According to the lastest Weekly Jump early sales info, the rumored new manga from Death Note creator Takeshi Obata, titled "Blue Dragon: RalΩGrado", will begin serialization Weekly Shonen Jump issue 1 (12/4). The description under the titles says: "The history of a boy who arrives in a world where darkness reigns."

Also starting in Weekly Shonen Jump:

Shonen Jump No.2
- "Jinriki Keiyakusha M&Y" by Akira Akatsuki
Shonen Jump No.3
- "Juku Ningen Jon Boll" by Hiroyuki Takei

According to ICv2, Top Cow and Bandai Entertainment will be releasing the Witchblade manga in the U.S. next year under two different formats. While Bandai will be releasing the regular black-and-white version (whole volume) of the manga, Top Cow will be releasing a full-color version of the manga in comic format (thin, cheap).

Top Cow will be responsible for the translation, as well as flipping the art and coloring the original black and white material. Regarding the "reformatting," Top Cow said that they have the "the full blessing of the original artist and the original Japanese publisher."

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School Days, a popular 18+ PC game by 0verflow, will be adapted into an anime TV series next year. The School Days game is famous for its over 70 hours worth of animations, which requires over 7 gigabytes of hard disk space for installation.

Source: Moonphase

According to Comic High Magazine, Kirihara Izumi's Hitohira will be adapted into an anime TV series in 2007.

MangaCast has posted a list of the top 50 manga in October, based on information from Comic Book Resources and ICV2 articles (which in turn are based on Diamond Indexes and Publisher Title Data)

TBS recently announced a second Hana Yori Dango live-action series. The first episode, which will be filmed in New York and span 2 hours and 15 minutes, will be aired on January 2007.

Hana Yori Dango (花より男子), known in the U.S. as Boys Over Flowers, is a popular shojo manga by Yoko Kamio, and is one of the best-selling shojo manga of all time.

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In his latest Flipped column, David Welsh takes a look at the three different versions of Densha Otoko (Train Man) currently being released in the U.S.:

Train Man: A Shojo Manga by Machiko Ocha
Train Man: Densha Otoko by Hidenori Hara - VIZ Media
Densha Otoko by Wataru Watanabe CMX

The Daily Yomiuri also has an article on CMX's version of Densha Otoko, as well as quotes from an interview with its English translator Bonnie Elliott.

ICv2 has released the October top 100 graphic novel sales estimates based on Diamond Indexes and Publisher Title Data. Also from ICv2 is an analysis of the trends in October based on the graphic novel sales chart.

After two years in the making, the Kyoto International Manga Museum, a project founded by Kyoto Seika University and supported by the city of Kyoto, will be opened on November 25th. According to Animaxis, "the museum will collect, display, and preserve manga as well as conduct manga culture-related research and study. Initially the museum will house an estimated 200,000 items, storing everything from Meiji era classics to modern hits and manga produced overseas."

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Two events will take place in Brazil in the beginning of December. Expo Anime Brazil will be held on December 3rd in São Paulo city. The biggest attraction of this year's show will be the appearance of Japonese singer Ayumi Miyazaki, who sang the themes of Digimon, Beat Hit!, The Last Element and Brave Heart.

Anime Weekend, which will take place on between December 2 - 3 in Porto Alegre city, will be attened by Ricardo Cruz, a member of the group JAM Project and singer of many Brazilian anime themes. Anime Weekend will also host the first "World Cosplay Summit Brazil" stage.

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