According to Muhyojo, the latest issue of Kodansha's Morning revealed that the second volume of its Mandala magazine on March 21st. ANN has more:

Not only will this new 290-page volume be bigger (20 milimeters larger than A4 paper size, or roughly North American "Letter" size), but it will be in full color. 15 creators from eight countries contributed to this project, including 10 artists who returned from the first Mandala volume.

Also from ITmedia (via ANN) is the news that to celebrate the magazine's 50th anniversary, Konami will be making a game that will feature popular characters from Kodansha's Shonen Magazine and Shogakukan's Shonen Sunday.

Leading Industry Experts Speak on the U.S. Anime/Manga Industries and the Announcement of the SPJA Award Finalists

Anaheim, California (March 18, 2008) ‹ The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA), the overseeing body of the nation¹s largest anime/manga convention (Anime Expo®), will be presenting a symposium presentation/discussion about the history, current status and future of the U.S. Anime/Manga Industries at Tokyo International Anime Fair held within Tokyo Big Sight's Special Theatre 2(Thursday; March 27, 2008; 16:30-18:00-Tokyo time). In addition, announcements of the finalists of the highly recognized and coveted SPJA Industry Awards will also be made. More information can be found on the website www.spja.org.

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It can hardly be called financial summertime, but for manga, the living's been easy. Each year has heralded news of new licenses, bigger sales growth and expanding distribution, particularly in chain bookstores-a kind of manga cladogenesis that continues each quarter. But underneath all the USA Today lists and Bookscan figures lurk several troubling questions, foremost among them what kind of end is being achieved by all this growth, and indeed, whether it's sustainable as the first "manga generation" ages into unknown territory.

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Artinfo reports that the International Asian Art Fair, which takes place March 15–19, is featuring a contemporary gallery called Art Miya that dedicated its entire booth to manga sculptor Yabuuchi Satoshi.

Also, AkibaBlog has a report on "Raku-Job," an event where fans attend to look for a job in the anime, manga and game business.

Finally, BBC News looks at this year's China Comics Now exhibition in "When Manga meets communism."

According to ICv2, Tokyopop will be releasing the first volume of Speed Grapher by Tomozo and Yusuke Kozaki, based on the anime of the same name from Gonzo, this September. Also, the second volume of the manga will be released in December along with "a 248-page novelization of the anime series by Minoru Niki."

Canned Dogs is reporting that PEACH-PIT's Rozen Maiden made a brief re-appearance in the latest issue of Shueisha's Young Jump:

Peach-Pit has made a surprise appearance in Young Jump in this week's issue with a one-shot comic called Shoujo no tsukurikata (How to make a girl) about how Shinku was made. [...] It isn't officially serialized in the magazine yet, but there is a note at the end of the comic that says that they will be having a big announcement in next week's issue.

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BOSTON, MA, USA – March 22, 2008 MIT professor Ian Condry, in cooperation with the Consulate General of Japan in Boston, will introduce and lead a discussion on two anime that can be viewed as bookends to the history of Japanese animation:

The Birth of Astro Boy ( 1963 ) and Tekkonkinkreet ( 2006 ).

Astro Boy displays the emotional intensity and storytelling brilliance of manga master Osamu Tezuka, and also illustrates the ways "limited animation" helped studios cope with challenges facing the industry in its early days.

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According to an announcement from BL publisher Yaoi Underground, Yaoi Underground LLC is now terminated, while Yaoi House LLC's future is still uncertain:

Yaoi Underground LLC will be terminated and the shareholders returned their investments. As for Yaoi House LLC, I leave it to the shareholders to decide how they wish to proceed with the company. I surrender my shares and my stories, all artwork, website, and the Yaoi House trademark. Those who wish to part at this time will have their shares returned to them, and those that decide to take over the organization of the company can determine how my shares are to be divided among them.

Giapet.net has more.

Manly Manga and More... reports that German manga publisher Carlsen has posted its top 20 best-selling manga for 2007. Below are the top 10:

1. Naruto
2. One Piece
3. DAISUKI
4. Luxus
5. Vampire Knight
6. Futari Ecchi
7. Desire
8. Junjo Romantica
9. Fairy Cube
10. Drachenschnee (Dragon Snow)

According to a listing on Monster.com, DMP is currently looking for an Entry Level Sales & Marketing Admin:

Digital Manga is looking for an energetic and organized individual to assist with sales, and marketing for our company. Candidate would be responsible for helping to generate sales reports on a weekly basis from data provided by our distributor along with other various market reports that our company may need from time to time.

The latest issue of Shounen Sunday came with a free Sakuya (a character from Kenjiro Hata's Hayate the Combat Butler) card that can be used in Hayate the Combat Butler TCG. New Akiba is reporting that a Hayate fan bought 398 copies of Shounen Sunday in order to get 398 copies of the Sakuya card.

