Producing MP Issue #12, our thirteenth print edition, was an extremely challenging period for me and the team over at Monthly Puroresu.
We lost some longstanding team members, and I learned (in very real time on X, formerly Twitter) the meaning of an old Japanese saying, “The nail which sticks out of the board gets hammered down.”
Despite all of this, we were still able to put out a high quality Monthly Puroresu issue, featuring the Ace of Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling, Miyu Yamashita. I had a very intriguing interview with Miyu, which began with discussing her life’s journey in my car as I gave her a ride from Burbank Airport to an independent I began working for as color commentator and ring announcer, Spark Joshi Puroresu.
We also brought designer Peatzilla (Sret. Srimekarat) onboard to refresh the design of our magazine covers & make some tweaks to our brand identity. It allowed for better alignment and brand identity across all our platforms. The redesign was sorely needed, and I think it’s helped MP hit record traffic since the overall user experience benefitted.
Video Game Copywriter? Yes.
While leading the magazine and helping Peatzilla develop a new creative direction, I pivoted to working on improving another skill: Copywriting.
If was a dream job scenario working in video games, and for Nexon America no less. I also had the privilege to work on an experiential marketing campaign during AnimeExpo ’23.
My primary focus, though, was creating marketing copy for KartRider: Drift, Warhaven and MapleStory Worlds, which is a spinoff game of MapleStory. I did CRM and email copy for Nexon’s marketing team, and also developed content for the games’ websites and app stores. KartRider is an esports kart racing game extremely popular in Korea; we had partnerships with Blackp!nk and BT21 that required understanding characters’ voice & tone, and writing copy to match the voices of the characters.
This role lasted for about ~8 months, and helped hone my character writing skills and was just really cool.
After the contract wrapped, I was hired as as Head of Copy for Milbrook Media, a role that reports directly to the CEO of the company. Milbrook Media’s substantive portfolio involves online gaming companies, and it’s our job to help create the best UX and grow each brand’s player base. I’ve worked a lot on the Bingo Village project – writing game reviews, pretty much everything on the company’s blog and helping guide information architecture. The focus of my role has chiefly been on on keyword driven SEO content to help increase the site’s trust factor and ranking on search engines, while driving brand awareness to as many people as possible.
Ah, it felt bittersweet… but Issue 12 of Monthly Puroresu would be our last print edition – for now – and it has been an incredible journey as I reflect on where we started. We did enter discussions with Japanese media outlets (and other Western wrestling media outlets) regarding possible acquisitions, so I am excited about MP’s potential moving forward. I’m proud that Monthly Puroresu enjoys its recognition as the only English language magazine about Japanese professional wrestling in the world. We shipped magazines to over 500 customers across four continents, and we printed over 1,500 copies of initial and second run editions during our three years of publication.
Every page of every early issue was designed by me, another thing I’m proud of. Having the help of some expert designers like Peatzilla and Vertical Bison later on in the issue development cycles, it freed me up to to focus on other aspects of the business so that we could create unique partnerships
As a result, MP brand recognition higher across all platforms. Our website traffic has grown exponentially – to the tune of nearly 150,000 annual readers.
We stopped publishing Monthly Puroresu in print indefinitely after Issue #12 as our leadership seeks investor opportunities. The focus of Monthly Puroresu shifted to digital, objective journalism and op-eds in Fall ’23
