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topTokiwa-so (トキワ荘) is an apartment building in Shiinamachi, Tokyo, where now legendary but then up-and-coming mangaka such as Tezuka Osamu, Shotaro Ishinomori (Ishimori) and Fujio Akatsuka once lived, worked together, shared knowledge, and basically meeting up with colleagues and pitting their skills against each other.

In 1954, two young mangaka, Hiroshi Fujimoto and Motoo Abiko, moved into Tokiwa-so. The duo, better known by their pen name of Fujiko Fujio, worked alongside the likes of Tezuka, and went on to create Doraemon, which became one of the best-selling manga in the world. While Fujimoto, also known as Fujiko F. Fujio, passed away in 1996 due to an accident, Abiko, Fujiko Fujio (A) is still active in the manga scene.

An interview with Fujiko Fujio (A) was recently published in Shueisha's Jump Square magazine. In the interview, Fujiko Fujio (A) talks about the days he spent at Tokiwa-so, as well as his memories of his colleagues:

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topTokoToko 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 fifth and final part of the article:

The Reason I Quit My Job as a Manga Editor Part V

So, I quit as a manga editor and became a professional editor. Just as my trial period at the professional job was up, I was accepted as a contracted employee at the company I'm with now. I was skeptical about the "contract" bit, but it did mean my pay would go up, so I went for the cash.

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topMagazine Data 2007, the 2007 edition of the Japan Magazine Publishers Association (JMPA)'s guide guide ti Japanese magazines, was released at the end of November.

The data book comes with data on 436 magazines from 57 publishing companies in Japan. The guide lists each magazine's format, forms of publication, dates, price and more, with each magazine categorized by genre. Moreover, each entry includes a brief description of the magazine from its Editor-in-Chief.

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topOne Piece by Eiichiro Oda is one of the most popular shonen manga today. Serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump, the manga has a circulation of over 100 million.

Tsuredure Thoughts has written an article on the science found in One Piece, 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 One Piece.

Science Fiction One Piece
- I knew Luffy's comrades were something special~

Am I right in assuming you've heard of the manga One Piece?

As I write this, it's a popular manga being serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump. There's also an anime which airs every week on Sunday.

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topManga Zombie, written by Udagawa Takeo, was published in Japanese in 1997 by Ohta Shuppan. The book covers a range of thirty-one Japanese manga artists active primarily in the 1960s and 70s. Some of the artists are relatively well-known in the English-speaking world, while others are famous or cult figures only in Japan. However, they are all, in some sense or other, "outsider" artists and figures of the sixties and seventies cultural underground. Most of them spent the bulk of their careers in short-lived magazines oriented towards graphic sex and violence, like Manga Erotopia. Some, however, saw success in more prestigious publications like Garo and mass-circulation mags like Shonen Jump.

The selection of artists was made by Udagawa Takeo on the basis that they represent the most authentic and exciting work being done in the medium before market forces (in Udagawa-san's point of view) squeezed the artists' freedom of expression to an absolute minimum in the late seventies.

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topKara 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.

The novel was first published at Comiket 61 in 2001, and was later re-released by Kodansha in 2004. At the end of 2006, Type-Moon announced that Kara no Kyoukai will be adapted into a 7-part movie series by ufotable under the title Kara no Kyoukai ~Garden of Sinners~.

As Kara no Kyoukai is being fully animated for the big screen, Karzu, an impassioned fan of Kinoko Nasu, got to talk to him about this and that. The 2-part interview was published on Akiba Blog in September. Below is the English version of Part 2 of the interview.

[Karzu SP] Interview with Master Kinoko Nasu concerning the theatrical version of Kara no Kyoukai: Part 2

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topKara 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.

The novel was first published at Comiket 61 in 2001, and was later re-released by Kodansha in 2004. At the end of 2006, Type-Moon announced that Kara no Kyoukai will be adapted into a 7-part movie series by ufotable under the title Kara no Kyoukai ~Garden of Sinners~.

As Kara no Kyoukai is being fully animated for the big screen, Karzu, an impassioned fan of Kinoko Nasu, got to talk to him about this and that. The 2-part interview was published on Akiba Blog in September. Below is the English version of Part 1 of the interview.

[Karzu SP] Interview with Kinoko Nasu Concerning the Theatrical Version of Kara no Kyoukai: Part 1

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topKumoricon took place on September 1st - 3rd. One of our staff, Sarah, was able to attend the event and return with lots of pictures and reports. Since we aren't known for our convention-reporting skills, we thought we'd try something different.

In our report, you'll find a map for each of the convention floors. Hover your mouse over the map, and pictures taken at that location will pop up. Clicking on the pictures, and a short report may pop up (make sure to enable Javascript!).

This is still an experimental feature, and is not as polished as we had originally planned. Please let us know what you think!

topTokoToko 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 part four of the article:

The Reason I Quit My Job as a Manga Editor Part IV

If you don't try something for yourself, you won't be able to understand: that's how it is with everything.

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topThe actions of a few Korean internet users have been arousing criticism from within South Korea. The internet users in question created parodies that describe the Taliban, which abducted 23 Koreans and killed one of them, as nice people known as "Tsundeban."

As of July 27th, several parodies were uploaded onto a website called DC Inside, a popular forum in South Korea that specializes in photos and images.

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