Category > Manga
We've been sent a press release from the folks at Titan Books, detailing the release of MegaTokyo Volume 4 in the UK. Why should we care when volume 5 is almost out in the US and most bookshops stock it volume 4 already? Well this is actually great news as some places like libraries and their book suppliers will only deal with books that have an official UK release. Now that MegaTokyo has an official UK release you should be able to pester your local librarian to get a copy in. ^_- This also applies to the other Titan books we've put press releases up for as they've already had US releases, but would be hard to stock in some places.
MegaTokyo Volume 4 is due to hit the bookshelves on 27th April 2007.
Read More... | Souce: Titan Books
Category > Anime
We've been sent a press release from the folks at Titan Books. They'll be releasing a new updated edition of the Anime Encyclopedia for the UK on 27th April 2007. This edition has a black cover, along with over 40% new material. The Anime Encyclopedia is a must for otaku, as it's a accurate and well researched guide to the subject unlike a few other books which are nowhere near as good. Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy know their stuff and we highly recomend this guide. Hunting around on Amazon.co.uk will produce a bargain price below the suggested retail price. You'll save money by reading about the type of anime you'd want to avoid, but the only trouble is you'd want to watch more of the titles you've discovered by reading it.
Read More... | Souce: Titan Book
Category > Manga
We've been sent a press release from the good folks at Titan Books. They've aquired the rights for the Dark Horse version of Eden. It's due to hit the bookshelves on 27th April 2007.
Read More... | Souce: Titan Books
Category > Events
Anime fans will be pleased to know that Leicester based UK anime convention AmeCon 2007 is now open for registration. So book now to avoid disappointment. The convention is scheduled for 10th-12th August 2007 and is the third convention held by the AmeCon crew.
Souce: AmeCon
Category > Manga
We've received a details from publishing house Hodder and Stoughton regarding the Manga Bible. We're not talking about some sort of ultimate must have guide to manga, but the New Testament produced in a manga style. Using the TNIV (Today's New International Version) as the basis, London based artist Siku, who is best know for his work on 2000AD.
Read More... | Souce: The Manga Bible
Category > Retail
Hidden away just around the corner from Leicester Square and short walk from Covent Garden, on Upper Saint Martin's Lane is Orbital Manga, a new little manga shop from the same people behind Orbital Comics on Charing Cross Road. Although Orbital Manga is small, it's worth looking around and is a refreshing change from comic shops that stock some manga. They've got a good range of manga and the usual selection of merchandise and trinkets.
Read More... | Souce: Upper Saint Martin\'s Lane
Category > Manga
Random House UK imprint Tanoshimi have sent us some details about a nice fan oriented campaign. From February 7th Fans and vote on their website and select which title they want Tanoshimi to publish next, the people behind Tanoshimi have confirmed that it is likely they will only publish the winning title.
Fans can vote for the following:
Genshiken
Kagetora
Othello
Wallflower
All voters will go into a draw for a chance to win a Nintendo DS Lite.
Read More... | Souce: Tanoshimi
Category > Manga
We've just been sent a press release from Random House imprint Tanoshimi detailing their releases in the UK for this February 2007. They'll be releasing the following titles:
Free Collars Kingdom Volume 1
Airgear Volume 3
School Rumble Volume 3 and 4
Guru Guru Pon Chan Volume 7
All are due to hit the shelves on 1st February 2007.
Free Collars Kingdom is a new title to Tanoshimi that should interest the furry fan readers with lots of catboy antics.
Read More... | Souce: Tanoshimi
Category > Manga
We've been sent an interesting press release from SelfMadeHero about their Manga Shakespeare series. The bard's classic tales have been reinterpreted into a manga style. With Romeo and Juliet the action has relocated to Shibuya in Tokyo, with yakuza talking the place of the more traditional families in the original. Hamlet is still set in Denmark, but in the future cyber world of 2017. SelfMadeHero inform us that the series keeps true to the text of Shakespeare, but is specially abridged for use in the manga. Sweatdrop Studio's very own Sonia Leong illustrated Romeo and Juliet, while Emma Vicieli illustrated Hamlet.
Both Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet are due for release on 1st March 2007, priced at £6.99. The Tempest and Richard III are due to be published in Autumn 2007. Othello, Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night’s Dream are planned, but no release date is mentioned.
