Okay, you guys may have figured out by now that I am an entertainment junkie. Anime is my crack cocaine but I’m willing to dabble around with meth (movies) and heroin (TV) and ecstacy (games) and whatnot.

So Entertainment Weekly is a favorite magazine of mine, the only one I actually have a subscription to.

Every once in a while my loyalty is rewarded with a little something extra. In this week’s issue there’s a blurb feature on page 14 called “GAME ON?” which is a few satirical suggestions on what kind of video game adaptation the movie Juno should get (a response to some rumors that a game was in the works, which were apparently due to gamespot reading too much into things).

Anyway, the third game suggestion?

A hentai-style, digitally enhanced Juno defends herself against activists who pelt her with Blan B pills. Bonus Points for: Combo attacks with the help of sidekick boyfriend Paulie Bleeker.

…I dunno about you, but this somehow makes me think of Nanaca Crash. I’d totally buy it.

Also, I tentatively dug around to see if there had been much (or any) anime-style fanart of Juno, and instead I found this, which makes me giggle.

Comic212’s Christopher Butcher received a media kit about ADV’s magazine PiQ, which is apparently both just a name change for Newtype USA and, at the same time, an entirely reworked magazine.

The magazine will be a bit smaller both in trim size (8″x10″ instead of 9″x12″) and length (~130 pages versus ~160), and in price as well: $6.99 to NTUSA’s $12.98 (that’s USD of course; CAD will be $7.99, versus NTUSA’s $16.98). It will also read standard left-to-right instead of NTUSA’s right-to-left and have a spine instead of being stapled.

No word on DVDs, but the content will broaden; it’ll be roughly 20% anime, 20% gaming, 20% “US comics/Japanese manga,” 20% genre movies and TV, 10% toys and collectibles and 5% each of gadgets and lifestyle. Butcher notes how amazingly similar this is to Wizard’s magazines, especially when you factor in that PiQ will be “squarely addressing the needs of a cutting-edge young male audience.” (I wonder if they really wanted that phrase to be published; as a cutting-edge female I can’t help but feel a little neglected.) They’re estimating a 70/30 split in favor of guys for their readership– I wonder what NTUSA’s was?

Butcher also shares a potential cover for the first issue featuring Appleseed Ex Machina, which you can go see at his post.

I think Butcher’s statements that the magazine sounds a bit more generic geek than otaku-specific are pretty apt given this information, though of course we’ll have to wait and see how it actually turns out. Given the current market for magazines, broadening probably isn’t a bad move anyway– but it may put off some of the fans who would rather see more features on anime and manga than on, say, Heroes or Cloverfield.

And I have to admit I’m a little annoyed that I’m gleaning all the info on PiQ via other people receiving media kits or having their questions answered, rather than via a response to my own e-mail to Gary Steinman regarding the magazine, or even an e-mail to all us former NTUSA writers.

Original source: Comics212
Secondary source: MangaBlog

Here’s hoping I got to this oh-so-clever title before the rest of the anime blogging world.

That said, MangaBlog got a user tip letting them know that ADV’s new magazine– set to replace Newtype USA –will be titled PiQ. ANN confirms this news by sending its peons to ask about their NTUSA subscriptions, and they receive promises that NTUSA subscribers will receive a subscription to PiQ equal to double their remaining time with NTUSA.

As someone who has written for NTUSA, I can tell you that as of this moment I’ve heard no word about PiQ or its content. Only time will tell!

But you know who I’d REALLY like to hear from? Kadokawa Shoten, who publish Newtype in Japan. Presumably they were getting some money from ADV for Newtype USA, the “official” English version of the magazine. Maybe this is Kadokawa’s punishment for being so nice to Bandai Entertainment? Or maybe Kadokawa wanted to pull out of the magazine? Or maybe they have nothing at all to do with it? Hmm!

(Note: Since Rob’s an expert in the US anime magazine world, having been chief editor of Anime Insider, I recommend taking a look at his take on it as well.)