Animanga in the News: 12/10 - 12/16

Hi, this is Zeltrax and I'll be doing the weekly animanga news from now on until Asahina returns :D . This week we have 5 new anime adaptions announced, a marriage between two singers, the unfortunate passing of a famous scriptwriter, a Gundam AGE side project and many more. Read on to find out more!~



The January issue of Media Factory's literary magazine Da Vinci published its 12th annual "Book of the Year" chart and related lists on Tuesday. A group of 4,986 "book lovers," including professional book reviewers, bookstore employees, and Da Vinci readers, selected this year's lists. Just as in last year, Eiichiro Oda received double the number of votes as the #2 male manga creator. Chica Umino topped the list of favorite female manga creator for the third year in a row.


Favorite Male Manga Creator

1 Eiichiro Oda
2 Takehiko Inoue
3 Naoki Urasawa
4 Hideaki Sorachi
5 Yoshihiro Togashi
6 Mitsuru Adachi
7 Kiyohiko Azuma
8 Gosho Aoyama
9 Hirohiko Araki
10 Akira Toriyama

Favorite Female Manga Creator

1 Chica Umino
2 Hiromu Arakawa
3 Hikaru Nakamura
4 Ai Yazawa
5 Rieko Nishihara
6 Momoko Sakura
7 CLAMP
8 Fumi Yoshinaga
9 Yukari Ichijo
10 Rumiko Takahashi

In the same issue, three manga made the top 10 list of favorite books overall: One Piece (#3), March comes in like a lion (#6), and Fullmetal Alchemist (#10). The Kono Manga ga Sugoi! 2011 guidebook published a different set of lists for the favorite manga for male, favorite manga for female readers, and favorite manga magazines.

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Manga creator Ken Akamatsu announced on Friday that his manga distribution site J-Comi is starting an English and foreign-language beta version for select titles. Akamatsu also revealed on Saturday that J-Comi's Japanese and English iOS application "J Reader" is now available.

J-Comi's foreign-language beta release offers machine-generated translations of 18 manga titles in English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Korean and over 30 other languages. Available manga include: Belmondo Le VisiteuR (Volumes 1 - 3), Eb Star (Vol. 1), Haruka Refrain (Vol. 1), Home (Vol. 1, 2), Houkago Wedding (Vol. 1), Huwahura (Vol. 1), Itsudatte My Santa (Vol. 1), Jinsei ha Iroiro Da (Vol. 1), Love Hina (Vol. 1 - 14), MAD STONE (Vol. 1, 2), Madou Taiga (Vol. 1 - 4), OL Lunch (Vol. 1), PLANET7 (Vol. 1, 2), Player ha Nemurenai (Vol. 1), Saisoku!! (Vol. 1 - 3), Salad Days (Vol. 1 - 18), Sora Miyo (Vol. 1), and Wild Run (Vol. 1, 2). Akamatsu had indicated in April that translated versions of J-Comi were in development.


The J Reader application is available free to download in the iTunes Store. Registered users of the J-Comi website can use J Reader to download exclusive PDF versions of J-Comi's 149 manga series. J Reader offers standard and "light" versions of the PDF files so that readers can choose to conserve memory space in their portable iOS devices.

One of J-Comi's goals is to helm innovative distribution projects that promote and preserve legal manga, including little-known titles. For the first time in October, J-Comi began distributing out-of-print adult manga and legal dōjinshi. Akamatsu also proposed a plan in April to "purify" or legalize unauthorized manga scans on file-sharing networks by adding advertising to the existing files. The website began distributing manga with this method shortly after the announcement.

J-Comi launched in 2010 with beta testing, offering legal, free manga downloads. The site has received nearly 7 million page views so far, and users have downloaded manga over 4 million times. J-Comi has been expanding its list of titles and gaining users since its launch.
According to internet watch, an android version is currently in the works.

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Next year's combined 3rd/4th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine is announcing on Monday that a third television anime series based on Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba's Bakuman. manga has been green-lit for Fall of 2012.

