Kara no Kyoukai (Kara no Kyoukai) is a long adventure novel authored by Kinoko Nasu, the scenario writer for Type-Moon, which became famous through its games Tsukihime and Fate/stay night. In 2008, Type-Moon announced that the novel would be adapted into a 7-part featured film.

Below is the first part of a review of the novel from the website Libra: Constellation of Aleksey, translated by Sarah Neufeld:

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The French association of comics, critics and journalists, Association des Critiques et des journalistes de Bande Dessinée, has released its annual report on the state of the comics industry in France. Below is a partial translation of the report by guest translator Loup Solitaire:

2007, VITALITY AND DIVERSITY
A year of comic books in the European French-speaking territory

by Gilles Ratier, secretary-general of the ACBD
French to English translation by Loup Solitaire, mangavore
Adapted by Anthony Andora

I. Production: growth continues for the 12th consecutive year: 4,313 comic books were published in 2007 (of which 3,312 strict novelties), a growth of 4.4 %.
II. Publishing: more players on the market, which is a sign of vitality: 254 publishers published comic books in 2007, while only 17 groups account for 74 % of the production.
III. Optimization: 90 series enjoyed enormous mises en place and continued to rank among the best sellers, all book genres included.
IV. Translation: 1,787 foreign comic books (of which 1,371 from Asia and 253 from USA) were translated: a slight decline of 0.67 % from last year.
V. Adaptation and media influence: comics continued to adapt literary works (96 books in 2007), while inspiring other means of expression more and more.
VI. Magazines: presence of 77 specialized magazines in kiosks and bookstores while comics found a new creative field in internet publishing.
VII. Deceases and accolades: 13 French-speaking creators died in 2007 and some 128 works dating from more than 20 years have been republished.
VIII. Gratification: despite everything, 1,357 comic book authors continue, all the same, to make a living from their occupation.

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Recently the head editor of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, Masahiko Ibaraki, published a column on Nihon Keizai Shimbun called "25 Years of Me and Shonen Jump." In the column, Ibaraki talks about his life for 25 years as the editor-in-chief of Shonen Jump.

The Reminiscence of My 25 Years with Shonen Jump
- by Masahiko Ibaraki: Editor-in-Chief of Shonen Jump

I joined Shueisha in 1982 and was appointed to the Shonen Jump editorial department. Shonen Jump is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and I've been spending 25 years in the same place.

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Coming in on the heels of Newtype USA's cancellation arrives PiQ, ADV's new entry into the magazine industry. Boosting content that reaches out to a broader audience, PiQ leaves the anime-focused style of Newtype for a wider spectrum of content including video games, comic books and popular television series.

"The primary goals of PiQ are to share and celebrate the love we have for these particular forms of entertainment with our readers, as well as shine a light on those often-overlooked projects, artists, creators and studios throughout the entertainment world." - PiQmag.com

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The Mandana Tsushin (Manga Bookshelf Transmissions) Blog ponders who is the busiest mangaka, and has written a series of articles listing the achievements of some of the busiest mangaka in history.

I received a note to the effect that George Akiyama might have been even busier. Thank you, V Hayashida-sama and Sugaya-sensei.

Certainly, George Akiyama's 1970 was really something. I've put things in order using the George Akiyama's Hidden Room site for reference.

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The Mandana Tsushin (Manga Bookshelf Transmissions) Blog ponders who is the busiest mangaka, and has written a series of articles listing the achievements of some of the busiest mangaka in history.

In the previous entry's comment column, it was pointed out to me that I'd neglected to mention the 1970s mangaka Shinji Mizushima. Oops... I did, didn't I. So I did some investigating on him.

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The Mandana Tsushin (Manga Bookshelf Transmissions) Blog ponders who is the busiest mangaka, and has written a series of articles listing the achievements of some of the busiest mangaka in history.

Who do you think was the busiest mangaka in the history of Japanese manga (meaning, I suppose, in the history of the entire world)?

Tezuka or Ishimori, Yokoyama or Akatsuka or Mizuki?

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Takehiko Inoue, creator of Slam Dunk, Vagabond and REAL, visited the newly opened Kinokuniya bookstore in New York City on November 19, 2007 to draw a special wall art.

An interview with Takehiko Inoue was recently published in Shueisha's Jump Square magazine.

Below is a brief translation of the interview:

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When something has come to an end, it becomes an excellent time to take a moment and look back on where it started and where it's been. With the February release of the March 2008 issue marking the final English publication of Newtype, it seems worth doing just that.

The original Newtype was launched in Japan by publishing company, Kadokawa Shoten, and named after a term in the Gundam universe for the next stage of human evolution. The first issue was for April 1985, released in early March of that year. A collection of images, columns and news made Newtype a hit, one that even to this day remains much the same magazine that attracted anime fans of the 80s. Since its debut, there have been a variety of Newtype spin-offs including one dedicated to older audiences and another for live-action Japanese media. A version of Newtype was also published in Korea in 1998 and continues to this day alongside its original Japanese predecessor.

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TokoToko Editor's Misc. Note, a blog run by a female manga editor who has been in the business for over 15 years, has posted a multi-part article titled "The Reason I Quit as a Manga Editor." Below is a translation of the epilogue of the article:

The Reason I Quit My Job as a Manga Editor Epilogue

From here on, the contents aren't exclusively related to manga editors, so I'm calling it an epilogue. Ignoring all the ins and outs of the story, if you said I ran away from becoming a manga editor, you'd be right. But I don't think "running away" was really the wrong choice. (Although I did quit my job at the first publisher I worked for as though I were running away, so in a way, I might've spent most of my life running.)

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