Prospero's Manga (http://prosperosmanga.blogspot.com/) offers reviews of U.S. releases of manga from all publishers, irrespective of their subject or rating. The reviews are based on the expectations of long-term fans of all graphic novels. After six months in preview, there are already over 100 live reviews on the blog.

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The new comic release list from ComicList, compiled by MangaCast.

Over the past few weeks a few changes were made to various projects, some of you may have already noticed them:

NJR - Today marks the return of NeoSam's NJR and PreAnime, but this time they are combined into one site. The new site, NJR (New Japanese Releases), will provide information on new Japanese light novel releases and the new monthly anime listing (from PreAnime).

ComiPedia - ComiPedia received a new frontpage layout, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Forum - We have launched a new forum, feel free to drop by and chat with us!

News Filter - A better news filter has been implemented to replace the old Sort News page. The news filter is located in the top-left corner of the frontpage.

Yen Press, Hachette Book Group's new young men/adults oriented comic imprint, is looking for an Editorial Assistant:

Editorial Assistant -Japanese Translation Required

Hachette Book Group USA (HBG), a division of Hachette Livre, the third largest book publisher in the world, seeks to fill the position of Editorial Assistant. [...]

Source: MangaBlog

Amazon.co.jp has released a list of the top 10 best-selling manga in 2006:

1. Nodame Cantabile vol.14
2. Manga Ken Kan Ryu vol.2
3. Death Note vol.10
4. Neon Genesis Evangelion vol.10
5. The Five Star Stories vol.12
6. Yotsuba&! vol.5
7. Kyo no Nekomura-san vol.2
8. Shoujo Sect vol.2
9. Pluto vol.3
10. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind 7-Vol Box Set (Wideban)

Celebrate Takumi-kun Series' 15th anniversary, series author Shinobu Goto and artist Kazumi Ooya held an autograph session on December 3rd at Animate Yokohama.

Only those who bought or reserved both "Takumi-kun series Bara no Shita de - Natsu no Zanzou vol.3" (released on November 30th) and "Takumi-kun series Hana Chiru Yoru ni Kimi wo Omoeba" (released on December 1st) at Animate Ikebukuro or Animate Yokohama were allowed to attend on a first-come-first-ser

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Ichiko Ima's shojo manga Hyakki Yakou Shou, currently serialized in Asahi Sonorama's in Nemurenu Yoru no Kimyou na Hanashi, will be adapted into a TV drama in February 2007.

Kai-Ming Cha interviews Hikaru Sasahara, president and publisher of Digital Manga Publishing, in the latest issue of PW Comics Week.

Also available is an interview with Dramacon artist Svetlana Chmakova by Johanna Draper Carlson.

PWCW talks about Dark Horse's past and future in "Dark Horse Celebrates 20 Years."

Last Gasp Publishing and Japanese volunteer group Project Gen together donated copies of Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen to three thousand libraries in the United States.

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LOS ANGELES,12 December 2006: The American Library Association (ALA) and graphic novel publisher Go! Comi announced today that renowned manga artist You Higuri has created an exclusive poster for the ALA's popular poster series. The poster depicts Cesare Borgia, the troubled hero of Ms. Higuri's graphic novel series Cantarella, a dark fantasy set during the Renaissance.

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ANN reports that a maid cafe has opened in Scarborough Ontario by a 24-year old student named Aaron Wang. The new cafe, iMaid Cafe, puts a Chinese twist on the traditional Japanese-style maid cafe.

Source: ANN

Update: Ed points out that the maid cafe has already been around for almost a year.

Volume 12 of VIZ Media's Naruto ranked #147 on this week's USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending December 3rd.

In November, the Golden Dragon Award's organization committee awarded the "Chinese Anime and Manga Life Achievement Award" to the late Chinese comic artist Liao Bing Xiong, who passed away on September 22nd, 2006 at the age of 91. Liao Bing Xiong was famous for his political satires, his works were centered around politics and human rights issues.

The Golden Dragon Award is known in China as the "Anime Oscar," and over 60 works and 30 artists participated in this year's award event. Many foreign works also appeared in this year's award, including Ice Age 2 and Death Note the movie.

Source: Star Daily

Fifth Dimension Ltd is looking for a Professional Manga Inking Artist. The artist will be required to ink final pencil work. It is essential that the artist show experience in manga/anime style. We would like to see examples of ink work only. Interested applicants are required to send samples of their work to email@5DLtd.com and refer to website: www.5DLtd.com for style and standard. Good luck to all applicants.