The anime series will run for 25 episodes starting next fall. Like the previous two anime series, the new one will adapt Takeshi Obata and Tsugumi Ohba's manga about aspiring teenaged manga creators. The focus in the third series will be on the creators' new fictional PCP manga as it rises to the top of the magazine readers' popularity surveys.

The third anime series will retain the staff of the previous series: directors Kenichi Kasai and Noriaki Akitaya, series script editor Reiko Yoshida, and the anime studio J.C. Staff. The 15th episode of the second Bakuman. series will air on January 14.

The manga has been running since 2008, and it inspired the first anime adaptation in fall of 2010. The second anime followed this past October.

Media Blasters licensed the first two television seasons for North America.

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2012's third issue of Shueisha's Young Jump magazine is announcing on Thursday that manga creator Lynn Okamoto (Elfen Lied, Nononono) is launching a new series titled Kiwaguro no Brynhildr in the ninth issue on January 26. The tagline for the manga reads, "'I killed my girlfriend…!' A dark fantasy of pure love!!"

Okamoto also created the story behind a one-shot manga named "Kimi wa Midara na Boku no Joō" (You Are the Queen for Indecent Me). Mengo Yokoyari (Haruwaka) is drawing this one-shot for the eighth issue on January 19.

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The film journalist Hiroo Otaka reported on Monday that Naoko Yamada and Kyoto Animation's K-ON! anime film earned 193.5 million yen (about US$2.49 million) in its second weekend at the Japanese box office. That is 61 percent of the film's box office take during its first weekend. It dropped in ranking from #2 to #4, according to Kogyo Tsushinsha.

Three new live-action movies appeared in the top 10 during the December 10-11 weekend. Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO Movie Taisen Megamax opened at #1, and Real Steel opened at #3 with 277.67 million yen (US$3.567 million) after three days. (It opened on Friday, December 9.). Trailing K-ON! at #5 was the new film Genji Monogatari: Sennen no Nazo with 163.76 million yen (US$2.103 million).

Last weekend's #1 film, the live-action film adaptation of the Kaibutsu-kun manga, slipped to #2 after two weekends at the top.

The Eiga.com website reported on Monday that the K-ON! film sold 523,274 tickets and made 691,086,400 yen (about US$8.86 million) in the nine days after its December 3 opening.

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The January issue of Shueisha's Jump Square Lab magazine is announcing on Saturday that an anime adaptation of Yoshiaki Sukeno's Binbō-gami ga! comedy manga has been green-lit. The story revolves around Ichiko Sakura, a girl whose blissful life comes from her bountiful "happiness energy" — gained by sapping that energy from other people. To restore the balance, the Binbō-gami (Poverty God) Momiji Binbada attempts to eliminate her.

The manga began in the main Jump Square magazine in 2008, and the 11th compiled book volume is shipping this month.

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On Friday, TV Tokyo began streaming the first 29-second promotional video for the television anime adaptation of The New Prince of Tennis manga by Takeshi Konomi.

The New Prince of Tennis has been running in Shueisha's Jump Square magazine since 2009. The story begins several months after the national tennis tournament that ended the original Prince of Tennis manga. Viz Media published the 42nd and final volume of Konomi's original manga run in North America in July.


The new anime will premiere on January 4.

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On Friday, Warner Brothers Japan began streaming the 40-second teaser trailer for the live-action film adaptation of Nobuhiro Watsuki's Rurouni Kenshin manga on its Yahoo! Japan channel.

Keishi Ōtomo is directing this samurai film starring 22-year-old actor Takeru Satoh (Kamen Rider Den-O, Rookies, Beck, Ryōmaden) as the titular character. 17-year-old actress Emi Takei plays the heroine Kaoru Kamiya. Yuu Aoi (Hana and Alice, Honey and Clover) plays Megumi Takani, Munetaka Aoki (The Last Message Umizaru, live-action The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) plays Sanosuke Sagara, and Taketo Tanaka plays Yahiko Myōjin. Kouji Kikkawa (Let's Dance With Papa) as Jine Udō, Yosuke Eguchi (Shonan Bakusozoku, Tokyo Love Story) as Hajime Saitō, and Teruyuki Kagawa (From Up on Poppy Hill, 20th Century Boys) as Kanryū Takeda round out the cast.

