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The North American publisher Udon Entertainment announced at its Comic-Con International panel on Friday that it will release artbooks for the Sengoku Basara game franchise, the Valkyria Chronicles 2 game, and Persona designer Shigenori Soejima. Udon will also publish a two-volume manga for Sengoku Basara.

Pixiv Almanac, a planned series of “best-of” collections from artists on the Pixiv community site, will ship before the end of the year, and the first book will include Hatsune Miku art. Omar Dogan, an artist for Udon’s Street Fighter comics, is working on an original artbook called Girl 7 for the first quarter of next year. Udon signed an agreement with Marvel and CAPCOM to produce a book of design and production artwork, as well as all new art pieces.

Naoki Urasawa wins Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia category

Naoki Urasawa‘s 20th Century Boys won an Eisner Award in the Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia category at Comic-Con International on Friday. This is the first win for Urasawa. The manga was competing against Osamu Tezuka‘s Ayako, Yumi Unita‘s Bunny Drop, Moto Hagio‘s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories, and Natsume Ono‘s House of Five Leaves.

Darwyn Cooke won the award for Best Writer/Artist for Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit, while John Layman and Rob Guillory’s Chew won the Best Continuing Series category; Uraswa was nominated in both categories for 20th Century Boys.

Houston, TX, July 22, 2011:  Sentai Filmworks announced today their acquisition of Heaven’s Memo Pad, the amazing new series which merges an exploration of the growing phenomenon of social dropouts in Japan with a high school detective series.  Based on the highly successful series of light novels by Hikaru Sugii, Heaven’s Memo Pad is directed by Katushi Sakurabi (Gunparade March, Lunar Legend Tsukihime) using character designs by Keichi Sano based upon originals by Mel Kishida and script supervision by Seishi Minakami (Paprika, Daphne in the Brilliant Blue.)

HOUSTON, July 22, 2011—Sentai Filmworks today launches a full court press on the anime marketplace with the announcement of their acquisition of the red hot new girls’ basketball series RO-KYU-BU FAST BREAK!  Based on the hit series of seven light novel written by Sagu Aoyama and illustrated by Tinkle, as well as the twin manga series illustrated by Y?ki Takami and Futaba Miwa, respectively, the 12 episode series is directed by Keizo Kusakawa (Sekirei, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s,) with character designs by Takayuki Noguchi (Queen’s Blade, Papillon Rose) and script supervision by Michiko It? (Special A.)

Extension of VIZ Media’s Digital Platform Expands Manga Audience to All Web Users in U.S. and Canada  

San Francisco and San Diego, CA, July 22, 2011 – VIZ Media, the largest distributor and licensor of anime and manga in the North America, announced the launch of VIZManga.com at their 25^th Anniversary Party last night in San Diego during the annual Comic-Con International convention.  The website joins VIZ Media’s existing digital manga platform and launched with 40 series currently available on the VIZ MANGA App for iOS devices, including the wildly popular titles NARUTO, BLEACH, BLUE EXORCIST, OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB and VAMPIRE KNIGHT. With this expansion of the platform, fans can browse and access their digital manga from VIZManga.com and through the VIZ Manga Apps for the iPad™ and iPhone™/iPod™ touch. With one account, registered users will be able to view their purchases across even more devices than ever.

“The Radius”

Title: Baka & Test: Summon the Beasts Season 1

Original Story: Kenji Inoue (Famitsu Bunko)

Director: Shin Onuma (Silver Link)

American Publisher: FUNimation Entertainment

American Release Date: Aug. 2nd, 2011

Format and length: DVD, 13 episodes

Genres: Action, Comedy, Romance, School-life, Sci-Fi

Overall Personal Rating: B

Titles in the Radius: Dragon Drive, Soul Eater and Summer Wars

Houston, TX, July 21, 2011:  Sentai Filmworks today announced their acquisition of the new hit series Croisée in a Foreign Labyrinth ~ The Animation.  Based on the popular manga by Hinata Takeda,  the 12 episode series is a unique East meets West drama set in 19^th century France.  Script supervision for the historical drama is being handled by the legendary Junichi Sato (Sailor Moon, Aria,) with character designs by Hideki Inoue (Grenadier) and direction from Kenji Yasuda (Noein.)

News source The Yomiuri Shimbun

A public-private joint investment fund will set up a new company as early as this summer to deal with planning, production and international distribution of Japanese movies and anime, it has been learned.

The new company is designed to boost the international competitiveness of Japanese movies and anime stories, according to sources.

The new company, to be established by the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), will be tasked with identifying promising original works and ideas from among Japanese companies or individuals and will be entrusted with holding the sale of rights for film adaptations on behalf of the original copyright holders, the sources said.

“The Radius”

Katanagatari Volume 1 Premium Edition

Director: Keitaro Motonaga

Written By: Nisio Isin

Studio: White Fox

U. S. Distributor: NIS America

U.S. Release Date:  July 5th, 2011

Format: DVD/Blu-ray / 6 episodes / 308 minutes

Genre:  Comedy, Romance and Chanbara

Age Rating: Teen

Personal Rating: B+

Similar Series: Samurai Champloo

Sometimes a road to revenge ends you up in a ditch that you never expected.

Synopsis:

Fundraiser Supports The Expansion of Annual Bay Area Pop Culture Event Featuring MIKU-KITTY As A Main Character! Donators Invited To Special VIP Party

San Francisco, CA, July 20, 2011 – NEW PEOPLE, San Francisco’s dynamic entertainment destination showcasing the latest examples of Japanese popular culture, has launched a Kickstarter Funding Project for the 2011 J-Pop Summit Festival, which expands to two days – (Sat/Sun) August 27^th & 28^th – across the city’s Japantown. A Kickstarter page with complete project details is available at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/j-pop/j-pop-summit-festival-2011.