ANS reports that according to Tohan, Gin Tamashii 3 Nen Z Gumi Gin Hachi Sensei was the best-selling novel in Japan between December 2005 and November 2006:

Japanese publishing industry watcher Tohan has declared the best-selling new novel in Japan for the period between December, 2005 and November, 2006) as "Gin Tamashii 3 Nen Z Gumi Gin Hachi Sensei". Transcribed by Oosaki Tomohito, the novel is an adaptation of the popular Sorachi Eiaki / Shueisha manga. In third place is the Katsura Hoshino manga based D Greyman: Reverse (2) novel written by Kizaki Kaya.

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Deutsche Mangaka has compiled a list of new Global Manga that has been licensed in Germany:

Tokyopop
- "@Large"
- "Dramacon"
- "I Luv Halloween"
- "Peach Fuzz"

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From ActiveAnime: JManga introduces new service - purchasing popular and rare otaku goods that are only sold in Japan on behalf of customers worldwide.

Tokyo, Japan, Dec 11, 2006 - (JCN Newswire) - JManga, a Japanese trader in popular manga, is pleased to introduce a new service - purchasing popular and rare otaku goods that are only sold in Japan on behalf of customers worldwide.

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MangaCast translates the weekly Doujinshi ranking in Japan (12/02) according to Toranoana Akihabara, compiled by Akiba Blog (NSFW).

Manga blog Precocious Curmudgeon is now powered by WordPress.

Anime News Network has a new layout:

Yes, it's true. After 3+ years of our current layout, we've decided that it was time for something new. The new layout incorporates a lot of features that we hope will make the site more intuitive and easier to browse. There are several additional features to go with the new layout that will be introduced to the site over the coming month, we're very excited about some of them, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we think you will. In addition to the new layout, we've also ported much of the site from PHP to Ruby on Rails, this has caused a few glitches, which are currently causing the site to run slow at times. These will hopefully be sorted out very soon. All in all, within a week to ten days, the site should not only be as fast as it used to be, but faster. In the meantime, we would like to thank you for your patience. Let us know what you think of the new layout in the forum or be quick about it and let us know in this poll.

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Newsarama interviews Pop Mhan, creator of Tokyopop's new global manga BLANK.

Source: MangaBlog

Spiral - Suiri no Kizuna, also known as Spiral - Bonds of Reasoning, is a popular detective manga by Kyou Shirodaira (writer) and Eita Mizuno (art) that was published in Square Enix's Monthly Shounen Gangan (the manga ended its run in September 2005), and later adapted into a 25 episode anime series, which aired on TV every Tuesday.

The hero in Spiral is Ayumu Narumi, a genius detective high school boy who uses his powers of reasoning to solve—with ease—problems that seem unbelievably difficult. In the story this hero goes around trying to find his long-lost brother by solving riddles that his brother has left behind... but wait a minute, there seem to be many deductions and actions in this manga that will never happen in the real world. Tsuredure Thoughts has written an article on the science found in Spiral, below is a translation of the article, so un-suspend your suspended disbelief as we tease out the make-believe science that is shown in Spiral - Bonds of Reasoning.

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Go! Comi has posted a 15-page preview of its upcoming manga Train + Train volume 1.

The Beat has confirmed the licensing of Apollo's Song (by Tezuka Osamu) from Vertical:

New York-based independent publisher Vertical, Inc. has announced it is publishing its third Osamu Tezuka property in June 2007. Apollo’s Song will be published as a single-volume graphic novel at approximately 500 pages in length and will follow the same design format as the award-winning classic Buddha, and the runaway hit Ode to Kirihito. Apollo’s Song will have the same trim size as well as an obi-band mini book jacket just like its two American predecessors, and will be published as a trade paperback.

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Los Angeles, CA (December 8, 2006) – Broccoli Books has announced the acquisition of three manga titles, Coyote Ragtime Show, Hakoiri Devil Princess (Japanese title), and Murder Princess.

Coyote Ragtime Show is the manga adaptation of the TV anime series created by ufotable. Franka, the orphan daughter of Pirate King Bruce, has seven days to find her father's hidden treasure before planet Graceland is destroyed. Lead by space pirate Mister, Franka and a rag-tag band of coyotes are on a treasure hunt against Madame Marciano and the 12 SISTERs.

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Japanese Studies K.U.Leuven's blog Japanese Popular Culture has posted an article regarding the drafting of a new classification system for new manga collections.