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Udon Entertainment has confirmed with ANN that it will publish Mami Itoh's Darkstalkers / Red Earth: Maleficarum video game manga in October. The manga will showcase stories from two Capcom video game franchises: Darkstalkers and Red Earth.

Itoh provided the art for Tow Ubukata's Pilgrim Jäger fantasy adventure manga, and Eiji Ohtsuka's Japan science-fiction manga. Media Blasters released the first three volumes of Pilgrim Jäger in 2004-2005.

The North American anime and manga distributor Viz Media released a four-episode original video animation adaptation of the Darkstalkers' franchise titled Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge in 1998.

The June issue of Kadokawa Shoten's Newtype magazine is revealing on Monday that the Gainax anime studio's new work is titled Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. Hiroyuki Imaishi (Gurren Lagann, Dead Leaves) is directing the project with assistant director Masahiko Otsuka (FLCL, Gurren Lagann, Pom Poko.) As revealed at the Gurren Lagann Parallel Works 2 event on Tuesday, Atsushi Nishigori (Gurren Lagann) is the main character designer of the new anime, and another Gurren Lagann veteran, Yoh Yoshinari, is drawing the concept art. Designer Shigeto Koyama (Eureka Seven, Gunbuster 2, Gurren Lagann) is acting as a "coordinator."

The story centers around a teen-celebrity-like blond-haired girl named Panty and a black-haired Goth Loli girl named Stocking. The two are angels sent from the heavens to battle the "Ghosts" on Earth.

The offical website of the Japanese publisher Frontier Works has announced on Friday that a live-action film adaptation of Hyouta Fujiyama's Pure Heart (Junjō) boys-love manga has been green-lit. According to the website, the story of the film will be "somewhat different" from the original three-volume manga series and the two drama CDs.

In this romance story, a writer named Tozaki happens to come across his first high school crush, Kurata, while on assignment. After the assignment, the two go out drinking, and Tozaki ends up confessing his old feelings for Kurata.

Rakuto Tochihara (RH Plus, Aquarian Age, Kamen Rider Hibiki) will play Tozaki, while Yūta Takahashi (Hana Zakari no Kimitachi e: Ikemen Paradise, Café Kichijouji de, The Prince of Tennis musical) will play Kurata. Satoshi Kaneda (Ai no Kotodama) is directing off a screenplay by Hirotoshi Kobayashi (Dr. Pinoko no Mori no Bōken, Miracle Girls) and Kozuru.

Digital Manga Publishing's Juné imprint released the first volume of the manga series in North America last year.

Do fictional characters have human rights? Feminists working with the Japanese government apparently think so.

From a series of documents published on the Japanese cabinet’s Gender Equality Bureau, who may already be familiar:

"Media depictions of sexual violence against women constitute a violation of the human rights of women, and are a major obstacle to the creation of a gender-equal society."

"Where violent or sexual media depictions of women are concerned, we must promote public understanding of this as a “human rights violation,” and ensure media are subjected to voluntary restraints."

"Voluntary censorship of media depictions of sexual violence should be promoted, and laws including censorship of virtual sexual violence against women in DVDs, video and PC games should be considered.
Rarely has the concept of “human rights” been abused so egregiously as by the latest wave of feminist inspired moral panic over two dimensional media."

In fact even the most cursory consideration reveals censorship according to “virtual human rights” could easily threaten a complete elimination of freedom of expression – if fictional women and children have human rights, by extension even men may have them too, meaning any story dealing with nonconsensual violence against men (practically all fiction of any interest) involves massive human rights violations.

Indeed, any criticism of the brave defenders of the rights of non-existent people might as well be condemned as promoting human rights violations.

The fundamental irony of using the rubric of “human rights” to rob people of one of their most fundamental rights seems lost on the advocates of this new wave of moral hysteria – hardly surprising considering it appears they have simply decided to parrot a serious sounding UN buzzword in the hopes of giving their extremist writings an air of legal credibility, with no appreciation of the ridiculousness of what they are saying.

Yoshitaka Amano, the designer of the Final Fantasy role-playing game series and illustrator of the Vampire Hunter D novels, will appear at the opening reception of his solo exhibition, Devaka Loka: Los Angeles.

The artworks highlight American comics, culture, automobiles and other influences that inspired Amano. Similar exhibitions had opened in Berlin in 2008 and San Francisco in 2009.

On his newest exhibition, Amano said, “Between the late 60s and the 70s, and during my early years in the art world, I was greatly influenced by American comic books and pop culture. I'd like to show my gratitude for the inspiration America gave me with this exhibit. With the theme of 'Deva Loka,' all of my concepts and influences are able to come together, centered in one place. I hope everyone enjoys my show."

The exhibition will be held at the LeBasse Projects art gallery in Culver City, on February 20.

Source: Anime News Network

Patrick Stewart, probably best known for his role as Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as his numerous Broadway stage performances, is to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. The 69 year old actor is a native of England, and hails from Yorkshire.

A knighthood is the highest honor bestowed from the British royalty, men who receive it are called "Sir" and women "Dame". Awards recognize service and achievement, and can be awarded to non-citizens also. Among Sir Patrick, others receiving the award on this list included fashion designers, restaurateurs and members of F1 racing.

Tokyopop annoucned on Friday that it has begun an online manga program that will see new chapters added online on Wednesdays. The Program has launched with the first chapter of PSY*COMM volume 3, on August 12th. Boys of Summer, with it's graphic content is scheduled to begin online serialization on September 23. Volume one had been released in 2006 but was pulled due to its graphic content and volume two was postponed indefinately.



Earthlight, Patheon High, Undertown, Gyakushuu, Kat & Mouse, all world manga titles that had been previously discontinued by Tokyopop are set to be included as a part of the program.

The creator of the Eat-man manga published by Viz Media in North America has launched his new Chikyu no Hokago manga series in the September issue of Akita Shoten's Monthly Champion RED Magazine on Saturday. Akihito Yoshitomi's new series is about three girls and one boy who survive on Earth after the rest of humanity has been wiped out. He had previously published a one shot of the series in the may issue of the same magazine and the popularity has led to the ongoing manga series.

Source: Anime News Network

It is a Saturday night in Los Angeles. Most of my friends are passed out from exhaustion, tired from Anime Expo. It is 10:00 pm and I am wide awake. What was I to do by myself at such an hour? Go dancing of course! This year’s Anime Expo dances were held conveniently at my very own hotel, the Westin Bonaventure. Also different from last year, Anime Expo chose not to detail what kind of music was to be played at each dance. Though the information would have been useful, I decided to go with the most thrilling option available: the 18+ dance. After putting on my dance shoes, I made my way down to the ballroom level of the Westin.

The line for the dance was not hard to miss. By the time I arrived, the line had already snaked halfway around the floor. Nonetheless, I was enthusiastically greeted with high-fives by random con-goers as I tried to find the end of the line. When I situated myself at the end of the line, I was suddenly struck with the realization that was completely alone. All around me people were talking and laughing with their friends. I

Crunchyroll media distribution company's website is listing a scheduled simulacast for the Aoi Hana (Sweet Blue Flowers) anime series at 3:00pm EDT Wednesday (July 1st). Despite this listing Crunchyroll has not yet officially announced that it will stream this new television adaptation of Takako Shimura's yuri manga.

In the original Aoi Hana manga's story, Fumi and Akira were close childhood friends until Fumi had to move away. Ten years after losing touch with each other, the two girls meet again as high school freshmen. The two struggle to reconnect after so much has changed, and both deal with the trials and tribulations of high school — sometimes independently and sometimes with each other's help.

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