It may seem a little odd that a webpage entitled Animation - American and Japanese would contain an essay about a magazine that collects manga translations. Isn't this a webpage about cartoons? Yet in Japan, the bond between manga and anime is far stronger than the link between Western cartoons and comic books. Given the rather vicious nature of the current Mixx debacle, and given that Mixx is the only place to get legal copies of both Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth in English, it was only a matter of time before this webmaster decided to weigh in his take on this very disturbing situation.
When Mixx Magazine began publication over a year ago, I was initially very enthusiastic. Finally, two of the most popular manga (Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth) were available in English. While the other two titles (Parasyte and Ice Blade) were not nearly as good, I was happy that I had the opportunity to read manga I was unfamiliar with. The prominence given to girls' manga was also very heartening to me, as boys' manga has dominated the North American market for too long. The fact that the shoujo titles were stronger than their shonen titles gave me hope that more shoujo would make its way across the Pacific.
A second reason for happiness came from the entry of a new manga distributor into the market. It's no secret that Viz dominates the translated manga market in America and Canada, with Dark Horse a very distant second. Other manga distributors have come and gone. (Anbody remember the very-short lived translations of Golgo 13 and the Captain Harlock comics?)The more competitors we have for the manga-anime market, the more variety of manga-anime offerings we will have. Finally, something other than endless issues of Ranma 1/2 and Macross! I had the naive hope that this would translate into a more accurate cross-section of manga being brought to North America.
Being a strong believer in Adam Smith's capitalism, I also believed that the more manga distributors there were, the lower the cost to the consumer. In Japan, the manga weeklies are an incredible bargain, and even the regular compilations of hit titles can be sold for around 390 yen. In the States, however, a 30 page comic book extract of an old manga storyline can cost $2.99, a dollar more than a brand-new DC or Marvel comic, and a higher price than some newsweeklies. This is a gross disparity. (At least Dark Horse provides more bang-for-the-buck with their translations of Oh My Goddess and Gunsmith Cats) On this count, Mixx seemed to be a champion, containing four manga titles for just under five American dollars. This was a very good value.
Recent events have convinced me that Mixx is no longer such a great bargain. Early issues of Mixx printed more than one chapter of each given manga, while later issues reduced the number of pages printed per manga. Actually, the price per manga page increased quite dramatically due to the increase of advertisements and the decrease in the number of manga pages printed. Later issues of Mixx are noticably thinner compared to earlier ones.
The recent decision to print two shrunken pages of manga on a single leaf of paper is something that impoverished grad students do when photocopying journals to save money. It's very hard on the eyes, and not an economic policy a professional publisher should contemplate. While I commend Mixx for realising it was a mistake to cut back on the amount of manga pages per issue, I find this compromise even worse.
I have fewer qualms with Mixx's choice to target their magazine at rave-frequenting techno teens; anime imagery has been popular with teen girls since at least *Hello Kitty* and one of the best ways for the anime-manga fanbase to expand is to recruit young people who will presumably be loyal to anime-manga for years to come. This used to be the strategy of mainstream comics publishers in the days when comic books were still considered mainstream entertainment. Children would buy issues of Superman comics and maintain the comic buying habit for years in the Golden and Silver ages of comic books. However, the constant use of often inappropriately used slang does get annoying - and insincere, reminding me of the scene in A Hard Day's Night where a trendy TV producer tries to get George Harrison to be a spokesman while at the same time ridiculing then-current Liverpudlian slang with contempt. It may also give the impression that anime and manga are simply teen trends to be discarded once one leaves high school, creating an only temporary fanbase.
Furthermore, while I can understand the logic behind Mixx's increased coverage of video games (as so many video games are created in Japan and are based on anime-manga), the coverage paled in comparison to Game Pro or other similar magazines. There's very little information about the games save for thinly disguised advertisements. The graphics style throughout is atrocious, nearly as bad as some of the worst webpages ever created. A connection can be made between the video game coverage, the faux webpage look, and the reliance of IRC lingo; Mixx clearly is trying to market itself to Internet neophytes. Returning to the typesetting and layout - some of the lettering is blurry, colors contrast jarringly, and the covers are usually done in a horrible faux-graffitti style that was dated in 1984. This is probably an attempt to give Mixx magazine an urban teen feel. To dust off a cliche, no man can serve two masters, and Mixx is trying to cater to too many markets at once.
