Amazon.co.jp as released its '07 First Half Books Ranking. Below is a list of the manga and light novels that made it into the top 20 as well as their ranks:

#3 - Nodame Cantabile Volume 17 by Tomoko Ninomiya
#4 - DDD Volume 1 by Kinoko Nasu (Type-Moon)
#5 - Suzumiya Haruhi no Bunretsu by Nagaru Tanigawa (story); Noizi Ito (art)
#7 - Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 16 by Hiromu Arakawa
#8 - Yotsuba&! Volume 6 by Kiyohiko Azuma
#16 - Pluto Volume 4 by Naoki Urasawa
#18 - Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu Volume 4 Limited Edition (Comes with Haruhi figure, SOS pedestal and 3 postcards) by Gaku Tsugano (art)

Nodame Cantabile Volume 14 also ranked #1 in Amazon.co.jp's 2006 Top 10 Manga Ranking.

Below are the top 10 Manga and top 10 Light Novel rankings:

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Two new series will start in the upcoming issues of Weekly Shonen Jump:

• Issue 32 (7/9)
  - Belmondo Le VisiteuR by Shoumei Ishioka
• Issue 33 (7/14)
  - SKET DANCE by Kenta Shinohara

Also, Yoshio Sawai's Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo ended in Weekly Jump issue 31, which went on sale 7/2.

According to Ultimatum, Aoba Shuppan's hamster manga magazine Hamster ceased publication after its August issue was released on 6/23.

ANN reports that Tokyopop has licensed the sci-fi/shoujo manga Jyu Oh Sei by Natsumi Itsuki.

From MangaCast comes the news that Dark Horse is on the verge of dropping Endo Hiroki's EDEN.

From Yaoi Suki comes a huge list of new BL licenses announced during Anime Expo from 801 Media and June Manga.

animeOnline reports that eigoManga will release a manga adaptation of Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn sometime in the summer of 2008.

The official site of the previously reported Jump Square has finally been launched at jumpsq.shueisha.co.jp/ (the page was previously unavailable).

Also, according to the official site and this magazine scan, works by the following author will appear in the new "Supreme Quality Manga Magazine" that will replace Monthly Shonen Jump:

• Nobuhiro Watsuki
• Hajime Kazu
• Fujiko Fujio (A)
• Norihiro Yagi (Claymore)
• Hiroyuki Asada (Tegami Bachi, also known as Letter Bee)
• Kousuke Masuda (Gag Manga Biyori)
• Masanori Katakura (A new manga, Kurohime will be serialized on Jump SQ's website)
• Akihisa Ikeda (Rosario + Vampire)
• Hiroyuki Kaidou
• Katayama Kentaro X Yamamoto Yamato
• Masanori Morita X Takeshi Obata

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My Work is Animation! by Atsuko Ishida, one of the finalists in the 9th Japan Media Arts Festival, will end in the September issue (7/30) of Young King OURs.

Also, a new manga titled Faireal Garden by Minene Sakurano will start in the September issue (7/30) of Comic Blade.

Source: Ultimatum Chat

AoD reports (via ANN) that Dark Horse has made numerous license announcements at Anime Expo:

• Bride of the Water God by Mi-kyung Yoon
• Ghost Talkers Daydream by Sankichi Meguro
• The Color of Rage (Colored) by Kazuo Koike and Seisaku Kano
• A Wind Named Amnesia by Hideyuki Kikuchi(previously reported but not officially announced)
• Blood+ by Asuka Katsura
• Blood+ Adagio by Kumiko Suekane
• Blood+ Yakou Joushi by Hirotaka Kisaragi
• Blood+ (Novel)
• Blood+ Russian Rose (Novel)
• Gantz by Hiroya Oku

From MangaCast comes news on CMX at this year's AX. CMX confirmed the title Presents from the Queen of Horror by Inuki Kanako, and announced a new policy for treating M rated manga: oversized (A5), shrink-wrapped and sold at $12.95.

Also confirmed was the manga Shirley by Mori Kaoru.

At Anime Expo 2007 DrMaster announced two new licenses:

• Phantoms by Yasushi Suzuki
• Metro Survive by Yuki Fujisawa

Also confirmed was that Yasushi Suzuki's Purgatory Kabuki will be added to their lineup.

ANN reports that Otaku USA's Editor-in-Chief Patrick Macias will be joining ANN's executive editor Zac Bertschy to host the "Art of Reviewing Anime," which will take place tomorrow at 2:00 p.m.