The film will open in Japan on August 25, 2012.

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The North American comic publisher Drawn and Quarterly confirmed with ANN on Monday that it will release Yoshihiro Tatsumi's Fallen Words manga in May 2012.

Amazon's listing of Fallen Words describes the book as follows:

In Fallen Words, Yoshihiro Tatsumi takes up the oral tradition of rakugo and breathes new life into it by shifting the format from spoken word to manga. Each of the eight stories in the collection is lifted from the Edo-era Japanese storytelling form. As Tatsumi notes in the afterword, the world of rakugo, filled with mystery, emotion, revenge, hope, and, of course, love, overlaps perfectly with the world of Gekiga that he has spent the better part of his life developing.

These slice-of-life stories resonate with modern readers thanks to their comedic elements and familiarity with human idiosyncrasies. In one, a father finds his son too bookish and arranges for two workers to take the young man to a brothel on the pretext of visiting a new shrine. In another particularly beloved rakugo tale, a married man falls in love with a prostitute. When his wife finds out, she is enraged and sets a curse on the other woman. The prostitute responds by cursing the wife, and the two escalate in a spiral of voodoo doll cursing. Soon both are dead, but even death can't extinguish their jealousy.

Tatsumi's love of wordplay shines through in the telling of these whimsical stories, and yet he still offers timeless insight into human nature.

Drawn and Quarterly has previously released Tatsumi's Abandon the Old in Tokyo, The Push Man and Other Stories, Good-Bye, Black Blizzard, and A Drifting Life manga.



Drawn and Quarterly also confirmed with ANN that it will release Shigeru Mizuki's (GeGeGe no Kitarō) NonNonBâ manga in March 2012. Drawn and Quarterly had announced that it licensed the manga in 2010.

Mizuki drew upon his life to create NonNonBâ, a story about a boy in the 1930s who is introduced to the world of Japanese folklore by a old neighbor woman. The manga won the award for "Best Comic Book" at the largest Comic Festival in Europe, the Angoulême International Comics Festival, in 2007.

Drawn and Quarterly previously released Mizuki's Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths manga earlier this year.

Drawn and Quarterly also confirmed with ANN that it will not release Imiri Sakabashira's Working Kappa book. Drawn and Quarterly told ANN that the book had been cancelled. The company had previously released Sakabashira's The Box Man book.

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The January issue of Shogakukan's Monthly Betsucomi magazine is announcing on Tuesday that Yuuki Obata's We Were There (Bokura ga Ita) slice-of-life romance manga will conclude in the March issue on February 13. The Sankei Sports newspaper reported in May that the manga will end next year.

Monthly Betsucomi began serializing the manga in 2002, and We Were There has sold over 10 million copies in Japan.

We Were There received a television anime adaptation produced by Artland in 2006, and Takahiro Miki's two-part live-action film adaptation will open on March 17 and April 21 of next year. Viz Media, publisher of the manga in North America since 2008, will release the 14th compiled book next May.

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The Japanese publisher Media Factory is announcing on its website that an anime adaptation of Hajime Taguchi's Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imōto ga Iru! (One of Them Is My Younger Sister!) light novel series has been green-lit. Taguchi launched the light novel series last year, and the fifth volume shipped in August. CUTEG (Kokoro Connect manga) illustrates the light novel series, while Mottun* has been adapting the light novel series into a manga (with the subtitle Who is Imouto?) in Media Factory's Monthly Comic Alive magazine since May.

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According to the obi strip found on the first volume of Sasameyuki Jun’s manga series, ｢Hanasaku Iroha: Green Girls Graffiti｣, a new Hanasaku Iroha anime adaptation is currently in the works for 2012. The production committee of the Hanasaku Iroha television anime series had announced in October that it was producing a "new visual work" of Hanasaku Iroha next year, but it did not specify if the new work was animated or not.

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The December Gahō flyer insert from Shogakukan's Gagaga Bunko imprint is announcing that an anime adaptation of Akira's Sasami-san@Ganbaranai light novel series has been green-lit. More details will be provided in future Gahō inserts.

