Random Mashup: Sato Takeru and Jung Yong Hwa on the Cover and Pages of AJ Magazine

I’m rather bemused that there are still new print magazines launching in this day and digital age. It’s like watching the last grasp for attention before an extinction event, much like 35mm cameras a decade ago trying to convince die-hard photographers not to go digital. It was only a matter of time, and similarly the print industry from newspapers to magazines to books is slowly becoming a niche endeavor to try to keep the world analog when digital is speeding around it. A new collaborative magazine launched this past Spring called AJ Magazine (stands for Asia Japan) to feature the fast spreading pan-Asian entertainment culture. The cover boys for the first issue felt so random – red-hot rising young J-actor Sato Takeru and singer-idol group member Jung Yong Hwa. I would say “buh?” except these two look really nice together, a complementary type of chiseled handsome. Sato Takeru has been riding a massive wave of popularity since he starred in the box office smash hit movie adaptation of Rurouni Kenshin. The movie not only captured pretty much the aura of the manga perfectly, Sato Takeru was in fact absolutely perfect as the titular character Kenshin. With two back-to-back sequels just green light for filming in the Fall to premiere next Summer of 2014, this boy’s star is primed to keep on rising. He’s not only box office gold, with this Spring’s heart warming family dorama Tonbi (based on the best selling novel about a single father raising a son) being the number one rated dorama of the season, he’s also television gold as well. Not to mention he’s filled out a bit from his young scrawny days playing his real life best friend Miura Haruma‘s sidekick in Bloody Monday and now he’s toe-to-toe with Haruma in leading man stature. I thought it a little weird that the magazine paired just Yong Hwa with Takeru for this spread since as a musician Jung Yong Hwa is connected with his CN Blue group, but I guess visually it looks better because five people on the cover is pretty packed. Yong Hwa has been in the acting news lately for getting offered the second male lead role in the upcoming Kim Eun Sook penned high school drama Heirs with Lee Min Ho and Park Shin Hye, which he ultimately passed on. But for his music fans that ought to be a boon since that means he can focus on singing and perhaps find a more suitable drama to continue to develop his acting skills.