UTB Vol.188

Tuesday, 4th November 2008 03:09

Having said that I'd help Shirow grab a copy of the latest issue of UTB I headed down to the Japan Centre as soon as I heard that my subscription was in, getting there I browsed the shelves to pick up an extra copy only to find that it wasn't out on display, grabbing some other mags I headed over to the counter and asked for my subscription and an extra copy, but to my surprise the response was "we've sold out" upon further discussion it turns out the reason why they've sold out is because they've cut order down and so with this issue they only order 3 copies (including mine)...what's the world coming to when only 3 issues of UTB are ordered?! So first off apologises to Shirow for not being able to get a hold of a copy, I'm hoping that the issues of Friday and Kindai will make up for it.

The redesign of the mag is still throwing up the now questions concerning it's content; Why hasn't a H!P member appeared on the cover? Why are PB releases only getting a black and white one page preview? Is there a reason why Manoeri appears constantly in so many issue...is she going to get a PB release?
The first of these questions is one that I've grown accustom to now, having spent such a long time with a lack of H!P on the cover it's taken over being the norm, with the current run of covers it's hard to belive that when I first started buying every issue featured a H!P cover. The PB previews were the main reason I started and kept buying this magazine, the quality of the paper and print means that any previews featured in it will be of a higher quality than the likes of Friday but now with the one page previews and black and white, it's still left me puzzled as to what's going on with this, especially when you consider whose PBs they are promoting in this issue, Reina and Momo, you would have thought that with the popularity of the two girls among the H!P fans that these would have been the perfect girls to have spread through out the magazine? With the recent Buono! PVs I've become quite partial to Momo's legs and would have loved the opportunity to see some shots of them from her upcoming release and as for Reina...well thankfully Friday has some preview shots of her PB release but it would have been great to see some more shots of her in here as this really does look to be her best PB to date, her bikini shots look amazing!
So whilst we have the likes of Momo and Reina trying to promote their PB releases we have Manoeri and Maimi each having their own spread and although I love the girls I find it very strange that the magazine would look to promote both girls more than that of those with releases coming out soon, quite odd.

The usual black and white pages are in there and Airi's and Erika's page is so funny, mainly because of Erika's slightly odd drawing of Airi. From what I can understand the idea behind the page is that both girls must draw a picture of the other. Looking at Erika's picture I couldn't help but smile, although she's managed to get a similar looking pose to the one of Airi in the photo her rendition of it did have me thinking some strange thoughts when I first saw it; why are Airi's boobs drawn so big (then I realised they weren't meant to be her boobs :S) and why does it look like she's giving us the finger with both hands? Lol, Erika you may not be the best drawer in C-ute, but in my opinion you're still the best C-ute member.



TAGS [ Maimi Mano Erina Momo Reina Up to Boy ]
Posted Tuesday, 4th November 2008 03:09 | 2427 Reads

Comments

Comment by Zendra on Tuesday, 4th November 2008 13:31
Paul, I went to the Japan centre a couple of weeks ago and noticed that their shelves did not have anything like as many magazines as usual. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the world's financial problems with the Japanses expats in England having less money to spend on mags.


Comment by Hexi on Tuesday, 4th November 2008 20:29
Pssh, who cares, we japanofiles (sorry) are happy to spend reguarly horrific amounts of money on stuff we can't usually get ahold of...... magazines, bento, pocky... all that jazz, XD i love the japan centre it's one of my favourite places in london... ^_^


Comment by paul.thomas on Tuesday, 4th November 2008 23:46
I think the amount of each magazine that they get in has slowly been dropping but on the other hand I think the amount of different magazines they get in has increased, the likes of Flash and Kindai never used to be regulars in there but now seem to be in there on a regular basis. But I find that they do have a periods where the shelves can look bare at times, I'd imagine the cost of importing them must have a factor in it somewhere, with pound being weak against the yen it's has to affect both the amount tey're charging and the amount they're bringing in, but as Hexi says I've yet to meet someone who buys from the Japan Centre that worries a great deal about the price their paying normally the compulsion to spend spend is on, lol.
Japan Centre has to be one of my favourite places in London as well, it's certainly one of the few stores I go to on a regular basis the others being Mitsukoshi, Forbidden Planet and the Orbital Comic shops, lol, yes all the geeky shops ;p


Comment by Rick on Wednesday, 5th November 2008 03:09
Just got back from a Japanese book store looking for utb 188. after after an hour of searching, I finally asked the lady behind the counter. After a quick search we found they don't carry that. now I don't know where to look. Next time I go I'm gonna see if they can get it if I subscribe. Not that I can afford to get it monthly.


Comment by Zendra on Wednesday, 5th November 2008 14:45
I subscribe UTB from CDJapan. I think its a 3 monthly mag although the dates on the mag can sometimes be misleading.


Comment by paul.thomas on Friday, 7th November 2008 17:42
Rick, I wonder if they can order in individual copies rather than full years subscription? And as Zendra says it's not a monthly mag (every 2 months) so you may be able to afford it after all?


Comment by Matt_D on Monday, 10th November 2008 19:28
On the photobook advertising I would expect that H!P have decided that anyone who will buy one already knows about them and as such no point wasting expensive advertising $$$ on PBs when they can be spending the $$$ on advertising singles/groups.


Comment by paul.thomas on Tuesday, 11th November 2008 10:25
That does make sense and I can understand why Manoeri is getting a lot of publicity both in UTB and in Kindai, but the Maimi shots are the ones that really confuse me as they're not really promoting C-ute just Maimi which is a little odd. Personally I always loved looking forward to getting some preview shots of the upcoming PB releases, plus I think the shots that were used weren't actually used in the PB release itself so they were that little bit more special, it's a shame seeing the girls with releases only being previewed in balck and white as well as it really doesn't do them enough justice compared to the glossy shots.
But I'd imagine it's all money related, isn't everything?

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