The story follows a hikikomori (shut-in) named Sasami who is unmotivated about even changing clothes or eating. Her brother takes care of her, even though she despises his slave-like nature. Sasami spends her days viewing the outside world via a "Brother Surveillance Tool" on her computer. In the outside world, the three beautiful Yagami sisters and Sasami's brother are in the middle of relationships worthy of a romantic comedy.

After his earlier Kyōran Kazoku Nikki novels were adapted into anime in 2008, Akira launched the Sasami-san@Ganbaranai light novel series in 2009. The sixth volume shipped in August.

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After School Midnight (Hōkago Midnight), the 2007 CG anime short that was well-received in Japan and in international film festivals, is being remade as a theatrical anime film which will open in Japan next year. Hitoshi Takekiyo is the director for both versions at the studio Koo-Ki. In the slapstick comedy story, a human anatomical model comes to life at midnight in a science classroom at an elite elementary school.

The theater chain owner T-Joy announced at the CineAsia 2011 event in Hong Kong on Friday that the new After School Midnight version will be part of its 2012 lineup. (T-Joy has a cinema complex chain of 17 locations, and it also distributes films.) Yōichi Komori (Umizaru manga collaborator) is writing the new film.

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The publisher Fusosha announced on Monday that a live-action television adaptation of Masayuki Kusumi and Jiro Taniguchi's Kodoku no Gourmet (Solitary Gourmet) cuisine manga has been green-lit for next spring. The manga follows a solitary salesman as he travels all over Japan and samples the local cuisine.

Fusosha's Weekly Spa! magazine and its other publications have been serializing the manga on an irregular basis since 1994. Only one book volume has been compiled so far, but its various editions have sold over 200,000 copies. The live-action show's broadcast dates, cast information, and other details will be made public in the near future on the home page of TV Tokyo, the station airing the show.

Kusumi also wrote Hana no Zubora Meshi, another cuisine manga that was nominated for this year's Manga Taisho (Cartoon Grand Prize) award. Hana no Zubora Meshi ranked as the #1 manga for female readers in the survey from the recently published Kono Manga ga Sugoi! 2012 guidebook.

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The January issue of Libre Publishing's Magazine Be x Boy resumed publication on Hinako Takanaga's Awkward Silence (Bukiyou na Silent) boys-love manga on Wednesday.

Animate USA released the first volume of Awkward Silence in September 2010. JManga then released the first volume on its website when the site launched in August. JManga has since released the manga's second volume.

Magazine Be x Boy's website is currently hosting a free preview for the manga.
Digital Manga Publishing released Takanaga's The Tyrant Falls in Love, The Devil's Secret, and Little Butterfly manga. Tokyopop's Blu imprint published Takanaga's A Capable Man, Croquis, Liberty Liberty!, You will drown in Love, and You will fall in Love manga. DramaQueen had previously released Takanaga's Challengers manga.

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Kuniko Nose's Soul of Rock gag comedy manga will receive a live-action film adaptation next year. The film will premiere at Tokyo's Auditorium Shibuya theater on February 11.

The original manga's story centers on the three members of an unpopular rock band named "Bamiyans." Shueisha's Seventeen magazine fashion model Mayuko Arisue will star as the band's vocalist Reika. The D-Boys male acting group member Tetsuya Makita will play the Bamiyans guitarist Taku, and Kamen Rider OOO's Asaya Kimijima will play the drummer Zaki. The comedian Dandy Sakano and actor Kouta Kusano (Tomie) will fill the secondary roles of the bar owner and the eccentric punk rocker Yuda, respectively.

Shodensha's monthly Feel Young magazine serialized Nose's Soul of Rock manga in 2008.

The official website for the live-action film adaptation of Kuniko Nose's Soul of Rock gag comedy manga began streaming a trailer for the film on Monday. The film will premiere at Tokyo's Auditorium Shibuya theater on February 11.