“The Radius”:

Title: Kaze Hikaru 19

Director/Author: Taeko Watanabe

Distributor: Viz Media

American release date:    August 2, 2011

Format, Genre and length: Shojo, historical Romance manga

Publisher/Industry Age Rating: OT

Overall Personal Rating: C+

Pressure from Western sources heavily influences the political events in Japan and the changes maybe unwelcome influence and irrevocable.  Kamiya and Soji find their world changing in more than one way.

Synopsis:  

“The Radius”

Title: Gungrave The Complete Collection Blu-ray

Director: Toshiyuki Tsuru

Studio: Madhouse

Distributor: FUNimation

American Release Date: July 19, 2011

Format: Blu-ray

Length: 26 Episodes/ 650 Minutes/ 3 Discs

Genre: Mafia, Action, Slice-of-Life, Drama

Distributor Age Rating: 16 Up (Older Teen)

Personal Review Rating: A-

Similar Series: Baccano!, Heat Guy J

They were best friends since they were little kids in an orphanage, what went wrong?

Synopsis: 

Square Enix has revoked its special prize from the 18th Square Enix Manga Prize awards after an investigation this week demonstrated that the winner had plagiarized Tow Ubukata’s novelette Mardock Scramble 104.

Square Enix had awarded the prize to Daiki Matsuura for “Compliance -Zettai H? Rei Toshi-,” a one-shot manga he sent to the company for the competition. Square Enix published the one-shot in its August issue of Monthly Shonen Gangan on Tuesday. Readers of the magazine pointed out to Square Enix that the one-shot had plagiarized Ubukata’s work.

“The Radius”

Title: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Part 5

Director: Yasuhiro Irie

Original Story: Hiroshi Onogi

Studio: Bones

Distributor: Funimation Entertainment

American Release Date: Aug. 2nd, 2011

Format: Anime DVD

Length: 320 minutes, 2 DVDs, Episodes 27-39

Genre: Steampunk, Action, Adventure

Publisher Age Rating: TV 14

Personal Review Rating: A

Similar Series: Last Exile, D. Gray-man

Every time there is a full Solar Eclipse, something bad happens or at least that is what the crazy people would like you to believe. Now that the eclipse is closing in on Alphonse and Edward, it looks like Father just might make the crazy people seem not so crazy.

“The Radius”

Title: Slam Dunk vol. 17

Author: Takehiko Inoue

Artist: Takehiko Inoue

Distributor: Viz Media

American Release Date: August 2, 2011

Format: Manga

Genre: Sports, Drama, Comedy

Publisher Age Rating: T for older teens

Overall Personal Rating: B-

(LOS ANGELES, July 15, 2011) – Seven Seas is proud to announce the release of the first volume of Yu-Rang Han’s gender bending vampire comedy manga My Boyfriend is a Vampire as a digital-first ebook edition three months prior to its October 2011 print release.

With over fifty ebooks currently available on the Apple, Kindle, and Nook devices, including Seven Seas’ top-selling original manga series Amazing Agent Luna, Aoi House, and Vampire Cheerleaders, as well as middle grade fiction series Avalon: Web of Magic, today’s release of My Boyfriend is a Vampire marks the first time that Seven Seas has made a foreign licensed work available in ebook form.

Everett, Washington – July 15, 2011- GameSamba, Inc and FUNimation® Entertainment are proud to announce a multi-faceted promotional partnership to cross promote their online gaming and anime titles to each other’s audiences.

“Working with FUNimation is a dream come true,” said Scott Wong, CEO of GameSamba. “Many of the games that we’ve loved over the years have connections to anime. Some of our upcoming games also have a strong anime-influence to them. We think that there is good synergy between our player base and anime fans, so this certainly will be an exciting partnership with many promotional, marketing and merchandising possibilities.”

“The Radius”

Title: Dragon Ball Z Kai Part Five

Original Story:  Akira Toriyama

American Publisher: Funimation Entertainment

American Release Date: June 28, 2011

Format: 2 DVD box set, 13 half hour episodes (325 minutes)

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Rating: TVPG

Overall Personal Rating: A-

Synopsis:

Goku is a martial artist and a Saiyan living on the planet Earth; along with his son Gohan, and friends like Krillen and ex-rival Namekian Piccolo, they fight to protect the Earth and in this case, planet Namek, from alien threats.

“The Radius”

Title: Natsume’s Book of Friends Volume 8

Author: Yuki Midorikawa

Publisher: Viz Media/ Shojo Beat

American Release Date: August 2, 2011

Format: Traditional Manga

Genre: Supernatural, Fantasy, Shojo, School Life

Publisher Age Rating: T (Teen)

Personal Review Rating: A

Similar Series: Kieli, Nabarai no Ou, Mushi Shi 

Nastume’s past is catching up to him, but for once in his life, he is truly happy where he is now. He has some tough decisions and possibly some major life changes if he wants to stay here.

“The Radius”:

Title: 20th Century Boys Vol. 16

Author: Naoki Urasawa

Distributor: Viz Media

American Release date: Aug, 16, 2011

Format: Manga

Genre: Sci Fi, Action

Publisher Age Ratting: T+ (for older teens)

Overall personal ratting: A+

Being lonely is a terrible thing, and for one boy, it drove him to insanity. Many people will die and the world will be brought to it’s knees, all because one boy had no friends.

Synopsis: