News

The new comic release list for April 11th 2007 from ComicList, compiled by MangaCast.

According to a survey conducted by Oricon, Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump is the favorite manga magazine among Japanese female readers (the survey was conducted among 2,933 young Japanese female readers). Shueisha's shoujo manga magazine Monthly Cookie came in second, followed by Margaret and Hana to Yume.

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Japan will be holding its first annual Manga Proficiency Test on June 17th. The test is divided into many categories for people ranging from regular fans to professionals:

The test is divided into many categories and levels [...] for beginners to professionals, including general (4 levels), manga character (3 levels), manga story (3 levels), manga drawing technique (3 levels) and manga assistant (2 levels).

Source: Manga Jouhou

Kodakawa Shoten's 2007 Light Novel Award is now open to public voting. The award contain five categories:

  • Love Comedy category
  • School Life story category
  • Action category
  • Mystery category
  • Novelize category

According to the awards page, those who vote will receive a chance to win gifts:

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From Newsarama comes an interview with Kurt Hassler and Rich Johnson from Yen Press, who discuss Yen Press' initial launch titles, their relationship with Square-Enix, and the future of Yen Press.

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According to this press release, a special manga section will appear at the Bristol Comics Expo, taking place 12th/13th May:

This year will see a much expanded manga section in the Bristol Comics Expo, 12th/13th May, which will be put alltogether in a special 'manga alleyway'. The section is previewed at: http://www.comicexpo.net/spotlight.htm

From MangaCast comes the translation of a new article from Takeshi Ishizawa, a Japanese who have spent a long time living in Indonesia. The article, "Depth of Japanese Manga - TOYO Kataoka and MIURA Yasuto," looks at mangaka Kataoka Toyo and Yasuto Miura and their respective drawing styles.

The results of the school textbook authorization of 2006 were announced on March 30th in Japan. "Manga Textbook" appeared on the results as a Mathematics II textbook for high schools. However, the textbook's publisher, Keirinkan, had to delete more than half of the manga-related contents the draft version of the textbook.

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According to Manga Jouhou, DMP/June has announced a "Spring Cleaning Contest":

The staff members of DMP/June Manga are breaking out the mops and brooms for a little spring cleaning! We have collected a lot of stuff over the past year; and since the weather is soo nice these days, we have decided to crack open the windows and clean out our warehouse. So everything we find has got to go! Autographed goodies, character goods, advanced books, models and figurines.

Source: Manga Jouhou