Japanese publisher Futabasha has re-launched the official website of its weekly seinen magazine Manga Action at www.webaction.jp.

Fumiyo Kouno's seinen manga Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms will be adapted into a live-action movie, opening July 28th. Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms won the Grand Prize at the 8th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2004 as well as the New Life Award at the 9th Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prizes in 2005. The manga has been licensed in the U.S. by Last Gasp.

Source: Manga Jouhou

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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

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In January 2007, rumors began circulating that PEACH-PIT, the duo behind hit titles such as DearS and Zombie-Loan, is having a dispute with the editorial team of Gentosha's Comic BIRZ over the serialization of Rozen Maiden. When the March issue of Comic BIRZ was released on January 30th, instead of a new chapter of Rozen Maiden, fans were greeted with the announcement of Rozen Maiden's suspension.

However, the announcement can only be found inside the magazine, so to fans who buy BIRZ just for Rozen Maiden, it was not clear that the March issue of BIRZ didn't carry their favorite manga. A Japanese law blog called Ahowota Law Student News explores this interesting situation, and goes on to ask the question: "Can a person legally claim fallacy and assert that the contract is invalid (Meaning he can return the magazine and get his money back)?"

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