I finished reading Mangajin yesterday with the final issue, #70. The last issue was… um… interesting? No, that’s not it. Unethical? Perhaps.

In the issues numbered in the sixties the pleas for subscriptions grew ever more loud. This seemed strange for a magazine winding up its operations. Apparently they were getting desperate for cash. But to encourage people to renew or extend their subscriptions just before closing shop seems wrong.

I expected the final issue to have a big apology on the first page and a notice that said refunds would be coming. That isn’t the case though. Nothing is out of the ordinary in this issue except that there is no “Publisher’s Note” like there is in every other issue except #69 and #70. In fact subscription information and money is still being taken on the page after the Contents page like normal.

Finally, on page 32, there is a “notice” that most readers probably won’t even notice saying that this is the final issue. Refunds were not provided to subscribers. If the subscriber did nothing they lost their money. If they wrote to Mangajin they could get their subscription converted into a FrontLine magazine subscription. They could also order back issues with their now defunct pre-paid subscription but would still have to pay postage to receive those issues. Seems pretty sneaky, and maybe even illegal, to me to kill a magazine like that.

Mangajin was great while it lasted, but they should have ended things with more class.

I still have 12 unsold issues remaining. Take them off my hands for $50 delivered in the U.S.

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Posted on May 1st, 2009 under Japan • Tags: mangajin. • RSS 2.0 feed • You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed