Animanga in the News: 9/3 - 9/10

Here you will find a run down of this week's anime and manga news! This week, we've got three new trailers, the 'Highschool of the Dead' manga republished in FULL color, 'Code Geass' getting a new manga series, 'Gintama' and 'Sket Dance' each having a crossover episode, the future plans of Korean manhwa expanding globally, and ComiPo! manga-software now available in English! Enjoy!

The North American distributor Funimation began streaming a 75-second trailer for Tae-Gyun Kim's live-action film adaptation of Kōji Matsumoto's Higanjima supernatural horror manga on Thursday.

The manga is named after a fictional island where the brother (Dai Watanabe) of the main character Akira Miyamoto (Hideo Ishiguro) went missing two years ago. Miyamoto leads a search party of friends to the island and discovers that there are vampires and other creatures lurking on it.

Tetsuya Oishi, the screenwriter for the live-action Death Note films, scripted this film for Kim, who directed Volcano High. The film opened in Japan last year, after premiering at the Pusan International Film Festival in 2009. Funimation will release the film in a Blu-ray Disc/DVD combo set on October 4. Manga Entertainment released the film in the United Kingdom last year.

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The official Japanese Pokémon website announced on Saturday that a new Pokemon Center shop will open in Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture this winter. This will be the first Pokemon Center built in the Tohoku region, the northeastern part of Japan's main island that was devastated by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster of March 11. The store will be built inside Sendai's Aer skyscraper, the tallest building in the Tohoku region. With other sites already open in Nagoya, Fukuoka, Yokohama, Sapporo, Tokyo, and Osaka, this will be Japan's seventh Pokemon Center.

One of the stated goals of the new store is to support and bring children together in the area of Japan hardest hit by the disaster. The establishment of the store is part of the "POKEMON with YOU" disaster support initiative. The campaign's activities include organizing children's events, handing out Pokémon merchandise, and raising funds for children coping with the March 11 tragedy. According to the creators, the concept of the Tohoku Pokemon Center is to create a place for all children in the region to come together and smile.

Pokémon Centers throughout Japan sell a variety of Pokémon goods including games and toys as well as various Pokémon-themed products such as clothes, bedding, and dishes. The newest and largest Japanese Pokemon Center opened in Osaka on November 26 of last year.

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ComiPo LLP, the creator of the manga creation software ComiPo!, announced on Thursday it has launched a free trial version of the software in English via Crunchyroll and its own website. The full version of the software, which will be released on September 15, will come with all of the same features as the Japanese version, which was released last December. ComiPo LLP describes the software as being "aimed at consumers who want to create manga, but who lack drawing skills."

ComiPo! allows users to create their own manga with pre-created 3D characters and settings. It will feature character models, more than 100 different poses and expressions, background images, items, sound effects and word balloons. Users will also be able to import their own images and use those as backgrounds.

The English version of ComiPo! retails for US$49.95. ComiPo LLP is currently streaming a demonstration video for the software on its YouTube channel, which can also be viewed above.

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The Japanese Internet service provider Nifty and Kinnikuman creators Yudetamago are hosting a contest to ask which Chōjin (superhero) from Kinnikuman would contestants want to fight against Green Lantern and tag-team with Green Lantern and why.

Contestants can enter the contest by answering these questions on Nifty's website. One winner, chosen from the entrants, will receive an original Kinnikuman illustration drawn by the manga creator duo Yudetamago.

The contest is being held to commemorate the Green Lantern film, which will open in Japan on September 10. The deadline for the contest is October 2.

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Pika editions (Publisher) has announced the release of a full-color edition of their series Highschool of the Dead, which is scheduled to release on the month of November. It will be a larger format with full color, seven additional pages of new illustrations, and a brand new jacket! A beautiful book that will make you shudder at November 3, 2011!

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The official website for auteur director Soubi Yamamoto's Kono Danshi, Uchū-jin to Tatakaemasu (This Boy Can Fight the Aliens) anime has begun streaming the first trailer on Wednesday. In the 21-year-old writer/director's story, aliens suddenly invade the world, and a boy named Kakashi stands alone with the power to fight back against the aliens — except he lost his memories.