Our readers still in education might want to show this to their English and drama teachers, while our other readers might just enjoy reading a new interpretation of Shakespeare's works.
This is not the first time Hamlet has been made into a manga in English, our good friend Amethyst Angel has done a fan version using characters from Slayers, entitled Hamlet: The Manga.
Read More... | Souce: SelfMadeHero
Category > Manga
Tokyo Pop UK's talent hunt Rising Stars of Manga UK and Ireland hasn't been totally smooth sailing; there have been numerous resets of the vote, not to mention the judges decision to eliminate a finalist after announcing their inclusion in the people's choice.
Despite that, all that the winners have been announced. Their work will be included in the RSOM UK Volume 2 book.
Read More... | Souce: Tokyopop
Category > Events
For our London readers you might want to visit IMAF, the International Manga and Anime Festival, which opened today at County Hall near the London Eye in Westminster. It's set to run from Friday 10th - Tuesday 14th November 2006.
Opening times vary each day, so be sure to check to avoid dissapointment before going. The event schedule can be found in a 132KB MS Word document (web usability experts scream as it should be in HTML for everyone to read). It includes panels and workshops by author Paul Gravett, artists Sweatdrop Studios, international comic book
creator Ilya and expert on traditonal culture Akemi.
The winners have been announced and the overall award winner is the talented Paul Duffield who also won the Tokyopop UK Rising Stars of Manga Competiton in 2005. Anime expert, author, writer, and Ghibli fan Helen McCarthy also won a much deserved "Outstanding Contribution to Anime and Manga" award. Congratulations to all the winners!
We suggest you get to County Hall to enjoy all the lovely artwork while it's on display.
Souce: IMAF
Category > Art
We've received some very last minute details from Letraset about an event they'll be running on Saturday 4th November at London Graphics a huge art supply retailer. We've been told that their Covent Garden store in London will be hosting a manga day with activities and workshops 11.00am to 6pm. The following will be there:
- Letraset
- London Graphics
- TokyoPop
- Tokyo Toys
- Sweatdrop Studios
- Blusheep
Apparently it's also being supported by Neo Magazine and Manga Entertainment.
So if you can get to London in time and are feeling artistic it's well worth a look.
Souce: London Graphic Centre
Category > Manga
UK Small press anthology MangaQuake is back for its third issue which contains 56 pages of manga goodness!
Press Release:
"MangaQuake is back for its third issue- and it's better than ever! Featuring a collection of strips for a few familiar names from previous issues, and some truly astonishing brand new talent. With stories of betrayal, inter species romance (...well sort of!) and Norse gods with traffic congestion problems- I think we can genuinely say that this issue, its 56 pages crammed to overflowing with fun and action- has something for everyone! "
Souce: FutureQuake
Category > Manga
Sonia from Sweatdrop Studios the manga styled art group has dropped as a line about their latest publications. The books are supposed to be paired together and explorer the differences between shojo and shonen manga, apparently each book can be enjoyed alone or with it's partner book. The shojo book is called Pink is for Girls, while the shonen book is titled Blue is for Boys. We like the comparison of sparkles versus speedlines in their press release. The book is due for release on Saturday 28th October at the London MCM Expo at the Sweatdrop Studios stand.
Read More... | Souce: Sweatdrop Studios
Category > Events
We've been sent some details from the Tomo-dachi Crew about their next convention, set for Friday, August 31st - Sunday to September 2nd, 2007 at the UU Magee Campus in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Bookings before March 31st are £25 and £30 after. As of yet, they've not released a guest list, however if the last Tomo-dachi is anything to go for they'll have some good industry guests.
Read More... | Souce: Tomo-dachi
Category > Manga
We've been sent a press release from the nice people over at UK manga inspired art group Sweatdrop. They're both aimed at beginners, Draw Manga By Sweatdrop Studios and Drawing Manga by Selina Dean. Draw Manga focuses on basics, with a series of tutorials on how to draw character elements such as eyes, hair, hand and clothing, along with step by step projects showing how to put individual elements together to create a manga style character.
Drawing Manga by the talented Selina Dean focuses more on character design with posing characters. It includes tips on drawing people monsters and mascots. In addition it includes comic creation techniques such as developing storyboards, creating layouts, scripting, including backgrounds and colouring and inking techniques.
