August, 2007

A panel called Tezuka in the USA: A Manga Publishers' Forum will take place on August 16th (today!) at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco:

The panel will be moderated by Alvin Lu of VIZ Media (publisher of Tezuka's Phoenix), and will include speakers Anne Ishii of Vertical (publisher of Buddha), Carl Gustav Horn of Dark Horse (publisher of Astro Boy), and Ian Robertson of VIZ Media. Speakers will discuss the experience of bringing Japan's "God of Manga" to American shores and how Tezuka's influence continues to pervade the current manga boom in the US.

Source: MangaBlog

The following manga appeared on the USA Today Booklist Top 150 (PDF) for the week ending August 12th:

Del Rey Manga has completely revamped its official website. Visit Del Rey's official forum to discuss the new design.

Source: AoD

Akiba Blog reports that Graphsha has released a new cookbook book from "otaku princess" Yunmao Ayakawa called Otaku Meshi Cooking. The new otaku cookbook aims to teach otaku how to cook for themselves.

Source: Kotaku

Icarus Blog points out a report from the Sun of Australia that a man was fined $9,000 after being convicted of smuggling pornographic anime, games and possibly manga during a trip back from Singapore.

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From ComicBitsOnline comes an article titled "Manhua, Manhwa & Manga," which takes a brief look at the history of Hong Kong comics -- also known as manhua.

Via: MangaBlog

In the latest issue of PWCW, Kai-Ming Cha takes a look at Korean publisher YoungJin.'s educational imprint, Y.Kids, which recently released a line of educational manga aimed at children between 9 to 12:

All Y.kids books are original material, produced specifically for the English-speaking market in left-to-right reading format and in full color. Marciniak said he expects this will make Y.kids material more palatable for educators and give the publisher a competitive advantage.

Okazu, one of the "oldest and most comprehensive blog for Yuri anime and manga reviews, information and events" celebrated its 5th anniversary today:

Today is a milestone. Five years ago today I wrote the first Okazu post. In it, I explained why I chose "Okazu" as the title of my blog [...]

Pfizer Incorporated, the pharmaceutical company that produces sildenafil citrate, otherwise known as Viagra, is currently serializing a manga titled Nisemono? (Fake?) by Hiroshi Motomiya on its Japanese homepage. The manga aims to help men who are suffering from erectile dysfunction.

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From Comics in the Classroom comes an interview with Jason Thompson, who talks about about his upcoming book Manga: The Complete Guide, which will be released by Del Rey in October.

Source: MangaBlog

From ICv2 comes an article on Yen Press and some of its recently licensed manga. The article also touches on Yen Press' new manga anthology, which will debut in the summer of 2008 and will feature a mixture of translated and original stories.

Intriguing Fantasy Story About Adventure, Growing Up, Friendship, And Family Bonds Will Captivate A Wide Range Of Readers

San Francisco, CA, August 14, 2007 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, continues to expand its VIZ Fiction imprint with the latest publication of the novel BRAVE STORY by popular Japanese author Miyuki Miyabe. The book is offered as a hardcover edition at a suggested retail price of $23.99 and is now available through retailers nationwide.

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San Jose, CA, August, 2007. DrMaster Publications Inc. and DGN Productions Inc have announced that the long, arduous wait is over! SVC CHAOS SNK VS CAPCOM is now available in stores around the nation! This is the comic adaptation of the popular video game by SNK PLAYMORE and Capcom, two of the heaviest hitters within the video game industry!

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topPopular shojo mangaka Mayu Shinjo will be starting a new series titled Midnight☆Children in Shueisha's Bessatsu Margaret (Betsuma) September issue (8/11).

Also, Mayu Shinjo announced on her blog that she is now in charge of creating illustrations for the official Gundam SEED/Gundam SEED Destiny mobile website, SEED Club Mobile. Mayu Shinjo used to publish Gundam doujinshi, and now she will be creating official illustrations for the website of the popular mecha series.

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topA new manga from Eiji Nonaka titled Hataki will begin serialization in Kodansha's Evening issue 18, on sale 8/28.

Eiji Nonaka is known for the manga Cromartie High School, which won the 2002 Kodansha Manga Award for Shonen Manga, and was nominated for the 2006 Eisner awards for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material.

Source: Ikesan from FR-NEO RE

Hit Supernatural Action Series To Be Made Domestically Available Via High Quality Download

San Francisco, CA, August 13, 2007 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, has announced it has secured from TV Tokyo and Shueisha the download rights to the hit supernatural action anime series BLEACH™. Twenty episodes of both the dubbed and subtitled versions of the series will be made available for download in the United States beginning on August 31, 2007 on direct2drive.com and totalvid.

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Japan Foundation Brazil (Fundação Japão São Paulo) is currently promoting a lecture called "Beginning of Japanese animation in the televisions" that's taking place in Brazil, which will analyze the origin of Japanese animation.

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The Most-Promising Private Technology Ventures to be Celebrated at Event in Hong Kong

San Francisco, CA, August 14, 2007 – Red Herring Magazine announced today that ComiAsia has been short listed frontrunners of the Red Herring 100 Asia 2007 awards. The top 100 winners will be announced at the Red Herring 100 Asia event in Hong Kong, on August 29-31.

The Red Herring editorial team carefully selected the finalists based on criteria such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their ecosystem.

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From Comicsnob comes the "Consolidated Online Manga Sales Rankings for 10 August" based on figured from Amazon, B&N, BAMM, Chapters and TRSI:

1. Bleach
2. Naruto
3. Fruits Basket
4. Warriors (single volume)
5. Death Note
6. Tsubasa
7. Fullmetal Alchemist
* Dark Hunger – Feehan (preorder) (single volume)
8. Absolute Boyfriend
* Making Comics – McCloud
9. Yotsuba&!
10. Ouran High School Host Club

There's a rumor going around the internet that adult manga publisher Touen Shobo and its subsidiary firm, Tsukasa Shobo, have filed for bankruptcy. Touen Shobo published an adult manga magazine called Comic Jumbo, which was suspended on July 6th (August issue).

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Kodansha has released volume 2 of DDD, a novel by Type-Moon's Kinoko Nasu, under its Kodansha BOX Imprint. When volume 1 of DDD was released, Kodansha's Editor-in-Chief praised the novel by saying: "This person (Nasu), is a genius!" This time, the editor comments that this is the "2nd chapter of the master piece representing the zero generation."

Sources:
- Akiba Blog
- Akihabara Channel

Dijima, the same company behind Comic Gumbo, has announced a new seinen magazine called Comic Akibana. A limited number of a preview Issue 0 of the magazine will be distributed in Akihabara this October.

Shueisha has updated Jump Square's official site with more info on the magazine's launch and manga lineup.

Also mentioned on the site is that 3 special Claymore compilation books will be released in September, October and November respectively to celebrate the launch of Jump SQ.

Jump SQ's initial lineup can be found below:

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According to an e-mail announcement, Anne Ishii, Vertical's marketing manager, is leaving the manga publisher later this month, and will be replaced by Steve Vrattos.

Source: The Comics Reporter