Canned Dogs is reporting that PEACH-PIT's Rozen Maiden made a brief re-appearance in the latest issue of Shueisha's Young Jump:

Peach-Pit has made a surprise appearance in Young Jump in this week's issue with a one-shot comic called Shoujo no tsukurikata (How to make a girl) about how Shinku was made. [...] It isn't officially serialized in the magazine yet, but there is a note at the end of the comic that says that they will be having a big announcement in next week's issue.

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The latest issue of Shounen Sunday came with a free Sakuya (a character from Kenjiro Hata's Hayate the Combat Butler) card that can be used in Hayate the Combat Butler TCG. New Akiba is reporting that a Hayate fan bought 398 copies of Shounen Sunday in order to get 398 copies of the Sakuya card.

Canned Dogs has more:

He had to travel to 82 different branches of 7-Eleven buying several copies of Shounen Sunday from each branch to complete the task (leaving a few copies so others can get their own copy) [...] 398 is a wordplay on the name "Sakuya", which is why he bought 398 copies.

Anime! Anime! reports that the nominees for the 12th Tezuka Cultural Awards have been announced in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. Ten manga have been nominated for the award, they are:

• Umimachi Diary (1) Semishigure no Yamugoro by Akimi Yoshida [ Shogakukan ]
• Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga [ Hakusensha ]
• Kaijuu no Kodomo by Daisuke Igarashi [ Shogakukan ]
• Nana by Ai Yazawa [ Shueisha ]
• 81diver by Yokusaru Shibata [ Shueisha ]
• Moyashimon (Tales of Agriculture) by Masayuki Ishikawa [ Kodansha ]
• Ushijima the Loan Shark by Shohei Manabe [ Shogakukan ]
• Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma [ MediaWorks ]
• Lucu Lucu by Yoshitoo Asari [ Kodansha ]
• Red by Naoki Yamamoto [ Kodansha ]

The winners will be announced in early May. Go here for last year's winner.

From the Manga Recon Blog comes a "Definitive Guide to Fumi Yoshinaga", which looks at the works of shoujo mangaka Fumi Yoshinaga.

Shoujo mangaka Toshiyuki Suzuki, who draws under the name Kenichirou Suzuhara, has died of ischemic heart disease on February 9th. Suzuhara was an active shoujo mangaka in the 1960s whose manga were serialized in Shueisha's Margaret and other shoujo magazines.

Source: Asahi Shimbun

From Tech-On! comes an interview (Part 1, Part 2) with Tadashi Fukuda, president of Kadokawa Digix Inc., a Kadokawa group company, who talks about the recent deal between Kadokawa Group Holdings Inc. and YouTube/Google which might eventually allow users to upload Kadokawa's official contents to Youtube:

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The Age is reporting that a Japanese online bookstore called Papyless, which sells digital versions of books, is teaming up with Tezuka Production to make at least 448 stories by Osamu Tezuka available for purchase online in digital format:

Papyless, whose website is http://www.papy.co.jp/, said in a statement it would put the works online from March 18.

It will cost 105 yen ($A1.10) to read a volume over 48 hours.

Buying the work online will cost 315 yen ($A3.30) per volume.

Reuters is reporting that UNICEF, the Japan branch of the United Nations Children's Fund, is not satisfied with Japan's recent move to to ban possession of child pornography, and urges Tokyo to include child pornography in manga, anime and games in the ban:

[...] the Japan branch of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) urged Tokyo to beef up its laws by banning child pornography in manga comics, animated films and computer games as well as individual possession.

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Top 10 manga (3/12) according to Tohan:

1. One Piece (49)
2. Hunter x Hunter (25)
3. D.Gray-man (14)
4. The Prince of Tennis (41)
5. To Love-Ru (8)
6. Mx0 (8)
7. Team Medical Dragon (16)
8. Natsume Yuujinchou (5)
9. Kiniro no Corda (10)
10. Oishimbo (101)

Additional Rankings:

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Canned Dogs (via Muhyojo) has news of Kodansha's plans for celebrating Weekly Shounen Magazine's 50th anniversary:

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