E-store Paypy has announced a new digital manga rental service called "E-book Renta!" The new rental service will rent each volume for 100 yen for a 24 hour period.

Via: Manga Jouhou

From MangaCast comes the translation of a second article from Takeshi Ishizawa, a Japanese who have spent a long time living in Indonesia. The article, "Depth of Japanese Manga - Travelogue Comics," looks at mangaka and their adventures around the world when gathering information:

Generally speaking, Japanese like to travel. Naturally, mangaka who do so will often record their trips in the form of manga.

MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking (03/31) in Japan according to Toranoana, and the weekly BL Doujinshi ranking (03/31) in Japan according to Toranoana's BL specialty store Princess Side.

Kyoto Animation has launched a new web magazine called Kyo Ani Bon. According to Kyoto Animation, instead of serializing new manga series, Kyo Ani Bon will serialize 10 promising works that have the potential to be adapted into anime; however, the work to be adapted into an anime will be chosen by the magazine's readers.

Source: animeOnline

"I received a formal warning from Kodansha. As a result I have stopped the distribution of the Moyashimon tool. There is plan to distribute the tool again in the future."

What is the Moyashimon tool? Moyashimon tool is a desktop tool based on Masayuki Ikagawa's seinen manga Moyashimon. The tool's only function was to animate the fungus and viruses found in Moyashimon on your desktop. The tool was pretty yet functionally meaningless; nonetheless, it was well received by others for its cuteness.

In March, Kodansha, the copyright holder of Moyashimon, sent the creator of Moyashimon tool a warning letter requesting that the tool be taken down, or else it will be regarded as infringing Kodansha's copyright.

Read More »

"Child pornography in manga and anime must be eradicated!" - Seiko Noda

On March 29th, the Japanese UNICEF Association, ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes), ECPAT Sweden and the Sweden Embassy held a meeting to discuss "the elimination of child pornography websites, how Sweden should handle this work and the responsibility of Japan."

This symposium was held to discuss the process Sweden is taking to wipe out websites related to child pornography, and to raise people's interests and raise support for banning child pornography websites. During the symposium, the issue of simply possessing (not selling) child pornography, lolicon manga and animations was discussed.

Read More »

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Morning, Kodansha has released a new comic magazine titled Mandala. An "unprecedented" international manga magazine, Mandala contains 15 works by artists from 6 different countries: France, Italy, China, Korea, Singapore and Japan. According to Kodansha:

We will provide color illustrations by elite artist in their full glory, let the "Manga World Cup" begin in this magazine. The future of manga starts from here!

Works featured in Mandala include:

Read More »

TokoToko Editor's Misc. Note, a blog run by a female manga editor who has been in the business for over 15 years, has posted a multi-part article titled "The Reason I Quit My Job as a Manga Editor." Below is a translation of part two of the article:

The Reason I Quit My Job as a Manga Editor Part II

There is a big difference between "what one likes to do" and "what one can do." I realized this when I first faced my own abilities and limits. Although you may say I'm using exaggerated languages, I was really shocked back then. I later changed my career because I believed that "what I like to do" equals "what I can do," which also equals "I am suited to what I like to do as a job."

Read More »

Houbunsha has opened the official website of its new manga magazine Comic Yell! at www.comicyell.com. According to the website, Comic Yell! is "a Shoujo manga magazine for boys," which, as many fans have pointed out online, is quite similar to Futabasha's Comic High!.

It's a common practice nowadays to include free gifts with manga magazines in the form of posters or keychains. However, the latest issue of MediaWork's Dengeki G's Festival came with 3 free gifts that are quite special for a magazine:

1) A pass case featuring Shakugan no Shana S artworks from Noizi Ito.
2) A Shakugan no Shana themed mobile phone screen cleaner.
3) A 155x50cm Shakugan no Shana dakimakura (hug pillow) cover, featuring artworks from Noizi Ito herself.

Read More »