To echo my esteemed colleague Kharrak, Congrats. It is good to see others holding the scene together and pushing forward.

Unlike him however I am going to crit your design simply because if nobody does, things cannot evolve. I too see the influence of Otaku mag. it seems like a stripped down version. It may work well in print but loses impact in PDF. Hell even Otaku with its whizz bang POW loses impact in PDF. Such is the nature of design. That said it is refreshing... evolve it and make it more unique as the months go by.

point 1: Text.
 3 columns of plain text hurts the eyes on screen (even on the retina display) use pull quotes and info boxes to break things up. Check any print mag. they all do it. they give choice info to the viewer to let him decide whether he is going to read the whole article. Without them you force the reader to skim each article which is not so reader friendly. Very few people read a mag, word for word, cover to cover in one go.. they read their favs first and the rest in order of importance (according to their own tastes) over time. You need to give him more info to prioritize his reading.

Point 2: Size.
I have a 400mbit/s fiber to home connection. Your servers are in SA so I had to wait t SA slooooooooooooooow speeds. it was tedious (maybe peeps at home are used to it but it was horrific for me after 3 years of real broadband). find a way to trim things so it loads faster. It shouldn't be too hard.

Point 3: Media
If you wanna go print in future (and I hope you do because SA needs it desperately) design your print version and print it.
Design your electronic versions for the screen. make your sizes, speeds and text display friendly. 72dpi lightweight work. There is a reason the majority of online publications are NOT pdfs. I realize that a magazine style release schedule makes better distribution methods more difficult but then why not make it an interactive experience...to make up for the slower turnaround compared to blogs and online mags. Use flash ( flash catalyst makes it easy and quick). consider a digital magazine aimed at tablets supported by a proper website and then go to print when you have a consumer base and advertising revenue (a bit like wired but backwards).

Optimization and simplicity is key. If you want to reach more than just the die hard Otaku you need to make it an easy and pleasurable experience for them.

Dont stress too much though. Look at Otaku issue 1 and see how it evolved We had our fair share of criticism too and how we handled it varied a great deal (I am sad to say). You will undoubtedly go from strength to strength if you take your crits to heart and persevere. Your first go was a valiant effort. I hope you move forward and take your work to the next level and do something good for the scene in SA.

You have taken the torch where we left off. now get out there and set shit on fire!

the "how to draw manga section  could use better manga, a different colour text could be used when placed against a difficult to see background (like on the japan now page) and seriously... some better drawings can be used in the in the "so you want to draw manga" section... And you say she teaches art but she can't draw, paint or sculpt? that is like saying elvis sings but he doesn't have a voice