The Canadian subscription rate is ludicrously high, even given the current exchange rate between the States and Canada. This is naturally of concern to many Canadians, for the strongest Sailor Moon fanbase in North America lies in Canada, where the anime has enjoyed a success its Yankee counterpart can only envy. Sailor Moon dolls, yo-yos, color-by-number kits, sticker sets and more are for sale not only in comic book stores, but in London Drugs and other mainstream shopping areas; the proliferation of Canuck Moon merchandise is boggling to an American fan. Yet unless you wish to read the French translations available only in Quebec, you've got to import Mixx across the 49th parallel at a hefty fee. As someone who feels equally comfortable on either side of the friendly border, I can only view this disparity as extremely unfair.
In retrospect, it is obvious that Mixx's chief selling point was Sailor Moon, as it was the only manga title in the original lineup likely to be recognised by the casual anime fan. In fact, Mixx initially included subscription cards in the Buena Vista videos of the Sailor Moon series. While this strategy worked in reaching as large a number of Moonies as possible, it also backfired. Both Parasyte and Ice Blade are clearly not meant for small children of either sex to read, yet they were included in a magazine that was advertised on a video distributed by Buena Vista, a well-known children's entertainment group! The widely varied content was likely not offensive to anime fans, but was understandably disturbing to parents who bought the magazine for their younger children. A more suitable setting for the Sailor Moon manga could have been constructed.
The bait-and-switch tactic Mixx used regarding Sailor Moon, so well-documented elsewhere on the web, is the chief reason why I no longer regard Mixx as a great manga value. Due to personal taste, I regarded Moon and Magic Knight as the main courses of my Mixx meal, with Parasyte and Ice Blade as side dishes. This is simply because I enjoy the work of CLAMP, and because I can share Naoko Takeuchi's work with the children in my family. Neither shonen title is original enough or gripping enough for me to consider purchasing on their own, but as part of a package, they were good diversions. Removing Sailor Moon seriously upsets the balance of Mixx. Its replacement, Harlem Beat is yet another example of how the Japanese fail to capture the American spirit in a story based in America, and adding a Gundam story just biases the magazine further towards no-brainer content. I cannot imagine anyone who has ever lived near Harlem or has ever met someone from Harlem honestly believing that Harlem Beat is an accurate depiction of Harlem's basketball culture. While I applaud the attempt by Mixx to present an example of the sports manga genre that is so popular in Japan, I wish Mixx had chosen a stronger title. In its current format, the only title in Mixx that I would consider worth reading is Magic Knight Rayearth and I'll probably wait to purchase the graphic novel version.
One gets a feeling from reading the various Usenet posts that at least part of the Mixx controversy stems from behind-the-scenes personal animosity. As a person who has never been interested in gossip, I won't comment on that save for noting that my re-evaluation of Mixx has nothing to do with the flying innuendo. Nor can I complain about Mixx's distribution in my area. Any honest comics dealer has the ability to special order *any* magazine you wish, and this includes Mixx, just as any CD store can custom order any CD if you know the label and artist. Then again, I've been blessed with an honest comics dealer; I've also been to many who claim they cannot order certain comics for vague, contradictory reasons. Judging from Usenet posts, I'd say this is a fairly common experience worldwide, but it doesn't directly reflect on Mixx except when Mixx uses these unscrupulous dealers as excuses for "mainstreaming" Mixx's content. (As a side note, I've had one dealer try to convince me that Gen13 was manga, and that it was "very difficult" to track down any translated manga - despite the fact that he sold the Star Wars comics created by Dark Horse! He also tried to pass off the Streamline Pictures dubs of Vampire Hunter D and Akira as rarities.' Sadly, he's typical of the fly-by-night dealer who takes advantage of the credulity of his audience.)
I certainly do *not* advocate a boycott of Mixx; I will probably buy the Sailor Moon comic as a reward for the kids when they are good and will track down the second volume of the Magic Knight manga when it is available in graphic novel format. I do not plan to buy any more issues of Mixx in the future if the magazine does not improve. I also do not advocate any other inappropriate behaviors by fans. I am simply publicly lamenting that Mixx has not lived up to the promise it presented in its first few issues. The manga market will *still* be dominated by Viz for years to come. Mixx isn't giving the consumer any more for their money than Viz is, and Viz will still largely determine manga blockbusters in the States. This is a shame. As someone who loves manga and takes it seriously as an entertainment and as an artform, I want to see as much of it available as possible to as wide an audience as possible. Given Mixx's impending implosion and Viz' insistance on high prices, I seriously doubt this will happen in the near future.
For more information on this matter, take a look at the Anime News Network, which has created a very fair and well-balanced website about Mixx.
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