Japanese Government Wants to Shut Down Foreign Pirate Sites.

Okay, what I roughly understand from this NHK news is Japanese government will go after 580 sites outside Japan to remove all illegal content such as anime, manga etc 1 year from now. The particular target is China and government ministry estimated 560 billion yen is lost due to piracy (equals to USD$ 5.4 billion) annually. Undoubtedly, the fansub sites might be targeted too.

How successful it would be is kinda doubtful, given the dissemination of these products is so widespread and common especially at Asia.

I am interested to see how they will pull this one off.

Link.

Finally Child Pornography is Banned in Japan But...

After years of wrangling and discussions in the Diet, Japan lawmakers finally passed the law to ban underage pornography in a landmark law few days ago.

But!

Yes there is an exception.

This law is not applicable to manga or animation. The opponents said it will lead to curtailment of freedom of speech so it is not all encompassing ban.

Anyway, you can read it more here, courtesy of Huffington Post or BBC  and Japan Times.

My view on this, yeah I agree that hentai lolicon genre or even shotacon should be filtered out because frankly, those 2 genres are pretty darn disturbing. However it is quite a slippery slope here. The activist and manga publishers are arguing freedom of speech to prevent the ban from covering anime and manga works. Politicians are trying to push it very hard but not successful so far.

Kadokawa launching new online manga portal service soon.

Wow, an impressive number of 200 titles are to be featured on this portal with starting 40 titles will be available in translation to English or Chinese at the launch. What more, it would be free and the library is from anthologies like Shonen Ace and Young Ace. Titles like D-Frag, Haruhi, Haganai, Gundam and Eva (for example) will be ready for fans to read. It is 100 percent legal too.

AFAIK, no limitation in terms of nationality so non Japanese can access the site too. What is the catch?

Well you can read the new chapter of ongoing series 2 weeks after it is published in printed edition - a small price to pay IMHO. Just wait a while and you will get your fix.

Kadokawa is hoping to feature translation option in French in future soon and set the date for the site operation on 22nd March 2014. Oh, I forgot to mention again that this site is free.

The website.

Doraemon's Best Ending?

Possibly one of the best ending for Doraemon (Xiao Ding Dang). Personally I think this is one of the best ending for evergreen series but the publishers did not think so, forcing the mangka withdraw the doujinshi from publication.

However it becomes an enduring legend of the lore that is well beloved by millions of kids across Asia for many decades. Here is the scanned and translated version for non Japanese Doraemon fans.

Enjoy.

The link

HBO and De Toro is doing Monster? Fuck yeah!

One of the best news in early 2013 (yes I am slowpoke) is De Toro working with Stephen Thompson ( Dr Who, Sherlock) on Urasawa Naoki's Monster for HBO. However no other details are available nor airing date. We can only wait for now.

Cool shit indeed.

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Shingeki no Kyojin Live Action Movie? Really?

Okay, I dunno if this is true or not but apparently there is a movie based on famous manga/anime series coming soon in 2014. Unfortunately this is all I got so far, no announcement of cast or director etc.

I will take this news with a grain of salt.

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Sadogawa Jun passed away :(

Creator of Muteki Kanban Musume, Jun Sadogawa (34) passed away recently. RIP.

Cause of death is suicide, he is found at the park.

Source. 

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Want to be main character in your own manga?

Now this is cool.

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Jormungand's Koko Hekmatyar bothersome surname

While I watching this anime, Koko's surname bothers me a lot so I decided to get off my lazy ass and check it. Turns out to be why, I heard this name before during ending phase of Cold War, in Afghanistan specifically. What a piece of nasty work, this guy is 100 percent bona fide treacherous Afghan warlord. Still alive and kicking, fighting NATO in Afghanistan now. Wiki entry

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Mangaka having PTSD.

Sometimes mangaka is a human being too. The story of a mangaka, Jiro Taniguchi who is deeply affected by Tohoku Earthquake March 11th 2011. His works can be found here.

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Official Manga Portal opened in USA

Nice initiative by Japanese publishers to reach North America audience, charging minimal fee for content. I do hope they will expand the effort to my part of world too, soon.

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Toradora! author newest work, Evergreen

Yukiyo Takemiya, writer of successful Toradora! is coming with new manga series, Evergreen. I enjoyed her previous work and the conceptual art for this looks great. Coming soon in summer.

Sounds like another school romance drama to me.

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Fractale manga controvesy?

Yamakan, reeling from dismal series "Fractale" got into news again. This time he asked the manga of the series to be discontinued after a complaint from mangaka herself that the story is "uninteresting". He is basically tell the mangaka to take a hike and stop riding on other's back.

Despite his request, the manga is still being published, now it is up to chapter 10 in Japan. Volume 2 will be out soon too.

Oh so much drama. How typically him, I still remember his pledge that he will quit anime business if Fractale turns into lemon. Ironically, the manga has more coherent pace than the rushed anime. Oh, I haven't blog what I don't like about series. Sucks.

