In late 2006, Leiji Matsumoto accused J-Pop singer Noriyuki Makihara of plagiarizing lyrics from the Galaxy Express 999 manga, and announced that he would like to hear an apology from Makihara.

Now Makihara Noriyuk has filed a 22 million yen lawsuit against Leiji Matsumoto for "repeated demands for an apology and false accusation."

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In 2005 Fuji TV introduced a new anime programming block called "noitaminA" (Animation backwards). In early 2006, an anime titled Ayakashi ~Japanese Classic Horror~ (怪 ～ayakashi～ ) was aired on noitaminA. Ayakashi, based on three classic Japanese horror stories, attracted many fans due to its unique style, however, the anime was fairly short and soon came to an end.

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animeOnline reports that Osamu Akimoto's Kochira Katsushika-ku Kamearikouen-mae Hashutsujo, or KochiKame, recently had its 1,500th chapter published on Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump. First released in 1976, KochiKame is currently the longest running manga in the world.

MangaCast translates an article from Takeshi Ishizawa, a Japanese who have spent a long time living in Indonesia. The article, "Depth of Japanese Mangas - Preface," provides an introduction to the Japanese manga culture, and goes on to explore the comics and manga scene in Indonesia.

A new manga based on the anime Gurren-Lagann will begin serialization in MediaWorks' Dengeki Gao! June issue. The manga, titled Maiking Breakthrough Gurren-Lagann, will be drawn by Kotaro Mori, creator of Stray Little Devil.

Via: Majoria's News

According to the latest "Sunday Backstage" (where Shonen Sunday manga artists write their rants) Hayate the Combat Butler creator Kenjirou Hata currently has some trouble with his right hand.

From Sunday Backstage Vol.123 03/20/2007:

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According to Shogakukan, issue 17 of its seinen manga magazine Young Sunday will come with an original joint-illustration made by Rumiko Takahashi and Mitsuru Adachi.

The illustration, which features Azusa Satomi (from Adachi's Idol A) riding on Kosaku Hatanaka (from Takahashi's One-Pound Gospel)'s shoulders, was created earlier this month for an auction to benefit the city of Yuubari in Hokkaido. The event was part of Shogakukan's campaign to celebrate Young Sunday's 20th anniversary.

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Rabbit Valley, an online anime/manga shop, has announced that it will drop all CPM/Be Beautiful products from its catalogue due to the recent copyright issue with Libre Publishing:

NOTICE - Pirated works removed
It has come to the management's attention that several items we sold by the publisher "Central Park Media" doing business as "Be Beautiful" were not authorized, licensed reprints of an artist's work. We have pulled the following items from our catalog: "Golden Cain," "Embracing Love Volume 1," and "Selfish Love" volumes 1 and 2. It is the policy of Rabbit Valley (R) Comics to NEVER endorse piracy of any kind. Until the licensing issue is cleared up, these items have been pulled from the site. Further information is available from the original Japanese publisher's website at http://www.b-boy.jp/info17.html.

Source: Icarus Blog

Two movie adaptations of Tsutomu Nihei's Blame! were announced during the Tokyo Animation Fair. The two movies consist of a full 3D CG movie that will experience a theatrical release, and a shorter movie that will be released on DVD.

Tsutomu Nihei's response to the adaptations: "I'm glad to have the original made so fruitfully into these movies. The feelings of dark and hopelessness is very well portrayed. I stopped drawing half a year ago to participate in this project."

Via: Manga Pontification

An anime adaptation of Zombie-Loan by PEACH-PIT (DearS and Rozen Maiden) has been announced. The official website of the anime will be launched on 4/18, but is current available at www.zombie-loan.com.

Zombie-Load is currently serialized in Square-Enix's shounen manga magazine GFantasy, and so far 7 volumes have been released in Japan. Zombie-Loan has been licensed in the U.S. by Yen Press.

Via: animeOnline