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The February issue of Media Factory's Monthly Comic Gene magazine will begin serializing a manga adaptation of Satelight's Aquarion Evol television anime on January 14. The manga artist Aogiri will draw the mecha series based on Shoji Kawamori and Satelight's original story.

Aquarion Evol will take place 12,000 years after the first Aquarion television series at a city modeled after Hong Kong. A new cast of characters, piloting a new Aquarion robot, will fight enemies from another dimension. Kawamori has hinted that the characters might be reincarnations of Apollo, Silvia, and the other characters from the first series.

Plans for the television anime, the newest title in director Kawamori and Satelight's Aquarion robot anime franchise, were revealed in February. The Aquarion Evol anime series will premiere with a one-hour special in Japan on January 8, 2012.

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The Malaysian animation studio Funcel posted a trailer and a montage video for their collaborative historical animation series Satria - The Warriors of the 7 Elements. Funcel is partnering with the Japanese anime studio Gonzo and Malaysia's National Film Development Corporation to produce the adventure series for a fall 2012 release. The videos detail the story's combination of Southeast Asian history with fiction and provide basic character profiles.



The 26-episode animated series is aimed at children 9 to 14 years old, and each episode will run 24 minutes. Hiroyuki Kitakubo (Blood: The Last Vampire) is involved, although he states that he is only an advisor. Kitakubo stated in September that 22 episodes for the Malaysian government were subcontracted to China for 2 million yen (about US$24,000) each.

Satria - The Warriors of the 7 Elements' story centers on boy Hang Tuah and follows the Satria, warriors of the seven elements, as they strive to save their princess Hang Li Po from the seven-member Suliman group who kidnapped her. The Satria are determined to avenge the death of their master, killed by the Suliman, and protect the sovereignty of Melaka.

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A website launched on Tuesday to announce the newest film from Mamoru Hosoda, the director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Summer Wars. The distributor TOHO will release the Ōkami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki (The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki) film in Japan next July.

The theme of the film is the love between parents and children. The story covers 13 years and begins with a 19-year-old college student named Hana who encounters and falls in "fairy tale-like" love with a "wolf man." After marrying the wolf man, Hana gives birth and raises two wolf children — an older sister named Yuki ("snow") who was born on a snowy day, and a younger brother named Ame ("rain") who was born on a rainy day.

The four quietly lived in a corner of a city to conceal the fact that the children are "wolf children." However, when the wolf man suddenly dies, Hana decides to move to a rural town far removed from the city.

Hosoda is credited as the creator, screenwriter, and director. Studio Chizu is a small new anime studio that Hosoda established specifically for the production of this film, although the anime studio MADHOUSE is also credited.

Satoko Okudera is co-writing the screenplay, and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto is designing the characters. Takaaki Yamashita is overseeing the animation process, while Hiroshi Ohno is in charge of art direction. Seiji Okuda is an executive producer of the film for NTV, after having served the same role for many Studio Ghibli works.

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The January issue of Kodansha's Bessatsu Friend magazine revealed on Tuesday that George Asakura (A Perfect Day for Love Letters, Knock Your Heart Out!) will publish a new manga in the magazine's February issue on January 13. The new manga will be a spinoff of Asakura's Oboreru Knife manga titled Oboreru Knife - Yūgyo no Shizuku Iwa no Yume-. The spinoff will revolve around the Oboreru Knife supporting character Kana.

Kodansha released the 12th volume of the ongoing Oboreru Knife shōjo manga in May. Oboreru Knife revolves around a middle-school girl named Natsume who is from Tokyo but suddenly must move to the Japanese countryside with her family. Asakura is returning to the Oboreru Knife franchise with the spinoff after a 10-month hiatus.

Del Rey published Asakawa's two-volume series A Perfect Day for Love Letters in English in 2005.

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Kawaii Kon announced on Tuesday that it will host voice actor Ryo Horikawa, known for his role as Vegeta in the Dragon Ball Z animated television series and accompanying movies, at the March 16-18 convention in Honolulu.

Besides his role as Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z, Horikawa has voiced roles in more than 100 anime, including Detective Conan's Heiji Hattori, Saint Seiya's Andromeda Shun, and Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory's Kou Uraki.

