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Today’s mail brought the news that Viz Media has canceled Shojo Beat. “Why is Naruto on the cover ?” I asked, and my partner handed me the letter with the bad news. Shōjo is the Japanese word for a “young girl”. In english it is romanized as shojo. Shojo Beat Magazine offered monthly insights into Japanese culture, food and travel as well as featuring at least seven manga per issue. You could find things as diverse as tips for making your costumes for cosplay, or starting your own do it yourself business. It was a terrific magazine jam packed full of things that any Japan-ophile would enjoy, be it a boy or girl. The manga choices themselves seemed rather middle of the road, selections from Vampire Knight, and other popular manga varied in topics. Centering on more supernatural themes as well as a few dating dramas. The mag was supportive to girls as well as being fun. In the letter they offered to send copies of Shonen Jump instead. If I wanted Shonen Jump, a boys magazine, I would have ordered that. Calling the 800 number was no use either. The clever timing of the axe falling on a Saturday morning made it convenient for Viz to drop the bomb and have no one available to answer the complaint phone calls. Most likely they are counting on it that by Monday everyone will forget it and just accept the swap out.
Today is my partner’s birthday. After going to lunch we decided to investigate a comic shop that we haven’t been in yet. I guess I missed the sign on the door that said ‘Must Have Penis to Enter’, because inside it was only man – manga, and guy comics. The manga selection consisted of Naruto, Bleach, and the like. Nothing against Bleach it’s one of my favs as you can tell from the reviews and articles, but when a store buyer is looking it up in the order books, Bleach is listed as Shonen – meaning for boys, even though there is a host of female characters in the series.
Sure it’s a numbers game. If subscriber-ship was lower on the Shojo side, then a fatter bottom line could be had by dumping the magazine. However when a great product like Shojo Beat goes down the tubes it is the fault of lousy marketers at Viz Media. Are we female manga and comic fans suppposed to suffer because the Viz sales force couldn’t do their job Epic Fail Viz Media Are they all guys too? There are many implications to be drawn from this decision.
Why is it when it comes to video games, and comics it has to always be a sausage fest? How come a younger generation of males is being taught to be anti-feminist and chauvanistic? Over and over websites like this one implore developers and in this case, distributors to remember what a purse is for. A woman’s purse is for spending money. If you tell enough of us about a good product we will buy it.
If you are ever wondering what women want, it’s pretty simple, we want to be included. With there being so many manga out there it is necessary to have more than one magazine to cover it. So give us ours back.
You can be sure that first thing Monday morning I’ll be on the phone to get my refund, so I can apply it to a different magazine, and I hope you will too. Here’s the number 1 800 541-7919 even if you didn’t get the Shojo Beat call them to complain about the magazine being cancelled. Because someday if you want to meet the girl otaku of your dreams, these distributors have to keep publishing material for her.
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