International Manga Awards runner-up Madeleine Rosca has posted Part 3 of her International Manga Award trip to Japan.

According to Publishers Weekly (via MangaCast), at Otakon DramaQueen announced its plans to start a new action imprint, with the Korean manhwa Spam Mail Hunter being the first title to be released under the new imprint this coming September.

Also confirmed are two new licenses from Media Blasters:

• Mousou Shoujo Otaku-kei
• Family

Top 10 manga (7/25) according to Tohan:

1. Detective Conan, Volume 58
2. Mahou Sensei Negima!, Volume 19
3. Hayate the Combat Butler, Volume 12
4. Kekkaishi, Volume 17
5. Tenjho Tenge, Volume 17
6. Kindaichi Case Files: The Case of the Snow Spirit Legend Murder, Part I & II
7. Fairy Tail, Volume 5
8. Inuyasha, Volume 50
9. One Piece, Volume 46
10. Sprout, Volume 2

Additional Rankings:

Read More »

GoodsTrain will be launching a new label titled TwinTail for publishing novels, drama CDs and other PC games-related books. The new label, to be launched on August 24t, will start with a novel, a Drama CD and a fanbook:

Read More »

The residents in the neighborhood of Washinomiya Jinja Shrine, Kuki city, Saitama Prefecture are particularly nervous this months due to an increase in strangers. Because Washinomiya Jinja and its surrounding area is the setting of the anime Lucky???Star (based on a 4-koma of the same name), fans are rushing to this area, calling it the "holy site."

Read More »

According to the latest issue of PWCW, Korean manhwa publisher ICE Kunion will be completely absorbed by Hachette's new manga imprint Yen Press. Yen Press will begin releasing ICE Kunion titles beginning in spring of 2008, and plans to release 30-40 titles by the end of 2008.

Also, former ICE Kunion editorial director Ju-Youn Lee is now Yen Press' senior editor. According to Lee regarding Yen Press' offer to Sigongsa (one of ICE Kunion's parent company):

Read More »

ANN reports that volunteers in the Illustrated Braille Club from the Japanese town Kitajima are working on transcribing??Momoko Sakura's??new Chibi Maruko-chan manga into Braille (raised dots) for those who are blind and visually impaired:

Read More »

According J-Box News, Nana by Ai Yazawa will be released in Brazil this coming September. The license was confirmed by JBC Publising at the Anime Friends convention. Conrad Publishing made an attempt at acquiring the title earlier this year, but lost the license to JBC.

Source: Papo de Budega

On June 12, a business tie-up between the #1 cellular phone novel website Mahou no Island and MediaWorks (the publisher of the #1 light novel label Dengeki Bunko) was formed. As a result, a new bunko label titled Mahou no Island Bunko (temporary title) will start in fall 2007.

This bunko will feature novels from Mahou no Island's extensive line-up, and will be published by MediaWorks every month. The price will be between 530-570 yen for each book.

Source: CNET Japan

From AoD comes several announcements made by Media Blasters at this year's Otakon:

- The Bible Black game is doing well and they intend to bring out the Discipline game
- Phoenix will be dubbed
- For the Ikki Tosen sequel, they are trying to get the same voice actors for that dub as well as the same actors for Kujibiki and Genshiken
- They appear to have picked up the manga series Mousou Shoujo Otaku

Source: AoD