December, 2006

The latest issue of PWCW has been released:

Interview with Steady Beat Creator Rivkah: PWCW's Johanna Draper Carlson interviews with Rivkah, artist of Tokyopop's Steady Beat.

Top Ten Manga and Manhwa in 2006: Kai-Ming Cha lists PWCW's top 10 manga and manhwa released in 2006.

Yaoi Press to Launch Art Book Line: Yaoi Press will be releasing a a new line of yaoi art books in 2007.

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In his latest Flipped column, David Welsh looks at popular manga released in France.

First Issue Of The Year To Debut Several New Sections, Introduce New Magazine Mascot And Feature A 2007 Shojo Beat Calendar

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ICv2 has released the November top 100 graphic novel sales estimates based on estimates by Diamond. MangaBlog has posted a filtered version of the chart based on manga.

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

Popular character designer Ikuko ITOH will attend the Anime and Manga Convention AnikiCon in Germany from 6th until 8th April 2007. She was involved in the production process for the following anime series:

Sailor Moon
Sailor Moon R
Sailor Moon R Movie
Sailor Moon S
Sailor Moon SuperS
Mahô tsukai tai (OVA und TV)
Fushigi Mahou Fan Fan Pharmacy
Princess Tutu (TV)

Her recent work is "Asatte no Houkou" which still airs in Japan.

http://www.anikiCon.de

This month Japan experienced its largest outbreak of infectious gastroenteritis, mainly caused by norovirus, in 25 years.

In the latest Jump TOC, a quote from Katsura Hoshino, creator of D.Gray-man, read: "Sorry for carelessly contracting the norovirus, I will work even harder next year!" (不覚にもノロウィルスにやられてしまいました。来年は今年の何倍も頑張ります!). D.Gray-man will be absent in Weekly Shonen Jump No.3 (12/18). According to the TOC, the manga will return in Weekly Jump No.4+5.

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Clamp in Wonderland EX, a new one-shot from CLAMP, will appear in the 2/1 issue of Take Shobo's manga anthology Kindai Mahjong, on sale December 28th.

Source: CLAMP-Net.com

The 2006 World Manga Exhibition, which is taking place in the newly open Kyoto International Manga Museum from 11/25/2006 to 1/14/2007, showcases over 1,000 manga from around the world.

On December 11th the exhibition announced that over ten thousand admission tickets have been sold. As a special treat, the 10,000th visitor received a free ticket to the exhibition.

Tokykopop has announced the winners of the 2nd TOKYOPOP Rising Stars of Manga competition for the United Kingdom and Ireland:

Grand Prize:
- "Knives" by John Aggs of West Sussex, England

Second Place:
- "Poison" by Selina Dean of Cambridge, England

Third Place:
- "Beyond" by Hannah Saunders of the Isle of Wight

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According to this announcement, Kenjiro Hata's Hayate the Combat Butler will be adapted into an anime TV series in 2007.

Hayate the Combat Butler is a comedy manga famous for its numerous crossovers and "easter eggs." Currently the manga is being published in the U.S. by VIZ Media.

Sansai Books has released a new otaku-oriented mook titled Modern Visual Culture Research. The mook contains information on the latest otaku trend, including reports on the otaku culture in found in anime, manga, games, novels that were released in 2006.

Asa Higuchi's baseball manga Ookiku Furikabutte will be adapted into an anime TV series in 2007. More information will be available in the January issue of Animedia (1/10). Ookiku Furikabutte, which won the 10th Osamu Tezuka Cultural Award's New Ho

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San Francisco, CA, December 15, 2006 - VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has art books, novels, manga and anime DVD's for the fans on your shopping list that still don't have a check next to their name. Be sure to grab these hot items from some of the most popular, loved, and sought after series.

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Deutsche Mangaka translates a Swiss article about Evergrey, a new series by Lime Manga that's being published by Tokyopop.

Source: MangaBlog

The 2006 ANF Yaoi/Yuri Awards is open for nominations, 3 votes can be submitted to each categories, the categories are:

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In its latest article, Mainichi Daily News explains how the main character of Nodame Cantabile, a popular shojo manga by Tomoko Ninomiya, is based on a a music college student named Megumi Noda.

The winners of the 2006 Japanese Media Arts Festival have been announced. One grand prize, four excellence prize, and one encouragement prize were given in each of the four categories. A total of 1,808 works were submitted from both inside Japan and around the world.

The special achievement prize was given to Akira Daikuhara (Animator) for his contribution to the media arts.

The winners in each category were:

Art Division:
- Grand Prize: Imaginary Numbers by Keiko Kimoto
- Excellence Prize: Xman vibration
- Excellence Prize: OLE Coordinate System
- Excellence Prize: front
- Excellence Prize: MediaFlies
- Encouragement Prize: Sagrada Familia Plan

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Thursday in Paris, a press conference was held announcing award candidates for next year’s Angoulême Comics Festival. ActuaBD (Google translation) has the report. The Angoulême Comics Festival, which takes place each year in the town of Angoulême, France, is Europe's biggest comics event, and its prizes are the most prestigious awards on offer in the continent.

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(LOS ANGELES, December 15, 2006) - Seven Seas Entertainment is proud to announce the latest must-have addition to its expanding manga line: Atsushi Suzumi's Venus Versus Virus manga, which is soon to become a full-length anime tv series in Japan.

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Anime News Network has announced its 2006 Holiday Logo Contest.

Anime News Network is proud to announce the 2006 Holiday Logo Contest. As with year's past, from December 20, until January 1, ANN will replace our usual logo with a more festive one, appropriate for the holiday season. And, as with past years, we're inviting our readers to submit the holiday logo.

imgTakehiko Inoue's Slam Dunk is one of the most popular manga in the world. In 2004 Shueisha announced that it has sold over 100 million copies of Slam Dunk, which shows that the series is still being enjoyed by fans around the world 10 years after it ended in Weekly Shonen Jump.

A month ago Takehiko Inoue established a new scholarship called Slam Dunk Scholarship. In response to the news, Shueisha interviewed Inoue, who talks about the purpose of the scholarship as well as his passion with basketball in Japan.

Original Slam Dunk Scholarship report from November:

A new scholarship from Inoue Takehiko, called Slam Dunk Scholarship, was established for aspiring Japanese students planning on attending South Kent School in Connecticut "to learn English, play basketball ball, and try to get into an NCAA team." The scholarship is open to people attending 2nd-year highschool as of this October 06, loves b-ball, is born after April 2nd '89, and has parental consent. Application forms will be availalbe in January 2007.

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MangaCast points out two new titles on Amazon.com that are listed under Tokyopop's BLU imprint:

- "Ai Toha Yoru Ni Ki Zuku Mono: Lovers in the Night" by Yoshinaga Fumi
- "Honto Ni Yasashii: Truly Kindly" by Yoshinaga Fumi

Two more new manga series have been found on Amazon.com listed under VIZ Media:

- "Yume Kira Dream Shoppe" by Aqua Mizuto
- "Kurohime" by Masanori Ookamigumi Katakura

Source: AoD