Looking Back on Protoculture Addicts 15 Years Later

• Author: Red Bard
• Editor: Samantha Ferreira

Though its name is little more than a niche footnote today, Protoculture Addicts once commanded a sense of respect and awe within the anime fan community. The publication, which launched in 1987, would go on to become the first large-scale, mainstream anime publication in North America. To this day, it’s still the longest-running English-language anime magazine. And though we’ll never be able to fully quantify the massive impact that this magazine would go on to have on the then-nascent anime fandom, it’s impossible to deny its profound influence.

That said, this wouldn’t have happened had Pelletier, as well as his friends Paul Berthiaume, Jean Carrière, Alain Dubreuil, Michel Gareau, and Yvon Maillé Jr. not sent a copy of that inaugural volume to Robotech RPG publisher Palladium Books and Robotech TV producers Harmony Gold in 1987. “In response, we received an angry letter from the first, and a lawyer’s letter threatening to sue us for copyright infringement from the second, because of the fanzine and a picture of us wearing homemade Robotech t-shirts,” Pelletier wrote in a 2018 version of an article he originally wrote in 2007, “Fortunately, it was agreed that we could continue publication as the OFFICIAL Robotech fanzine with the payment of a license ($2000 per year was probably a reasonable amount, but it was a lot of money for a bunch of kids in college).”

For North American anime fans, the ‘80s was a decade where anime was still new, niche, and exceptionally nerdy. But Robotech—which combined  Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Genesis Climber Mospeada, and Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross into a single show—and Star Blazers—which adapted Space Battleship Yamato—were without a doubt the decade’s most dominant titles in the steadily growing community of fans. Many of these fans took to creative expressions such as fanzines to reach out to other fans, express their love of anime, and evangelize about their favorite shows. Such was the original vision for Protoculture Addicts as a Robotech fanzine. But when Harmony Gold threatened legal action against the college-age group, only to agree that they could continue as an official fanzine if they were willing to pay a licensing fee, it wasn’t exactly a tough decision. “We thought that by [making the fanzine official], we would be able to reach a wider public. The purpose of a fanzine is, after all, to share a common interest with as many people as possible and to give them a way to express their ideas for the benefit of all those involved,” wrote Carrière and Dubreuil in an editorial at the start of a 1989 reprint of Protoculture Addicts, which now proudly adorned its cover with a new, $2000 subheader: “The Official Robotech Fanzine.”

After paying the licensing fee and reprinting the first issue twice—first in 1988, then in 1989—Protoculture Addicts began publication in earnest as an official Robotech fanzine. By extension of this, the magazine became one of North America’s first official, commercially distributed anime magazines, kept in good company by Anime-Zine and Animag.

Protoculture Addicts would only keep their moniker blazoned on its cover for the first seven issues. And while this isn’t to say that there was never any mention of any non-Robotech anime prior to this (issue 8, for example, touted a Gunbuster cover), issue 11—the February 1991 issue—is when Pelletier considers the magazine as having fully shifted to a more generalized anime publication. Incidentally, this is also the same year that Pelletier considers the start of Protoculture Addicts’ golden era, which largely encompassed the early ‘90s and spanned issues 15–37. During this time, Pelletier quit his Ph.D. to work on the rapidly growing magazine full-time. The book got physically larger, and there were more people on staff than ever.

“By issue #30, [Protoculture Addicts] had quickly reached a readership of about 10,000 and was distributed by all the major comic book distributors in North America. We also had distributors in half a dozen countries and subscribers all over the world. It was really the Golden Age of the magazine,” Pelletier wrote, “We were able to diversify the content even more with new in-depth articles and coverage of Japanese culture (Jpop music, Language Seminars, book reviews). My favorite article from that period is probably the “Kimagure Orange Road Whimsical Episode Guide” (in #22-25). I don’t really have a favorite cover, as there were too many excellent covers by Alexandre Racine (who unfortunately died of cancer in 1999), Robert DeJesus and Ghislain Barbe).”