CoMix Wave Films, which inspired Yamamoto when she was still in middle school, will release the DVD for this series in November. The character store chain ANIMATE is also hosting a special point card campaign starting on September 20 for the anime. Before the creation of this anime series, Yamamoto directed the opening sequences and promotional videos for boys-love dōjin games and the iPhone app Rōdoku Shōjo.

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Since the demise of Tokyopop, probably the largest publisher of Korean contents in the U.S., the largest U.S. publisher of manhwa is most likely Hachette division Yen Press. If the staff of Komacon (Korea Manhwa Contents Agency) and the cartoonists and others in the manhwa industry who are passionate about having Korean work read in other countries have their way, the number of manhwa titles published in the U.S. & globally will expand rapidly in the coming years.

The manhwa industry in Korea was about US$32.6 million last year, according to KOCCA. That’s on a population of about 49 million people. Top publishers are Daewon Cl, Haksan, and Seoul Media Group. Translated manga content and Korean material are the top sellers.

The Festival had elements to appeal to both business and consumer attendees, with what seemed to be two main areas of emphasis. One emphasis was the promotion of international trade, in particular the sale of manhwa content in other countries and languages. Comic publishers from the U.S. (Bluewater), Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, and other countries attended to develop business with South Korean publishers.

The other area of emphasis for the Festival was to stimulate the development of the Korean digital comics business. Korea has a vibrant Webcomics scene, with manhwa published in vertical formats designed for the Web on portals such as Daum.net (for an example, click here). But the sale of digital content is still in its infancy, and to stimulate the business Komacon brought in speakers from the U.S. and France (who talked about digital archiving of comics for libraries) for the Conference; organized a Digital Fair Zone for exhibitors in digital businesses; and curated a “Smartoon” exhibit devoted to comics in the digital era.

Park Sung-woo (the manwha artist behind Kurokami, Deja-vu, and Anima Chal Lives) responded to press inqueries on the future of comics with "diversification." Clarifying that it would be worthwhile for publishers to try out new genres.

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Shakugan no Shana III will premiere in Japan on October 7. Like the two previous television series, the new series will adapt Yashichiro Takahashi's light novels which are ending with the 22nd volume on September 10. KOTOKO performed songs for both of the previous television series and the film.

The official website for the Shakugan no Shana anime franchise announced on Saturday that singer KOTOKO will return to perform the opening theme song "Light My Fire" for the Shakugan no Shana III (Final) television anime series. The composer Ryo of the supercell group is writing, composing, and arranging the song. The single for the song will go on sale on November 16.

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As you know, the manga "Pokémon Black & White" is a world exclusive in hardcover. But this is not the only surprise - it is also the first manga compatible handheld!

By applying 3D Pokédex freely available on the Nintendo eShop, you will be able to find the Pokémon that appear in the manga version in 3D and interact with them. The first volume of 'Pokemon Black & White' will be available on Thursday, September 15 in bookstores.

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You know what beats a new Code Geass anime? Having both a new anime and manga, that's what! The latest edition of Newtype Ace has revealed that Code Geass Gaiden: Boukoku no Akito will be receiving a manga rendition as well as an anime, which is definitely good news! If you've read any of the Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion manga, you'll be aware that there were a lot of notable differences between both that and the anime series, so there's a fair chance we'll see some variation between the two.

So, is this enough Code Geass for you, or should we be demanding an R3 yet?

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Those of you that read Shonen Jump will know that back in April both Gintama and Sket Dance had special crossover chapters, a little like the Toriko and One Piece special we saw earlier this year. Well, these chapters are about to be animated as part of a rare collaboration between the Sunrise and Tatsunoko animation studios.

They will be aired as two seperate episodes in the regular time slots and channels for each anime. The first will be the Sket Dance characters appearing in a Gintama episode on the 26th of September, with Gintoki and crew featuring in a Sket Dance episode on the 29th.

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