MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking in Japan (12/02) according to Toranoana Akihabara, compiled by Akiba Blog (NSFW).

Publishers Weekly reports new development on the bankruptcy of AMS:

"The bankruptcy court overseeing Advanced Marketing Services reorganization efforts yesterday approved its request to receive $75 million in debtor-in-possession financing. The funding is enough to operate for the next six months.

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The winners of Manga Jouhou's Win Before You Can Buy Contest has been announced.

Isao Yoshino of Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., Ltd. announced plans to add another branch to his company covering manga. According to the announcement, this spring Isao Yoshino plans to start a seinen magazine Comic Yoshimoto, for which professional comedians from his company will team up with professional artists to create 20-25 different stories.

Yoshino expects the magazine to sell up to 250,000 issues each month. Yoshino also stated that he is considering releasing Comic Yoshimoto on the internet, or creating movies for its stories depending on the magazine's popularity.

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Yomiuri Online recently published an article looking back on the Japanese manga industry in 2006.

The article invited three guests from the industry to talk about some of the major trends that appeared in the last year. The three guests were: Tomohiko Murakami (Critic/Editor), Go Sasakibara (Editor), and Kaori Tanaka (in charge of the Junkudo bookstore in Ikebukuro).

Manga Trends in 2006

Manga became increasingly dependent on television. Tomoko Ninomiya's Nodame Cantabile sold over 19,000,000 copies after being adapted into a live-action TV drama, which also helped push the sale of Nodame Orchestra CD and other merchandise.

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A new manga titled Nennin Tsurebito by Akihito Yoshitomi (Ray, Eat-Man) began serialization in Magazine Z issue 2 (12/26).

Also, a new manga by Katsu Aki, mangaka of Futari Ecchi, will start in Magazine Z issue 5 (3/26).

Austin Osueke, the CEO of eigoMANGA, will be delivering a presentation on eigoMANGA's latest publishing and media projects at MACWORLD on the 10th of January at Noon (PST).

Source: ActiveAnime

On the USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending December 31, volume 12 of VIZ Media's Naruto ranked #77, while volume 15 of Tokyopop's Fruits Basket ranked #82.

Enjoying manga has always been about using one's eyes. To listen to a manga, people either have to watch the anime or listen to drama CDs. This situation is about to change with an ambitious new program from Kodansha's Monthly Magazine Z. On January 26th, a new website called www.yomishi.jp will be opened.

Yomishi.jp will provide downloadable sound files from Yomishi (?????????????????????) (literally reading masters). After downloading the sound file of their favorite manga, visitors can play the sound file, enjoying dialogues read by a professional manga reader while reading the manga.

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CMX has posted a Happy New Year message on the AoD forum, and made some comments regarding what's to expect in 2007:

Minasan, Akemashite Omedeto-gozaimasu. (Happy New Year to all!)

2006 was a good year for us at CMX; thanks to everyone for the support. We had some great titles released, and some of our older titles got reprinted with new cover designs! (Like this)

2007 is looking good, too. Starting off with GO GO HEAVEN!! GGH, we will introduce more titles this year. Tune in to our future announcements/Press Releases for the brand new series!

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