According to recent sales figures, the circulation of Weekly Shonen Magazine has dropped below 2 million, while the circulation of Weekly Shonen Jump experienced a slight increase. According to Minegishi, Director of Kodansha's sales division, "Only Weekly Shonen Magazine and Young Magazine are making a profit among Kodansha's manga magazine line-up. Monthly Shonen Magazine breaks even, while the others are showing deficit."

In comparison with sales from 10 years ago, Weekly Shonen Jump's circulation has dropped 2.8 million, and Weekly Shonen Magazine's circulation is around 1.9 million. If the manga magazines experience declining sales, the publishers won't be able to make a profit unless tankobon achieves good sales.

Read More »

Manga Jouhou reports that two new manga rental service will launch this month. The first rental service, Comical, is created by the online second-hand book store eBookOFF, and opened on April 16th:

Comical uses internet to order, with 24 hours, 365 days service. With this service, the manga that is registered on the wish list gets delivered by a home delivery service. When returning, the user can send it back with home cargo delivery, or return it to the closest convenient store. When the return process has been completed, the next batch of comic is sent off; 15-20 books is sent at a time, based on priority of the wish list.

Read More »

According to Anime!Anime!, Osamu Tezuka Productions plans to release two new digital magazines featuring works from Tezuka Osamu in November 2008.

The first magazine, Tezuka Osamu O-Magazine, is an on-demand magazine that allows its owner to order chapters of Tezuka's manga online. The second magazine, Tezuka Osamu Motion Magazine, is a cell-phone magazine that will feature partially animated manga chapters. Tezuka Osamu Motion Magazine is currently planned not only for Japan, but also for countries in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Source: animeOnline

ANS reports that online book seller Paypy has launched its new manga rental service, Renta, on April 10th:

100 Yen nets users a loan period of 24 hours. An electronic ticket system, allows transactions via credit card and cellular phone. Buyers won't have to use a propriatary software browser as was the case with similar past services.

From Chicago Sun-Times comes an interview with Joshua Elder, creator of Tokyopop's Mail Order Ninja. The original Mail Order Ninja short story won the grand prize in Tokykopop's 5th Rising Stars of Manga contest, and was latter turned into a newspaper strip.

Via: MangaBlog

To celebrate the release of the 80th volume of its boxing manga Hajime no Ippo, Kodansha will be releasing 3,000 sets of a special collector's edition box set called "Early Times Set." The box set will come with the first 30 volume of Hajime no Ippo.

From Newsarama comes Diamond's March 2007 Direct Market Sales Charts and Market Share report. Precocious Curmudgeon sorts out the best-selling manga from the Top 100 Graphic Novels list (Based on Actual Unit Sales of Products Invoiced in March 2007).

Via: MangaBlog

MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking (04/14) in Japan according to Toranoana, and the weekly BL Doujinshi ranking (04/14) in Japan according to Toranoana's BL specialty store Princess Side.

The nominees for the 2007 Seiun Award has been announced. Nominees for the comics category are:

• Death Note
• Buso Renkin
• Karakuri Circus
• Alfheim no Kishi (Knights of Elfhiem)
• Yokohama Shopping Log

Read More »

According to a blog post of its editorial department, Akita Shoten's manga magazine Champion Red Ichigo will become a bi-monthly magazine starting with Volume 2, to be released on June 5th.