Draw Manga by Sweatdrop Studios is due out on 15th October 2006, while Drawing Manga by Selina Dean was out on 4th September 2006.
We think it's great that some UK based artist are producing books on how to draw manga, however we're curious as to why they've released two books within the space of two months with the same purpose at the same price (an affordable £9.99), we wonder if the books are significantly different, would it have been better to combine the contents into one bigger book? Perhaps the writing styles are different allowing a potential artist to chose the style they prefer.
Read More... | Souce: Sweatdrop Studios
Category > Manga
The good folks at publishers Random House have dropped us a line to tell us about their new manga publishing label Tanoshimi. They'll be releasing some great titles in the UK including xxxHOLiC, Tsubasa and Negima. Their new website is due to launch on 3rd August 2006, in the mean time you can sign up for a chance to win an iPod Nano.
Souce: Tanoshimi
Category > Events
The good people from the East Midlands Anime Group have arranged a convention for Friday 19th October to Sunday 21st October 2007. FuyuCon has capacity for 500 members and will be based at the Britannia Hotel Nottingham. Full weekend membership costs £40.
Anime expert Helen McCarthy will be the guest for FuyuCon, it will be her first UK anime convention appearance in a while. Helen regularly attends US conventions such as A-Kon.
FuyuCon is a welcome addition to the UK anime convention calendar. Since the capacity is 500, we suggest you book as soon as possible to avoid any disappointment.
Read More... | Souce: FuyuCon
Category > Events
Emily has just sent us some details about an event she's organising in London next month, Cosplay Cafe at Cafe Manga. Aimed at Cosplayers kameko (photographers) and their chums. It's set for Sunday 23rd April, 2pm-5.30pm, and includes fun activities like a photoshoot, a talk/workshop, a quiz, anime and live action screenings, along with a swap table. They'll even have goodies to give away too! ^_^
Read More... | Souce: Cafe Manga
Category > Manga
Following my recent report on Ottaker's promotional push on the manga scene, I've gotten hold of a small list of other branch locations where a Manga Evening is taking place. If your branch isn't on there, I've been told to keep checking and/or asking away. Areas probably differ in consciousness with manga, and are likely to hold a Manga Evening too, if they know there is a demand.
Read More... | Souce: Ottaker\'s
Category > Manga
After getting a heads up from Anime Artists UK on bookshop Ottaker's new Manga Collector's Club, I searched around and found that Ottaker's Coventry branch will also be holding a small manga evening on April 6th in association with Tokyo Pop.
Read More... | Souce: Ottakers
Category > Fandom
Those artistic people from Sweatdrop Studios have dropped us a line to tell us about their new on-line shopping system. They take Paypal too, which is useful for those who don't have or want credit cards. We recommend you grab a copy of Sugardrops if you haven't already, since it contains artwork from a selection of the Sweatdrop Crew. The press release they sent us also has a discount coupon. ^_-
Read More... | Souce: Sweatdrop Studios
Category > Events
The Japanese Embassy in Piccadilly, London is hosting a free to enter exhibition focusing on the production of manga from the rough through to the finished work. The exhibition focuses on the work of manga artist Kiriko Kubo.
It runs from 30 January - 24 February 2006 and is open Monday - Friday 9.30 am - 5.30 pm.
Souce: Japanese Embassy
Category > Manga
The winners of The Rising Stars of Manga UK have been announced. The Grand prize was taken by Paul Duffield with the manga Falling Star the second prize was one by Sonia Leong with the manga Fatal Connection.
Read More... | Souce: Tokyopop UK
Category > Events
Those nice people over at Sweatdrop have sent us a press release for their appearace at the Comic Expo in Brighton. Tokyopop and Letraset will be there too. It's certainly worth a vist if you like your comics or want to be more active in the independent UK comic scene.
Read More... | Souce: Sweatdrop Studios
Category > Events
Author and anime expert Jonathan Clements has sent us details of the SOAS Japanese Manga and Cultural Politics Lecture and Discussion in London. This is due to take place at 7pm Tuesday 11th October, with free admission at the The Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, SOAS. Since it's hosted by The School of Oriental and African Studies, you know it should be good.
