Flashback Friday #1: October Edition

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First, let’s make things clear: I used to collect Megami magazines.

The first time was merely out of curiosity. Back then, there were hardly any Japanese periodicals available in my country that could interest me; but seeing that my local comic book store stocked at least one of these copies a month, it seemed like a fun enough incentive, if only to supplement my then burgeoning grasp of the Japanese language. Of course, I had no idea that this magazine title was decidedly more “raunchy” than other members of its cohort, like Newtype Magazine for example. Still, there was some excitement to be had — albeit at a premium — to flip through its pages full of titillating anime goodness.

It goes without saying that this was quite a while back. I could only afford so much, and perhaps the only time I really splurged on buying as many of these magazines as I could was whenever I visited the venerable Mecca of Anime and Manga itself (Akihabara, in case you were wondering), and really, could you blame me? These things sold for up to four times its cost after importation if I bought it in my home country, so splurging on them whenever I was in Japan was a no-brainer.

So here, I’d like to look back at some of the older publications I have dating back 8 years to see just what exactly was going on in the colorful world of animu land. Perhaps some of these shows were the very thing that got you into anime in the first place? Let’s see what was going around in the October 2010 issue of Megami Magazine.

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Anime and the love of Headphones

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First off, I’d like to welcome you guys to a new column entitled Anime and the love of Headphones, which I plan on running for a couple articles. As a short introduction, I’m actually a big personal hi-fi audio geek. It’s probably a hereditary thing since each guy in my family seems to have their own personal preference for audio. For my father, it’s home audio systems; my brother is an expert in car audio (and he even serves as a professional judge in some gigs); for me, it’s headphones and other high-performance audio recording equipment.

Which makes watching anime all the more fun when they cameo real-life equipment in a show. It’s a fact that the headphone market has seen a marked boost in popularity after the release of Beats by dr. dre, and other commercials/celebrities that promote these headsets as forms of fashion statements simply add to the whole headphone craze. And though it might serve as a touch of class in anime for the casual viewer, it’s a pleasant little easter egg for headphone enthusiasts like me when I see a model that I’ve either tested in the past or better yet own myself.

So in these next few articles, I’ll pay tribute to some of the great headphone models that have made their cameo appearances in well known anime (and even manga). I’m pretty sure some of you might have spotted some of these models before, but here’s the point where I share a little extra trivia on what you might not have known about these wonderful pieces of ear jewelry. Heck, you might even be inclined to buy them yourselves!

So enough chit-chat and let’s get started! Continue reading