Kodansha USA will republish Sailor Moon manga!

After being 6 years out of print, this publishing company decided to republish Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon magical girl manga and its two-volume prequel Codename: Sailor V starting this September. The former has been condensed into 12 bi-monthly "deluxe-edition" volumes (from its original 18), and two more volumes of short stories have been added.

The new edition — with "new cover art, retouched interior art and dialogue along with extensive bonus material from Takeuchi" — is based on the 2003 Japanese re-release of the manga.

Sailor Moon is a classic anime series which ran from 1992 to 1997.

Which are the highest circulating manga magazines for 2010?

US Shonen Jump, January 2011, in shelves now! 

The Japanese Magazine Publishers Association showed today the latest chart pertaining to the top circulating manga magazines, taking the period between October 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010.

Weekly Shonen Jump by Shueisha definitely came on top with 2,876,459 million of readers, followed closely by Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine with 1,571,063, losing quite a bit from last year.

Coro Coro Comic Shogakukan 950,834

Monthly Shonen Magazine Kodansha 847,250

Weekly Shonen Sunday Shogakukan 678,917

Weekly Shonen Champion Akita Shoten 500,000

Jump Square magazine by Shueisha remains with a respectable 360,000, despite having great cult mangas such as Ultimo and Ao no exorcist.

In seinen mangas, Young Magazine by Kodansha is the absolute leader with 807,871

And Ciao mangazine by Shogakukan is the leader in shojo manga with 745,455 of estimated readers.

Aa! Megami-sama OAD trailer available!

The DVD containing the series will come out along the limited edition copies of the 42nd volume of this classic story by Kousuke Fujishima.

Akamatsu: "ad-supported distribution of manga is the only way to counter illegal distribution"

The author of Love Hina announced at a press conference this Monday  that the Japanese publishers Shueisha and Kodansha are collaborating with his manga distribution site, J-Comi.

J-Comi just launched as a beta version at the end of November with the release of Love Hina series on the 26th and so far it has registered more than 1.7 million downloads as of last Friday.

Akamatsu said at a press conference last Monday that "manga is an exportable resource. I think the ad-supported distribution of manga is the only way to counter illegal distribution."

37 Japanese publishers will distribute digital manga in North America

The Managing Director of Shueisha publisher, Kazuhiko Torishima, announced yesterday in the Denshi Shoseki Comic Summit that there's a project in development called tentatively 'J Manga', which will be a site that will give access to its users to mangas from 37 Japanese Publishers.

It is estimated that the fully operational site will be launched on March 2011. The beta version of the site is already available.

The list of publishers that will participate in the project are:

Akaneshinsha
Akita Shoten
ASCII Media Works
Bunkasha Publishing
Enterbrain
East Press
France Shoin
Fujimi Shobo
Fusosha
Futabasha
Gakken
Gentosha
Hakusensha
Houbunsha
Ichijinsha
Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha
June-Net
Kadokawa Shoten
Kasakura Shuppansha
Kodansha
LEED Publishing
Libre Publishing
Magazine House
Media Factory
Nihonbungeisha
Oakla Publishing
Ohzora Publishing
Shinchosha
Shinshokan Publishing
Shodensha
Shogakukan-Shueisha
Shonen Gahosha
Tatsumi Publishing
Takeshobo
Tokuma Shoten

Genshiken manga returns in a second part!

Kodansha just announced in its Afternoon magazine that this great series about the lives of otaku in college will have a second part called Genshiken Nidaime or Genshiken II.

The story continues with Ogiue as the president of The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture, known as Genshiken, trying to recruit and manage the new students, and a reappearance of Hato, the lovely and unforgettable cross-dressing character.

This series by Shimoku Kio has had tremendous success with 3 million copies sold and a ready-cut deal with Del Rey that followed for its publication in North America.

If you wanted your perfect manga/anime version of Revenge of the Nerds, this is it for you!

Veteran mangaka Takehiko Inoue delays Vagabond finale

Due to health reasons, the creator of Vagabond and series such as Slam Dunk and REAL, announced that the chapter of this historical manga won't return on Kodansha Morning magazine until September 2, and the finale could be delayed to next year.

He was going to continue and finish this series since the beginning of last month, but he preferred to rest and have some tests to his brain and heart, which fortunately turned out fine.

Vagabond is an ongoing series since 1998, with the most recent volume (the 33rd) published by Kodansha in May of this year.  It is also soon to reach its 300th chapter.

Vagabond is the story of legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto, based on the novels by Eiji Yoshikawa. Despite being depicted as a beast and a murderer, given that his sword style relied heavily on his instint and his strenght, he is depicted here as a key piece between the change of Toyotomi era through the Tokugawa era.

His original name was Shinmen Takezo, but he received the name of Musashi by a Buddist monk called Takuan Soho, which meant a rebirth of his persona and an opportunity to right all of his wrongs. (Samurai X, anyone ^_^)

Kodansha will publish a manga adaptation of Yakuza Moon

Writer and editor Sean Michael Wilson revealed in an interview that he is working in four new manga that will be licensed in English, and one of them is Yakuza Moon (Yakuza na Tsuki), a manga adaptation of Shoko Tendo's autobiography as the daughter of a yakuza, with all that she's been through.

The book will be published first in Japan and then the international release will follow.