Japan Magazines

Files From Subcategories

1. 

   Dengeki PlayStation 115 (August 13/27, 1999)

   By kitsunebi

   Sometimes I struggle to have anything interesting to say here, and I think, maybe I should just type:
   Dengeki PlayStation Vol.115 (August 13/27, 1999)
   and leave it at that, just like anyone else would do.  But then I think, nah, I've gotta say SOMETHING, no matter how small or insignificant an observation it might be.  So today, I bring you a line dashed off in one of the Syphon Filter reviews which says something like "The exhilarating feeling of becoming a strong hero like 007...and defeating bad guys is truly American!"
   How ya like them apples, UK? 😜
   

   110 downloads

   3 comments

   Submitted December 13, 2024

2. 

   Tech Gian Issue 031 (May 1999)

   By kitsunebi

   ADULTS ONLY
   It's interesting how Tech Gian front-loads all of the advertisements. All of the ads are grouped together near the start of the mag, and once the magazine proper starts, there isn't another ad until the inside back cover.  This is a stark contrast from the ad-heavy American mags I read in the late 90s where every other page was an ad.  Which do you prefer? 🤔
   The CD-ROM included with this issue can be downloaded from my Internet Archive account HERE.
   

   99 downloads

   3 comments

   Updated December 8, 2024

3. 

   Dengeki G's Magazine Issue 010 (May 1998)

   By kitsunebi

   These days it's pretty much nothing but visual novels, but back in the day, both the consoles and computers were flooded with dating sims.  The "sim" part of these games usually involved micromanaging daily routines in an attempt to woo the girl (or boy) of your choice right out of their pants.  Nowadays, no one has the patience for that, I guess, but looking at old gaming mags like this gives you access to some hilariously dull "strategy guide" features like this one which breaks down the times throughout each day of the game that you can reach each girl either at home or on her cell.  Any veteran of this type of game knows that this kind of extreme attention to detail is no joke, however.  Miss one opportunity to make contact or fail to say just the right thing when you do, and you can pretty much forget about ever seeing those pants come off.
   
   

   77 downloads

   0 comments

   Updated December 4, 2024

4. 

   Famitsu Issue 1318 (March 20, 2014)

   By kitsunebi

   This issue hit around the time of the PS4 launch, making the weekly sales chart look a little lopsided:
   
   That's the PS4 standing alone on top with 322,083 units sold, with the next best selling system being the 3DS with 30,284 units sold.  Congrats to the Xbox360, which managed to outsell the last-gen Wii with a whopping 239 units sold.  It's not often you see a Microsoft system anywhere but dead last in Japan, so thank goodness 148 people bought a 7 1/2-year-old Wii that week, giving the poor 360 a chance to have an edge over something.
   As an aside, I just flipped through an issue of the UK's GamesTM mag lately, and it had the results of a reader poll where the 360 was voted the best console OF ALL TIME.
   Cultural differences make the world interesting.
   

   81 downloads

   2 comments

   Submitted November 30, 2024

5. 

   Famitsu Issue 1319 (March 27, 2014) (supplement included)

   By kitsunebi

   This issue includes a Dark Souls II supplement book, which I've appended to the end of the archive.
   Ah, supplements...I've been guilty of it myself once or twice in the past, but releasing supplements separately from the magazines they belong to is a practice I'll no longer be a part of, unless of course, I have a supplement but for some reason DON'T have the mag it came from (as was the case with many of the supplements I scanned, which were thrown in as part of a donation years ago.)  I like to adhere to the primary definition of the word.
   supplement /sŭp′lə-mənt/ noun Something added to complete a thing, make up for a deficiency, or extend or strengthen the whole. So please enjoy this magazine, complete with supplement. 🙂
   260pgs
   

   97 downloads

   0 comments

   Submitted November 25, 2024

6. 

   Famitsu Issue 1320 (April 3, 2014)

   By kitsunebi

   The highest rated game this issue is a tie between girlfriend simulator Love Plus + and the latest Hatsune Miku game (she who is also known as The Vocaloid Who Married A Real Boy™), both of which got the exceptional Platinum scores of 10 9 9 9.  But don't worry, there are also a few romance games aimed at women in their teens and twenties which are well reviewed, so digital romancing is an equal opportunity endeavor.  And for the older gentleman who just doesn't give a $%^# about trying to please the opposite sex anymore, there's the latest game in the Winning Post horse racing sim series, which also nabbed a Platinum score and allows you to focus on romance of the equine variety, playing matchmaker in order to breed a champion money-maker.  Anyone looking for a game with guns 'n' 'splosions is reading the wrong mag - Famitsu only covers games released in Japan, and those types of game are few and far between.
    
   Confessions of love, Japanese style
   
   They're all proposing to the rich old man who breeds the champion race horses, of course.
   

   79 downloads

   2 comments

   Submitted November 15, 2024

7. 

