Manga News and Information
May, 2007Ohzora Shuppan has announced a new josei manga magazine. The first issue of the new magazine, titled Romance Tiara, will be released on June 5th, and will be sold for 650 yen. Library Journal has published an article on Rumiko Takahashi. The article looks at Takahashi's accomplishments, and goes on to call her "Japan's J.K. Rowling." Source: AoD Yoshimoto Kogyo has announced the official release date of their new comedy/seinen manga magazine Comic Yoshimoto. The magazine, aimed at men between ages 20 - 40, will be launched on June 19th. The first issue is expected to sell over 250,000 copies. The magazine will be released on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of everymonth. Source: Asahi Shimbun Shueisha will be releasing an add-on issue to its shojo magazine Cobalt on June 18th titled Bessatsu Cobalt. The magazine will be sold for 680 yen, and is said to be a light novel magazine aimed at maidens (otome). ANN reports that three Japanese males in Tokyo, Morioka, and Osaka were arrested on May 18th for unauthorized file-sharing of manga. The three males, aged 17, 26, and 29 respectively, scanned and uploaded manga from Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump and Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday on the Winny peer-to-peer file-sharing network. Source: Asahi Shimbun According to Negima! creator Ken Akamatsu's latest diary entry, the news of a live-action Negima! will be officially announced in Weekly Shonen Magazine issue 25, on sale 5/23. Source: Ultimatum Chat On the USA Today Booklist Top 150 for the week ending May 13th, Volume 14 of Viz's Naruto is the only manga on the list, ranking at #64. NEW YORK, NY, May 15, 2007 - Del Rey Manga, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group, announced today that it has acquired an original graphic novel starring Odd Thomas, perhaps the most memorable and beloved character Dean Koontz has ever created. The charismatic young fry cook from Pico Mundo, California has appeared in three New York Times bestselling novels: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, and Brother Odd, which was one of Koontz's fastest-selling hardcovers. From MangaManiacCafe comes a summary (Cross-posted to MangaCast) of the translating manga panel chaired by Toshifumi Yoshida and Trish Ledoux at this year's Anime Central. The panel provides an in-depth look at what it's like to be a translator in today's manga industry. In the latest issue of PWCW, Bill Aguiar interviews Megatokyo creator Fred Gallagher, who talks about his work as well as Megatokyo Volume 5, which will be released later this month. Via: MangaBlog According to ANN, the excerpt from Osamu Tezuka's Princess Knight that will appear in Viz's Shojo Beat 2nd Anniversary issue will be the original Princess Knight that ran in the manga magazine Shojo Club from 1953 to 1956. Papo de Budega reports that Toru Furuya, the original voice actor of characters from Seiya (Saint Seiya), Tuxedo Mask (Sailormoon), Yamcha (Dragon Ball) will visit Brazil during the Animecon in July. Cesar T. Ikko, the AnimeCon Group president, also confirmed that photos of the artists will appear on the convention's official site. Source: Papo de Budega
Sho-Comi came in first as the worst magazine for children, while Ciao (Shogakukan) ranked 2nd, and Nakayoshi (Kodansha) took the 3rd spot. As for the reason why the magazine should not be read by children, 60% said that these magazines contain excessive sexual content. Death Note is banned in Beijing, Shueisha comments that "All of them are pirated anyways." More strange incident involving Death Note in China following up to the "banning of horror books in Beijing." On the 16th, a Chinese/English newspaper China Daily reported that "Beijing local government has ordered to retrieve Death Note from its publisher Hualing Publishing due to its bad effect on juvenile - the manga is causing students to neglect their study by indulging themselves in Death Note." According to GamersHell, OnNet USA and OnNet Korea will be collaborating on a new manga-styled Massively Multiplayer Online Shooting game titled Manga Fighter. The game will be a third person shooter, and will be released in late 2007. today announced they have reached a licensing agreement for Manga Fighter to be released in the US in the second half of 2007: AnimeOnDVD has announced a new MPD Psycho Contest:
According to Comic Book Resources, Hiroaki Samura's samurai manga Blade of the Immortal is the winner of the 2007 Eagle Awards's "Favourite Manga" category. Manga top 10 (5/16) according to Tohan. Kim Tae-Hyung (클릭비), creator of Planet Blood, is one of the more well-known manhwa artists today. His works are published in American Tokyopop and in Brazil by Lumus Publishing company. From Papo de Budega comes an interview with Kim Tae-Hyung, who talks about his well-known title as well as various other projects. Source: Papo de Budega The biggest anime and manga convention in Germany organized by the biggest German speaking anime and manga association announces its first guest: Fred Gallagher Author of the online comic "Megatokyo", Fred Gallagher, will be the first guest of honor of the Connichi 2007 in Kassel, Germany. He will be accompanied by his lovely wife Sarah. San Francisco, CA -- eigoMANGA STUDIOS announces that it has reached an agreement to publish a new comic book series created and developed by Jinsoo Terry, CEO of Advanced Global Connections, LLC, a Korean-American entrepreneur and international cultural guru who is known for her unique and innovative business and multicultural education techniques. Publisher ILEX Press is pleased to announce the release of the most concise and easy-to-follow manga instruction book to date, Draw Manga Step-by-Step on Your Computer, available this month. In his latest Flipped column, David Welsh interviews Simon Jones from Icarus Publishing. In the interview Simon talks about his experience with Icarus Publishing, the U.S. manga market, and the need for niche publishers. Also, over at Comixpedia Brigid Alverson interviews Audra Furuichi and Scott Yoshinaga, creators of the webcomic Nemu-nemu. The 184-page fantasy adventure available now and priced at $9.99 SRP. NEW YORK, NY (May 15, 2007) - Central Park Media announced today that the PLATINA 1 graphic novel has been released. This fast paced journey into a fantasy realm beyond imagination was created by Yeon Joo Kim and is geared for a teenage audience. This book is priced at $9.99 SRP. Platina 1 "Casino Lily" and "Kizuna: Bonds of Love 8" on shelves now. New York, NY (May 15, 2007) – Be Beautiful, America's leading publisher of yaoi manga graphic novels, announced the release of CASINO LILY, a high-stakes tale of pleasure and passion from Youka Nitta (the creator of Embracing Love). In addition, the much anticipated release of KIZUNA: BONDS OF LOVE 8, the latest installment of Kazuma Kodaka's best-selling romantic epic was also announced. Both books are available now and priced at $15.99 SRP. |
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. |
The Japanese National PTA Conference has 
ComiPress teams up with writer Udagawa Takeo and translator John Gallagher to publish an online version of the English-language translation of Manga Zombie.
