Animanga in the News: 5/1/11

Here you will find a run down of today's anime and manga news! If anything sent waves through the anime and manga world today, you'll find it in this post!


A mural that manga creator Takehiko Inoue drew of his Vagabond lead character Musashi has been blown up several stories tall and plastered against a store tower in Tokyo on Sunday. At 18.2 meters (about 59.7 feet) tall and 10.3 meters (33.8 feet) wide, the painted samurai is now larger than the 18-meter-tall life-size Gundam figure.

Inoue originally drew the mural over the course of 12 hours on a 3-meter by 1.7-meter (10-foot by 6-foot) canvas. The food maker Nissin used three video cameras to record Inoue painting every brush stroke, and it edited the footage into a television commercial that encouraged Japan one month after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake disaster (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai). Next to the mural is another giant ad with the commercial's tagline: "In this country, there is untapped strength."

The mural will remain on the Laforet Harajuku fashion store tower in Tokyo until Saturday, May 7. It will then be displayed on the Marui Jam Shibuya department store, just down the road, from May 16 to the end of May. Viz Media published the 33rd and most recent volume of the manga in North America last October.

Source: ANN & Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web

Images via Daisuke, nkt



The Comics Journal website reported on Friday that it had spoken to several of the creators who participated in Tokyopop's "Global Manga" program, and they commented on the status of the rights to their works:

M. Alice LeGrow - Bizenghast
Bizenghast will conclude with its eighth volume in June as previously scheduled. LeGrow says that "they're most likely going to print it up through their German brand and distribute it as usual." She also stated that in her contract, if the company goes insolvent the rights revert to her. However, it is unclear if the company in question is TokyoPop Inc., the publishing division which is shutting down, or Tokyopop Media LLC, which handlesnew media and rights and will not shut down. (Tokyopop split into these two divisions in 2008.)

Ross Campbell - The Abandoned
Campbell says he has not heard from Tokyopop at this time, but expects that he won't see a return of the rights to his work "as long as their headquarters and other offices and media stuff is active."

Queenie Chan - The Dreaming
Chan confirms that a film based on her work is currently in development, and that she therefore expects Tokyopop to hold on to the rights. She also notes that there are numerous foreign language versions of her works licensed out.

Brandon Graham - King City
Image Publishing, a comics publisher releasing Graham's current works, is reportedly in negotiations with Tokyopop to take over the license to King City. Graham acknowledges that having a creator-owned comics publisher representing his interest in the matter puts him in a stronger position than some creators may have.

TCJ also linked to a blog post by Becky Cloonan, who created Tokyopop's East Coast Rising, in which she expresses excitement at the possibility of regaining the rights to her work and discusses her experience working with Tokyopop.

Tokyopop announced its plans to close the North American publishing division on April 15. The company has not responded to past requests for information on how it plans to handle the rights to its original works. It had also not responded to ANN's request for comment at press time.

Source: ANN



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.



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.