
Library Reviews
MAGAZINE HOUSE MOOK (special English editions)
For their 80th anniversary, Magazine House have released special English editions of a pair of their signature titles. In their native monthly format, Popeye and Brutus are aimed at urban male Japanese. No relation to the sailor and no pin-ups like Australia’s lads mags of the past.

POPEYE: Hello Tokyo! is the more retro feeling of the two. Mildly surprising as it leans towards a slightly more youthful audience than Brutus. Content centres on the Yamanote train line that completes a circuit of Tokyo in roughly an hour. No stock photography here. Each spot features at least an oversized thumbnail photo. Larger spreads also feature the same teenage foreigner dressed in a new outfit and full breakdown of the look.

Brutus is aimed at a readership slightly beyond Popeye. It normally features lifestyle and culture for a young, working, unisex city dwelling audience. An artsy, ligne claire style redition of Tokyo adorns the cover of this slimline edition. Despite this, over 500 destinations are packed in. The majority are about foods and desserts but also has hotels, hobbies and sightseeing. Partway through, a shift in layout breaks things up. Content also diversifies into all kinds of categories like roller coaster locations or claw machines or quirky road signs. Brutus hit its 1000th issue in 2024.
Previously known as as Heibon Shuppan, Magazine House is a Tokyo publisher with a catalogue of notable, long running publications. One of their iconic titles was Heibon Punch magazine. Even though it was discontinued in the late 1980s, its daring pictorial content helping earn it an outsized place in Japan’s collective cultural memory.
