A special Suzumiya Haruhi telephone card featuring exclusive artwork from Noizi Ito is given to those who purchase the Complete DVD Box Set of Suzumiya Haruhi. Due to the series' popularity, most DVD Box Sets were sold out on the day of release, as a result, the exclusive telephone card can now be found on auction sites, selling for as high as 30,000 yen.

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Manga artist Queenie Chan, creator of Tokyopop's The Dreaming, talks about Japanese Pop Culture, female otaku, and the word Otome in "The Dreaming: Otome Culture?"

On January 26th, eBookJapan's I-Book Initiative Japan launched its "Shojo Manga Certification" project, a project to test one's knowledge of shojo manga. Josei Jishin, a vulgar magazine for women, also carried the feature in a recent issue.

The test, supervised by mangaka Machiko, contains questions on recent popular shojo manga titles such as Nodame Cantabile, Honey and Clover, Sailor Moon and Chibi Maruko-chan, as well as classics like The Rose of Versailles and Patariro.

Source: YuYu Diary

Issue 8 of Weekly Shonen Sunday came with a "Butler Certification." The feature is part of a special effort to celebrate Hayate the Combat Butler's anime adaption.

In the questionnaire, series creator Kenjiro Hata made up many interesting questions, "wonderful prizes" such as a Nintendo DS will go to those who receive a high score.

MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking in Japan (02/03) according to Toranoana, compiled by Akiba Blog.

MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking in Japan (01/28) according to Princess Side, compiled by Toranoana's BL specialty store.

A live event called Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisou (????????????????????????) will be held at Omiya Sonic City on 3/18. The event, expected to last four hours, will feature all five SOS-dan members, as well as Tsuruya-san, Kyon's sister, and Taniguchi.

On 1/20, Animate began selling tickets in advance at selected stores and online website for 4,500 yen. As expected, the tickets were sold out in a very short amount of time. Now the tickets are available on Yahoo Auction for 10x the original price. The ticket of a good seat was sold for 66,000 yen, while tickets of slightly less desirable seats are around 30,000 yen.

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MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking in Japan (01/20) according to Messe Sanoh, compiled by Akiba Blog (NSFW).

Kondo Shinji, Commissioner of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, made a visit on January 12th to the Kyoto International Manga Museum. During his 40 minute visit, Kondo casually read the displayed manga while listening to the curator's explanations.

During an interview after the visit, Kondo commented that the exhibition taught him the importance of cooperation between the local administration and the university, which acts as a knowledge base. Kondo also mentioned that the exhibition reminded him of his favorite manga when he was young, such as Kyojin no Hoshi, Ashita no Joe, and Yu Yu Hakusho.

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MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking in Japan (12/02) according to Messe Sanoh, compiled by Akiba Blog (NSFW).