+ 5 4 BBRRAANNDD NNEEWW SSTTRREEAAMMIINNGG AANNIIMMEE RREEVVIIEEWWEEDD IINNSSIIDDEE PAGES OF ANIME AND MANGA! J-CUUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLLLLLLLLTTTTTTTTTTTTUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ••••••••••••••• MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCCCCCCCC••••••••••••••• AAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNN FFFFFFFFFFFFIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLMMMMMMMMMMMM •••••••••••• ••••••••••• MMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAA Issue 219 WT F R R I NA E !N E £S P 5L O 0 A S TT T II E TO R A N S N ! MC / O T A NA N TS GRT AOY BV J UEA NRP A DS YN L E /E S / TE T O N O Y O T K O OO R D O FL AE S S R T H A E G IOC I E NP P DES L I A A/ Y RK YE / M SATURDAY AM O/ O NC N EO PS O IP J EL I C H IS THIS THE FUTURE OF MANGA? A E E Y N TROPICAL JAPAN MWAM SUMMER GHOST COME WITH US TO THE SANDY MAN WITH A MISSION ON WE SPEAK WITH DEBUT ANIME BEACHES OF OKINAWA! THEIR NEW ALBUM DIRECTOR LOUNDRAW £4.99 CONTENTS 008 SATURDAY AM’S FREDERICK JONES ON DIVERSE MANGA CLOCK STRIKER, released 2023 056 042 REVIEWS 038 LUPIN THE THIRD PART 5 058 GHOST IN THE SHELL: SAC_2045 060 KEMONO JIHEN 061 RELEASE THE SPYCE 061 THE SOUND OF MAGIC 070 ONE PIECE 27 070 THE SHAOLIN PLOT 071 EXECUTION IN AUTUMN 074 MAGIC KNIGHT RAYEARTH 074 VAMPIRE IN THE GARDEN 075 ANIME ROUND-UP 088 ALICE IN BORDERLAND 089 MOVIE ROUND-UP 092 HUMAN LANTERNS B V C O © 004 NEO MAGAZINE JUNE 2022 CONTENTS 030 FEATURES 008 SATURDAY AM 072 MAN WITH A MISSION The diversity revolution in manga! Wolf meets man meets music! 040 EMMA: A VICTORIAN ROMANCE 076 THE CENTENNIAL CASE Don’t miss out on this historical A very Japanese mystery... romance from Anime Limited 086 BLISS-ILLUSION 056 SUMMER GHOST Discover the Chinese blackgaze band 032 We speak to ioudraw about his 098 NEW MANGA ALERT! debut feature Saturday AM’s first four titles 068 VOICE OF THE SLAYER Zach Aguilar on voicing Tanjiro LIFESTYLE 026 MAHIRU’S PAGE 046 COSPLAY CORNER Come on a fashion trip to Tokyo! Talented readers share their amazing outfits 028 WE LOVE THIS STUFF! 062 JAPANESE CUISINE T-shirts, sweet treats, figurines, and cute plushies Enjoy some authentic noodle recipes to make at home 042 OUR MAN IN JAPAN Mark makes us jealous on his trip to Okinawa NEW IN JAPAN 030 DANCE DANCE DANSEUR 034 MANGA SNAPSHOT A ballet-themed show from Jonathan Clements is truly MAPPA, of Kids on the Slope and beaming down on us this issue... Yuri!!! on Ice fame 032 THE EXECUTIONER AND HER WAY OF LIFE It’s an isekai story. With a twist! No, wait! Come back! This one might be good! REGULARS 040 006 EDITORIAL 066 COMPETITION Meet the team Win a signed Titan Manga bundle worth over £50! 014 NEWS NETWORK MONEY OFF SUBS! 078 MANGA EXTRACT Events, new releases, music charts, premieres and more A short manga story from Irina Plus, find out how to save money by Richards’ new anthology 054 NEXT ISSUE subscribing with a Direct Debit, and pay just 090 SUBSCRIPTION OFFER Discover what we have in store £12.99 every three issues for you next month Save money on our 12-issue UK subscription Turn to page 90 for more details! @NEO_Magazine @neomagazineuk @neo_maguk 005 EDITORIAL MEET Summer Ghost THE TEAM TOM SMITH Two-time Grammy winner Thundercat recently said in an interview that his favourite singer in Japan was Sumire Uesaka because of her song in Pop Team Epic. She heard about it and visited him during his tour of Japan last month. Now the internet (including me) is demanding a collab! W E L C OME DAVID WEST The highlight of my month was the vegan bacon cheeseburger I had from The Temple Of Seitan. On that subject, I’m very much looking forward to Bob’s Burgers: The Movie opening this month. WELCOME TO issue 220 of NEO! This issue, we’re thrilled to be able to bring you Kristen Schaal’s voice acting as Louise a double whammy of manga goodness courtesy of Saturday AM! Flip this issue to