U.S.

From Tiamat's Disciple comes an interview with Yen Press' Kurt Hassler and George Walkley, who talk about Yen Press (which recently renewed its official website), its future, and the manga market in general.

Via: MangaBlog

YaoiSuki has announced the Yaoi Press Suki 2008 Contest, a contest sponsored by Yaoi Press where the winner will receive "five books from Yaoi Press: fresh new editions of Yaoi Hentai 1 and 2, Desire of the Gods, Spirit Marked, and The Aluria Chronicles! [as well as] one of Yaoi Press's new parasols."

New Episodes Of Riveting Supernatural Action Series To Debut In March

San Francisco, CA, January 28, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that the 52-episode second season of the hit supernatural action animated series BLEACH is expected to begin airing on Saturday, March 1 on Adult Swim.

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Submissions for SPJA Awards Now Being Accepted

Anaheim, California (January 28, 2008) ‹ The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA), the overseeing body of the nation's largest anime/manga convention (Anime Expo®), announces a call for submissions for the highly recognized and coveted SPJA Industry Awards. More information can be found on the website www.spja.org.

"The SPJA Board of Directors are proud to stand behind the SPJA Industry Awards. It is a fantastic opportunity for the public to recognize titles and individuals that have made an major impact within the anime and manga industry during the past year," states Mr. Marc Perez SPJA Board chairman.

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Gardena, CA, January 28, 2008 – June Manga invites you to join the Mile High Club in All Nippon Airlines: Paradise at 30,000 Feet by Kei Azumaya!

ANAL - All Nippon Air Lines – is a unique airline company. All of its employees are beautiful gay men. On top of that, relationships between employees, or even between passengers and employees, are highly encouraged! This is of course the premise for many hilarious situations and strange adventures both for them and for their passengers.

"This is pretty much all the staff member's favorite title to work on this year," explains production manager Fred, "It has gotten us into all kinds of trouble with its somewhat controversial title!"

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Los Angeles, CA (January 25, 2008) – Broccoli Books is extremely proud to announce that they have acquired the publishing rights and license for the extremely popular manga series sola by Chako Abeno and the video game-centric manga series Honoka Level Up! written by Akiyoshi Ohta and illustrated by MATSUDA98.

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MangaCast reports that adult manga publisher Icarus Publishing has licensed Yuzuki N Dash's Cheerful Eros Project manga (the title can be found on Icarus Publishing's "Retail Product Schedule/Order Code" page). Some samples of the manga can be found here (NSFW).

Three Of The Hottest Animated Action Series Sweeping North America Offered With Convenience, Flexibility And DVD Quality

San Francisco, CA, January 25, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced the availability of three of its most popular and successful animated action series – NARUTO Uncut, DEATH NOTE and BLEACH – for digital download from Amazon UnboxTM, Amazon’s digital video download service. Amazon Unbox offers customers thousands of television shows, movies and other innovative video content from numerous studio and network partners from Hollywood and around the world. This service can be found at www.amazon.com/unbox.

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From Channel NewsAsia come an article on how manga helped a kid come back to school:

While the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) is her immediate route to a great graphic artist, Sam has her sights on bigger things. She hopes to enroll in top design schools in the United States for her degree, and work in Japan in future to produce top notch Manga for comic lovers around the world.

Source: MangaBlog

Featuring A Reader's Choice Vote And Exciting Contest In Partnership With MYX!

San Francisco, CA, January 24, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced that its Third Annual SHOJO BEAT Music Awards Issue features a reader's choice vote and a new, exclusive contest in conjunction with MYX, the first and only music lifestyle channel focused on the Asian American market. The February issue, on sale at retail outlets now, offers a host of new surprises and exciting editorial content sure to delight even the most discriminating fan.

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