Animerica Extra was a monthly manga magazine published in by Viz Media. Established as a companion to the anime news and review magazine Animerica, Animerica Extra primarily published English-language translations of Japanese manga. The magazine shifted towards publishing shōjo manga (girls' manga) in 2003, before ceasing publication in 2004.
History
Animerica Extra was conceived as a sister publication to Animerica, Viz's general interest anime and manga magazine.[1] Amid the anime boom of the 1990s, Animerica Extra and the Viz manga magazines Manga Vizion and Pulp were among the first English-language manga magazines to publish manga titles aimed at demographics outside of children's manga,[1] and have been noted as being "instrumental in disseminating manga culture" in North America.[2] The magazine principally published English-language translations of manga, though it published non-manga content such as the short stories of Mitsuru Adachi, and feature stories on manga, anime, and Japanese culture.[3] Certain issues featured original cover artwork by manga artists, including Haruhiko Mikimoto[4] and Chiho Saito.[5]
Sales for the magazine were initially strong; in August 2001, ICv2 reported that Animerica Extra had grown its circulation month-over-month for over a year, and cited the magazine's growth as proof of uncaptured potential in the American shōjo market.[6]Animerica Extra's readership was roughly 70 percent female;[1]ICv2 additionally noted that retailers such as Mile High Comics were able to capitalize on the success of Animerica Extra to attract female customers to comic book stores.[7] Following the cancellation of Pulp in 2002, the magazine's serialization of Banana Fish continued in Animerica Extra.[8] In July 2003, the magazine began publishing shōjo manga exclusively[9] and began printing certain manga in its original right-to-left format, as opposed to the flipped artwork it had previously published.[10]
In December 2004, Animerica Extra ceased publication.[11] The magazine was replaced by the manga magazine Shojo Beat, which was published by Viz from July 2005 until July 2009.[12]
Serializations
The following titles were serialized in Animerica Extra:[12]