Kawaii Kon also revealed that it will host voice actor Kenichi Miya (Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Dragan). Miya has voiced roles in [C] - CONTROL, Detective Conan, and Magic Kaito, as well as roles in the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Tag Force 6 and Xenoblade video games.

Kawaii Kon will also host Final Fantasy/Vampire Hunter D artist Yoshitaka Amano, along with voice actor Johnny Yong Bosch and his rock band EyeShine. Other confirmed guests include voice actress Lisa Ortiz, and voice actors Vic Mignogna and Chris Sabat.

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The Japanese film and television production Toei Company recently gave the Hybrid Insector creators an official notice to stop writing the unofficial dōjinshi manga. As a result, the story's production team announced this month that they are ending their unofficial Kamen Rider manga. Toei produces the various Kamen Rider live-action special-effects television series and films.

The Linebarrels of Iron mecha manga creators Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi released nine chapters of the unofficial story before Toei gave them the notice. Those chapters of the dōjinshi manga are still available on the Hybrid Insector website, but Shimizu and Shimoguchi canceled future releases.

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Vol. 7 of Kadokawa Shoten's Type-Moon Ace publication is announcing on Thursday that Type-Moon has scheduled its Mahō Tsukai no Yoru visual novel for April 12, 2012. The magazine is also launching the novel version of the Fate/Apocrypha story and bundling a demo version of Mahō Tsukai no Yoru.

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The Japanese government's Ministry of Cultural Affairs announced the winners of the 15th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards on Thursday.

Animation Division

Grand Prize:
Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Akiyuki Shinbo, director)

Excellence Prize:
Legend of the Millennium Dragon (Onigamiden)

A Letter to Momo
"Muybridge's Strings" (article)
"Folksongs & Ballads" (France)


Encouragement Prize:
"Yasashii March"
"Rabenjunge" (Germany)
"rain town" (article)

Manga Division

Grand Prize:
Saturn Apartments (Hisae Iwaoka)

Excellence Prize:
Ano Hi Kara no Manga (Kotobuki Shiriagari)
Arrugas (Paco Roca - Spain)
Himitsu - Top Secret (Reiko Shimizu)
Fun Home (Alison Bechdel - America)

Encouragement Prize:
Nakayoshi-dan no Bōken (Tsuchika Nishimura)
Magemon (Kōichi Masahara)
Mustard Chocolate (Tomoko Fuyukawa)

Award of Merit:
Sayoko Kinoshita (animation writer/producer)

The 15th Japan Media Arts Festival will be held in Tokyo from February 22 to March 4 next year. Previous winners of the Media Arts Festival Awards have included Tatami Galaxy, Historie, Mamoru Hosoda's Summer Wars and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Vinland Saga, Kunio Katō's "Tsumiki no Ie" ("The House of Small Cubes"), Gainax's Gurren Lagann, Mitsuo Iso's Dennō Coil, Makoto Isshi's The Piano Forest, Masaaki Yuasa's Kaiba, Koji Yamamura's acclaimed "Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor" short, Takehiko Inoue's Vagabond and Real manga, Nintendo's Nintendogs pet simulator, and Aniplex's Kamichu! slice-of-life school anime.

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Japan's Kodansha Novels imprint announced on Thursday that it will publish Himeiden, "NisiOisin's longest novel," next spring. More information will be announced later on the imprint's website.

To celebrate the smaller bunko reissue of NisiOisin's Ningen novel series, Kodansha is also offering a wallpaper drawn by the novels' illustrator Take until January 31, 2011. The illustration originally came from a trading card holder produced to commemorate the end of the series in March of 2010.



NisiOisin's Monogatari novels inspired the Bakemonogatari television anime series, next January's Nisemonogatari television series, and next year's Kizumonogatari film. There is also his similarly named but separate Katanagatari television anime series and the upcoming Medaka Box television anime series. NisiOisin just launched a new novel series called Tantei Toshi Densetsu (Detective Urban Legends) in the literary magazine Mephisto's third volume on December 6.

Viz Media published NisiOisin's Death Note Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases in North America, while Del Rey published two volumes of his Zaregoto series (from which the Ningen series is a spinoff).

