Heisei Democracy, a blog "devoted to the latest in news, reviews, and opinion on the two-dimensional culture of Japan, with particular emphasis on the media (anime, manga, console games), ero (eroge, eroanime, eromanga, doujinshi), and hobby (PVC figures, garage kits, analog games) sides of the industry, and the culture and events surrounding them", has been inactive since September 2008. A few days ago, an announcement was posted announcing that the blog will resume operation.

Also, Ikimashou.net, another great otaku blog covering Japanese anime, manga, games and otaku culture in general that got its domain stolen at the beginning of 2008, is now back in action as well, and has made a post detailing what happened to the blog.

In early December, former animeOnline news editor Gia announced the launch of Anime Vice, a new community-based anime site with sibling sites Giant Bomb (gaming) and Comic Vine (comics).

Also, a bit late, but Yaoi Press has moved its blog to a new address.

Finally, Manga Recon's Senior Manga Editor Katherine Dacey is stepping down, replaced by Michelle Smith.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Comic book publishing studio eigoMANGA, announces the launch of its redesigned web site, eigoMANGA.com. With a new stylized look and feel, improved navigation for fewer clicks, better coordination with its other microsite channels, and an assortment of interactive components, eigoMANGA's revamped site promises users a memorable and engaging online experience.

The refreshed version represents the progressive direction of eigoMANGA's branding efforts to streamline its brand presentation. "It took us over two years to develop the new site," said Austin Osueke, eigoMANGA's Publisher and CEO. "We wanted to develop a fun site that fans would love to visit again and again but also provide just enough company information for retailers and businesses. But still, we were thinking about the fans first when we were putting this site together".

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After a long period of hiatus, ComiPress' Backstage feature is finally back! This time, the featured site is YaoiSuki is a news and information website founded by Jen Parker and Jordan Marks dedicated to yaoi, also called BL or Boy's Love, an genre aimed toward women that focuses on love between to male characters.

Within a few years, YaoiSuki became the premier information site on yaoi, and its users enjoyed its news, reviews, columns, wiki and various contests. However, on March 1st 2008, YaoiSuki's Jen Parker announced that the site would cease operation, thus ending one of the most successful English yaoi site on web. What kind of site was YaoiSuki? What went on behind the scenes? And what led to the site's demise? Read on to find out!

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Web Boutique Offers Extensive Collection Of Products Based On Popular Anime And Manga Properties Including BLEACH, NARUTO And DEATH NOTE

San Francisco, CA, April 29, 2008 ??? VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has redesigned its official online store at http://store.viz.com.

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Voting for the first Anime Blog Awards is now closed, and the results of the nomination can be found on this page.

Christopher Butcher's Comics212 is 6 years old!:

It's 6 years to the day since I started blogging at Comics212. I'm a considerably better writer at this point, I think. I actually started writing a column for 212.net in December if 1997, so I guess that was my official serialized writing debut (10 years!), but it wasn???t until April 23 2002 that the blogger software roared to life. :)

According to MangaBlog, Word Balloons, a new group blog aimed at comics for children has been recently launched:

Recently, I became aware of a hole in the blogosphere: Nobody seemed to be blogging regularly about children's comics. I mentioned this to a couple of like-minded folks, and the next thing I knew, Word Balloons was born. [...] Word Balloons will go beyond manga to cover kids' comics in all their glory, including classy graphic novels, cheap and garish floppies, and even webcomics.

According to an announcement from AnimeOnDVD (which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year) founder Chris Beveridge, AoD will be sold to Mania.com:

AnimeOnDVD is very much a community effort and I have a fantastic staff of volunteers who plug away at all manner of reviews and work within the forums. But at the end of the day, it comes down to what I can do with it. And I want to do a lot more with it which is why I decided to sell the site to the folks at Mania.com who I???ve known for several years now. Working with them, I and the entire staff will be taking this site into their larger platform where we???ll be heading up their anime and manga platform.

Also, AoD has now switched its forum software from FusionBB to vBulletin.

The first Anime Blog Awards is now underway:

The Anime Blog Awards is a bridge to highlight the best blogs in their various genres. We hope that the awards can celebrate the excellence of great anime blogs within the anime blogosphere. We also believe that this award will fulfill its desire to promote new or excellent blogs that should be given more attention.

To vote for your favorite blog, you need to own or contribute to a blog yourself. Nominations will end on April 22nd. Included in the award is a category for manga blogs. Go here for more rules.