Publication

Japanese publisher Shinchosha will release a new digital magazine titled Com2 on March 23rd. The magazine is said to be Japan's first monthly digital subscription magazine that will be distributed through mobile phones. The monthly subscription fee is 350 yen. According to Shinchosha, English and Chinese versions of the magazine are also being planned for the future. The magazine can also be obtained online through eBookJapan.

According to Mainichi Daily News: "In Japan, several mobile phone Web sites already offer hundreds of novels -- classics, best sellers and works written especially for the mobile phone. Shinchosha's will be the first monthly comic book which is only available online, NHK said."

Source: BroadBand Watch

On March 14th, Enterbrain released a new magazine titled Otona Fami (Adult Famicom). The new magazine, aimed at people between the ages of 20 to 30, contains manga, game, and movies news/reviews, as well as Japanese pop culture reports from the 70s and 80s.

Source: Akadot

Comic Blade2007 marks the 5th anniversary of Mag Garden's shonen/seinen manga magazine Monthly Comic Blade. To commemorate the special occasion, Mag Garden completely revamped Comic Blade's homepage. Also, the April issue of Comic Blade came with with special commemoration playing cards.

Akiba Blog has put together a post featuring covers of all all 60 issues of Comic Blade released since the magazine's Launch in early 2002.

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The official website of Yoshimoto Kogyo's new seinen/comedy magazine Comic Yoshimoto has been launched at www.comicyoshimoto.jp. The frontpage contains a fun Flash feature where visitors can drag and slide around the speech bubbles. According to Yoshimoto Kogyo, Comic Yoshimoto will be released sometime this Spring.

Houbunsha will launch a new magazine titled Comic Yell on May 11th. The magazine will cost 580 yen, and is aimed at "boys of the next generation."

A new magazine titled Comic MoeMax will be launched by Moeru Publishing on April 24th. The new magazine is aimed at adults, and will be every month for 540 yen.

imgAccording to Japan Economic Times, Kadokawa Group Holdings has announced its plan to establish a new content management division, which will handle content copyrights.

From a translation by ANS:

The new company will handle the copyright of about 500 titles, including Tokikake, to start off with. A game unit spin-off will produce the first ever Haruhi Suzumiya video game adaptation as its initial project.

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Shogakukan has announced the suspension of its BL (Boy's Love) light novel label Palette Bunko. The last light novels published under the Palette label were released in December 2006. The Palette Bunko will be replaced by two new light novel labels, Gagaga and Lululu, from Shogakukan in Fall 2007.

MangaBlog reports that Yen Press is planning to publish a new manga anthology sometime in 2008. The new magazine will feature 6 to 8 stories each issues.

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To celebrate the 20th anniversary of its seinen manga magazine Young Sunday, Shogakukan has launched a special anniversary website at YSC20.com.