That new Studio Voice is about fake documentaries, funny films about Hitler being gay and JFK being black, films based on true stories, good scores and bad acting, the new Mike Mills film, etc etc. Looks like a good issue if you're into film stuff; personally I wish there were magazines in the West as lively and independent as Studio Voice. Would you have endorsed it if they'd filled it with the awful 80s frathouse movies you tend to rave about here on Neomarxisme?

Admit it, you're Jean Snow with a sprinkling of Gen Y sarcasm... and Nirvana plugs!

nick say: jean snow with a sprinkling of gen Y sarcasm...and nirvana plugs!

r. say: hey, i thought jean was marxy sans sarcasm!

Spin it the way you want, that new Studio Voice has a two-year old American film made by MTV on the cover and coverage of early Aughts classics like "Garden State" inside.

And if we're going to judge the magazine by Japanese standards, we have to nitpick about how bad and jpeg-esque all the stillshots from the films look in the feature.

I'd be delighted to talk about what terrible magazines Beikoku Ongaku and Marquee are, but not these two.

I am making you face a reality: what if these two are also terrible now. Isn't SV supposed to have some obscure European that you like on the cover and not a two year-old American Mormon production?

not in japan at the moment so i havn't seen the content but the new SV actually looks quite fresh. like they　might actually know what they're doing, like 15 or so years ago (yes that's when that was,) when they had godard and gainsbourg on the cover and 特集。

woooo! vote for pedro!

i wonder if relax needs a circulation boost. nothing does it like pretty girls.

Isn't SV supposed to have some obscure European that you like on the cover and not a two year-old American Mormon production?

Maybe it's Europe that is in terminal decline?

i wonder if relax needs a circulation boost. nothing does it like pretty girls.

Traditionally, Japan has found a way to appreciate pretty girls who aren't part of the "pretty girl industry."

This issue is not as bad as the "Car" issue, though. That one was impossible to justify.

I thought it was fairly ingenious / demonic how they arranged cars on the cover so that they looked like pretty flowers in a garden. But yes, unlike, say, the Slow Toys or the Dancing issues, the cars issue was mercenary product placement for a product that is, moreover, obnoxious and toxic. I have no problem at all with modelling schools and pretty girls, though. And perhaps the reason the jpgs are low-res and the films not current in Studio Voice is that they're not just recycling press packs sent by the film production companies, but writing about films they're actually enthusiastic about? In other words, their interest is thematic and not entirely tied in to product cycles and promo.

In other words, their interest is thematic and not entirely tied in to product cycles and promo.

Nice idea, but sadly Napoleon Dynamite is about to get a DVD release in Japan, having bypassed the cinemas altogether.

Studio Voice: Finally the Magazine for Straight-to-Video Films!

But if you read SV regularly you'll know that it's a compendious labour of love; they'll mention one zillion films in that issue, and have lots of people write personal columns about the films they love, and make lists of all sorts of "film keywords" and things relating to this month's theme. It's hardly fair to dismiss the mag as promorama. SV is one of the best mags in Japan, and if you want to rip into it you're going to have to come up with something better than "low-res photos" or "bad paper" or "they mention a film that just came out on DVD".

By the way, we're never going to read your demolition of Beikoku, are we, and that's because a track of yours features in the latest issue. Product cycles are exactly what will prevent you criticizing that sad old retro-Shibuya rag.

Can't we all agree that Relax has become an embarassment? I doubt we'll see any more articles about Buckminster Fuller-inspired melon pan in its newly glossy pages. The same downward trend is true of Japanese techno mags. I stopped reading Remix when I realized it had largely fallen behind XLR8R (no particular dis to XLR8R, but when you fall behind American magazines in your coverage of techno, something is very wrong). Unfortunately, two of my favorite UK music mags, Jockey Slut and Straight No Chaser, went sour around the same time. So much for Cool Britannia, I guess it isn't just Japan that's in cultural decline!

Well, now that you mention it, how many arts/culture/entertainment magazines do succeed in keeping it real for more than a few years? Relax recently hit the 100 issue mark, so maybe it's just reached the end of its "good" cycle. Happens to the best of us.

So much for Cool Britannia, I guess it isn't just Japan that's in cultural decline!

Indeed! The heart behind that one-time energetic (and New Labour endorsed) community has withered away, and we can now only expect the castles to fall one by one!

By the way, we're never going to read your demolition of Beikoku

Seeing that they've published exactly two issues in the last two-and-a-half years and that they are a fully independent magazine without the backing of a publishing company, I feel that they are hardly in need of a critical broadside.

Can't we all agree that Relax has become an embarassment?

Two things happened: the editor-in-chief who made the magazine what it was left to go to Brutus, and the entire youth market for "sophisticated subculture" disappeared. They really have no choice but to write about cars and modeling (and soon, designer label baggage, no doubt) to connect with their audience.

