Neo Magazine Issue 70

Neo is very much a cult magazine which covers China, Korea, Hong Kong but predominantly focuses on Japanese culture, in particular anime, manga, music, food, fashion and cinema. I have chosen to analyse this magazine as what is most refreshing about it is that despite the notion that Anime and Manga are consumed by mostly males, there is equal coverage of material which will attract audiences of both males and females. As well as this there is a relatively equal amount of females working on the magazine as males; including the editor.

Layout/Aesthetics

• Front Cover - Main feature inside magazine - Large title at top of page with a slogan banner above - Title quite hard to see and so may be difficult to pick out in store - quite a lot of text, possibly too much, nearly all of features listed at the sides of the main image and on a banner at bottom of page - bright and eye catching however no set colour scheme for front every week - lack of continuity may prevent people picking it out in store.


• Contents page - too text heavy, likely not to be read - seperated into tow clear sections, new features and "The Regulars and Reviews" - the larger the image the larger the feature


• Red and white colour scheme on introductory, news pages - signifies Japanese flag


• Colour scheme for main features themed around subject matter


• Features columned with use of extra boxed off/highlighted information - trivia


• Use of stylized first letter of first word to lead readers eye to begin reading


• Bold First Paragraphs


• Trivia boxes "nuggets" on main news items


• Opinion columns Highlighted in contrasting colours from red and white scheme - instantly grabs attention


• No clear seperation of sections of magazine - no title pages - use of advert pages for this purpose - can be quite distractiong


• Stylized regualr articles like Anime Expose - striped/brightly coloured background, good balance of images and text, captions and trivia boxes - Manga Snapshot very long with possibly too much text, adverts seperating pages can be distracting - "Bambi and Popi" article, pink and white colour scheme, text heavy but quite short, watermark graphic in background


• Title page for manga extract - again colour scheme themed to suit the manga - front of cover situated to right - immediately attracts attention, bright and high quality - snapshots of parts of manga create border along bottom, space filling - Section of text on left side of page describing the manga, promoting it, Main information i.e title, label, genre and price highlighted at top of section of text.


• Title page for Reviews section - marks change in Layout and style in coming pages - familiar red and white colour scheme - contents page, scoring process and awards in column to right of page - images of reviewed items with page numbers in corner - main attractions


• Reviews - main reviews situated on first few pages - longer and more text heavy than less important features - use of highlighted first letter and bold first paragraph - captions and box offs of additional information - Important background information in star bubbles above first section of text, leads eye to read first - main information i.e price, label etc boxed off to side of main text at the start, acts as introduction - text is columned in style of newspapers, subtitles used which define a new subject within the text, makes it easier to find certain information - summary of opinion and score out of 5 in bottom corner at end of text, read last


• Reviews colour coded: Anime red and white colour scheme, Manga yellow and white colour scheme, Film and books blue and white colour scheme, Video games green and white colour scheme - directory style, easy to maneovre

Content

• Editors letter - personal, images of all the team are important in cult magazines to create a bond with the regular audience who can easily be distracted/diverted away from the magazine - captures attention through humour - sets up friendly and agreeable atmosphere which makes magazine more accessible in current and future issues


• Background knowledge of Anime manga, famous old franchises etc and knowledge of Japanese culture is needed in order to understand some of the features and articles.


• Audience participation - "Cosplay Corner" Photos printed of readers dressing up - Recipes to try - printed letters which are answered - forum community, debates and polls held


• Up-to-date lists of releases of film, manga and anime in the UK, problems with downloading as released in Japan much earlier


• Casual read - some tips for budding manga artists but presents it more as a hobby than a career.

Audience

• Possibly dominated by males however rise in popularity and interest in Asian culture has seen more females join niche communities such as Neo magazine


• Students, 18 - 25 year olds, quite sophisticated language and debate presented


• Appeals to a minority, growing popularity means a gap in the market may appear

Institution

• Published by uncooked media monthly- not widely known


• First published in 2004 - not long established


• Funded by adverts

Researching this magazine has enabled me to consider how to promote audience participation in my own design for a magazine and also other ways in which to consider the layout and aesthetics.