But alas, all good things must come to an end. At the turn of the millennium, there were more anime magazines fighting for fans’ attention than ever before, and Pelletier, “was neglecting the promotion of the magazine and we stopped attending conventions.” Faced with stronger competition and weakening finances, Protoculture Addicts began to struggle. Naturally, this took a massive toll on an already exhausted Pelletier. “It was getting economically more difficult to produce the magazine and I was getting tired of working so hard,” he wrote, “I was on the verge of a burn-out, so in June 2004 (with the release of #81), I decided to call it quits, find a new job, and eventually continue the magazine as a web-based publication.”

The publication found a savior in Christopher Macdonald: a fellow Canadian, and editor-in-chief of Anime News Network. Macdonald had been reading Protoculture Addicts for well over a decade and wanted to help Pelletier keep it alive. “The idea with [Protoculture Addicts] was to support the magazine and help keep it alive,” Macdonald told me, “I knew that the Internet, and websites like ours, were killing print publishing and magazines like [Protoculture Addicts]. I thought it was a shame and wanted to support its legacy.”

And just like that, Anime News Network gave Protoculture Addicts a massive injection of cash and resources: writers, editors, graphic designers, industry connections, and more. Macdonald clarified that Anime News Network “never acquired [Protoculture Addicts]. A new company was founded and ANN licensed its name to PA and shared resources for free, but ANN never owned the magazine or company.” A snapshot of this optimism that both Macdonald and Pelletier (who was continuing his involvement with the magazine) shared regarding this deal can be seen in a 2005 interview the two did with DVD Vision Japan.

Specifically, when asked about where he and Macdonald envisioned Protoculture Addicts in five years, Pelletier responded, “I just see them the same. Just better and stronger. I don't expect any radical changes.” Macdonald added to this, “Much sooner than five years from now, I'd like to see ANN and PA as a small company of full-time, professional staff. Editors, and such. Less than [ten] people, with a good stable of competent and loyal freelance contributors. As I said earlier, I want to be giving back to people as much as they put in, and I'd like for as many of those people to be people that we've worked with to get where we are now. I want ANN and the magazine to continue in the same vein they are now, only better. ANN is already very respected and very well known, but I'd really like that respect to be the same kind of respect people have for the big trade magazines in other industries. We have various expansion plans, but none of those are goals unto themselves. They're just ways of offering more to our readers, and offering ourselves to more readers.”

Within just a few issues, the differences were immediately visible.  More people became involved with the magazine's day-to-day operations, a fresh wave of new readership began to form, and at long last, issue 88 (the summer 2006 issue) became the first Protoculture Addicts to be printed in full color. Per Macdonald, “We reached a peak circulation of 15k. I don't know what PA's peak circulation in the ‘90s was, but it was under 5k when ANN first got involved.”  Though this helped to keep Protoculture Addicts afloat for a few more years, even Macdonald’s efforts weren’t enough to completely save it.

2008 was a rollercoaster of a year for Protoculture Addicts. On one hand, Pelletier received a Momiji Award at Anime North, Anime News Network continued its stratospheric growth, and Protoculture Addicts was nominated for Best Publication for the SPJA Industry Awards. But on the other, the anime licensing gold rush of prior years had finally dried up, and the North American anime industry was feeling the full effects of it, in tandem with the recession, no less. Budgets tightened, and decisions grew ever more cautious as companies that formed the bedrock of the industry just a year prior began to shutter their doors. This most notably included Newtype USA, which published issues with more than 100,000 copies in circulation and was called “the biggest, slickest, most colorful English language anime magazine.” Yet even this wasn’t enough to stop the widely beloved magazine from suddenly ceasing publication after its February 2008 issue.

