Ultimatum Tidbits reports that Nihon Bungeisha's Manga Goraku Nexter will be going on hiatus after its February issue (12/26).

Of the series currently being serialized in the magazine, Watanabe Michio's Hakuryuu (White Dragon; 白竜) (story: Tennoji Dai) will be remade as a new series titled Hakuryuu Legend (白竜LEGEND) in the 1/11-18 issue of Weekly Manga Goraku (12/27).

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ANN is reporting that a German company called Schwarzkopf & Henkel is using manga characters from Hiroshi Takahashi's Crows and Worst to promote its latest hair coloring product in Japan:

The new lineup will include more unusual colors: beige, ash, gray, blonde, khaki (greenish tint), and blood (reddish tint). The price for each color will be about 700 yen (US$6.00), and the new lineup will be launched on February 4.

Top 10 manga (12/27) according to Tohan:

1. Fullmetal Alchemist (18)
2. Ookiku Furikabutte (9)
3. Kuro Shitsuji (3)
4. Ahiru no Sora (18)
5. Cross Game (10)
6. Hajime no Ippo (82)
7. Otomen (4)
8. Konjiki no Gash!! (31)
9. Major (65)
10. Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (11)

Additional Rankings:

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From BusinessWeek comes an article titled "Europe's Manga Mania," which looks at how European fans are favoring manga over traditional Western comics:

While Western comics such as Donald Duck, Tintin, and Asterix long dominated the European market, young readers like Malis are looking eastward. The Japan External Trade Organization says German and French sales of manga totaled $212.6 million last year, making Europe the largest consumer of manga outside Japan.

Advertising agency JWT recently released its list of 80 things to watch in 2008. In the list, "Manga-inspired clothes" is No.43.

Source: FOX Business

A round up of the new comic release list and views for the week of December 28th 2007:

• ComicList: ComicList for 12/28/2007
• MangaCast: New Manga Release List ~ Dec 26, 2007
• Precocious Curmudgeon: Upcoming 12/28/2007

According to Moon Phase, Kozue Amano's manga Aria will come to an end in the April issue of Mag Garden's Comic Blade (2/30), with chapter 60 being its last chapter.

Also announced is that as part of Tunasima Sirou's Jinki: Extend revival project, Jinki -Shinsetsu- will begin serialization in the May issue of MediaWorks' Dengeki Moeoh.

Anime News Service, launched in 1998 by Jonah Morgan, is one of the earliest Web sites dedicated to reporting news on Japanese animation and comics that is still operational today.

From what the latest anime creators have been up to, to the latest trends in western distribution, to exclusive interviews with industry professionals, ANS has been serving industry news both from home and abroad.

So what went on behind the scenes at ANS? What is it like being one of the oldest anime news sites on the internet? Read on as we dive into the interesting history of Anime News Service.

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Active Anime reports that the University of Minnesota Press has announced the second volume of Mechademia entitled Networks of Desire:

Networks of Desire--the second volume in the Mechademia series, an annual forum devoted to critical and creative work on Japanese anime, manga, and the fan cultures that have coalesced around them—explores the varieties of desire that structure and influence much of contemporary anime and manga in manifestations that range from the explicitly sexual to more sublimated text and imagery.

The 2007 Japanese Media Arts Festival has announced its "Jury Recommended Works" for the Manga Division:

Story Manga

• OOKIKU FURIKABUTTE by Asa Higuchi
• Oyururi Mantama Nikki by Tamakichi Sakura
• MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM THE ORIGIN by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko / Hajime Yatate, Yoshiyuki Tomino
• Sgt. Frog by Mine Yoshizaki
• Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa
• 81diver by Yokusaru Shibata
• THE TOP SECRET by Reiko Shimizu
• moyasimon tales of agriculture by Masayuki Ishikawa
• USHIJIMA the Loan Shark by Shohei Manabe
• PIPPI, the Prophet by Chuya Chikazawa

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