I was at an event when I met a young man who was a reader of Subsequence. He told me that he always carried it around with him to read and what he showed me was a ripped, bent, and beaten-up copy of our second volume. I was overjoyed to see a copy that was so loved and I thought it looked beautiful in how tattered it was.

Subsequence uses thin paper that feels a bit rough to the touch—we actively don’t use smooth paper which prints perfectly. Neither do we try to create a grandiose and heavy mood with a hard cover. Instead we go for a simple style, employing a saddle stitch that is used in many weekly manga magazines.

Thanks to that, the magazine is soft to the touch and can easily be rolled up. These decisions were made because we wanted our readers to not feel too precious when reading it. It has a feel that is ever so slightly rough without being too overbearing; it has its own identity and is a little bit humorous. We hope that our magazine can become a good friend like that.

In the years since Covid-19, prices for materials and the cost of living have risen, meaning that printing paper has become more expensive than before. As producers of a magazine, this is a severe issue for us. Only the other day we were contacted by our printers and told that the paper we used for the pages of the magazine was being scrapped in a reorganization in their products. We are currently searching for a suitable replacement. The next issue of Subsequence will feel different to how it has always been, but we are looking forward to communicating with our readers in our usual relaxed way again soon.