Canned Dogs has more:

He had to travel to 82 different branches of 7-Eleven buying several copies of Shounen Sunday from each branch to complete the task (leaving a few copies so others can get their own copy) [...] 398 is a wordplay on the name "Sakuya", which is why he bought 398 copies.

According to its latest blog post, BL imprint 801 Media is currently looking for some new reviewers:

Got a blog or website dedicated to yaoi or manga in general? 801 Media Inc. has a couple of open slots on our advanced copy mailing list.

Go here for the rules.

New Year - New Bands - New Challenge

Anaheim, California (March 14, 2008) ‹ New Year. New Anime. New Music. New Bands. New Challenge! Prepare your band for battle as Anime Expo® presents the Battle of the Bands at this year's Anime Expo® 2008 held from July 3-6, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA. More information can be found on the website www.anime-expo.org.

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Anime! Anime! reports that the nominees for the 12th Tezuka Cultural Awards have been announced in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. Ten manga have been nominated for the award, they are:

• Umimachi Diary (1) Semishigure no Yamugoro by Akimi Yoshida [ Shogakukan ]
• Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga [ Hakusensha ]
• Kaijuu no Kodomo by Daisuke Igarashi [ Shogakukan ]
• Nana by Ai Yazawa [ Shueisha ]
• 81diver by Yokusaru Shibata [ Shueisha ]
• Moyashimon (Tales of Agriculture) by Masayuki Ishikawa [ Kodansha ]
• Ushijima the Loan Shark by Shohei Manabe [ Shogakukan ]
• Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma [ MediaWorks ]
• Lucu Lucu by Yoshitoo Asari [ Kodansha ]
• Red by Naoki Yamamoto [ Kodansha ]

The winners will be announced in early May. Go here for last year's winner.

According to ICv2, Tokyopop will be releasing Otsu-ichi's novel Goth, as well as its manga adaptation of the same name by Kendi Ohishi (artist of Welcome to the N.H.K.) this fall. The Goth manga will be released in September, while the novel will be released a month later in October.

From the Manga Recon Blog comes a "Definitive Guide to Fumi Yoshinaga", which looks at the works of shoujo mangaka Fumi Yoshinaga.

The following manga appeared on the USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending March 9th:

• #17 - Naruto, Volume 28 - Viz - (Last week: #73)
• #115 - Negima!, Volume 17 - Del Rey - (Last week: #0)

Blog@Newsarama and MangaBlog both point out that Wildstorm Comics has posted previews of volume 1 of Yoshinori Natsume's Batman: Death Mask and Yoshito Usui's Crayon Shinchan on MySpace.

A round up of the new comic release list and views for the week of March 12th 2008:

• ComicList: ComicList for 03/12/2008
• MangaCast: New Manga Release List ~ March 12, 2008
• Manga Recon: Weekly Recon: Weekly Recon, 3/12/07
• Precocious Curmudgeon: Upcoming 3/12/2008

San Diego, California, Thursday, March 13, 2008

JAST USA affiliate brand G-Collections, the leading publisher of Japanese PC dating sim games in English, today announced the golden master status of LIGHTNING WARRIOR RAIDY, the first 3D fantasy role playing game system for adults.

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According to ICv2, Tokyopop will be releasing Fruits Basket creator Natsuki Takaya's first manga, Phantom Dream, this December:

The five volume series, Takaya's first published manga, was known as Geneimuso in Japan. It will be cross-promoted with Fruits Basket via a preview in Fruits Basket Vol. 21.

Also, MangaBlog reports that Tokyopop is planning on promoting volume 19 of its Fruits Basket manga by making the manga completely free online to Tokyopop.com members for 19 minutes:

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Shoujo mangaka Toshiyuki Suzuki, who draws under the name Kenichirou Suzuhara, has died of ischemic heart disease on February 9th. Suzuhara was an active shoujo mangaka in the 1960s whose manga were serialized in Shueisha's Margaret and other shoujo magazines.

Source: Asahi Shimbun

From Tech-On! comes an interview (Part 1, Part 2) with Tadashi Fukuda, president of Kadokawa Digix Inc., a Kadokawa group company, who talks about the recent deal between Kadokawa Group Holdings Inc. and YouTube/Google which might eventually allow users to upload Kadokawa's official contents to Youtube:

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The Age is reporting that a Japanese online bookstore called Papyless, which sells digital versions of books, is teaming up with Tezuka Production to make at least 448 stories by Osamu Tezuka available for purchase online in digital format:

Papyless, whose website is http://www.papy.co.jp/, said in a statement it would put the works online from March 18.

It will cost 105 yen ($A1.10) to read a volume over 48 hours.

Buying the work online will cost 315 yen ($A3.30) per volume.

Reuters is reporting that UNICEF, the Japan branch of the United Nations Children's Fund, is not satisfied with Japan's recent move to to ban possession of child pornography, and urges Tokyo to include child pornography in manga, anime and games in the ban:

[...] the Japan branch of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) urged Tokyo to beef up its laws by banning child pornography in manga comics, animated films and computer games as well as individual possession.

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