Animanga in the News: 5/28/11

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!



The "Yotsuba&! Daily Calendar" exhibition that was cut short due to the March 11 Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster is scheduled to reopen in July. The exhibition commemorates the 10th anniversary of Kiyohiko Azuma's Yotsuba character from his Yotsuba&! manga. The exhibition will run from July 5 through July 17 at the Gallery LE DECO in Shibuya in Tokyo, and will take up the first three stories of the gallery; the organizers decided to upgrade and expand the exhibition for its return.

Azuma originally introduced the character of Yotsuba&! in a one shot titled Try! Try! Try! in 2001. Azuma has been drawing a daily calendar to document Yotsuba&!'s antics for 10 years, and at least 3,650 pictures will be on display at the exhibition. In addition to those pictures, other original illustrations from the manga, along with a replica of the "Danbo" cardboard robot and other merchandise will be on display.

Yen Press is currently releasing the Yotsuba&! manga in North America.

Source: ANN




The Japanese art site pixiv is launching a "Makoto Shinkai x pixiv Illustration Contest" in mid-July to commemorate the opening of Shinkai's new film Hoshi o Ou Kodomo: Children who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below. The film opened in Japan on May 7.

The website will accept submissions for original fan illustrations of any of Shinkai's works until now, including Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimeters Per Second, and Hoshi o Ou Kodomo. The website will announce the tag that artists should use when submitting illustrations for the contest soon.

Earlier this month, pixiv launched an official English-language Twitter account and an English-language encyclopedia, which explains some of the characters and memes that often appear on the site. The encyclopedia is user-edited, allowing English-speaking browsers of the pixiv site to contribute. The entries also feature artwork from the site's users. The English Twitter account encouraged artists to submit to the Shinkai illustration contest, although the Japanese site states that the contest has not yet officially started.

Image © Makoto Shinkai/CMMMY

Sources: ANN, Saishin Anime Jōhō & Pixiv's Twitter





Ai Yori Aoshi manga creator Kou Fumizuki launched a new series titled Itadaki! (The Summit!) in the 15th issue of Hakusensha's Young Animal Island magazine on Friday. The story centers around a new female student who joins the mountain-climbing club.

In addition to Ai Yori Aoshi, Fumizuki also created the Umi no Misaki manga. Tokyopop published the entire 17-volume Ai Yori Aoshi manga in North America, while PIONEER LDC (later known as Geneon Entertainment) released the two television anime series that the manga inspired.

The current Young Animal Island issue features a gallery of color illustrations by seven artists (Mitsuru Hattori, Nylon, Ayami Kazama, Sōichi Kasuga, Takanori Yamazaki, Tomoya Haruno, Hamayuba) with the yuri theme of girl couples. It also bundles a CD-ROM with the full-color version of the Haruka and Miya arcs from Tarō Shinonome's game-based Amagami precious diary manga.


Sources: ANN & Comic Natalie





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