From business news website Bloomberg.com comes an article titled "Manga's Doe-Eyed Girls, Ninja Boys Woo U.S. Comic-Book Readers" that looks at recent manga trends:

While manga magazines and books sold 1.26 billion copies of 70,000 titles in 2006, domestic sales have been falling for 12 years. The comikets are the perfect place to discover a new artist with the potential for a global mega-hit like the shonen manga for boys named "Naruto" or the shojo manga for girls called "Fruits Basket."

Via: Japanator

The nominees, chosen from manga released in 2007, for the 2008 Manga Taisho (Manga Grand Prize) have been announced:

• Umi Machi Diary 1 Semishigure no Yamugoro by Akimi Yoshida
• Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga
• Gaku by Shinichi Ishitsuka
• Kinou Nani Tabeta? by Fumi Yoshinaga
• Kimi ni Todoke by Karuho Shiina
• Koukoku no Shugosha by Daisuke Sato and Yu Ito
• Tomehanetsu! Suzusato Koukou Shodoubu by Katsutoshi Kawai
• Natsume Yuujinchou by Yuki Midorikawa
• Himawari -Ken'ichi Legend- by Akiko Higashimura
• Flower of Life by Fumi Yoshinaga
• Moyashimon by Masayuki Ishikawa
• Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma

Source: Anime! Anime!

The winners of the 53rd Shogakukan Manga Awards have been announced.

Children's Category:
- Keshikasu-kun by Noriyuki Murase
Serialized in CoroCoro Comic (Shogakukan)

Boys' Category:
- Diamond no Ace (Ace of Diamonds) by Yuuji Terajima
Serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine (Kodansha)

Girls' Category:
- Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu by Kotomi Aoki
Serialized in Sho-Comi (Shogakukan)

General Category:
- Kurosagi by Takeshi Natsuhara (Story) and Kuromaru (Art)
Serialized in Weekly Young Sunday (Shogakukan)

General Category:
- Bambino! by Sekiya Tetsuji
Serialized in Big Comic Spirits (Shogakukan)

Read More »

Top 10 manga (1/23) according to Tohan:

1. Detective Conan (60)
2. Hayate the Combat Butler (14)
3. Mahou Sensei Negima! (21)
4. Kekkaishi (19)
5. Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE (22)
6. Fairy Tale (8)
7. Shinshi Doumei Cross (9)
8. V.B. Rose (11)
9. Inuyasha (52)
10. The Wallflower (20)

Additional Rankings:

Read More »

A round up of the new comic release list and views for the week of January 23rd 2008:

• ComicList: ComicList for 01/23/2008
• MangaCast: New Comic Release List ~ Jan 23, 2008
• theOtaku: New Manga Releases

ANN reports that Kodansha has announced its plan to to print 300,000 copies of its upcoming magazine Monthly Shonen Rival, and has spent over 250 million yen ($2.3 million) on advertising for the magazine's April 4th debut.

Also announced are the winners of the 1st Shonen Rival Comic Grand Prix:

the aspiring artist Amadori won the top prize of 3 million yen (about US$28,000). Amadori also received an offer to have the winning Muk?? ga Wa no Masaka entry published in the new magazine. [...] The second place winners each won 1 million yen (US$9,400) and a chance to have the winning entry or new manga work serialized.

The Star of Malaysia talks to SelfMadeHero publisher and director Emma Hayley, who talks about SelfMadeHero's Manga Shakespeare series that was launched in March 2007.

Also, the San Francisco Examiner has published a feature on Seiji Horibuchi, founder of Viz Media.

Source: MangaBlog

ICv2 has released the December 2007 top 100 graphic novel sales estimates and the top 300 comics sales estimates based on Diamond Indexes and Publisher Title Data. Also from ICv2 is an analysis of the trends in December based on the graphic novel sales chart.

Also, MangaBlog provides its own look at the data, as well as a list of manga from the Top 100 Graphic Novels chart.

From Icarus Publishing's blog comes a preview (NSFW) of the adult manga that are shipping in April 2008 based on Diamond Previews.

From About.com:Manga comes an interview with Keiko Takemiya, mangaka of To Terra.... In the interview, Takemiya touches upon her beginnings as a manga artist, her feelings about the
evolution of boys love manga, her reaction to the new To Terra anime series and her take on the manga business today.