Shojo beat?!
Question: What is in the magazine? Does it have serialized manga in it? assuming it does, if i subscribe now, do i just have to jump into the middle of the series?
is it worth the money?
Answers: What is in the magazine? Does it have serialized manga in it? assuming it does, if i subscribe now, do i just have to jump into the middle of the series?
is it worth the money?
Shojo Beat is a serialized magazine released monthly by Viz Media. You might be familiar with Viz because they're a large manga publishing company that puts out titles like Bleach, Naruto, NANA, etc.
Some of the titles they have serialized in Shojo Beat are either completed in Japan or are currently ongoing. If that title is currently ongoing in Japan, then it probably ISN'T caught up or current with the chapters in Japan. For instance, if Viz decides to license a new shoujo like Tokyo Crazy Paradise, and if they choose to serialize it in Shojo Beat, then they will release the first chapter from the first volume in the magazine. Subsequent chapters in the next month will be in that same order, like Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on until they decide to drop that series from the magazine.
It doesn't mean that you won't get to finish the series because they'll continue to separately release the volumes until the series is complete.
If you do subscribe now, then you will be dropped in the middle of whatever chapter they're on. For instance, I know that Sand Chronicles is one of the titles in Shojo Beat and they're on Volume 2 of the series right now. If you want to know what happens before, just go out and buy volume 1 in the stores. Viz releases a volume for every series in their magazine after the chapters for that volume have been released in Shojo Beat.
The current titles being serialized in Shojo Beat are Sand Chronicles, Honey and Clover, Vampire Knight, Absolute Boyfriend, Crimson Hero, and Haruka. Sometimes they do special issues where they feature a one shot or maybe just an introductory first chapter for an upcoming new shojo that they've just licensed and will release soon.
It's worth the money if you can't wait to know what happens next while waiting for the volume to volume release. If you don't plan on buy the volumes at all, then the magazine should be fine.
And for series like Vampire Knight which is currently ongoing in Japan, Shojo Beat/Viz is really behind in chapters. I think Viz has only released as far as Volume 4 whereas they're all ready into Volume 8 in Japan. If you want to read chapters that Viz has yet to release, then just go to a manga hosting site like http://www.onemanga.com/ where you can find fan-made scanlations.