NEWSWORTHY
Manga creator Kazuo Koike, known as the author of the "Lone Wolf and Cub" samurai story adapted into a number of films and a television series, died Wednesday of pneumonia in Tokyo, a person close to him said Friday. He was 82. Koike, whose real ...
Shueisha starts free online distribution of popular manga in English, except in East Asia
Comic book publisher Shueisha Inc. has started free online distribution in English of some of its popular series in the hope of tapping new markets. Through the Manga Plus website and app, which will also be available in Spanish in coming months, readers will be ...
Cartoonist Rumiko Takahashi wins top prize at French comics festival
Takahashi is the second Japanese to win the lifetime achievement award after Katsuhiro Otomo, the creator of the “Akira” manga series, in 2015.
The Japanese market for manga is worth hundreds of billions of yen and is a crowded field for many young Japanese illustrators to break into. And if you're coming from overseas, there are even more obstacles. Fredric Toutlemonde, however, has been successful in tackling those ...
Japan's cosplay culture proving a hit in typically conservative India
Cosplay culture is gaining popularity in conservative India, where the Japanese hobby has drawn comparisons with a Hindu festival tradition. Comic Con India, a cosplay and pop culture event, has been held since 2011 in major cities and proven to be a hit, especially among ...
Publisher Shogakukan withdraws and apologizes for comic that mocks Genghis Khan
After it drew a barrage of criticism from Mongolians, Japanese publisher Shogakukan Inc. said Tuesday it is withdrawing the latest issue of a monthly cartoon magazine featuring an insulting picture of Mongolia's national hero, Genghis Khan. The March edition of "Korokoro Comic," which went on ...
Sales of digital manga overtake print editions in Japan for first time
Sales of digital manga in 2017 surpassed their printed versions for the first time, an industry research institute said Monday, highlighting a shift in reader preferences. According to a survey by the Research Institute for Publications, sales of digital manga last year are estimated to ...
Annual comic book sales set to sink amid dearth of popular titles
Comic books sales are expected to plunge about 12 percent for the year amid a dearth of popular titles and increasing demand for ebooks, a research institute said Monday. Sales of comic magazines targeted at adolescents are forecast to drop sharply, the Research Institute for ...
Kakao counting on Japan's love of manga to crack overseas market
Asia's messaging apps have a history of becoming huge in their home market before struggling to gain traction overseas. South Korea's Kakao Corp. is counting on the Japanese love of manga to break that trend. Amassing 43 million users at home has driven Kakao's market ...
New Kindai University library aims to lure manga lovers to academic works
A university in western Japan will open a library next month that has an unusually large proportion of manga in its collection, school officials say. The two-story Biblio Theater library at Kindai University in Osaka Prefecture is expected to have around 70,000 books, with about ...
Breaking the comic book glass ceiling
Four years ago, Chinese-American writer Marjorie Liu had a simple but persistent idea: create an epic fantasy comic book series about a classic Japanese kaijū (strange beast) movie monster that has a connection to a girl. She knew it should take place entirely in Asia, ...
Tokyo Comic Con calls on Hollywood's big guns for star power
As we sit down for an interview, Tokyo Comic Convention Committee Chairman Mitsuaki Munegumi casually points to a glass case in the center of the room. "There's actually a real 'Star Wars' lightsaber in there," he says, and reaches over. He pulls out a hilt ...