Belcher is a comedy masterclass. read all about the first wave of titles heading your way this summer, and check out page 008 for more about founder Frederick Jones’ big plans. Is this the future of JONATHAN CLEMENTS manga? Well, we certainly hope so! Giving readers around the world a voice and a So who else noticed that the banned space to create their own manga stories can only mean more incredible tales, and Chinese protest film Voices of April, more windows into worlds and experiences we can only imagine ourselves! I’m about Shanghai’s covid lockdown, thrilled to be able to cover The Quarto Group’s initial foray together with Saturday included a sample from the Akira AM to bring their digital manga into print. soundtrack? Just me, then...? Elsewhere in the mag we bring you some very uniquely Japanese murder mystery action from Square Enix... with a surprising link to Britain! That’s over on ANDREW OSMOND page 076 as we delve into The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story. We also speak to I was delighted to hear that the British MAN WITH A MISSION’s Jean-Ken Johnny about the band’s upcoming release on writer Alex Garland – who wrote the page 072, and on page 086 it’s the turn of Dryad from Chinese blackgaze band Bliss- backpacker zeitgeist novel The Beach, Illusion to talk us through his musical career. scripted 28 Days Later and directed And that’s not all! On the anime front, up and coming anime director loudraw the new horror film Men – is an Attack talks to Andrew Osmond about his movie Summer Ghost (page 056), and Osmond on Titan anime fan, praising how it also tackles the upcoming release of Emma: A Victorian Romance on page 040... an “hovers on this strange space between oldie, but a goodie! something absurdist and something Until next time! actually really frightening.” GEMMA COX, EDITOR WILLIAM CUTHBERT I’ve been diving back into an old Summer Ghost favourite show A Lull in the Sea, while my daughter’s fallen in love with Ponyo. Both were perfect watches for Mer-May and going into the summer months! MARK GUTHRIE Mark’s wife: Do you ever think about moving back to the UK? Mark: *Checks UK forecast, sips a passionfruit and awamori cocktail, leans back on sun lounger and looks out across Okinawa’s sparkling blue sea* Nah, I’m pretty happy where I am, thanks! 006 NEO MAGAZINE JUNE 2021 THE DIVERSITY REVOLUTION As Saturday AM expands into print with the publication of their first 10 books in 2022 (with The Quarto Group), David West talks to Saturday AM founder Frederick Jones about his mission to help the new generation of mangaka express themselves. 008 NEO MAGAZINE JUNE 2022 “I belIeve It’s essential for people to see themselves in their heroes launch its physical media catalogue with the release of ten books across and know they belong in this space,” says Odunze Oguguo, creator of June to November 2022 (pre-order now via all booksellers). The roster Saturday AM’s hit manga series Apple Black. “There was a time in the contains the first two volumes of Odunze Oguguo’s Apple Black, two past when I rarely ever saw anyone that wasn’t Asian or white in anime instalments of Hammer by JeyOdin, the first volumes of Saigami by seny, and manga because I wasn’t educated enough on the topic. I used to Oblivion Rouge by Pap souleye Fall, Titan King by tony Dawkins, The believe that having the characters be mostly Japanese was partly what Massively Multiplayer World Of Ghosts by Oscar Fong with Frederick made it anime and manga. My early manga-styled art reflected this, and I Jones, Yellow Stringer by Geoffrey Jean louis and Frederick Jones, and believe it hindered my creativity and originality. Diversity can help people Saturday AM’s handy creator’s guide How To Draw Diverse Manga. think outside the box and bring fresh ideas to the spaces they occupy. It THE POWER OF REPRESENTATION also allows for exploring new ideas, cultures, and worlds in anime and manga.” This