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

In Genshiken, Kanako Ohno once declared that "Homo-hating girls don't exist!!" While the validity of the statement could be contested, yaoi-loving females, otherwise know as fujoshi, have since used it to defend their hobby.

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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).

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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Ichijinsha announces that its 4-koma anthology Manga 4Koma KINGS Palette will become a monthly anthology (from bi-monthly) as of Vol.3, on sale January 25th.

MoePre has an interesting article titled "Jump and Fujoshi." The article analyzes the recent attempts by Shonen Jump to better market itself to the fujoshi demographic.

Part 1 of the article introduces the readers to the term "fujoshi," and provides an overview of the situation. In Part 2, the article takes a closer look at the impact of the fujoshi audience on Shonen Jump.

[The Turning Point of Shonen Jump]

Shonen Jump experienced a turning point during the serialization of The Prince of Tennis by Takeshi Konomi.

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Keeping the tradition from past new years, on the first day of 2007, Kodansha, Shueisha and Shogakukan all placed full-page ads in numerous major Japanese newspapers.

Source: Nuruwota ga Kiru

Akiba Blog reports that recently telephone cards from Akihabara shops, which featured Rena and other characters from the new PS2 adaption of the visual novel Higurashi no Naku koro ni, were toned down due to inappropriate images.

However, there has been no official statements from the creator of the game regarding the edits, and any questions were met with the vague response: "Due to reasons that can't be made public." According to leaked info, the edits were related to recent government effort of keeping inappropriate content away from children.

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