One of the things I was most curious about in my latest doujin purchases was: just what is all in an R-Style magazine?
The way it’s plugged online, and with cover teases of everything from fan-made model kits, art and CDs, my impression was that it was a fairly large fan undertaking by Hi-Go! that probably included articles, interviews, and a decent amount of pages looking at all sorts of cool fanwork within the community in each volume. After all, on eBay, they’re usually going for $40-60.
As cool as a concept it is, though, I’m glad I didn’t have to pay that price even combined to pick up 2 volumes. Extensive, they are not. Both are about 20 pages, but only around 12 if you take out the indexes, covers, and closing two page article. I thought there would be more focus on the model kits, or remix scene in Japan, but honestly, there really isn’t much of any imagery or discussion on them.
The cover characters pretty much tell what series the mag is going to focus on in each issue. Volume 5 here does have a small assortment of Classic Series art, on a two page spread, but the majority of the focus is on EXE, to celebrate the 15th anniversary, and X, Truforce-styled.
More than anything, the high-quality artwork is definitely worth seeing in print, although chances are you have probably seen the majority of it, if you follow artists like Hi-GO! or Kinniku on Twitter/Pixiv/etc. And that is still a good thing in a lot of ways, as the artists are open to sharing their great art online, just as much as they are trying to distribute the mag. And definitely hats off to them for continuing to create more and more volumes, because it is pretty great to have a magazine focused on the things the fandom creates.
But they are sold in Japan at just 500 yen at Comic Market/Hobby Rock events, which is essentially $5 US. So, if you are tempted to buy off the secondary market because you are swayed by the awesome-looking covers, just be aware, there is a bit of price gauging going on, despite the quality art.
Scanned from: R-Style Vol. 5 Fanzine, by Various Artists, Produced by Hi-GO! and T Wing, Reprint Circa December 2016