Japan

imgJapanese blog Umeboshi Chaduke points out a recent proposal submitted by a certain child protection society, which aims to prevent "evil practices against children." The file submitted proposed plans to deal with products that contain depiction of sexual activities involving children (Lolicon) in Japan.

Yutaka Takehana, the Metropolitan Police Life Safety Director, has given his full support for the implementation of this policy. However, it remains to be seen whether the proposed policies will actually be implemented as part of the child pornography law in Japan.

Below is a brief description of the report (PDF):

1. Current Condition:

  • To manage and reinforce existing child protection laws as much as possible.

2. To promote efforts of independent publishers and content providers:

  • Publishers, stores, bulletin board managers, content providers, etc.:

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The same blog that released scans of Takeshi Obata's new Weekly Jump series a few days ago has released another scan. According to the new scan, Obata's new series will be called Blue Dragon: RaruΩGurado. There has been no official confirmation regarding the new series, and the scans posted has not yet been confirmed to be authentic Jump scans.

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On the evening of November 15th, Ken Ishikawa, renowned as the co-creator, with Go Nagai, of Getter Robo series, passed away at the age of 58. The cause of death was acute heart failure.

Tokyo Sanseisha will be releasing two new adult manga magazines this winter:

November 16th - LOVESPO Comic (ラブスポコミック)
December 16th - Comic International (コミックインターナショナル)

imgIkaros Shobo, known for its many moe-related books such as Moe at Tank School, recently released a new book called Introduction to the Magic of Shogi, a book that teaches its readers how to play shogi through seven cute characters. Although the book is scheduled to go on sale on November 6th, many copies appeared in stores on November 1st.

According to Akiba Blog, a note on the cover of the book:

The amazing content of this book is something that cannot be found in traditional shogi books. Seven beauties transform themselves into shogi pieces to teach you the difficult rules of shogi, how to use each piece effectively, and secret techniques to winning shogi games. You will be able to learn shogi by trying to find out more about the girl you like.

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The first issue of Comic choiS! (NSFW), a new bi-monthly adult manga magazine from Akane Shinsha, was released on November 9th.

On September 29th, a celebration was held at an Italian restaurant in Tokyko for Hirohiko Araki celebrating his 25th year as a mangaka. Hirohiko Araki debuted in 1981 with the manga Buso Poker, he has since then created many works, one of the most well-known of which was JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, a long running shonen manga that's currently serialized in Ultra Jump (under the name Steel Ball Run).

One of the highlights during the celebration was "JoJo Gymnastics," during which Hirohiko Araki performed various scenes from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure with great enthusiasm. Below are a few shots taken during the show:

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Shuiesha has recently announced the manga adaption of the XBox 360 RPG Blue Dragon. The new manga, called "Blue Dragon ST," will be drawn by Ami Shibata (Nangoku Shounen Papuwa-kun, Freeman Hero) and will begin serialization in the January issue of Monthly Shonen Jump, on sale December 16th.

Blue Dragon is a XBox 360 game developed by Mistwalker, under the direction of Hironobu Sakaguchi (father of the Final Fantasy series), and features artwork from Akira Toriyama.

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The first issue of a new bi-monthly josei magazine from Poplar Sha, called Comic Pianissimo, will be released on 11/11. The magazine will serialize novels and manga and will sell for 390 yen.