(By the way, do yourself a favor and look at the first dozen issues of Relax - it's a totally different magazine with 0 appeal to any of us here.)

i for one never understood why relax and studio voice are ever mentioned together, now or in the past. other than the very obvious (they're magazines they come out monthly etc) they have nothing in common. Actually i've never heard a japanese person do it other than in the context that relax is thin and imagey SV is a different kind of thing alltogether. I have heard studio voice mentioned together with bijutsu techou, in fact they often tune in on the same thing (most recently the matthew barney respective issues)

t dozen issues of Relax - it's a totally different magazine with 0 appeal to any of us here

same with the 5 years or so of studio voice.

i'm not an avid reader but i actually felt relax has started to include some pretty clever, edgy and more sophisticated fashion shoots with the change in art direction, as opposed to just pretty (fuzzy/shintou)

A Google search for Relax, リニューアル, and 岡本仁 (the former editor's name) will turn up blogs with Japanese people complaining (yes, complaining!) about the new, lame Relax.

It makes at least one poor blogger want to cry:

http://objection.exblog.jp/i6

What were the first dozen issues of Relax like? Was Okamoto at the helm back then? And speaking of Brutus, it just dawned on me why the title is a registered trademark of Hearst Holdings/King Features Syndicate: Brutus is an alternate name for Popeye's nemesis Bluto! Were there Swee'Pea, Olive Oyl, and J. Wellington Wimpy magazines too, I wonder?

Well, blow me down! How could I forget Olive magazine, so familiar to readers of this blog. The Olive in question is indeed Olive Oyl, as the issue currently on the stands makes abundantly clear:

http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/4838784864.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

I must say that I browsed the September issue of Relax very thoroughly the other day and found it if anything better than it was back in Okamoto's day. There was a tendency for a couple too many articles about Alife in New York, or Sofia Coppola's set in LA in the old days. This issue, though, had an admirable focus on things Japanese, including many photos of people in deliberately artless, normal Tokyo situations (something Relax has made an aesthetic in its own right), with a lot of greenery, old people, etc. The look had shifted a bit from Takashi Homma to Rinko Kawauchi; less cold, more feminine. And there were features on lover's rock reggae, the Hiroshima commemoration, and "peace people" from all walks of life, talking about what peace meant to them. Quite admirable, I thought, and a move on from a repetitive emphasis on skate and grafitti style, and secondhand US trends.

move on from a repetitive emphasis on skate and grafitti style, and secondhand US trends.

Well, when Relax was writing about "grafitti style" in the 90s, it was fresh and vital, but you are right, it's good that they've moved on and stopped repeating themselves. The problem is that there is no new subcultural area which can provide 12 different themes for the year. So, you may like the "Peace" issue, but once and a while, it becomes "Cars" and "Models" and probably next, "American Football" or "Very Wealthy People."

I personally liked the matte paper covers more than the glossy, but I think that Brutus seems more relevant and interesting these days than Relax does. Brutus' new issue is about books - hey, I read books!

judging a magazine solely by it's cover here: brutus' new issue makes books into accessories of an elegant expensive lifestyle. A rich and beautiful foreign-model type woman is boarding a private jet carrying an unidentifiable book. The theme is books to read while traveling.
My tachiyomi time got eaten up ero samurai (what a weird magazine), so I didn't look at brutus too long... but relax doesn't seem to be the only one flaunting models and icons of wealth for the fall season.

I've big upped 現代思想 and ユリイカ on this site before, and I'll do it again! Folks here might find Eureka's recent "Subculture vs. Otaku" special issue to be of particular interest:

http://www.seidosha.co.jp/eureka/200508s/

I'd have to second Nate's criticisms of Brutus, and add that I wasn't too impressed with the books the featured celebs recommended either. Who knew Hemingway was so popular? But the two page spread of paparazzi shots of Hollywood celebs holding books was priceless!

Also, everybody might already know this about matte covers, but in addition to being infinitely more shibui than glossy ones, they're also much more environmentally friendly. Much easier to recycle/biodegrade.

you may like the "Peace" issue, but once and a while, it becomes "Cars" and "Models" and probably next, "American Football" or "Very Wealthy People."

I happened to be looking through all the back issues of Relax since the editorial change, yesterday at ProQM, my local Berlin stockist. Other theme issues from this year were "Slow Toys", "Synthesizers", and "The iPod". Now, I know you love synths and other toys, so I can't imagine these issues left you indifferent.

relax doesn't seem to be the only one flaunting models and icons of wealth for the fall season.

Although all style and fashion magazines do this to some degree, I really don't think this is a good description of Relax. Not only does Relax use matt recycled paper, and fill its pages with views of nature and girls wearing very little make-up, but it fills its pages with Japanese people, unlike more glossy magazines like Madame Figaro or Vogue Japan, which are full of Western models wearing diamonds, etc. The whole tone of Relax is different, and I personally think the art direction is great, very understated, positive, tasteful and... relaxed.