On June 10th, 4-koma mangaka Taizo Yokoyama (90) passed away in his home in Kanagawa Prefecture. The cuase of death was pneumonia. Taizo Yokoyama is known for his 4-koma (four-panel) political manga Shakai Gi-hyou (Social Satire).

Source: Yomiuri Online

The World Cosplay Summit Brazilian Stage took place on June 9th, and the winners are Marcelo and Thaís, who cosplayed as Naraku/InuYasha and Sesshomaru.

Brazilian publisher JBC, who promoted the event, used the occasion to introduce its new manga: Death Note. JBC's Julio Moreno announced that they plan to unveil two more titles soon, one shoujo and the other shonen.

A full report of the event can be found on Papo de Budega.

Source:
- Papo de Budega
- Shoujo Cafe

The Japanese blog "Justification of Information, Print Media or Story Addiction" (Information Addiction) has posted an article looking at the total number of pages of manga that appears in magazines monthly. According to a study from Media Research Center published in May, currently the total number of pages manga magazines in Japan carry sums up to approximately 102,411. A translation of the article can be found here.

Kadokawa Shoten has opened the official site for its BL (boy's love) light novel label Ruby Bunko at: www.kadokawa.co.jp/ruby/

The official website of Comic Yoshimoto has finally been launched by Yoshimoto Kogyo at: www.comicyoshimoto.jp/
*Note www.comicyoshimoto.jp has been around for a while, but the website had no content until now.

Tokuma Shoten has opened an official website for Animage at: www.tokuma.co.jp/animage/

This year's New York Asian Film Festival features the East Coast premiere of DEATH NOTE and DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME with director Shusuke Kaneko in attendance. Both movies will be presented in association with JAPAN CUTS – Festival of New Japanese Film and they will take place at Japan Society (333 East 47th Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues). Advanced tickets go on sale Thursday, June 7. Please go to www.subwaycinema.com for more details.

Read More »

Dengeki Online and Ultimatum Talk report that ToraDora! and Ookami to Koushinryou, two light novel series published under MediaWork's Dengeki Bunko label, will be adapted into manga.

ToraDora! will be drawn by Zekkyou and will begin serialization in the September issue of Dengeki Comic Gao! (July 27), while Ookami to Koushinryou will be drawn by Koume Keito and will serialize in Dengeki Maoh starting with the November issue (September 27).

Source: LightNovel.org

From Reuters comes an article titled "Foreign manga artists face tough challenge in Japan", which looks at the obstacles foreign students face while attending schools for manga in Japan.

Via: Journalista

According to Type-Moon's Fate/Zero website, the release date for Fate/Zero volumes 3 and 4 have been pushed back to July/late 2007.

According to the message, volume 4 of Fate/Zero was originally planned for the Summer Comiket. However, it became difficult to satisfactorily finish the volume before the deadline, so the release date has been pushed back to later this year.

Read More »

A recent poll from Oricon asked men and women in their 20s to 40s the following question: "Which manga master character would you like to learn work from?"

Below are the results:

18.4% - Anzai-sensei (Slam Dunk)
12.3% - Master Roshi (Dragon Ball)
8.4% - Kakashi Hatake (Naruto)
6.9% - Karin-sama (Dragon Ball)
6.0% - Genkai (Yu Yu Hakusho)

Read More »

According to Shueisha, with the release of volume 4, the tankoubon sales of Kentaro Yabuki's To-LOVE-Ru (currently serialized in Weekly Jump) has official crossed over the 1,000,000 mark.