Manga News and Information
April, 2007ANS reports that online book seller Paypy has launched its new manga rental service, Renta, on April 10th:
From Chicago Sun-Times comes an interview with Joshua Elder, creator of Tokyopop's Mail Order Ninja. The original Mail Order Ninja short story won the grand prize in Tokykopop's 5th Rising Stars of Manga contest, and was latter turned into a newspaper strip. Via: MangaBlog To celebrate the release of the 80th volume of its boxing manga Hajime no Ippo, Kodansha will be releasing 3,000 sets of a special collector's edition box set called "Early Times Set." The box set will come with the first 30 volume of Hajime no Ippo. New Action Series Is Based On Popular Xbox 360 Game And Features Character Designs By Manga Mastermind, Akira Toriyama San Francisco, CA April 16, 2007 - VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies announced today that it has secured from a consortium including TV TOKYO Corporation and Shueisha Inc, the television, home video and non-video game merchandising rights for the Americas, Europe and Oceania to BLUE DRAGON, a new anime series based on the popular Microsoft Xbox 360 Role Playing Game. From Newsarama comes Diamond's March 2007 Direct Market Sales Charts and Market Share report. Precocious Curmudgeon sorts out the best-selling manga from the Top 100 Graphic Novels list (Based on Actual Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in March 2007). Via: MangaBlog MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking (04/14) in Japan according to Toranoana, and the weekly BL Doujinshi ranking (04/14) in Japan according to Toranoana's BL specialty store Princess Side. The nominees for the 2007 Seiun Award has been announced. Nominees for the comics category are:
However, the announcement can only be found inside the magazine, so to fans who buy BIRZ just for Rozen Maiden, it was not clear that the March issue of BIRZ didn't carry their favorite manga. A Japanese law blog called Ahowota Law Student News explores this interesting situation, and goes on to ask the question: "Can a person legally claim fallacy and assert that the contract is invalid (Meaning he can return the magazine and get his money back)?" According to a blog post of its editorial department, Akita Shoten's manga magazine Champion Red Ichigo will become a bi-monthly magazine starting with Volume 2, to be released on June 5th. From MangaCast comes the translation of a new article from Takeshi Ishizawa, a Japanese who have spent a long time living in Indonesia. The article, "Depth of Japanese Mangas - Tabi Manga on Bali," looks at traveling notes for tourists and manga about Bali. From ANS comes an article on two of the largest anime events in Japan, the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) and the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF). According to the article, the Tokyo International Anime Fair is currently considering the coverage of manga: Hobby Japan has announced that it will release manga series based on Queen's Blade in Japan. The first series, titled Queen's Blade Bitoshi Gaiden, will be released in April. The manga will be fully colored and come with an accompanying drama CD. A Queen's Blade manga anthology will also be released in late April. Other accessories such as mousepads and figurines are also being planned. Source: ICv2 The Beat links to a software titled ComicBookLover, a "state of the art" tool that allows its users store and read manga on their computer: HERNDON, VA - April 13, 2007 - CuriousFactory today announced the first come, first served "DLSite.com 2007-2008 calendar" give away promotion. If you draw Manga, Illustration or create games, now is a good time to submit, distribute and sell your works via DLSite.com!
As a result of the new deal, Kadokawa will create a new BL imprint called BLOOM Series. The new imprint will cover BL manga and light novels from Libres, as well as original BL series from Taiwan. Below is the announcement posted on Walker's offcial site: Orange County Register posts a link to a software made by University of St Andrews's School of Psychology called "The Perception Laboratory's Face Transformer." By uploading the picture of a person onto its website, the software will manga-lize the person in the photo. Source: animeOnline According to The Beat, DrMaster has announced plans to distribute downloads through IGN's digital retail store Direct2Drive. Initial "launch" titles include Chinese Hero: Tales of the Blood Sword. On the USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending April 8th, VIZ Media's Naruto volume 13 ranks at #84, and Bleach volume 18 ranks at #103. Tokyopop's Fruits Basket volume 16 ranks at #122. Conrad Publishing company will be releasing the manga Zettai Kareshi by Yuu Watase (Fushigi Yuugi) in Brazil. The title in Portuguese will be Zettai Kareshi - The Perfect Boyfriend (Zettai Kareshi - O Namorado Perfeito). According to Conrad's marketing manager Alexandre Linhares, the manga will be released in six volumes, and the first volume will appear in May. According to Comic Book Resources, U.S. manga publisher Go! Comi has renewed its partnership with Diamond:
Manga top 10 according to Tohan. The new comic release list for April 11th 2007 from ComicList, compiled by MangaCast. San Francisco, CA, April 10, 2007 - VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has selected Grupo Editorial VID S.A. de C.V. of Mexico (GEV) and Panini Brazil Ltda. (Panini Brazil) to release the Shonen Jump™ NARUTO™ manga from Shueisha Inc. in their respective countries in April and May 2007. According to a survey conducted by Oricon, Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump is the favorite manga magazine among Japanese female readers (the survey was conducted among 2,933 young Japanese female readers). Shueisha's shoujo manga magazine Monthly Cookie came in second, followed by Margaret and Hana to Yume. Japan will be holding its first annual Manga Proficiency Test on June 17th. The test is divided into many categories for people ranging from regular fans to professionals:
Source: Manga Jouhou |
Manga Zombie
Finale: Panelosophy
An ongoing conversation about the philosophy behind manga both in the U.S. and abroad. Manga Ranking
Monthly charts of comparative manga rankings based on aggregate online sales listings from Matt Blind. |
In January 2007, rumors began circulating that 
ComiPress teams up with writer Udagawa Takeo and translator John Gallagher to publish an online version of the English-language translation of Manga Zombie.