Unfortunately, Newtype USA wouldn’t be the only anime magazine to die by 2008’s hands. Browsing through issue 97 (the July/August 2008 issue) of Protoculture Addicts, one can’t help but notice how sparse the advertising that normally peppered the magazine is; as sure a sign as ever that the North American anime industry’s honeymoon phase was over, and the remaining companies were tightening their belts. “Circulation of Newtype had been falling, and we weren't selling as many ads. At the same time, ANN was growing exceptionally fast and our staff were all overworked,” recalls Macdonald, “The only way we could keep PA going was to hire staff to work only on PA, and its finances just couldn't support that. I had hoped to publish at least 3 more issues of PA, but we never found the time to do so, and Claude decided, very reasonably, to get on with his life.”

There doesn’t seem to have been a specific moment that Macdonald, Pelletier, or anyone else involved in the magazine made a conscious choice to let it end at all—let alone with issue 97. In fact, they had publicly announced that plans for issue 98 were in place, and it was initially meant to ship out in October 2008. In a June 2009 blog post, Pelletier insisted that Protoculture Addicts, “is not dead, it is only on a longer than usual hiatus while we restructure the magazine.” But no matter how much time passed, issue 98 was nowhere to be seen. If a single day can be pointed to as the magazine’s last, the best candidate is arguably February 25, 2010, when the publication’s official website announced that, due to its “now irregular schedule,” subscriptions would no longer be available.

The last meaningful updates about issue 98 came in June and July 2010, when the late Zac Bertschy, Anime News Network’s Executive Editor and Protoculture Addicts’ managing editor, posted in a thread about the issue, stating “We're closer now than we've ever been. However, we have a whopping staff of 2 people working on it and that's part-time. Slow boat, but it'll be done sooner rather than later.”

A month later, in July, he added, “Right now all the text is finished and we're moving forward with design. I will tell you that I am presently the only person working on it and this is only happening when my full-time duties at ANN don't pull my attention away from it; I'm doing my best to gather art assets to illustrate the issue, and once I'm satisfied that we can move forward I will start bothering our designer with it. Next week marks the end of my truly (unbelievably) busy season, and once August begins I will have more time to spend on this issue. To answer your other question, this issue will be a tribute to fandom, with a series of personal narratives and essays about what it means to be an anime fan from a number of high-profile fans and professionals, combined with a series of extensive reviews of the truly significant anime that will make anyone a fan of the medium. It's a bit high-concept, for sure, but I'm proud of what we've managed to put together thus far. I do apologize for the delays. PA is at this point something I and only I work on when I have time for it, which has not been often this summer.”

Whether or not Protoculture Addicts’ subscribers were reimbursed or otherwise compensated for active subscriptions when the magazine “ended” is unclear (Macdonald did not comment when asked whether or not subscribers were alerted/refunded/given subscriptions to new magazines). Back issues continued to be sold online until, per Macdonald, “most of the remaining issues were destroyed in a flood.” Today, pdfs of most of the issues can still be purchased on DriveThruRPG, and a small number of issues can be read for free on The Internet Archive.

While Otaku USA—which began publication in 2007—is inching ever closer to possibly claiming the title for itself one day, it currently stands that Protoculture Addicts, which was in publication for 19–21 years, remains the longest-running, printed anime magazine in North America. And it’s not hard to see what kept it alive for so long—to see what made it so special to so many people. From its iconic hand-drawn covers to the incredible devotion of its many talented team members, it’s a magazine that, even looking back at it today, still bleeds charm, thoughtfulness, and an unparalleled zest for being an anime fan. “PA was purely a labor of love,” said Macdonald, “I think it has this in common with the other early anime magazines from the 1990s, but not the magazines of the 2000s and beyond.”

Today, Protoculture Addicts is completely dormant, and Macdonald says that he’s “very rarely” asked about it. The idea of it making a comeback, he says, is, “pretty unlikely. If for some reason ANN decided to do a magazine, which is pretty unlikely itself, we would do it with our brand. I probably wouldn't want to do PA without Claude's involvement, it's his life's work. But it's not impossible. If there were enough old-time fans of PA who wanted something special, and I had Claude's blessing, I might try to publish three final, special issues of PA at some point. Hopefully, Claude still has the old subscriber list so that we could get issues to those people. This is mostly wishful thinking though, I don't have the time for this kind of project right now.”