Conrad Publishing will be releasing Akira Toriyama's Kajika this month in Brazil. The format of the manga will be 14 x 20.2 cm, 200 pages a volume. Conrad has previously released other Toriyama manga such as Neko Majin, Marusaku, Dr. Slump and Dragon Ball.

Source: Papo de Budega

Active Anime has released more information on its $500 giveaway event. The grand prize include manga, DVD, as well as a copy of Manga Studio EX Version 3 ($299) from eFrontier. The official rules can be found here.

One other event announced is the Avril Lavign's Make 5 Wishes Giveaway, where copies of Del Rey's Make 5 Wishes signed Avril Lavigne will be given out randomly to Active Anime members.

Also, a new Chat Room Service has been launched on Active Anime.

After over 10 years of serialization (began in 1990), Mineko Ohkami's fantasy manga Dragon Knights finally came to an end in the June issue of Shinkosha's manga magazine Wings.

A second manga series, Ran Amanogawa's manga Kamiinu X Blood, also ended in the same issue of Wings.

On May 10th, China Central Television (CCTV), one of the largest television network in China, reported a story on a recent Death Note incident in Nanning City, Guangxi, where adults discovered among elementary school students a popular game that involves "cursing and predicting the death of others through the use of a death notebook."

The report claims that Death Note is not healthy for young children, and encourages parents to protect their children from it.

Source: Yahoo! Japan

Currently a majority of the original Chinese manga are composed of 4-panel comics and short stories. To promote original story-oriented manga, Zhejiang Gongshang University's Japanese Anime and Manga Cultural Research Group has organized the 1st Story-Oriented Original Manga Competition.

The competition, supported by Shueisha and many Chinese anime news websites and media, accepts any original manga between 10-45 pages long. The deadline is September 9th, winners will be announced in October.

Read More »

In an article titled "Korean Otaku Turn Aprons Up at 'Moe' Warm, Fuzzy Feelings," Mainichi Daily looks at the differences between Japanese otaku and Korean otaku, and how the concept of "Moe" does is almost non-existent in Korea's otaku culture:

"There's still a concept close to moe in Korean otaku culture. There's a word 'haakku,' which means to get excited, or feel good. But this word doesn't really apply to the gaming or cosplay worlds here, yet it does apply to kinky stuff, [...] In Korea, Lolicon is outlawed and maid cafes were a flop."

According to ICv2, Viz Media will be releasing several new art books this fall:

• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: Watercolor Images
• The Art of Angel Sanctuary 2
• The Art of Naruto: Uzumaki
• The Art of Fullmetal Alchemist 2
• The Cat Returns Picture Book

HERNDON, VA - May 11, 2007- DLSite.com today announced the release of realistic 3D Japanese animation, "BOKUKANO - Me and my Girlfriend" English version.

Read More »

The winners of the 36th Japanese Cartoonists' Association Award (Nihon Mangaka Kyokai Awards) have been announced:

Grand Prize

- The Divine Comedy by Nobuhisa Nozoe (illustration); Kazuhiro Iwata (adaptation); Kyojin Onishi (story) [ Gentosha ]

Reason: To honor the 10 years it took to complete the story. The work leaves the same impression to those from the army and young people who don't know anything about war. The manga's adventure-filled plot and overflowing expression had a large impact on the manga field.

- Tama-chan and Chibi-maru by Shigehisa Sunagawa [ Hoshinowa ]

Reason: Ever since the story was serialized in the newspaper, I laugh whenever cat appears in the story. This time Sunagawa created a story about cats.

Read More »

According to a press release from Capcom, the video game publisher will team up with manga publisher Gakken to create a manga titled The Secrets of Video Games, an educational manga about video games.

Read More »