DEATH NOTE AND DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME Based On Popular Anime And Manga Series That Have Taken Japan And North America By Storm

San Francisco, CA, September 18, 2007 VIZ Pictures, an affiliate of VIZ Media LLC that focuses on Japanese live-action film distribution, has announced that it has licensed from Nippon Television (NTV) the North American theatrical and DVD distribution rights to the live-action feature film DEATH NOTE and its sequel, DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME, based on the DEATH NOTE anime and manga series which have gained massive followings in Japan and North America. VIZ Media is the exclusive North American publisher and distributor of the DEATH NOTE anime and manga series.

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From Newsarama comes an interview with Tokyopop editor Tim Beedle, who talks about the company's exclusive deal with The Jim Henson Company to produce original graphic novels based on fantasy titles like Return to Labyrinth and Legends of The Dark Crystal.

Via: MangaBlog

San Jose, CA, September, 2007. DrMaster has reacquired the rights to the popular zombies-and-vampires action-comedy, Dark Edge by Yu Aikawa. Volume 7 will be released April 2007, with volume 8 following in July 2008!

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Anime news and review website Active Anime has announced a new contest:

Win the Chibi Vampire Manga Vol. 1 - 4 and the two volume novels. The manga is rated OT (16+), so contestant should be at least 16 years or older to enter the contest. To participate, send an email to chibi(at)activanime(dot)com with your name and information. One winner will be announced on September 30, 2007. US and Canadian residents only. One email per contestant only.

MangaNEXT has announced three more guests for this year's event that's taking place from October 5 to October 7:

MangaNEXT is pleased to announce three more guests for 2007, Jason Thompson, Hiroki Otsuka and Mari Morimoto. Jason Thompson's favorite manga genres are horror, battle manga and romantic comedies. From 1996 to 2006 he worked as an editor at VIZ Media LLC, where he supervised the English editions of Dragon Ball Z, Shaman King, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Secret Comic Japan, Uzumaki, Tekkonkinkreet, SHONEN JUMP magazine and many other titles. His book Manga: The Complete Guide, an encyclopedia of all the Japanese comics released in America, comes out from Del Rey on October 9. He has also written for Otaku USA, The Comics Journal, Animerica and PULP. He draws the web comic The Stiff at www.mockman.com.

According to DMP's latest blog post, due to licensing issues, future volumes of Robot will most likely not be released (originally announced at AX07):

Unfortunately, we had sad news that we announced previously at Anime Expo 2007. Due to some licensing issues, we will most likely not be seeing Robot Vol. 4 +. In a nutshell, it's pretty much stuck in "licensing hell".

We're very dissapointed in the news and apologize to all the fans of the series.

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StarTrek.com is reporting that Tokyopop will hold a series of promotional events from September 13 to October 6 in Southern California to promote its new Star Trek The Manga: "Kakan ni Shinkou".

Source: ANN

Plus travel gear for your trip to Japan, contests and reviews in Episode 49!

GRIMES, IA, September 14, 2007 - Anime producer and mega-online anime retailer Right Stuf, Inc. is pleased to welcome the webmaster of AnimeCons.com, Patrick Delahanty, to episode 49 of ANIME TODAY!

Delahanty - who is also a founder of Anime Boston and the upcoming Providence Anime Conference - helps the podcast expand its convention coverage with an overview of the extensive information found at AnimeCons.com, a discussion of anime convention trends and advice for first-time con-goers.

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ALC Publishing, the world's only publisher of 100% Yuri will be premiering the newest Yuri manga anthology, "Yuri Monogatari 5," at Yuricon's 2007 "Yurisai" event on September 29, 2007 at the Newark Gateway Hilton.

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Digital Manga Publishing recently created an account on the popular social networking website MySpace. DMP's MySpace news blog can be found here.

Source: Active Anime