Dear Popeye Magazine,
I have seen you popping up in stylish boutiques in the English-speaking world and noticed you being copied by more and more magazines around the globe. Not that you were necessarily considering it, but I’d rather you did not start running an English version of your magazine. I’m going to explain why.
Popeye and other fashion and lifestyle magazines, from the goliath publishers Magazine House and Shueisha, tend to use a smattering of English words, for effect, in headings and straplines but are otherwise written in Kanji and Kana. Because of my poor comprehension of Kanji, the pictorial Japanese alphabet, I can flick through a Japanese magazine without engaging with articles and features in any depth. I do this with Popeye and others, like Ginza and Casa Brutus. I potter through, looking at pictures, taking in themes and pull-quotes. If I really want to read an article, it’s a conscious decision and a time investment.
For a while I wished for this situation to change. I wished that either you would run an English version, or that my Japanese reading ability would improve. There is no English language equivalent of you, Popeye. A witty, well-designed fashion and lifestyle magazine aimed at young men. Monthly, reasonably priced and readily available. It would be nice, I thought, to once-a-month read this magazine that I feel an affinity to.
But over time I’ve changed my mind. Just as I am happy to pour over Italian Vogue and INTERNI, focusing on pictures and the odd word that looks similar to its English counterpart, I am now content in my light encounters with you each month.
Not engaging with the writing in Popeye means I can imagine some unknowns for myself. I can imagine that the smart, modern, informal style of your fashion stories is mirrored in the tone of the features writing. I can imagine that the writers are sharply dressed flies on the wall of Tokyo youth culture: exploring shops and cafes by day, exploring discos by night. Filing copy as the sun rises. Nestled under the skin of the latest trends in how to wear brogues.
I can hope that the language is celebratory, not cynical. That nice words are used about boys and girls. I can assume that new products and new sub-brands are addressed with interesting and provocative questions rather than blind promotion.
Much of this may be true of Popeye but if it’s not, I never want to know. I’m happy feeling like you look great, are inclusive and genuinely impactful on how men dress in Tokyo. I’m happy being a foreign reader, with a narrow set of considerations. Think carefully before you go bearing it all to me in English, Popeye. I don’t want to know you any better than I already do.
Yours,
Gareth Evans
