Animanga in the News: 4/2/11

Hey there! :) Sorry, I was on vacation yesterday and had to have one of the temps, itoken1-san, help with the news... It seems like though he tried his darnedest, it wasn't quite up to standard, language-wise. So I've redone yesterday's news and you can read it here! ^_^



Here you will find a run down of today's anime and manga news! If anything major happened the anime and manga world today, you'll find it in this post! By the way, I'm saladesu, one of the translators and global moderators of MH, and I'll be posting a post like this every day (as much as possible, anyway). Look forward to them ;)




Unlike sportsmen and idols, mangaka are celebrities who hardly step into the public spotlight. There are also numerous mangaka who don't use their real names, but instead go by pen names. And among those, there are a surprising number of female mangaka who use pen names that make one assume they are male.

The female mangaka that made the most people go "eh, you mean he was actually a she!?" with her male-sounding pen name is Satou Fumiya, the mangaka of the hit manga "Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo", which was also made into an anime and live-action drama. Her face has appeared on some of the books in the "Kindaichi~" series, and she made the headlines when she ran for the national elections and drew her own character illustrations on her election posters. Even now, many people still believe her to be male.

Another female mangaka often thought to be male is Arakawa Hiromu, best known for her huge hit manga "Fullmetal Alchemist". It appears that although she doesn't make it a point to make her gender obvious, it is obvious through the interviews and such published in magazines that she is a female.

In addition, many other mangaka who write major shounen series are also female, such as Tanabe Yellow, who wrote "Kekkaishi", and Yamamoto Kazuki, who wrote "God Hand Teru". The full rankings are as follows:

1. Satou Fumiya (Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo)
2. Arakawa Hiromu (Fullmetal Alchemist)
3. Amako Soubee (Nintama Rantarou)
4. Ooshima Tsukasa (Shoot!)
5. Tanabe Yellow (Kekkaishi)
6. Yamamoto Kazuki (God Hand Teru)
7. Makimura Satoru (Oishii Kankei)
8. Higuchi Daisuke (Whistle!)
9. Hoshino Katsura (D.Gray-Man)
10. Urushibara Yuki (Mushishi)
11. Sasakura Ayato (Shakugan no Shana)
12. Sugimoto Ikura (Summer Wars)
13. Nakamura Hikaru (Arakawa Under the Bridge)
14. Kubo Mishirou (Moteki)
15. Minekura Kazuya (Saiyuki RELOAD)
16. Kindaichi Renjuurou (Jungle wa Itsumo Hare nochi Guu)
17. George Asakura (Koibumi Hiyori)
18. Minami Q-ta (Sayonara Midori-chan)
19. Kazu Hajime (MIND ASSASSIN)
20. Sasakura Kenichi (Dragon Drive)

original source





In the May issue of Silky Special (Hakusensha) that goes on sale today, 2nd April, mangaka Abiko Miwa, known for her manga "Mikan Enikki", drew a short piece depicting her experience in the Touhoku earthquake.

Abiko lives in inland Miyagi prefecture, so she did not actual experience the tsunami itself. However, the 4 pages depict in great detail what it was like to feel the whole room rocked by the earthquake. This is her contribution and cheer for the police and self-defence force who are even now still working on the rebuilding of the affected areas.

This piece can also be read at the Hakusensha official web site as a webcomic.

original source





Mangaka Nakajima Tooru died of colon cancer on the 26th of March at the age of 47. His gag manga "Pro no Hitorigoto" was serialized in Big Comic Original from 1989, and his other representative work was "Sekuhara Kachou no Tsubuyaki".

original source



Please note that there may be delays in the broadcasts or releases of certain anime and manga following the quake. You may see a list of affected publications here, here, here and here (new).



If you would like to help in finding and translating news of this nature, please contact saladesu via PM ^^ Feel free to PM me any interesting bits of anime or manga news you find floating around the internet, too.