Editor Kiyoshi Takano Frequency Monthly | Categories Bishōjo games, Manga Circulation 120,000 (2009) First issue December 26, 1992 | |
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Dengeki G's Magazine (電撃G's magazine) is a Japanese magazine published by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks) and sold monthly on the thirtieth that primarily contains information on bishōjo games, but also includes an entire section on anime based on bishōjo games, and serializes manga and light novels based on such games. The "G's" in the title stands for "Gals" and "Games". The magazine is known for hosting reader participation games whose outcome is directly influenced by the people who read the magazine; such games include Sister Princess, and Strawberry Panic!. Dengeki G's Magazine first went on sale on December 26, 1992 with the February 1993 issue under the title Dengeki PC Engine, which changed to the current title in 2002. A special edition spin-off version called Dengeki G's Festival! is published in irregular intervals and each issue focuses on a specific bishōjo game. Four other special edition versions under the Festival! name are Dengeki G's Festival! Comic, Dengeki G's Festival! Deluxe, Dengeki G's Festival! Anime, and Dengeki Festival! Heaven. Dengeki G's Magazine's sister magazine is Dengeki Girl's Style, which publishes information on otome games, targeted towards females.
Contents
- Dengeki PC Engine
- Dengeki Gs Engine to present
- Series
- Reader participation games
- Special editions
- References
Despite the self-describing "magazine" description, the publication has over 350 pages an issue. About half of the magazine pages are colored and contain information about games or anime; the remaining pages, placed at the end of the magazine, are serialized manga series. Unlike typical Japanese publications, pages are turned from right to left for the first half of the magazine, but this is switched to the traditional left to right configuration when reading the manga series. Dengeki G's Magazine celebrated its fifteenth year of publication in 2007 and its 200th release with the October 2007 issue.
Dengeki PC Engine
Due to an internal struggle in Kadokawa Shoten near the end of 1992, a group of people split off to create the company MediaWorks on October 15, 1992. The ex-editor of one of Kadokawa's gaming magazines called Marukatsu PC Engine was one of the former employees to go over to MediaWorks, and one of MediaWorks' first magazines published was Dengeki PC Engine (電撃PCエンジン, Dengeki PC Enjin) with the February 1993 issue on December 26, 1992, based on Marukatsu PC Engine. The overall title PC Engine came from the Japanese name for the TurboGrafx-16 video game console first released by NEC in 1987, and the magazine was originally intended to be an information source for the console. However, after Interchannel (formally NEC Avenue) produced a popular dating sim called Sotsugyō: Graduation — which drama CDs, light novels, original video animations, and manga were adapted from — MediaWorks changed the layout of Dengeki PC Engine to have more coverage on adaptations of games the magazine reported on.
A reader-participation game called Megami Stadium had run in Marukatsu PC Engine between the May 1992 and January 1993 issues, so starting with the February 1993 issue of Dengeki PC Engine, MediaWorks created a revival of the game called Megami Paradise which ran in even-numbered issues up until the June 1996 issue. About a year after MediaWorks started Megami Paradise, Marukatsu PC Engine ceased publication on January 30, 1994. That same year in December, the first special edition version of Dengeki PC Engine called Dengeki PlayStation was published. The following year, Dengeki PlayStation broke off to become its own magazine. This was in response to the release of Sony's PlayStation video game console in December 1994.
Dengeki G's Engine to present
Due to the low popularity of NEC's video game console PC-FX, which was the successor to the PC Engine, MediaWorks decided to change the magazine's title from Dengeki PC Engine to Dengeki G's Engine (電撃G'sエンジン, Dengeki G's Enjin), with the June 1996 issue on April 30, 1996, which is also when the magazine stopped being a specific magazine for information on games produced by NEC. Instead, the magazine would now contain information on all bishōjo games as the "G's" in the title stands for both "Gals" and "Games". With the August 1997 issue on June 30, 1997, the magazine's title again changed to Dengeki G's Magazine (電撃G'sマガジン, Dengeki G's Magajiin). The spelling of the title was slightly altered a final time with the May 2002 issue on March 30, 2002 to be Dengeki G's magazine (電撃G's magazine).
After running a string of reader-participation games between 1993 and 1998, Dengeki G's Magazine started Sister Princess in March 1999; this would prove to make the magazine very popular, and became a major focus of the magazine for several years. Nearly all the magazine's covers between 1999 and 2003 featured characters from Sister Princess. After overwhelming support for the project, the series was adapted into a two-series anime, and a string of video games; finally, the serialization of the game ending with the September 2003 issue. At the time, the second TV anime adaptation of another of Dengeki G's Magazine's reader-participation games, Happy Lesson, was just ending, but the series had proved popular. Seeing how popular their reader-participation games could get, MediaWorks continued to create reader-participation games, something the magazine is well known for today. After Sister Princess ended, the editorial department looked to another reader-participation game which started in the October 2002 issue called Futakoi, and the editors wanted to make this game Dengeki G's Magazine's next main focus; the game lasted until October 2005.
On September 30, 2005, with the November 2005 issue, another magazine published by MediaWorks entitled Dengeki AniMaga was merged with Dengeki G's Magazine. This caused a massive influx of anime information, and manga and light novels to be serialized in Dengeki G's Magazine. Following this, G's Magazine started including more information on adult games starting with the November 2005 issue. Between the March 1999 and October 2005 issues, the cover of G's Magazine depicted a girl from one of the reader-participation games running at the time. This was changed from November 2005 onwards where now the cover would depict a heroine from a bishōjo game, which were generally adult games. Between the November 2005 and April 2006 issues, the cover of G's Magazine contained girls from To Heart 2 XRATED and FullAni, two games released by Leaf at the time. This style was similarly adopted for the issues between May 2006 and October 2006 with girls from Da Capo II, and again between for the issues between November 2006 and March 2007 with girls from Yoake Mae yori Ruriiro na. This style of deciding on the cover art was dropped with the April 2007 issue. With the October 2007 issue, Dengeki G's Magazine celebrated its 200th consecutive release. Following the release of the May 2014 issue, most of the manga serialized in the magazine were transferred to Dengeki G's Comic.
Series
Reader participation games
Dengeki G's Magazine often hosts reader participation games whose outcome is directly influenced by the people who read the magazine. The length of these games vary; some can go on for years, while others end in less than a year. How long a game lasts is decided on how popular the game is among the readers and how many readers participate. At least one game has been running in the magazine since the first issue except during the time between the December 1998 and February 1999 issues when Ojōsama Express ended and Sister Princess began, and again with the November 2005 issue between when Futakoi ended and 2/3 Ai no Kyōkaisen began. Marriage Royale was the longest-running game, lasting about five and a half years between January 2006 and May 2011.