In the world of Moe-education, first there was Moetan (English), then came Moe Economics (Economics), Kabu de Ikou! (Stock Trading), Tsundere Linux (Linux), and most recently Moe X Shogi (Shogi). This month Nihon Bungeisha released a new moe-themed cookbook titled "Love Cook - Maid Cafe in Your Home -". The cookbook contains 126 full-color pages filled with recipes of the most popular foods found in today's maid cafe, such as Mapo Tofu, Beef Curry, Peperonchino (a kind of coffee), and more.

MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking in Japan (12/02) according to Toranoana Akihabara, compiled by Akiba Blog (NSFW).

This month Japan experienced its largest outbreak of infectious gastroenteritis, mainly caused by norovirus, in 25 years.

In the latest Jump TOC, a quote from Katsura Hoshino, creator of D.Gray-man, read: "Sorry for carelessly contracting the norovirus, I will work even harder next year!" (不覚にもノロウィルスにやられてしまいました。来年は今年の何倍も頑張ります！). D.Gray-man will be absent in Weekly Shonen Jump No.3 (12/18). According to the TOC, the manga will return in Weekly Jump No.4+5.

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Clamp in Wonderland EX, a new one-shot from CLAMP, will appear in the 2/1 issue of Take Shobo's manga anthology Kindai Mahjong, on sale December 28th.

Source: CLAMP-Net.com

The 2006 World Manga Exhibition, which is taking place in the newly open Kyoto International Manga Museum from 11/25/2006 to 1/14/2007, showcases over 1,000 manga from around the world.

On December 11th the exhibition announced that over ten thousand admission tickets have been sold. As a special treat, the 10,000th visitor received a free ticket to the exhibition.

According to this announcement, Kenjiro Hata's Hayate the Combat Butler will be adapted into an anime TV series in 2007.

Hayate the Combat Butler is a comedy manga famous for its numerous crossovers and "easter eggs." Currently the manga is being published in the U.S. by VIZ Media.

Sansai Books has released a new otaku-oriented mook titled Modern Visual Culture Research. The mook contains information on the latest otaku trend, including reports on the otaku culture in found in anime, manga, games, novels that were released in 2006.

Asa Higuchi's baseball manga Ookiku Furikabutte will be adapted into an anime TV series in 2007. More information will be available in the January issue of Animedia (1/10). Ookiku Furikabutte, which won the 10th Osamu Tezuka Cultural Award's New Ho

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In its latest article, Mainichi Daily News explains how the main character of Nodame Cantabile, a popular shojo manga by Tomoko Ninomiya, is based on a a music college student named Megumi Noda.

The winners of the 2006 Japanese Media Arts Festival have been announced. One grand prize, four excellence prize, and one encouragement prize were given in each of the four categories. A total of 1,808 works were submitted from both inside Japan and around the world.

The special achievement prize was given to Akira Daikuhara (Animator) for his contribution to the media arts.

The winners in each category were:

Art Division:
- Grand Prize: Imaginary Numbers by Keiko Kimoto
- Excellence Prize: Xman vibration
- Excellence Prize: OLE Coordinate System
- Excellence Prize: front
- Excellence Prize: MediaFlies
- Encouragement Prize: Sagrada Familia Plan

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