Kodansha's Kiss editorial department will be launching a special issue of Kiss titled Kiss PLUS. The first issue of the new magazine will be released on February 8th, 2008, and will be published on a bi-monthly basis. Kiss PLUS, like Kiss, will aim at female readers in their twenties and thirties.

Sources: Kiss News and Comitia

Manga publisher Ichijinsha will launch a new 4-koma (4-panel) manga magazine titled Manga 4Koma KINGS Palette Lite, a sister publication to Ichijinsha's other 4-koma magazine, Manga 4Koma KINGS Palette. The new magazine will be published on a monthly basis, with the first issue scheduled to be released on March 1st, 2008.

Source: Manga 4Koma KINGS Palette's editorial blog

Yukiru Sugisaki's D.N.Angel will resume serialization in the April issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Asuka (2/28).

Ritsu Miyako's Shinrei Tantei Yakumo is coming to an end in the March issue of Hakusensha's Bessatsu Hana to Yume.

Also, a new one-shot from Kaori Yuki titled Camelot Garden will appear in the April issue of Bessatsu Hana to Yume (2/26).

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TokoToko Editor's Misc. Note, a blog run by a female manga editor who has been in the business for over 15 years, has posted a multi-part article titled "The Reason I Quit as a Manga Editor." Below is a translation of the epilogue of the article:

The Reason I Quit My Job as a Manga Editor Epilogue

From here on, the contents aren't exclusively related to manga editors, so I'm calling it an epilogue. Ignoring all the ins and outs of the story, if you said I ran away from becoming a manga editor, you'd be right. But I don't think "running away" was really the wrong choice. (Although I did quit my job at the first publisher I worked for as though I were running away, so in a way, I might've spent most of my life running.)

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The late mangaka Shotaro Ishinomori has entered the Guinness Book of World Records on January 23rd for being "the mangaka with the world's largest number of published books (manga)."

Shotaro Ishinomori, who passed away on January 28, 1998 of heart failure, is the creator of popular works such as Cyborg 009 and Kamen Rider. In his career, Ishinomori has published over 770 titles, which amounts to over 500 volumes of manga. Last year, Kadokawa Shoten announced the Ishinomori Shotaro Complete Comic Works, a republication of all of Shinomori's works in 12 separate issues.

Source: Nikkan Sports

ANN reports that Animate, one of the largest retailer of anime, games, and manga in Japan, is buying (PDF) a 11.31% stake in Broccoli, a publisher of manga, games, music, owner of the retail chain Gamers and the parent company of U.S. manga publisher Broccoli Books:

the two companies are forming a partnership through a new joint venture called AniBro. ANIMATE has obtained 3.7 million shares, or 11.31%, of Broccoli from the Digital Adventure company. Although the value of those shares have not been officially announced, 3.7 million Broccoli shares were worth about 250 million yen (US$2.3 million) at the close of trading on Wednesday.

From business news website Bloomberg.com comes an article titled "Manga's Doe-Eyed Girls, Ninja Boys Woo U.S. Comic-Book Readers" that looks at recent manga trends:

While manga magazines and books sold 1.26 billion copies of 70,000 titles in 2006, domestic sales have been falling for 12 years. The comikets are the perfect place to discover a new artist with the potential for a global mega-hit like the shonen manga for boys named "Naruto" or the shojo manga for girls called "Fruits Basket."

Via: Japanator

The nominees, chosen from manga released in 2007, for the 2008 Manga Taisho (Manga Grand Prize) have been announced:

• Umi Machi Diary 1 Semishigure no Yamugoro by Akimi Yoshida
• Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga
• Gaku by Shinichi Ishitsuka
• Kinou Nani Tabeta? by Fumi Yoshinaga
• Kimi ni Todoke by Karuho Shiina
• Koukoku no Shugosha by Daisuke Sato and Yu Ito
• Tomehanetsu! Suzusato Koukou Shodoubu by Katsutoshi Kawai
• Natsume Yuujinchou by Yuki Midorikawa
• Himawari -Ken'ichi Legend- by Akiko Higashimura
• Flower of Life by Fumi Yoshinaga
• Moyashimon by Masayuki Ishikawa
• Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma

Source: Anime! Anime!

The winners of the 53rd Shogakukan Manga Awards have been announced.

Children's Category:
- Keshikasu-kun by Noriyuki Murase
Serialized in CoroCoro Comic (Shogakukan)

Boys' Category:
- Diamond no Ace (Ace of Diamonds) by Yuuji Terajima
Serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine (Kodansha)

Girls' Category:
- Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu by Kotomi Aoki
Serialized in Sho-Comi (Shogakukan)

General Category:
- Kurosagi by Takeshi Natsuhara (Story) and Kuromaru (Art)
Serialized in Weekly Young Sunday (Shogakukan)

General Category:
- Bambino! by Sekiya Tetsuji
Serialized in Big Comic Spirits (Shogakukan)

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Top 10 manga (1/23) according to Tohan:

1. Detective Conan (60)
2. Hayate the Combat Butler (14)
3. Mahou Sensei Negima! (21)
4. Kekkaishi (19)
5. Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE (22)
6. Fairy Tale (8)
7. Shinshi Doumei Cross (9)
8. V.B. Rose (11)
9. Inuyasha (52)
10. The Wallflower (20)

Additional Rankings:

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