Japan

topAfter Kodansha announced that Comic Bom Bom (also known as Comic Bon Bon) will be suspended at the end of this year. Mangaka and animator Gen Sato, who was closely involved with Comic Bom Bom, has posted on his blog what he believes to be the reason behind Comic Bom Bom's suspension.

Sato mentions that he wasn't surprised to see what happened with Bom Bom. Having been with Comic Bom Bom for over 20 years, Sato warned Bom Bom's editorial department multiple times that the magazine would go under if the magazine only published manga according to its like and dislikes, and did not look objectively at works that readers enjoy. However, his advice was ignored.

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topAccording to Sho-Comi's Editorial blog, the total sales of Kotomi Aoki's manga have reached 10 million units. To celebrate, an Kotomi Aoki autograph session is being held starting July 28th at the KaBoS Okuwa store in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa.

Kotomi Aoki is a popular shoujo mangaka whose manga regularly appear in Shogakukan's Sho-Comi. Boku wa Imouto ni Koi o Suru, Aoki's signature series, have sold over 6 million copies, and was adapted into a live-action movie in January 2007. Other series by Aoki include Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu, Ijiwaru Shinaide!, Ashita, Anata ga Mezame tara, Taiyou ga Ippai and Asa mo, Hiru mo, Yoru mo.

topThe actions of a few Korean internet users have been arousing criticism from within South Korea. The internet users in question created parodies that describe the Taliban, which abducted 23 Koreans and killed one of them, as nice people known as "Tsundeban."

As of July 27th, several parodies were uploaded onto a website called DC Inside, a popular forum in South Korea that specializes in photos and images.

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topBack in May, Tajima T. Yasue (pen name) officially apologized to Shogakukan and Fujiko Production for the now-legendary Doraemon doujinshi, and announced that he will pay an undisclosed amount of money for the settlement based on the sales generated by the doujinshi (rumored to be several million yen).

Many doujinshi creators have criticized Shogakukan for taking legal actions and generally making a big deal out of one doujinshi. Shogakukan responded by saying the doujinshi has sold over 13,000 copies, which has far surpassed the normal sales of a doujinshi, and some people have even started asking if the story was true.

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topLast year Dark Horse celebrated its twentieth anniversary of publishing original graphic works by some of the world's greatest creators. Next year, Dark Horse celebrates their twentieth anniversary of publishing manga in English. This year, at San Diego Comic-Con Dark Horse is proud to announce that these two commitments held for so long have come together. Dark Horse will have the honor of publishing a new original manga created by Satsuki Igarashi, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Ageha Ohkawa.--the manga-ka all-female supergroup known to their millions of fans worldwide as CLAMP.

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Yomiuri Online has published an article looking at the 10th Anniversary of One Piece, according to this translation:

The One Piece manga has reached sales of 140 million copies sold spanning across 46 published volumes, and also boasts the fastest manga to reach 100 million volumes sold. Also, Volume 27 selling a record 2.63 million copies in its first printing.

Some sample scans from the ONE PIECE 10th Treasures can be found here.

The official site of Mag Garden's Comic Blade Avarus (the magazine that will replace Comic Blade Masamune) has been launched. According to the site, any manga in the current magazine that ends with "to be continued!!" will continue to run in Avarus. The first issue of Comic Blade Avarus will be released on 9/15.

A new bi-monthly seijin manga magazine called Buster Comic (NSFW) from TI Net was launched on 7/24.

The second issue of Take Shobo's seinen magazine, Comic Marble, was released on 7/20. It has been confirmed that the magazine will go on a quarterly release schedule, with the third issue coming out in October 2007.

Also, a new seijin manga magazine from Core Magazine called Comic Hotmilk will debut on 8/27.

Source: Ultimatum Tidbits

The Comiket 72 catalog went on sale this week, check Akiba Blog for tons of catalog-related pictures. Heisei Democracy also points out that according to the catalog, Comiket 73 will run from December 29th through the 31st, 2007.

Currently there's a rumor going around Japanese bulletin boards that Kentaro Yabuki (creator of Black Cat)'s To-LOVE-Ru will be adapted into an anime. However, there are currently no solid evidence that suggests an anime adaptation is in the works.

Source: Moon Phase

According to Earl.Box, the popular manga Naisho no Tsubomi by Yuu Yabuuchi will be adapted into an anime next spring.

Naisho no Tsubomi is a sex-ed manga aimed at elementary school students. The manga, with a fifth-grade girl as its protagonist, became extremely popular in Japan and has received many praises.

Via: Japanator