Manga News and Information
January, 2008San Francisco, CA, January 22, 2008 - VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has provided details on an array of hot animated properties it plans to showcase at the 2008 National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) Conference and Exhibition, taking place January 28-31 in Las Vegas, NV. VIZ Media will operate from Suites 7904 and 7906 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, where the conference will be held. From Japan Focus comes a translation of an interview with Nakazawa Keiji, mangaka of Barefoot Gen:
Nominees for this year's Angoulême International Comics Festival have been announced, and Precocious Curmudgeon has a list of the nominees for the manga category: According to MangaCast, Broccoli Books has licensed the manga Honoka Lv. Up!, written by Akiyoshi Ohta and drawn by Matsuda98. The manga will be sold for $10.99 each. MediaWorks will release a special issue of Dengeki G's Festival! titled Dengeki G's Festival! ANIME. The first issue of Dengeki G's Festival! ANIME will be released on February 9th. Each issue of the magazine will run a feature on a specific anime, the series covered in the first issue will be Shakugan no Shana II. The magazine will also come with various Shakugan no Shana merchandises, including a Shana figurine, a Fumina Konoe figurine, and playing cards. Source: Chuosha Issue 27 of ImagineFX, an U.K. digital art magazine, was released as a special manga-themed edition subtitled "Manga mayhem!". Some of the special features included in the issue are:
Source: Anime UK News YaoiSuki reports that 801 Media has delayed its new acquisition announcement to Valentine's Day. Also mentioned is that 801 Media is having some problems with its printer:
Finally, Deux Press now has a MySpace account.
According to the announcement, the content of the new magazine will be centered around light novel and information related to anime and manga. Also included will be serializations of short original Chinese manga, stories, and other special features. From Comics212 comes an analysis of the media kit of ADV's new magazine PiQ. Available are some more information on the magazine, as well as the concept cover for issue one:
In 1954, two young mangaka, Hiroshi Fujimoto and Motoo Abiko, moved into Tokiwa-so. The duo, better known by their pen name of Fujiko Fujio, worked alongside the likes of Tezuka, and went on to create Doraemon, which became one of the best-selling manga in the world. While Fujimoto, also known as Fujiko F. Fujio, passed away in 1996 due to an accident, Abiko, Fujiko Fujio (A) is still active in the manga scene. An interview with Fujiko Fujio (A) was recently published in Shueisha's Jump Square magazine. In the interview, Fujiko Fujio (A) talks about the days he spent at Tokiwa-so, as well as his memories of his colleagues: Global fans stampede YaoiMagazine.com to order Vol. 1 Issue 1 of Yaoi Magazine! York, Penn. - January 18, 2008 The first issue of Yaoi Magazine was made available for purchase on the YaoiMagazine.com website as well as on Amazon.com January 15, 2008. In the first day alone, sales exceeded S. A. Payne's (publisher) original expectation. "In just a few days orders have surpassed our original expectations by over 300%," said Payne. "We knew the market was out there, but I'm shocked to see how many orders are coming in, some for multiple copies! We've had orders placed from four countries outside of the U.S. as well." The following manga appeared on the USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending January 13th: GRIMES, IA, January 18, 2008 - Anime producer and mega-online anime retailer Right Stuf, Inc. is pleased to welcome Zac Bertschy - executive editor of Anime News Network (AnimeNewsNetwork.com) and managing editor of Protoculture Addicts - to episode 58 of ANIME TODAY. In this new interview, Bertschy takes a look back at the successes and surprises of 2007, experiments in packaging and distribution, the differences between what series are popular with Japanese and Western fans, and the issues and challenges facing the North American anime industry in 2008. SAN JOSE, CA - January, 2008 - DrMaster has just announced the publication of Magic Lover's Tower, a two-volume series. It will definitely grant your wish for an enchanting story of love, fantasy, and all that heart-wrenching love-triangle drama! Roxanne, the nerdy class cleanliness rep, is secretly in love with the bad boy of the class, Logan. One day she accidentally releases Baphalen, a magic being who was sealed in a painting by the Heavenly Courts as punishment. Baphalen is the celestial guardian of the incense urn of the Old Man Under the Moon, and possesses the fantastic Magic Lover's Staff. He decides to use his Magic Lover's Staff to help Roxanne get her wish of winning Logan's heart. According to Papo de Budega, the Association for Commemoration of the Centenarian of Japanese Immigration in Brazil has officially announced activities for its commemorations. The Daily Yomiuri has an article that explores the dramatization of the manga Saito-san by Yua Oda. Also, Nichi Bei Times looks at the popularity of manga in France in "Manga Gaining Rapid Popularity in France." From the Los Angeles Times comes an article titled "The rise of Japan cool," which looks at various Japan-related topics, and comes with an interview with Tokyopop's Stu Levy:
Source: MangaBlog ANN reports that four manga series are coming to an end in Japan:
From Manly Manga and More... comes the German Manga Top 15 for December 2007 based on charts released by Egmont Manga & Anime (EMA) and Carlsen, below is the top 5 manga on the list:
ICv2 is reporting that a Batman manga, drawn by Jiro Kuwata during the Batman craze in Japan in 1966, will be released in September 2008:
Via: MangaBlog
Also, Tohru Fujisawa, mangaka of Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO), will begin a new series titled Anhapi-! (Unhappy!) (アンはぴっ!) in Comic Charge No.5 (2/19). Two new one-shots Ginga -Nagareboshi Gin- Special Chapter (Part 1) (銀牙－流れ星 銀－ 特別編 (前編)) by Yoshihiro Takahashi and Metaborika (めたボリカ) by Yuzuki Hikaru, will appear in Shueisha's Business Jump No.5 (2/1). Two new series, Alice no 100℃c (アリスの100℃c) by Chizuna Nakajima (mangaka of Iinari! Aibration) and Yakuza Girl ~Blade Shikake no Hanayome~ (ヤクザガール ～ブレイド仕掛けの花嫁～) by Okuma Yu-go, will begin serialization in the April issue of Akita Shoten's Champion RED (2/19). Cloverfield Clues reports that the first chapter of Cloverfield: Kishin by Yoshiki Togawa, a tie-in manga created to promote the upcoming movie, has been posted online by Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shonen Ace. The Comics Reporter points out that the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has released its 2008 list of great graphic novels for teens: ANN has an analysis of manga found in the list. BRAVE STORY, written by Miyuki Miyabe and published domestically by VIZ, has won the 2008 Batchelder Award by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). The award, established in 1966, is a citation given to an American publisher for a children's book considered to be the most outstanding of those books originally published in a foreign language in a foreign country, and subsequently translated into English and published in the United States. The Association for Library Service to Children gives the award to encourage American publishers to seek out superior children's books abroad and to promote communication among the people of the world. A round up of the new comic release list and views for the week of January 16th 2008: |
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. |
Tokiwa-so (トキワ荘) is an apartment building in Shiinamachi, Tokyo, where now legendary but then up-and-coming mangaka such as Tezuka Osamu, Shotaro Ishinomori (Ishimori) and Fujio Akatsuka once lived, worked together, shared knowledge, and basically meeting up with colleagues and pitting their skills against each other.
A 
ComiPress teams up with writer Udagawa Takeo and translator John Gallagher to publish an online version of the English-language translation of Manga Zombie.