   Famitsu Issue 1321 (April 10, 2014) (supplements included)

   By kitsunebi

   Complete with both supplements.  First being a Kantai Collection (KanKore) manga, and the second being a double-sided B3 poster for Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F 2nd.  If you don't know who Hatsune Miku is, she's the vocaloid software/singer on the cover of this issue, star of many Sega video games, and the happily married for 6-years wife of this completely normal and well-adjusted Japanese man:
   
   https://tribune.com.pk/story/2508555/japanese-man-celebrates-six-years-with-cartoon-bride
   What is this place I live in...
   

   91 downloads

   6 comments

   Submitted November 12, 2024

8. 

   Famitsu Issue 1328 (May 29, 2014)

   By kitsunebi

   This issue's cover is by Tony Taka, a famous artist and character designer known just as well for his work in mainstream games like Sega's Shining series as he is for numerous adult manga and eroge.  In stark contrast to America, Japan is more like Europe in this way - having some of their most famous and successful comics artists known for producing adult material. 
   This cover features Kirika Towa Alma, one of Taka's characters from Shining Resonance for the PS3.  According to the Shining Wiki, "she is an elf who learns the song of magic which allows her to freely change the power of nature. However, she is a better healer than a damage dealer. She may seem withdrawn at first, but she is generally known to be a kind person."
   
    
   But more importantly,
   
   Tony Taka, ladies and gentlemen.👏
   

   98 downloads

   0 comments

   Updated November 9, 2024

9. 

   Famitsu Issue 1329 (June 5, 2014)

   By kitsunebi

   It's been a couple of days since the Dodgers won the World Series and Japan couldn't be happier.  We even got to watch the end of game 5 during lunch at school.  You know, kind of like how we got to watch space shuttle launches in American schools.  It's that important, what with Shohei Ohtani being a national hero, and all.  A lot of people may think he's so beloved because he's such a great baseball player.  Others may think he's respected because he's so successful - the highest paid baseball player, EVER.
   They're wrong, of course.  The reason Ohtani is a hero is because he's somehow managed to overcome the crippling clumsiness that normally afflicts all Japanese males from puberty onward.  The entire nation beams with pride as they watch him walk in a straight line without even once tripping and falling onto a female in a compromising position
   
   or stumbling face first into the crotch of the nearest female wearing a short skirt
   
   or accidentally taking a tumble and saving himself from falling by reaching out and grabbing two handfulls of boobs and clinging on for all he's worth BUT HE TOTALLY DIDN'T MEAN TO THO.
   
   Yeah, he knows what I'm talking about.
                      
   

   88 downloads

   0 comments

   Updated November 2, 2024

10. 

    Dengeki PlayStation 113 (July 23, 1999)

    By kitsunebi

    This here's a magazine 'bout PlayStation games.  I reckon some of 'em you heard of, and some of 'em you ain't.  Either way you got near two hunnerd'n fifty pages full of purty pictures and lots of them squiggles they call writin' in Japan.  Get it while the gettin's good, y'all.
    

    105 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted October 31, 2024

11. 

    Tech Gian Issue 027 (January 1999)

    By kitsunebi

    ADULTS ONLY
    I always give my mags a last look-see in two-page mode before releasing them to make sure everything is up to snuff.  I don't know why, but it really struck me how I hope everyone else takes the occasion to do the same thing at least once, using a CBR reader that was actually MADE for CBRs, not some P.O.S. PDF reader like Sumatra that inserts a break between facing pages.  Something about the big characters in the two-page ads filling up the entire screen just looks really nice, but not when a page break dispels the illusion (created through hard work in the editing stage) that you're looking at a single image.
    This is how mags should look on your screen.  One image.  Not two halves of a whole.  (These are just screenshots of my 1080 monitor display - the colored side borders are automatically created by my CBR reader based on the color profile of the adjacent image, in case anyone is wondering)
    
     
    

    128 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted October 27, 2024

12. 

    Dengeki G's Magazine Issue 011 (June 1998) (supplement included)

    By kitsunebi

    One of the games in this issue is Revolutionary Girl Utena for the Saturn.  Any fans of the anime out there?  I haven't really watched any anime in the past 20 or so years, so my memory is pretty vague, but I remember liking it.
    

    89 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted October 24, 2024

13. 

    Famitsu Issue 1332 (June 26, 2014)

    By kitsunebi

    Interesting how the cover article on Bloodborne starts immediately on page 2 (the inside front cover.)  That space is usually reserved for what I assume are the most expensive ads (in addition to the cover, the first several pages of Famitsu are printed on thicker, glossier paper than the rest of the mag), so I'm guessing Sony paid a %#$!load of cash to get Famitsu to give that space up for the feature on Bloodborne.
    214 pages
    

    136 downloads

    5 comments

    Submitted October 18, 2024

14. 

    Famitsu Issue 1333 (July 3/10, 2014)

    By kitsunebi

    256 pages
    Don't get too excited about the included supplement.  Despite being trumpeted on the cover, it's just an "illustration card."  What's that?  Good question.  It's basically a regular-page-sized poster printed on cardstock.  What purpose it serves is a mystery.  But hey, you're still getting a mag two and a half times the length and several bucks cheaper than any of the English-language mags published at the time, so what are you complaining about?
    

