Manga top 10 according to Tohan.

1. Nodame Cantabile Vol.17
2. Hayate the Combat Butler Vol.10
3. Hajime no Ippo Vol.79
4. Bleach Vol.26
5. Fist of the Blue Sky Vol.16
6. Magic Kaito Vol.4
7. Major Vol.62
8. Beck Vol.29
9. D.Gray-man Vol.10
10. Boku to Kanojo no XXX Vol.23

On February 21st, Nagano district court prosecuted doujin manga creator Mizue Shimosato for income tax evasion of 65.7 million yen. Shimosato created The Prince of Tennis doujin and many other doujinshi works under the name of "Kaoruko Shinagawa." According to report, Shimosato reported to the tax office that her income was around 20 million yen for three years, while her true income was around 200 million yen, and the income tax her was supposed to pay was approximately 65.7 million yen.

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The first issue of a new magazine from Aoba Shuppan called Comic Junk will be released on February 26th. The monthly magazine will be sold for 390 yen, and will feature series such as Shin Naniwa Kinyudo by Yuji Aoki.

Also released on January 26th are two adult manga magazines:

- Young Dokan by Akebono Shuppan
- H na OL Daisuki! by Touen Shobo

Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright) by Kazuo Maekawa, based on the popular game from Capcom, will be moving from Bessatsu Young Magazine (Young Magazine Extra Issue) to Young Magazine.

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Gegege no Kitaro Part 2 will begin serialization in the April issue of Comic BonBon (3/15). The launch will coincide with the fifth season of the Gegege no Kitaro anime, which will premiere on April 28 in Japan.

Also mentioned were some Gegege no Kitaro manga releases. Volume 1 and 2 of the manga, as well as volume 1-3 of the original version by Shigeru Mizuki will go on sale March 16th.

Source: Ultimatum Talk

In "Japan Resorts to Manga Propaganda," CNN looks at how Japan is using cute, manga styled characters to represent its current military power. "As Japan sheds its postwar pacifism and gears up to take a higher military profile in the world, it is enlisting cadres of cute characters and adorable mascots to put a gentle, harmless sheen to its deployments."

MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking in Japan (02/18) according to Toranoana, compiled by Akiba Blog, and the weekly BL Doujinshi ranking in Japan (02/18) according to Toranoana's BL specialty store Princess Side.

Sankei Web recently published a multi-part article on the famous anime and manga creator Leiji Matsumoto, who talks about the importance of copyrights. In Part 2, Leiji Matsumoto discusses the differences between imitation and creativity.

Battles on Copyright - Mimicry is not Creativity

Matsumoto, who is currently in charge of copyright issues at the Japan Cartoonists Association, is proposing to extend the copyright limit from 50 years to 70 years.

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Controller M&Y by Akira Akatsuki, which began in Weekly Shonen Jump issue 2 in early 2007, will end in Shonen Jump issue 13.

Also, two new series are set to begin serialization in Shonen Jump issue 14 and 15:

Issue 14 (3/5): Samurai Usagi by Fukushima Teppei
Issue 15 (3/12): Volley Ball Tsukai by Takahashi Ichirou

Source: Ultimatum - Talk

Sirou Tunasima has written on his online diary that he has received over 10 mails offering to continue his Jinki: Extend manga series.