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Shogakukan's Gagaga Bunko imprint is announcing that Seiji Kishi (Angel Beats!, Persona 4 The Animation) is directing next summer's Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita television anime series at the anime studio AIC A.S.T.A. (Heaven's Lost Property, Persona 4 The Animation). Kyuuta Sakai (Steins;Gate, When They Cry - Higurashi) is serving as character designer and chief animation director. Makoto Uezu (Katanagatari, School Days) is in charge of the series scripts.

In addition, two new manga adaptations of Romeo Tanaka's original light novel series will start in Monthly Ikki and Monthly Comic Alive magazines.

The story is set several centuries into the slow decline of mankind. Earth has now become the realm of "fairies" — 10-centimeter-tall (about 4-inch-tall) creatures with remarkable intelligence. The human protagonist of the story serves an important duty as the international arbitrator between the fairies and humans, and she returns to her former hometown of Kusunoki. She chose this job because she thought it was an easy job she can do, even when she is as old as her grandfather. However, she learns that her job is anything but simple when she meets the fairies.

The light novels were originally illustrated by Tōru Yamasaki, but illustrator Sunaho Tobe (Zettai Shonen) replaced Yamasaki after the anime was announced.

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In the 19th issue of Futabasha's Great Mechanics magazine that shipped on Thursday, Bandai Hobby staff member Toshiaki Baba revealed that a side project of Mobile Suit Gundam AGE is now in the early stages for existing Gundam fans.

Baba emphasized that the project is for grown-ups, and that the staff intends to make it a "thoroughly dark" story that "even fans of [the first Gundam anime's] Universal Century timeline can be satisified with." He did not specify what medium that project will be in.

Baba and Great Mechanics' interviewer were discussing how the main Mobile Suit Gundam AGE project has major elements aimed at children, such as the manga in Shogakukan's Monthly Corocoro Comic magazine.

Sunrise, the anime studio behind the Gundam franchise, is collaborating with game developer Level-5 and its president, Akihiro Hino, on Gundam AGE. The anime premiered on October 9.



The official Gundam.info portal site confirmed on Thursday that the Asemu arc, the second generation within the Mobile Suit Gundam AGE television anime series, will premiere next month. The anime's official Twitter account already posted a key visual art that depicts first generation's main pilot Flit Asuno (right), Flit's son Asemu (center bottom), the "mysterious young man" (left), and the second-generation Gundam AGE-2 Normal mobile suit (center top).

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The self-described "Gundam videographer" darwinfish began streaming new time-lapsed footage of the 1/1-Scale Gundam reconstruction at Odaiba. The video features work being done on the upper body and torso. The statue is being rebuilt at Diver City Tokyo, a complex under construction on the island by Mitsui Fudosan and Fuji TV.



The life-size statue first stood at Odaiba in July of 2009 and attracted 4.15 million visitors before it closed the following month. The statue rose again in Shizuoka — the self-described "model capital of the world" and the home of Bandai's plastic model factories — from July of last year to March of this year. The statue did return to Tokyo in August — in disassembled parts — as a charity drive after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster.

The same YouTube user has posted several other videos chronicling the reconstruction of the Gundam since construction began a few weeks ago.



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Shinichi Ichikawa, a scriptwriter for several Ultraman series and other popular live-action television series, passed away on Saturday, December 10 at 4:43 a.m. due to lung cancer. He was 70.

Ichikawa was born in Isahaya City in the southwestern Japanese prefecture of Nagasaki. After making his debut in the live-action special-effects program Kaijū Booska in 1966, he wrote for Ultra Seven (1966-1967), The Return of Ultraman (1971-1972), Ultraman Ace (1972-1973), Kizu Darake no Tenshi (1974-1975), and many other live-action series.

His work ranged from the epic NHK historical drama series Ōgon no Hibi (1978) and Sanga Moyu (1984) to more intimate human drama series such as Sabishii no wa Omae Dake Janai (1982). He won a Japan Academy Prize for the 1988 film Ijin-tachi to no Natsu (The Discarnates). The live-action television special based on his Chōchō-san novel just aired last month with Aoi Miyazaki as the title character.

