On January 16th, Yahoo! Japan launched a new free magazine on Yahoo! Comic. The new free web magazine, Flex Comix Blood, will feature contents provided by Flex Comix (which also provides content for the online magazine Shonen Blood). The free magazine will be updated every weekday, and most series are from Shonen Blood.

In 2005 China's cell phone e-book market was estimated to be over 720,000 (around 92,000 USD) Yuan. According to reports, with the rapid growth of anime and manga in China, this year the market could be well over 31,660,000 yuan (around 4,000,000 USD), and in 2010 over 624,000,000 yuan (around 80,000,000 USD).

Source: Tech-ex

Journalista points to a post on Same Hat! Same Hat!!, which mentions that Creation Books will be releasing its new erotic-horror manga Beauty Labyrinth of Razors by Jun Hayami in e-book format because no printer was willing to produce the manga due to its extreme content.

Arc System Works will release a digitilized version of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Romance of the Three Kingdoms manga Sangokushi (Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi) for the Nintendo DS in December. The manga will be released through the AS Networks, and will come with sound effects and mini games. This release is part of a series called "Gamics," which stands for "Game + Comic."

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2006 marks the 25th anniversary of Kodansha's seinen magazine Weekly Morning. To celebrate, Kodansha has announced the "Weekly Morning's 25th Anniversary Campaign."

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Japanese 'Favo Comic Pack' available with European software

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Shogakukan's Kotae wa Mitsu Volume 1 and Tokyo Flowchart Volume 1 were released today in Japan, at the same time, Yahoo! Comic also began distributing the two manga online in e-book format. This marks the first time manga is released both on and offline.

Source: Manga Jouhou

Japan E-book Initiative (EBI), Kyocera Communication (KCCS), and Singapore Kyocera Communication Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (KCAP) announced last month a partnership to distribute manga digitally overseas starting 9/19. KCCS and KCAP will be responsible for financial matters, advertising, and customer service. EBI will be in charge the software and the content.

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With Sony's portable e-book reader set to launch on October 1, CBR's Tony Salvaggio talks about what it's like to read manga on the e-reader.

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On September 20, Impress R&D's Internet Life Laboratory released the result of their 2005 analysis on the Japanese electronic manga market in (04/2004 - 03/2005). According to the report, the electronic manga market was worth 3.4 billion yen in fiscal year of 2005. The electronic book market was worth 9.4 billion last year, with the electronic manga market occupying 36% of the entire market.

The investigation was based on two reports, "Electronic Book Business Analysis Report 2006" and "Electronic Manga Business Analysis Report 2006," both from Internet Life Laboratory. The reports study the rapidly increasing trend of the electronic book market.

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