News

According to Canned Dogs, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure creator Araki Hirohiko has created a cover for a U.S.-based science journal titled Cell.

Also, ANN reports that Fist of the North Star artist Tetsuo Hara is premiering a children's anime series on the Japanese satellite channel KIDS STATION on November 5th.

Publishers Weekly reports that DC Comics is switching its book trade distribution from Warner Books/Hachette to Random House Publisher Services:

DC Comics is switching its book trade distribution to Random House Publisher Services after more than 20 years using Warner Books/Hachette for bookstore distribution. The switch will take place in spring 2008. DC will continue to use Diamond Comics Distributors to distribute to the comics shop market. The change teams one of the largest publishers of comics and graphic novels in the world with the book industry's largest and most far-reaching distribution service.

JBC Publishing has announced that it will release the manga Socrates in Love - O Amor Sobrevive ao Tempo (Sekai no Chuushin de Ai wo Sakebu) by Kyoichi Katayama (story) and Kazumi Kazui (art) in Brazil. The title is based on Kyoichi Katayama's best-selling novel of the same name.

Source: Papo de Budega

Anime! Anime! reports that a four-day manga festival will take place at the Akihabara Enta Festival between October 25 - October 28. According to ANN, the manga festival will "focus on the international popularity of manga, digital content, copyright issues, and other topics."

Source: ANN

Shueisha has released a new promotional video titled "Shining!!!" for its upcoming Jump Square, the replacement magazine for Monthly Shonen Jump.

Shueisha also updated the official Jump SQ site with three new serializations:

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Mainichi Daily News reports that a brand of manga-illustrated canned coffee called "Seichi no Kohi" (Sacred-Site Coffee), which went on sale during this summer's Comiket 72, is extremely popular among visitors to the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition venue:

When 600 cans of the coffee went on sale in advance on Aug. 12, they sold out immediately. They were sold in vending machines from Aug. 16, the day before Comiket started, and by the final day on Aug. 19, about 40,000 cans were sold. Now they are sold at weekends, when events are held, both over the counter and from vending machines.

Impress GAME Watch is reporting that the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA), which organizes the Tokyo Game Show and is responsible for video game age ratings, has released a free online manga on online gaming etiquette. The manga is available here (PDF).

Source: Canned Dogs

Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump is known for canceling its series (even the 2ch Early Sales info is called the "Cancellation Survival Race"). Each issue of Shonen Jump comes with a survey postcard that asks its readers to vote for their favorite series. Every week, manga serialized in Jump are ranked from most popular to least popular. Usually the less popular series tend to enjoy a very short lifespan.

Weekly Jump Readers' Journal is reporting that Eiichiro Oda revealed in the latest volume of One Piece how Weekly Jump ranks its series:

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topOn 9/1, the hosts of a Taiwanese variety show called "The Guess Show" (????????????????????????) introduced the light novel The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya as an adult light novel by saying it's "obviously H" and "so A[dult]," and went on to read out "adult scenes" from the book. The episode caused an uproar from the online community and the fans. The host's response was: "Obviously what I said weren't from the novel, I'm also a Haruhi fan, it's not my fault if they can't take a little joke." In the end, the show did not apologize.

A few days ago, Kadokawa Taiwan issued a statement explaining that the Haruhi novel is in fact not an adult novel, and asks the TV show to better organize its programs in order to avoid further confusion:

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