Manga Forever, an Italian website about comics and animation, conducted an interview with manga artist Go Nagai during a comic convention in Naples (at Castel Sant'Elmo) called Comicon 2007. A translated version of the interview by Manga forever can be found here.

Manga top 10 according to Tohan.

1. Cat Street, Volume 6
2. Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu, Volume 7
3. Kamen Rider Spirits, Volume 12
4. Detroit Metal City, Volume 3
5. Tony Takezaki presents GUNDAM Manga, Volume 2
6. Kekkaishi, Volume 16
7. Parfait Tic!, Volume 20
8. Pride, Volume 7
9. Air Gear, Volume 17
10. Crimson Hero, Volume 17

Alchemist has opened the official website of Shounen Alchemist, a free online magazine that serialized light novels. The first light novel made available on the site is Chiko Chiko BANG! ~Kimagure Dai-ni Shikkoubu~ (ちこちこBANG！～気まぐれ第二執行部～) by Shin Takase. Currently the prologue and the first 2 chapters are available to the public:

- Prologue
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two

ANN reports that according to a recent poll from Oricon, manga rental stores are having trouble making their presence known. Only 24% pf the poll said they were aware of manga rental stores, 41.4% said that they weren't aware of the manga rental services, while 34.6% have heard about manga rental, but did not know where and how to access the service.

MangaBlog points out that the Japanese government will be bringing Keiji Nakazawa's manga Barefoot Gen to the Preparatory Committee For 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in Vienna, Austria.

Barefoot Gen is about the story of a boy surviving and witnessing the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima after World War II.

The Tezuka Cultural Awards official site has been updated with the nominees for the 11th Osamu Tezuka Culture Award. Eight manga have been nominated for the award, they are:

• Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga [ Hakusensha ]
• Osaka Hamlet by Hiromi Morishita [ Futabasha ]
• Koukoku no Shugosha (Imperial Guards) by Story: Daisuke Sato; Art: Yu Ito [ Shueisha ]
• Danchi Tomoo by Tobira Oda [ Shogakukan ]
• Death Note by Story: Tsugumi Ohba; Art: Takeshi Obata [ Shueisha ]
• Hyouge-mono by Yoshihiro Yamada [ Kodansha ]
• Maihime Terpsichore by Ryoko Yamagishi [ Media Factory ]
• Moyashimon (Tales of Agriculture) by Masayuki Ishikawa [ Kodansha ]

The winners will be announced on May 10th. Go here for last year's winner.

MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking (04/29) in Japan according to Toranoana, and the weekly BL Doujinshi ranking (04/21) in Japan according to Toranoana's BL specialty store Princess Side.

Gentosha has re-launched its online manga magazine Genzo in the CD-ROM format. Genzo will be distributed by Gentosha through CD-ROM every month, free trial of the magazine will also be available on Genzo's website.

The June issue of Monthly Shonen Jump came with another letter from its Editorial Department regarding the suspension of Monthly Jump. The letter also contains more information on the future of the magazine's serializations:

Gag Manga Biyori, Rosario + Vampire and Tegami Bachi are all going to be moved to Weekly Shonen Jump. After the launch of the new magazine, these works will be serialized in the new magazine.

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Hirohiko Araki (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Baoh) gave a lecture at Tokai Junior & High School in Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture last year. The lecture was transcribed/compiled by @JOJO, Japan's premier site for JoJo-related news.

Due to its length, the article was broken down into several parts. In Part I, Araki talked about his past and motives. In Part II, Araki talked about his drawing style. In the third and final part, Araki answers questions presented by his audiences.

*The questions (and Araki's answers) contain many references to Araki's works, some knowledge of JoJo and Araki's other series may be required.

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