Akadot: Can you tell us how Fujin Magazine was created and can you give us a brief description as well?

SH: Fujin Magazine is a supplement to Raijin and will be included with your purchase. It is not sold separately and you don't have to pay extra to get it. Fujin mangazine has the latest anime, manga, video game, and Japanese pop culture news straight from Japan, as soon as it is heard in Japan. In a weekly format, you'll be about hearing things as they are happening in Japan. In America, otaku are on a time lag because when things are happening in Japan you don't hear about it for months or your hear some of the news, but not the whole story. Therefore, Funjin will bridge that gap.

Akadot: So Fujin will literally have "this week's" news in Japan?

SH: Yes. For a while the plan was Fujin would be in Raijin and Raijin would just have additional pages. But, we wanted to print the news at the very last minute, so that's why it is a separate thing. Raijin we have to print in advance since we are working ahead, but with Fujin we can wait a little longer.

Akadot: From your description, it sounds as if Fujin could be sold as its own publication. There are many fans that would be interested in reading about the latest Japanese news. Why did you decide to include it for free?

SH: In the earliest ideas of Raijin, not only did we want to bring the manga experience from Japan, but also news, thoughts, ideas, and cross-culture exchange. In Japan, they are really having a crazy cultural renaissance over there and it all stems from manga, anime, and video games. That's what we wanted to reflect in our editorial. We really wanted to communicate some of the crazy stuff they are throwing out in Japan on a weekly basis. It was going to be a background section in Raijin, but we really pumped it up with the latest news and to do it as late breaking as possible so we decided to do it separately from Raijin.

Akadot: I noticed with your subscription specials you are giving Fist of the North Star toys occasionally. Are these items just overstock from your Japan division or were they hand-selected and specially made in Japan for Raijin promotions?

SH: I would say a lot of decisions like these are collaborated between the American and Japanese offices. We bring something to the table and we collaborate and come up with ideas. The "Fist of the North Star" Kenshiro action figure is only available to Raijin one-year subscribers through the end of the year. There are a whole new line of Fist of the North Star figures that came out in Japan, but this particular figure will only be available to American subscribers of Raijin.

If you don't want the action figure, the dvd is also exclusive to one-year subscribers of Raijin. It will have Fist of the Blue Sky anime on one side and Baki the Grappler TV series anime on the other. And that is also selected very much with the American audience in mind because that DVD will hit the streets before either of those anime will be in distributive format.

Akadot: Please tell us about your contest.

SH: If you are in Anime Expo or Comicon, stop by our booth and fill out the form to register enter a drawing for a five day, five night, all expenses paid Rajin Comics getaway to Tokyo. We'll put you up, give you some spending money, you'll get a full tour of the Coamix offices and see where Weekly Bunch is published. You'll get to hang out with some of our artists in Japan and we'll take you to all the hot otaku areas. It's going to be a great trip.

You definitely have to be at one of the two events to enter. You can't enter online or do a mail-in entry. So stop by our booth in San Diego (Comicon) to enter.

Akadot: On that note, I want to ask this last question. With Raijin making its last promotional attempt in Comicon, what is Raijin's goal or what they want to see happen in San Diego? What is the last thing you would want to say to everybody so they can get the message?

SH: We want to hear what the readers think, so come by (our booth). Actually, you will get Issue 0 of Raijin Comics and Fujin Magazine in your registration bag at San Diego Comicon. Sit down, check it out, and look at for awhile and come by the booth and tell us what you think. Already, there are huge changes, which I can't talk about exclusively, that are being made based on responses we got directly from fans on the floor at Anime Expo and also through our website. If you can't be at Comicon, our website is always open to any fan comments. In the future, we will have a much formalized process, but a manga title in Raijin Comics will live and die by fan response. That's how they run in Japan, and that's how were going to run in here. So the voice of the fans is fatally important. Our editors in Japan and America are very committed to this ideal.

Don't forget to read Part I of Akadot's interview with Sam Humphries.