Kadokawa Group Holdings has announced its plan to divide Kadokawa Shoten into three separate companies next January.

The three new companies are:

(New) Kadokawa Shoten - The "new" Kadokawa Shoten will take over the publishing and management of "cultural contents" from the "Old" Kadokawa Shoten.
Kadokawa Magazines - Kadokawa Magazines will handle magazine publishing.
Kadokawa Group Publishing - Kadokawa Group Publishing will become the support and supply side of publishing.

Kadokawa Herald Pictures will take over the management of the old Kadokawa's affiliate film business, and Kadokawa Group Holdings will take over Kadokawa's management section. According to Kadokawa Group Holdings, the split is a part of Kadokawa's strategy to specialize its publishing business.

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Arc System Works will release a digitilized version of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Romance of the Three Kingdoms manga Sangokushi (Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi) for the Nintendo DS in December. The manga will be released through the AS Networks, and will come with sound effects and mini games. This release is part of a series called "Gamics," which stands for "Game + Comic."

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2006 marks the 25th anniversary of Kodansha's seinen magazine Weekly Morning. To celebrate, Kodansha has announced the "Weekly Morning's 25th Anniversary Campaign."

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When Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys ended abruptly last April in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits, leaving only a note stating that "the next part of the series will resume in Spring 2007," fans wondered if the series will actually finish.

After months of waiting, Big Comic Spirit has finally announced that the "final chapters" of 20th Century Boys will begin serialization in Big Comic Spirit No. 4+5 New Year's issue, on sale December 25th.

Also announced is a new manga from Tohru Fujisawa (of GTO fame) titled Animal Joe, which will start in issue 3 of Big Comic Spirit, on sale December 18th.

A new series called Yuru Yuru Future by Haruko Kashiwagi will begin in Big Comic Spirit No. 6+7.

Hara Taira (63), a popular cartoonist known for his frequent appearance on the quiz show "Quiz Derby," passed away at a hospital in Fujimi city in the Saitama Prefecture on November 10th. The cause of death was liver failure. The date of the funeral service has not been decided.

Hara Taira has been contributing works to manga magazines since his teens, and he became a mangaka in 1963. His works such as "Gebageba Jihyou" and "Monrou-chan" are known for their nonsense gags and high spirit.

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According to the latest issue of Big Comic Superior, Moonlight Mile by Yasuo Otagaki will be adapted into an anime TV series.

Also announced was that the Moonlight Mile manga is on hiatus due to its author's illness.

The animation Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), directed by Mamoru Hosoda, was nominated as one of the five candidates for the upcoming 2006 Japan SF Grand Prize (Nihon SF Taisho), held by the Japan SF Writers Club.

The other candidates are: Ai no Monogatari by Hiromu Yamamoto, Shangri-la by Eiichi Ikegami, Tenku No Toride by Issui Ogawa, and Barubara Ikai by Moto Hagio.

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A preview of Takeshi Obata's upcoming manga Blue Dragon: Ral ?? Grado has appeared in the latest issue of Weekly Shonen Jump.

[ Blue Dragon: Ral ?? Grado Preview ]

Fruits Basket, the popular shojo manga by Natsuki Takaya, has finally ended in issue 24 of Hakusensha's manga anthology Hana to Yume (final chapter 136). Fruits Basket is currently being published in the U.S. by Tokyopop.

Gentosha released its 2006 mid-term financial report on November 15th.

According to the report, while the domestic Japanese publishing business has been on a decline with the decrease in operating profits and such, Gentosha's revenue is still on the same level as its revenue during the same period last year. Although Gentosha's results this year were affected by the decline of the overall publishing business, the comics business itself showed a positive trend.

The number of books published by Gentosha this year is 12 points higher compared to last year's 98 points; however, the number of reprints have decreased. Sales in the first half of 2006 amounted to 3,864 million yen (-4.3% from last year), and operation profit was 770 million yen (-28.0% from last year).

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