Dengeki Maoh has cooperated with Toranoana and Animate to create a list of the 15 top selling anime, manga and light novels of 2006. The results were published in the February issue of Dengeki Maoh.

*Animate and Toranoana are two of the largest BL/moe/otaku stores in Akihabara.

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MangaCast reports that the seinen manga Sexy Voice and Robo by Iou Kuroda will be adapted into a live drama starting April 23, and will run every week on Nippon TV. Matsuyama Kenichi will be playing the role of Robo.

In the latest issue of MediaWorks' Dengeki Maoh, an announcement was made that Persona 3, a popular RPG game from Atlus, will be adapted into a manga series. The new series will begin in the April issue of Dengeki Maoh (2/27), and the artist will be Sokabe Shuuji.

Hideo Ogata (73), Animage's first Editor-in-Chief, passed away on January 25th due to stomach cancer. Ogata was involved in the planning of the Legend of the Galactic Heroes movies, and in 1978 founded Animage after joining Tokuma Shoten. Today Animage is one of the best-selling anime magazines in Japan.

Source: Mixi (Requires registration)

Manga top 10 according to Tohan.

1. Detective Conan vol.56
2. Mahou Sensei Negima! vol.17
3. Fruits Basket vol.22
4. Air Gear vol.16
5. Tenjo Tenge vol.16
6. Fairy Tale vol.2
7. Shinshi Doumei Cross vol.6
8. Inuyasha vol.48
9. Kekkaishi vol.15
10. Life vol.14

Recently Digital Femme published two articles via MangaBlog) regarding Japanese manga and discrimination against black people. In response, Japanese blog Dekadenbiyori posted its own view on the matter.

The article looks at racial expression involving black people in manga through a Japanese fan's perspective. *Note that the post on Dekadenbiyori was written by a Japanese blogger for a Japanese audience.

Discrimination in Japanese Manga

I recently picked up an image from a manga. Can anyone tell what's wrong with this image? This picture has aroused criticism from a blog in the U.S. Can anyone tell (addressed to the Japanese fans) why this picture is being criticized?

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The first issue of a new shojo manga magazine from Futabasha was released on 1/24.

The magazine, titled Comic Mahou no iland (Island) (COMIC?????????i?????????), will serialize manga based on popular mobile novels (cellular phone novels).

The magazine will be released on the 24th of every month, at the price of 550 yen.

Kaworu Watashiya's manga Kodomo no Jikan is currently one of the most talked about moe/loli manga in Japan. According to an announcement in Futabasha's manga magazine Comic High! (released on 1/22), the cover wrap of the third volume of Kodomo no Jikan, to be released on 2/10, will contain a major announcement regarding the series.

While the content of the announcement is still being kept a secret by Futabasha, many speculate that the announcement will either be an anime adaption, a live-action adaption, a drama CD adaption, or a video game adaption.

Kodomo no Jikan is currently being published in the U.S. by Seven Seas under the name Nymphet. The first volume will be released in April 2007.

January 31st marks the deadline of Kodansha's 2nd Penguin Illustration Contest. All original illustrations dealing with penguin are accepted, winner of the grand prize will receive 300,000 yen.

NariNari.com has posted a list of the top selling weekly magazine in Japan in 2006, while only three manga magazines appeared on the list, Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump took the No.1 spot. Note that the sales information are based on figures from the Bunkyodo store, and does not represent the entire Japanese market.

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