(LOS ANGELES, July 6, 2007) – Seven Seas Entertainment is proud to announce that Hollow Fields creator Madeleine Rosca is one of four winners presented with Japan's first ever International Manga Award. A total of 146 works from 25 countries were submitted and Rosca, a 26-year-old former librarian from Tasmania, Australia, was one of four winners, and the only westerner, to be flown to Japan to receive her award.

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According to Square-Enix's official site, an important announcement regarding Masahiro Totsuka and Aguri Igarashi's Bamboo Blade will be made in the upcoming issue of Young Gangan (7/20).

Japanese anime studio Production I.G. has issued a press release announcing that it will acquire manga publisher Mag Garden on December 1st, 2007 through a stock swap.

Production I.G., which currently owns close to 15% of Mag Garden shares, plans to acquire the remainder with one Mag Garden share being exchanged for 0.5 shares of Production I.G. As a result Mag Garden will be delisted from Tokyo Stocks Exchange's "Mothers" Market.

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Top 10 manga (7/04) according to Tohan:

1. Neon Genesis Evangelion, Volume 11
2. Nodame Cantabile, Volume 18
3. Kaze Hikaru, Volume 22
4. B.O.D.Y., Volume 10
5. Rozen Maiden, Volume 8
6. Oh My Goddess!, Volume 35
7. Ai Hime ai to Himegoto, Volume 3
8. Kyou Sou Heaven, Volume 3
9. Parfait Tic!, Volume 21
10. Saiunkoku Monogatari, Volume 2

Additional Rankings:

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According to the Japan Media Arts Plaza's official website, this year's Japan Media Arts Festival will take place in Shanghai, China in order to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan relations.

According to the announcement, this year's festival, taking place from 8/19 - 8/26 in Shanghai Sculpture Space, will be different from the past. The event will showcase winning works from past festivals in order to present to Chinese fans "The joyous culture created by Japan."

Go here for a list of manga that will appear at the festival.

Amazon.co.jp as released its '07 First Half Books Ranking. Below is a list of the manga and light novels that made it into the top 20 as well as their ranks:

#3 - Nodame Cantabile Volume 17 by Tomoko Ninomiya
#4 - DDD Volume 1 by Kinoko Nasu (Type-Moon)
#5 - Suzumiya Haruhi no Bunretsu by Nagaru Tanigawa (story); Noizi Ito (art)
#7 - Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 16 by Hiromu Arakawa
#8 - Yotsuba&! Volume 6 by Kiyohiko Azuma
#16 - Pluto Volume 4 by Naoki Urasawa
#18 - Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu Volume 4 Limited Edition (Comes with Haruhi figure, SOS pedestal and 3 postcards) by Gaku Tsugano (art)

Nodame Cantabile Volume 14 also ranked #1 in Amazon.co.jp's 2006 Top 10 Manga Ranking.

Below are the top 10 Manga and top 10 Light Novel rankings:

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Two new series will start in the upcoming issues of Weekly Shonen Jump:

• Issue 32 (7/9)
  - Belmondo Le VisiteuR by Shoumei Ishioka
• Issue 33 (7/14)
  - SKET DANCE by Kenta Shinohara

Also, Yoshio Sawai's Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo ended in Weekly Jump issue 31, which went on sale 7/2.

According to Ultimatum, Aoba Shuppan's hamster manga magazine Hamster ceased publication after its August issue was released on 6/23.

Archer is a popular character from Type-Moon's visual novel Fate/stay night. In the game, he is the Servant (someone who fights for his or her master) of Rin Tosaka, one of the series' main female casts. Archer is a skilled fighter at projectile weapons, and has a Reality Marble (think of a special sorcery that creates an alternate reality) called "Unlimited Blade Works." To activate "Unlimited Blade Works," Archer first needs to complete a special chant.

Due to Archer's popularity, many variations of his chant can be found around the web made by fans.

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The official site of the previously reported Jump Square has finally been launched at jumpsq.shueisha.co.jp/ (the page was previously unavailable).

Also, according to the official site and this magazine scan, works by the following author will appear in the new "Supreme Quality Manga Magazine" that will replace Monthly Shonen Jump:

• Nobuhiro Watsuki
• Hajime Kazu
• Fujiko Fujio (A)
• Norihiro Yagi (Claymore)
• Hiroyuki Asada (Tegami Bachi, also known as Letter Bee)
• Kousuke Masuda (Gag Manga Biyori)
• Masanori Katakura (A new manga, Kurohime will be serialized on Jump SQ's website)
• Akihisa Ikeda (Rosario + Vampire)
• Hiroyuki Kaidou
• Katayama Kentaro X Yamamoto Yamato
• Masanori Morita X Takeshi Obata

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