According to a blog post of its editorial department, Akita Shoten's manga magazine Champion Red Ichigo will become a bi-monthly magazine starting with Volume 2, to be released on June 5th.

From MangaCast comes the translation of a new article from Takeshi Ishizawa, a Japanese who have spent a long time living in Indonesia. The article, "Depth of Japanese Mangas - Tabi Manga on Bali," looks at traveling notes for tourists and manga about Bali.

From ANS comes an article on two of the largest anime events in Japan, the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) and the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF). According to the article, the Tokyo International Anime Fair is currently considering the coverage of manga:

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Hobby Japan has announced that it will release manga series based on Queen's Blade in Japan. The first series, titled Queen's Blade Bitoshi Gaiden, will be released in April. The manga will be fully colored and come with an accompanying drama CD. A Queen's Blade manga anthology will also be released in late April. Other accessories such as mousepads and figurines are also being planned.

Source: ICv2

Manga top 10 according to Tohan.

1. Bleach, Volume 27
2. Naruto, Volume 37
3. Detective Conan, Volume 57
4. Ouran High School Host Club, Volume 10
5. Eyeshield 21, Volume 24
6. One Piece Yellow Grand Element
7. To-LOVE-Ru, Volume 3
8. WORST, Volume 17
9. Vampire Knight, Volume 5
10. Blue Dragon Ral Grado, Volume 1

According to a survey conducted by Oricon, Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump is the favorite manga magazine among Japanese female readers (the survey was conducted among 2,933 young Japanese female readers). Shueisha's shoujo manga magazine Monthly Cookie came in second, followed by Margaret and Hana to Yume.

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Japan will be holding its first annual Manga Proficiency Test on June 17th. The test is divided into many categories for people ranging from regular fans to professionals:

The test is divided into many categories and levels [...] for beginners to professionals, including general (4 levels), manga character (3 levels), manga story (3 levels), manga drawing technique (3 levels) and manga assistant (2 levels).

Source: Manga Jouhou

Kodakawa Shoten's 2007 Light Novel Award is now open to public voting. The award contain five categories:

• Love Comedy category
• School Life story category
• Action category
• Mystery category
• Novelize category

According to the awards page, those who vote will receive a chance to win gifts:

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From MangaCast comes the translation of a new article from Takeshi Ishizawa, a Japanese who have spent a long time living in Indonesia. The article, "Depth of Japanese Manga - TOYO Kataoka and MIURA Yasuto," looks at mangaka Kataoka Toyo and Yasuto Miura and their respective drawing styles.

The results of the school textbook authorization of 2006 were announced on March 30th in Japan. "Manga Textbook" appeared on the results as a Mathematics II textbook for high schools. However, the textbook's publisher, Keirinkan, had to delete more than half of the manga-related contents the draft version of the textbook.

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