A new Hatsune Miku manga by KEI called Hatsune Mix! will begin in the January issue of Comic RUSH (11/26).

A new manga by Itsuki Natsumi (winner of the 21st Kodansha Manga Award) titled Vampire (ヴァムピール) will start in the December issue of Afternoon (10/25).

A new Gundam manga called Mobile Suit Gundam: OO (機動戦士ガンダムOO) by Taguchi Oto will start in the December issue of Magazine Z (10/26).

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ITmedia is reporting that the Japanese Cabinet Office has conducted a survey among 3,000 people aged 20 and above on whether manga and other illustrations should be regulated by child porn laws. According to the result, 86.5% felt that child pornography regulations should be applied. For more info visit ANN and Canned Dogs.

Canned Dogs reports that Star Ocean 2 character designer Koio Minato has written a post on his website criticizing Kodansha's Shounen Sirius magazine:

In his BBS, he says that he wants to quit working with Shounen Sirius. He explains that after he submitted the art early and having corrected the colours 4 times over for print, they had a miscommunication in the Kodansha offices which created very big printing miss when printing the cover for his manga, causing the colours to become bland and make the design look weird.

Although the original post from Koio Minato has been removed, a screenshot can be found here.

Top 10 manga (10/24) according to Tohan:

1. Detective Conan (59)
2. xxxHOLiC (12)
3. Negima! (20)
4. Hayate the Combat Butler (13)
5. Kekkaishi (18)
6. Black Lagoon (17)
7. Skip Beat! (17)
8. Inuyasha (51)
9. Dear Boys Act II (26)
10. Hotaru no Hikari (10)

Additional Rankings:

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Futami Shobo has launched a new BL bunko label called Charade Pearl Bunko (シャレードパール文庫). The label will be Charade Bunko's sister label (also a BL bunko label by the same publisher).

A trial issue of the manga magazine Comic Akibana! No.0 is being distributed for free in Akihabara on the 20th and 21th of October. The trial issue contains 8 manga serials, and one novel. Akibaos and Akiba Blog has posted some previews of the magazine.

Comic Akibana! is Dijima's second seinen manga magazine that's being distributed for free (the first one being Comic Gumbo).

Ichijinsha, publisher of the yuri manga magazine Comic Yurihime, has included a ecchi/yuri manga titled Yurihime Wildrose with the latest issue of Comic Yurihime. A brief preview of the manga from Akiba Blog can be seen here.

Source: Heisei Democracy

USA Today has published an article titled "Manga comics losing longtime hold on Japan," which looks at how manga sales have been on a gradual decline over recent years:

Sales of manga fell 4% in Japan last year to 481 billion yen ($4.1 billion) — the fifth straight annual drop, according to the Tokyo-based Research Institute for Publications. Manga magazine sales have tumbled from a peak of 1.34 billion copies in 1995 to 745 million last year.

Via: ANN

FlexComix Flare, a new online magazine aimed at females readers, was launched on October 18th on Yahoo! Comic. Currently 2 manga titles are being serialized on the magazine's website.

ANN reports that ealier this week, a man named Makoto Kawai attempted to rob a manga cafe in the Asakusa area of Tokyo around midnight, but was arrested by the police:

On Tuesday, a young man was arrested by police in the Asakusa area of Tokyo for the attempted robbery of one of the manga cafes where he occasionally stayed. The suspect, Makoto Kawai, allegedly entered the cafe after midnight and, threatening the counter clerk with a razor cutter, demanded 1 million yen. The police were called, and the suspect was arrested at the scene.