Any reviews of Animosity fanzine may be found here!
From: Sweatdrop Studios' Reviews
Animosity.
Animosity is the journal of LANMA (The Leicester Anime and Manga
Society). This is an excellently put together package of
original strips, both ‘professional’ and dojinshi manga reviews,
plus games and anime reviews. To add to this, there’s a lengthy
fan art section and, for the first four issues, the
serialisation of Ranma 1/2 fan story ‘Souldeath: The Vampire
Akane’. ‘The Life of Nikuya’ is the well scripted strip by
‘Animosity’s editor, Foxy. It is the story of a demon sent to
live on Earth by her father because she mistook ‘playing with
their souls’ as meaning a quick round of Connect 4. This strip
is a delight to read and the rapidity of improvement in the
artwork with each issue is astonishing.
From issue 5 we are
treated to a second strip: a slick graphical shogun manga by
G.S. Davis. This tells the story of a pilot transferred to the
913th division, based on a distant planet named Seattle. The
first part of this manga is a whopping 20 pages!
Animosity is
one of the most reader-friendly anime magazines around. The
reviews section is handled intelligently, with up to date
reviews on British and American releases ( preference for
subtitled anime’s of course!) Professional titles like
‘Animerica’ and the now defunct ‘Manga Max’ could learn a lesson
or two in what fans really want in an anime magazine.
From: Neon Zebra #1
Animosity #2
The 'zine kicks off with the second part of editor Foxy's 'Life of Nikuya' manga, which sees demoness Melody attending her new school where she meets demon hating Nikuya. The story itself is witty and the artwork is clear which makes it easy to understand unlike a lot of fan manga. The character proportions go a bit wrong sometimes (as do mine!) but it is not a major problem and practice should rectify this. I am looking forward to the next part of the story with interest.
Next we are given some manga reviews which are all well written and informative. These reviews are followed by the fan art gallery which contains full page pictures by some of the 'zines contributors. Although all of the pics are of a pretty good standard, I think there are a few too many pages devoted to them. Maybe shrinking them down and putting a couple on a page would be better.
The fan art section is followed by some Anime reviews of NTSC titles. Like the manga reviews, they are well written and informative and I think reviewing NTSC tapes is a good idea as reviews of UK releases appear in various other publications.
Other Animosity features are the second part of some Ranma
1/2 fiction, a crossword and an amusing report of Minamicon 4.
Overall I would say that Animosity issue 2 is a very good read. If I were to suggest any changes it would be to have slightly less space devoted to the fan art gallery and either a few extra pages of 'Life of Nikuya' or maybe the introduction of another strip. Even so, £1.50 for 44 pages isn't bad and I suggest you buy a copy and find out for yourselves.