Itai News reports that a 19-year-old murderer who killed a mother and her one-year-old daughter back in 1999 may have been affected by Doraemon, according to the testimony given by the defendant. animeOnline has a brief translation:

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Broccoli Books announced at Anime Expo 2007 that it will be releasing a new World of Disgaea artbook based on Disgaea 2.

Also confirmed is the release of the first Disgaea novel.

Source: MangaCast

Mita Norifusa's Dragon Sakura ended in issue 30 of Kodansha's Morning, which was released on June 28th.

Boku no Shokibo na Seikatsu by Fukumitsu Shigeyuki will end in Morning No. 31, on sale July 5th.

Also, two light novel series will be adapted into their own manga series in the September issue of Media Work's Dengeki Comic Gao!:

• Alison, written by Keiichi Sigsawa and illustrated by Kohaku Kuroboshi, will be adapted into a manga series by Hiroki Haruse.
• Toradora!, written by Yuyuko Takemiya and illustrated by Yasu, will be adapted into a manga series by Zekkyou.

Source: Ultimatum Talk

The result of the first Internation Manga Award was announced on June 29th. The winner is Lee Chi Ching, a 43-year-old artist from Hong Kong.

Lee Chi Ching's winning work, Sun Tzu's Tactics (Known as The Art of War in China - Chinese Title: ????????????; JP title: ????????????), is a historic series that portrays the life of the famous Chinese military strategist.

The three runners-up went to Kai from Hong Kong, Malaysia's Benny Wong Thong Hou and Madeleine Rosca from Australia.

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Seven Seas has announced several new licenses at this year's Anime Expo:

• Dance in the Vampire Bund by Nozomu Tamaki
• In God's Arms (Kamisama no Ude no Naka), by Yonezo Yamada

Yuri manga:

• First Love Sisters
• Voiceful

New novel licenses were also announced:

• Kage Kara Mamoru
• Zero no Tsukaima
• Avalon
• The Pirate and the Princess

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Eichi Shuppan announced at this year's Anime Expo that it plans to bring the popular Japanese cosplay magazine Cosmode to the U.S. The distribution will be handled by Broccoli International USA. The first issue is planned to be released in October this year.

Source: ANN

According to Gaming Today, the second closed beta of the upcoming MMO third person shooter Manga Fighter is now available on FileFront. Users need to first register before downloading the closed beta client.

Manga Publisher Go! Comi has relaunched their website:

We loved our little website, but we knew it was time to "level up." We figured, "If we're going to do this anyway, why not go from a cozy little house -- to a great biiiiig mansion with room for all our fans?" And so the grand plan was born!

Via: MangaBlog

The first issue of Hobby Japan's "new" novel magazine Charano! has been released. A manga adaptation of Kujibiki Yuusha-sama by Shimizu Fumika (author) and Ushiki Yoshitaka (illustrator) began serialization in this issue. The new manga is titled Kujibiki Sisters and is drawn by the same illustrator of the light novel.

Also, the official site of Charano! has opened at www.hobbyjapan.co.jp/hjbunko/charano/.

Source: LightNovel.org

From the Hankyoreh comes an article titled "Korean comic books win over European fans," which looks at how Korean manhwa are becoming increasingly popular among European fans:

Europe occupies up to 40 percent of the overall export market for South Korean comic books, the industry estimates, becoming the biggest market, followed by the U.S. and Asia with 30 percent each.

Via: Journalista