exciting new wave of manga is the brainchild of Saturday AM Right from its first official issue in January 2014, Saturday AM has founder Frederick Jones, who has had a lifelong fascination with provided a platform and showcase for manga stories from an incredibly Japanese pop culture. As a kid in North Carolina, Jones grew up with diverse range of backgrounds, from senegal and Nigeria to the United shows like Star Blazers and Battle Of The Planets that brought anime states, alongside lGbtQ creators who might have struggled to find a and the manga aesthetic to young Western audiences in the 1970s. As home with traditional, mainstream manga publishers. an adult working in advertising, he was part of the team that helped From starting life as a bi-weekly digital anthology, Saturday AM popularise the Playstation in the Us. His career involved a lot of travel, has since spawned two companion anthologies in Saturday Brunch and and through his experiences abroad he began noticing something that Saturday PM, and now they’re poised to make the imminent jump from would dictate the course of his future. digital to print. teaming up with The Quarto Group, Saturday AM will “I had been travelling around the world and I was surprised >>> @NEO_Magazine @neomagazineuwkw w.n@eonmeoa_gm.caog.uukk 000299 THE DIVERSITY REVOLUTION JOIN THE >>> how many Black and Brown people I saw reading doesn’t feature a lot of Black or Brown people but they’re REVOLUTION manga,” says Jones. “I was stunned by it. I’m like, this is the ones buying a lot of the material, those kids who are Aspiring mangaka have crazy, these kids are growing up with this and it doesn’t drawing this art style, the unintended consequence two chances to catch the even begin to reflect an appreciation for their cultures. is that they believe they don’t matter, their stories eye of the Saturday AM There is nothing that had Black culture. There was don’t matter. They believe if they were to draw a Black team. In the annual March nothing that had Indian culture in it, and I was seeing character that would seem forced. That’s no more forced Art Madness 64 artists a lot of kids of various ethnicities reading this stuff. than seeing a blond haired, blue eyed Japanese kid complete in a series of I’m travelling the world and I’m seeing this interracial named Naruto Uzumaki.” art challenges to crown a international love for this industry that rarely showcased APPROPRIATION VERSUS AUTHENTICITY winner via an elimination them as heroes or love interests.” tournament. During their There was clearly a gaping hole in the marketplace. While representation is at the very heart of Saturday Summer Of Manga yearly He realised there were plenty of kids from all cultural AM, Jones is keenly aware that it’s great stories and event, creators pitch backgrounds posting their own manga art online, yet exciting art that draws in the fans. “My whole conceit short story ideas with even as manga was reaching fans all over the world, its with diversity has been that spectacle is what drives the strongest concepts global audience was not reflected in the content they most people, not diversity. Diversity is a thing that helps winning commissions. were consuming. So, Jones had one deceptively simple to inspire interesting story ideas, but spectacle is what idea – “Why not create a business that does that?” he actually grabs people,” he says. “Massively Multiplayer says. It wasn’t just good business sense, as Saturday AM World of GHOSTS has bombastic action, giant colorful was born out of a belief in the power of representation. ghosts, and an Indian-American kid. The kid could have “As a proud Black person, I’m not comfortable with been any ethnicity, orientation, or nationality and that’s entertainment where Black people don’t matter,” says the point.” Jones. “The problem is when you have an industry that At the same time, he wants Saturday AM’s creators 010 NEO MAGAZINE JUNE 2022