Ichikawa also served as a commentator on news and talk shows and presided over the Television and Radio Writers' Association of Japan. He received NHK's Hōsō Bunka Shō honor and just last month, the government's Order of the Rising Sun (4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette).

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The Italian comic artist Carlo Peroni, co-creator of the Calimero anime series, passed away on Tuesday from an unknown cause. He was 82.

Peroni claimed that he created Calimero's titular black chick character. The cartoonist worked with the Pagot brothers who also contributed to the story's original concept. Toei produced the first 47-episode Calimero television anime series in 1972 as well as the 52-episode remake that aired in Japan from October 1992 to September 1993. After his first appearance on the Italian television show Carosello in 1963, Calimero became a popular character in Italy.

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On Monday, Kyoto Seika University announced plans to establish Japan's first Faculty of Popular Culture in April 2013. Next April, the university will present the concept for its fifth department to Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) and aims to open the Faculty of Popular Culture to students the following year. Kyoto Seika University already has Faculties of Manga, Art, Design, and Humanities.

The university intends to unite the study of manga, animation, music, and fashion in the Faculty of Popular Culture. The department will enroll 118 students in two four-year programs concentrating on music and fashion. The planned courses will prepare students for careers in music performance, song writing, fashion design, clothing production, and other fields. This is the first time a post-secondary education institution in Japan will offer such a curriculum focusing on popular culture.

Kyoto Seika University has a 40-year history of academic study in manga and animation. The university was first to install a specialized area of manga studies in 2000, and it then created a Faculty of Manga in 2006. It was also the first to establish a master's degree program in manga last year, when it accepted 20 students. In June, the university announced it will accept 4 to 12 students for a manga doctorate program in April of next year. Kyoto Seika University also launched the interactive manga community website Mangaku on November 1

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Eric Khoo's Tatsumi movie won the best film award at this year's Dubai International Film Festival. Tatsumi is an animated film adaptation of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's autobiographical manga A Drifting Life. Additionally, the film took the best composer prize in Dubai, and won best film in the Muhr AsiaAfrica competition.

The Tatsumi film made news in October when Singapore submitted the film for Oscar consideration for the 84th annual Academy Awards.

Yoshihiro Tatsumi is the author of several works that include Abandon the Old in Tokyo, The Push Man and Other Stories, and Good-Bye. His manga, Fallen Words will be published by Drawn and Quarterly in North America.

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The Kyoto International Manga Museum will display works by three North American manga-inspired artists from January 5 to February 5. This is the first time art from North America will feature in an exhibit at the museum. Admission to the "Manga Style ― North America" exhibition will be free, however, a general admission ticket for the museum will be required.

The exhibit will showcase comics and text panels that illustrate the development of manga-style art in North America. The exhibition asks guests to consider the question: "Is this manga too?"

"Manga Style ― North America" will include about 80 works by the superhero comics artist Takeshi Miyazawa, young men's manga-style artist Felipe Smith, and the shojo genre artist Svetlana Chmakova. Several color panels and about 24 black-and-white pages for each author will feature with other materials in the exhibit. Miyazawa and Smith, both current residents of Japan, will also participate in a discussion about manga and manga-style works produced in Japan and North America. Morning manga magazine's chief editor Eijiro Shimada will also speak at the event to be held on January 14.

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29-year-old singer Kumi Koda and her record company announced on Tuesday that she will be marrying Kenji03, the 27-year-old vocalist of the rock band Back-On. Kumi Koda revealed at a mini-live event for fans in Tokyo on Friday that she is pregnant

The couple got to know each other after collaborating on "4 Times," Koda's 50th single which was released in August.

Koda sang theme songs for the Final Fantasy X-2 role-playing game, Crayon Shin-chan: Densetsu o Yobu Odore! Amigo!, the live-action Cutie Honey film, Gilgamesh, The Law of Ueki, and Re: Cutie Honey. Back-On performed theme songs for Air Gear, Eyeshield 21, and Murder Princess.

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