    105 downloads

    3 comments

    Submitted October 14, 2024

15. 

    Famitsu Issue 1335 (July 17, 2014)

    By kitsunebi

    In what is probably a first for Famitsu, only a single game is reviewed this issue: Yokai Watch 2.  I don't think Yokai Watch ever made much of a splash overseas, but I remember how intensely popular it was here for a time, so I wouldn't be surprised if all the other publishers shied away from releasing anything else that same week, since nothing would have been able to compete.
    And speaking of things whose popularity ain't what it used to be, if you were wondering who those garishly dressed girls on the cover were, good luck figuring out how THIS got 17 million views:
     
    

    120 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted October 12, 2024

16. 

    Dengeki PlayStation 112 (July 9, 1999)

    By kitsunebi

    According to Sony's ad, there are two types of games.  "Octopus games" are so addictive you get calluses on your fingers from playing so much.
    
    Then there are "eggplant games" which are silly but addictive.  Like eggplants.  Apparently.
    
     
    Well, I mean, that's what they SAY...
    Octopus shmoctopus...what I'm really seeing here is "a Japanese game with tentacles will give you calluses from playing with "it" too much." 
    And do we even need to address the symbolism of the eggplant???  😬 yyyyeeeaaahhhh....
    
     
     
    

    119 downloads

    6 comments

    Updated October 9, 2024

17. 

    gM Issue 07 (August 2000)

    By kitsunebi

    ATTENTION: This mag is printed Japanese-style, and must be read from right to left.  When viewing in two-page/book mode, you MUST set your CBR reader to Japanese/manga mode in order for facing pages to be oriented correctly.
    This magazine...WILL SURPRISE YOU.  LOL, seriously you'll know exactly what I mean when you get there.  You'll be flipping along through RPG coverage...do-do-do-do-do...Dragon Quest...mmhm...Final Fantasy...yep...Lunar...uh-huh...BAM!!!!  Uh.....I did not expect THAT....
    This mag also is yet another example of why I hate posters.  There was a great big double-sided Dead Or Alive poster which I meticulously cut into pieces so it could be scanned and then reassembled flawlessly in Photoshop.  But the end result when viewing it in a CBR is of course just a couple of images that look no more impressive than if they had been single A4 pages to begin with.  A lot of effort for something that the end user will never appreciate. 😭
    

    103 downloads

    3 comments

    Submitted October 5, 2024

18. 

    Famitsu Issue 1336 (July 24, 2014)

    By kitsunebi

    I've been living in Japan for 16 years but I'm always reminded that I'll never truly fit in with the locals.  Case in point, I've never owned a full-body waifu pillow or a boob-rest mousepad.
    
    

    99 downloads

    1 comment

    Submitted October 4, 2024

19. 

    Famitsu Issue 1337 (July 31, 2014)

    By kitsunebi

    236 pgs
    Idol Pikachu chooses YOU!
    
    

    99 downloads

    1 comment

    Submitted October 3, 2024

20. 

    Famitsu Issue 1338 (August 7, 2014) (supplement included)

    By kitsunebi

    The included supplement is for Bandai's Net Carddass cards (unfortunate name...) which are trading cards bought in packs that are used to play online games.  A meeting of the physical and digital worlds, and something I don't think ever caught on outside of Japan, though I could be wrong.
    Today's trivia: The very first Pokemon cards, before the TCG existed, were produced by Carddass.
    252 pages
    

    100 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted September 30, 2024

21. 

    Oh! PC Issue 124 (May 15 1990)

    By TimBisley

    Oh! PC Issue 124 (May 15, 1990)
    

    69 downloads

    1 comment

    Submitted September 29, 2024

22. 

    Dengeki PlayStation 110 (June 25, 1999)

    By kitsunebi

    I've scanned so many issues of Dengeki PlayStation with some Gundam game or other on the cover that I had to check to make sure I hadn't already uploaded this one.  But nope, this is 252 pages of not-uploaded-here-before material LOL.  I'm old enough to look through this mag and think "oh yeah, I own a lot of these games" without thinking of them as "retro."  Grandia and Incredible Crisis were two favorites reviewed this ish...
    

    118 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted September 26, 2024

23. 

    Tech Gian Issue 026 (December 1998)

    By kitsunebi

    This one time, at band camp...
    The CD-ROM included with this issue can be downloaded HERE.
    

    101 downloads

    1 comment

    Submitted September 12, 2024

24. 

    Play Online No.035 (May 2001)

    By kitsunebi

    This is the final issue of Play Online. 
    You can download the CD-ROM included with the issue HERE.
    

    68 downloads

    0 comments

    Submitted September 10, 2024

25. 

    Play Online No.033 (March 2001)

    By kitsunebi

    Here it is y'all.  Unless someone can provide evidence to the contrary, this is the only Japanese magazine EVER with Lara Croft on the cover. 
    Just don't expect any Tomb Raider game coverage anywhere in the issue LOL. 🤔
    

    68 downloads

    2 comments

    Updated September 9, 2024