San Francisco, CA, June 22, 2009 - VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, announced the release of Daisuke Igarashi’s surreal and riveting manga series, CHILDREN OF THE SEA, releasing July 21st in North America. The manga is rated 'T+' for Older Teens and will carry an estimated MSRP of $14.99 U.S. / $17.50 CAN.

Read More »

Tempe, Arizona and Tokyo, Japan-June 20,2009--"We couldn't be more honored to be a part of Manga Impact," says Heather Russell CEO of Rinkya Inc. "Those of us who have believed that Japanese animation is a true cinematic art form, cannot help but look upon this as a giant step fore ward in recognizing the art we love and believe in."

Manga Impact is a joint event between the Locarno International Film Festival and Italy’s National Cinema Museum in Turin, with the sponsorship of Swiss Life, and the contributions and collaborations of the Japan Foundation, Japan's NFC (National Film Center), Kawakita Memorial Film Institute, and Japan's leading Internet shopping service, Rinkya, Inc.

Read More »

"Depending on how a person lives their last day, the ikigami can be a death sentence, or an invitation to really live."

San Francisco, CA, May 14, 2009 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, sends a chill down the spines of readers this month with the North American debut of Motoro Mase's harrowing and suspenseful manga series - IKIGAMI: THE ULTIMATE LIMIT – available now! IKIGAMI: THE ULTIMATE LIMIT is rated 'M' for Mature Audiences and carries an MSRP of $12.99 US / $15.00 CAN.

Read More »

The doujinshi collection of Yoshihiro Yonezawa, manga critic and co-founder of Comiket, was donated to Meiji University, his former university. The university is converting a seven-storey building to house Yonezawa's collection and that of Tsuguo Iwata, another prominent doujinshika, as the Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures.

Read More »

On March 30, 2004, when Dwight Whorley found the Japanese website of Fractal Underground Studio via Yahoo and clicked on a couple of the thumbnail images, he thought he had found what he was looking for: images that weren't child pornography by the legal definition, but which nonetheless expressed the ideas he wanted to see illustrated: sex between adults and minors. They were cartoon figures, inked in a clumsy style. There was nothing real, and no one was hurt. No one could mistake them for anything other than the cartoons that they were.[1]

Unfortunately for Whorley, he wasn't at home, but in the public resource room at the Virginia Employment Commission, where he was supposed to be looking for a job. A woman saw what he was looking at and informed a supervisor that he was viewing child pornography. Believing the material to be legal, Whorley showed it to the supervisor and was promptly escorted to the door. He didn't even have time to close his e-mail account.[2]

Shortly thereafter, law enforcement officials seized twenty emails (containing only words, no images) detailing fantasies of sex with minors. Only one email was sent by Whorley; the rest he received from a third party. Investigators also discovered that he viewed online 15 images of naked children from an Illinois website called "Logical Reality."[3] As if all this weren't enough already, Whorley was still under post-conviction supervision for the crime of downloading child pornography in 1999, a crime for which he served three years and four months in jail.[4] It could easily be predicted that he would be shown no mercy.

Read More »

LN.org reports that France Shoin is launching a new light novel label called Tiara Bunko:

The Japanese publisher France Shoin will be starting a new "otome system & adult" light novel label that's titled "Tiara Bunko". Unlike shoujo novels and otome games which do not satisfy adult women, this label will publish new type of "otome system" novels which will do; an "otome system" novels that contain sexual content. The label will contain many lovely males, adult's romantic love, and adult scenes.

The label will start on June 3rd, 2009 with the release of 5 light novels.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Comic book publishing company eigoMANGA (http://www.eigomanga.com), today announced a magazine subscription partnership with EBSCO. The agreement makes comic book subscription of their titles 'Rumble Pak' (http://www.rumblepak.com) and 'Sakura Pakk' (http://www.sakurapakk.com) accessible worldwide to public schools, universities, hospitals, and military institutions.

"We're very pleased to be involved with EBSCO" says eigoMANGA Publisher and CEO Austin Osueke. "EBSCO is the perfect opportunity to supply our publications to the world stage and cultivate readership to levels that I've never dreamed of."

Read More »