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Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai / 僕は友達が少ない finally gets an anime

For award winning light novel, it is matter of time. The story talks about bunch of no social life people decided to setup a club to make friends. The manga won 2nd place as Best Novel Series 2011 and the booblicious Sena is voted 4th best female character in the guide, "Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!". This guidebook ranking is based on votes from readers polled on Internet. Pretty much the who's who in Japanese light novel world.

Kodaka, the half Brit/Japanese former delinquent is the main character. He is awkward but have no ill intent towards people. However his "Yankee" look turns a lot of people off at school, so he ends up lonely. When he met a beautiful but intensely eccentric Yozora talking to her imaginary friend one day in empty class, the story hits off. Later he will come across the narcissistic haughty Sena, aggressively horny brilliant Rika, emo clingy sister Kobato, dangerously cute Yukimura the crossdresser and loli nun teacher, Maria in this club for losers who can't make friends in school. Quite different from SOS Brigade.



When I read the manga for first time, it is very hilarious due to how dysfunctional personality the characters seems to thrive on when socializing with each other. And yes, slowly, Kodaka will be center of romantic attentions from all these personalities without he realising it. The novel sheds more light and development of the romance especially childhood friends Kodaka and Yozora. I would predict the anime series will hit off pretty well, considering how weird the characters are. The highlight for me is the roller coaster scene in Vol 5 of the novel. I don't know if the anime will go that far or not.

The announcement is on 18th May, 2011. I do not know when it will be aired but list of VA cast is out:

Kodaka Hasegawa: Ryohei Kimura
Yozora Mikazuki: Marina Inoue
Sena Kashiwazaki: Kanae Itō
Yukimura Kusunoki: Nozomi Yamamoto
Rika Shiguma: Misato Fukuen
Kobato Hasegawa: Kana Hanazawa
Maria Takayama: Yuka Iguchi

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Needless to say, the anticipation is pretty high for this one.

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Manga creation process again?

Manga creation process, this kinda fascinating to watch how the works were created. Enjoy the video.

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Oh great, Evangelion manga will restart on April 2011

Ah, looks like Mr Sadamoto might restart his work on this famous manga (started in 1994). So far, 12 volumes is out and many fans estimated it will take another 2 books to complete the story. I wonder how long the 2 volumes will take.

Plus!

This news is before 11 March tsunami so I do wonder if the plan is still on or will be postponed in face of major disaster. So far, no post tsunami updates regarding about manga resurrection plan on April. But to be fair, Evangelion manga was illustrated beautifully and with great care, a nice feast for eyes.

I wouldn't hold my breath for next volume, that's for sure. Hee.

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Magica Magi Puella Madoka prequel?

Well a prequel to the already legendary series is in the works, the story focuses more on exploits of senior magis; Kyoko and Mami. Titled Magica Magi Puella Riko, it looks more like a manga instead of a spin off TV series. The new girl, Riko should be main character here. I don't know if there is any plan to adapt it to TV or anything though. Also I do wonder if the tone for this is as dark as the main series.

Source Site

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Tonnura San / とんぬらさん manga

This is a humorous manga, the story is about a very cheeky talking cat adopted by a family with 3 sisters. What's funny? The cat's expression is static all the time, pretty much like QB from Magi Puella Magica Madoka (2011). Only this time, it was used for humor instead as a sinister creepy factor of QB. The expression is a big, big smirk with very confident, sexy pose all the time which adds to the funny factor. There is a lot of silent, "duh" moment when the cat starts to talk to often bewildered humans around Tonnura San while still posing that manner.

Suitable for relaxed reading after a tough day of work.

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Fate Zero anime and manga confirmed! Yes!

TYPEMOON and Ufotable has confirmed the adaptation of Fate Zero as anime and manga! YES! Finally after years of speculation, my prediction came out as reality. So far no news on casting, movie/OAD/TV series is out yet but it will be revealed May 2011 issue TYPEMOON ACE Vol 6. Director is Ei Aoki (あおき えい) whereas character designer by Tomonori Sudou (須藤友徳)and Atsushi Ikariya (碇谷敦).

After awesome work on Kara no Kyokai, I was hoping Ufotable will be doing more TYPEMOON stories and I was right. This time, I predicted fans will like charismatic and manly Rider (Alexander The Great) and very stern, serious Saber. Shirou's foster father will the main driving character for this story. Here we can see how ruthless and cold man he is, much to Saber's disapproval.

Penned by Nitroplus Gen Urobuchi, it is more action packed compared to more mystical and obtuse Kinoko Nasu.

Hell yeah.

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Manga publisher backlash against new censorship law has gone global

As predicted, the backlash is getting global coverage from top newspapers. I wonder how long the right wing Tokyo Governor can hold on before he buckle under the pressure. It won't be long in my opinion. I don't think he expected this kind of coverage and indirect complaint from Premier of Japan, Naoto Kan. While he is no Aso, he nevertheless deplored the new law as he feared it will reduce Japanese economic competitiveness in global market. Not to mention the often overlooked softpower aspect. What a lot of people including the Governor of Tokyo did not realise is, one of the mainstay of Japanese global power is its ability to influence world audience thru softpower.


Wall Street Journal

AFP

BBC

ABC

Daily Telegraph

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