A special Suzumiya Haruhi telephone card featuring exclusive artwork from Noizi Ito is given to those who purchase the Complete DVD Box Set of Suzumiya Haruhi. Due to the series' popularity, most DVD Box Sets were sold out on the day of release, as a result, the exclusive telephone card can now be found on auction sites, selling for as high as 30,000 yen.

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Gengoroh Tagame is a manga artist who specializes in BDSM and erotic manga. His works include G-men, Gunji, SM-Z, and more, most of which contain graphical violence and sex scenes. Recently one of Gengoroh Tagame's manga, Arena, was reviewed by the French newspaper Libération. In his blog, Tagame writes about his surprise when he found out Libération included with the review uncensored illustrations from his manga, most of which would have never made it to print media in Japan.

*Note links in this article may contain explicit materials that are NSFW, you have been warned.

Review and Illustrations Appear in French Newspaper Libération

A few days ago, I received an English email that read:

"I'm the writer of a French newspaper called Libération. I'm planning to write a review of your manga "Arena," which will include some of your illustrations. Could you send some of the high-resolution images on your website to me?"

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Celebrating Corocoro Comic's 30th anniversary, a special event will be held by Shogakukan at the Suginami Animation Museum in Tokyo from February 27 to May 27. Events will include screenings, autograph signings and displays of original manuscripts from Corocoro Comic.

Source: Toon Zone

Manga top 10 according to Tohan.

1. Bleach vol.26
2. D.Gray-man vol.10
3. Eyeshield 21 vol.23
4. Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu vol.6
5. Kimi ni Todoke vol.3
6. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Meakashi-hen vol.1
7. To-LOVE-Ru vol.2
8. Fruits Basket vol.22
9. Holyland vol.14
10. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Yoigoshi-hen vol.1

Two new series will start in Weekly Shonen Champion No.12, on sale 2/15:

Mighty Heart by Seishirou Matsuri
OutlawTaxi - Red Lightning by Yu Yagami

Illustrator and manga artist Kazuhiro Watanabe (56) passed away on February 6th due to liver cancer. Watanabe has created illustrations for magazines and series such as Izumi Asa Jin No Tsuukin Kai Doku.

Source: Sankei Web

On January 26th, eBookJapan's I-Book Initiative Japan launched its "Shojo Manga Certification" project, a project to test one's knowledge of shojo manga. Josei Jishin, a vulgar magazine for women, also carried the feature in a recent issue.

The test, supervised by mangaka Machiko, contains questions on recent popular shojo manga titles such as Nodame Cantabile, Honey and Clover, Sailor Moon and Chibi Maruko-chan, as well as classics like The Rose of Versailles and Patariro.

Source: YuYu Diary

Issue 8 of Weekly Shonen Sunday came with a "Butler Certification." The feature is part of a special effort to celebrate Hayate the Combat Butler's anime adaption.

In the questionnaire, series creator Kenjiro Hata made up many interesting questions, "wonderful prizes" such as a Nintendo DS will go to those who receive a high score.

In January, a manga appeared on Yahoo! Auction with a starting bid of 1,000,000 yen. The manga in question is Fujiko Fujio's first manga Utopia - The Last World War, published in 1953 under the pen name of Ashizuka Fujio. In the end, the extremely rare and valuable manga was sold for 1,500,000 yen to the highest bidder.

Source: Animated Cartoon

MangaCast translates the weekly BL Doujinshi ranking in Japan (02/03) according to Toranoana's BL specialty store Princess Side.