense of humor I mentioned earlier is the title they’ve chosen for their letters section. It’s entitled the “Whine and Cheese Party”, almost certainly named after that (somewhat sarcastic) saying, “Would you like some cheese with that whine?”

The Anime coverage doesn’t seem to be as extensive as it was with Newtype USA (which included things like episode synopses and lists of episodes for anime currently running in Japan, etc.), but it’s certainly not absent, especially with the aformentioned discussion on the health of the anime industry. One thing I did notice a significant lack of was manga reviews. It may be that they just don’t have any this issue (or I somehow missed them), or that this is just for the premier issue and they’ll have more manga reviews in later issues, but that is still a bit disappointing.

One nice touch however is that they do have a manga insert at the back of the magazine that is printed in the original right-to-left format (a carry-over from Newtype USA, where the manga was near the center of the magazine). It’s likely at the back to make it easier to flip to the front of the manga insert, since it’s read backwards from the rest of the magazine. Also, unlike the rest of the magazine, the manga is not printed on glossy, but on the same kind of paper that the manga insert was printed on in Newtype USA.

Overall, I’m not certain if PiQ is truly a worthy replacement for Newtype USA, but it does seem to be in-line with its reduced price. At half-price, you expect half the magazine, and I think it delivers on that, at least. Whether it’s more than that or not… Well, I’m reserving judgement until more issues are out.

– Tasunke

(P.S. Think I’m off base? Agree with me? Have some comments? Sound off on the forums.)