Read More... | Souce: SOAS
Category > Events
With the competition deadline edging ever close, the nice folks at IMAF have sent us some more details for their London event.
Highlights include Sweatdrop Studios, a special screening of Millennium Actress, along with the Europe Premiere of Streetfighter - Alpha Generation. Even Garnier will be their with its Manga haircare range. The IMAF is certainly worth attending to see the wonderful range of entrants.
Read More... | Souce: IMAF
Category > Anime
Viz are set to enter the European anime and manga market,partnering with Copyright Promotions Ltd they will form Viz Media B.V. Titles appearing in the press release include Bleach, Deko Boku Friends and Mar.
We at Otaku news have also noticed one title surprisingly not mentioned in the press release has already appeared on the CPLG website, with a page now listing the Inu Yasha anime.
Souce: AnimeUKNews
Category > Art
This years IMAF has just launched. They're looking for international talent in the form of artists and animators to identify the best. Entrants have a chance to win some of the $75,000 prize fund which is divided between the categories. The best overall entry will win a generous $30,000!
The Otaku News Crew advise that our talented readers get to work, you've got until the 30th September 2005 to get your entries in!
Read More... | Souce: IMAF
Category > Manga
Gollancz Manga have sent us the details for their UK Manga releases. Starting August they'll be releasing manga on the first Monday of every month. Gollancz entered into an exclusive arrangement with VIZ to publish their titles in the UK. The titles available will include Yu-Gi-Oh!, Fushigi Yugi, Dragon Ball and Case Closed.
Many UK manga fans would have already got these titles from certain retailers offering the American import versions, but since these are the official UK versions it means that they'll be more easily available. Libraries for example will be able to order manga if they so wish through their distributors. The Otaku News Crew are excited to hear about this and look forward to seeing even more manga in the UK.
Read More... | Souce: Gollancz Manga
Category > Events
Popular UK Anime convention AyaCon are now down to their last 49 places. The convention always proves a hit and once it has sold out getting a ticket to the event is very hard, normally people have to wait for registered members to cancel.
AyaCon 5 is set to be the biggest UK anime convention to date with 1200 fans in attendance. Currently hosting an anime convention of this size is tricky and it's always nice to know that the people running the convention have experience and a proven track record at organising anime conventions. So book now to avoid disappointment.
What will be interesting to see is where will anime conventions go after this. Anime and manga is getting increasingly popular in the UK and more events are being held all the time. Surely more people will want to go to anime conventions run by anime fans like AmeCon, AyaCon and MinamiCon, however there are a only a limited number of venues that can cater for a fan run anime convention in the UK larger than 1200 people, anything bigger and all sorts of logistical factors kick in making organising an event a lot more complex. The Otaku News Crew wonder what will happen next, will these conventions continue with the same capacity, or will they be able to find even bigger venues to hold larger events? Whatever happens we certainly look forward to future fan run anime conventions.
Souce: AyaCon
Category > Events
Sonia Leong over at Sweatdrop Studios has just sent us some details about a special discount at The Artists & Illustrators Exhibition (21-24 July, Business Design Centre, London, UK). For more details read the full press release.
Read More... | Souce: Sweatdrop Studios
Category > Manga
TokyoPop has announced that they will launch a new branch of their successful Cine-Manga line. This July, they will release the first of the new Jr. Cine-Manga books that will, they predict, revolutionize the children’s book market by bringing beloved characters and storylines from the screen to an original exciting visual format.
Read More... | Souce: TokyoPop
Category > Events
Sonia Leong from UK manga style art group Sweatdrop Studios has just sent us the details of a Manga Art Competition which will be held at the London Expo this weekend. The competition is sponsored by Letraset who will be giving the winners some highly desirable colour professional Letraset Tria Marker collections, worth over £70 each.
So if you can draw and will be at the London Expo then why not give it a shot? ^_^
Read More... | Souce: Sweatdrop
Category > Manga
Following on this story, Gollancz have confirmed more details of the release of the Dragon Ball Z and the Yu-Gi-Oh series in mainstream book shops. The cartoon series of both have caught the attention of the UK audience by their showing on Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and now it will be possible from August to buy the manga titles from all good book shops, with Ottakars especially making a push with these titles.
Read More... | Souce: Amazon.co.uk
Category > Manga
Following on from our earlier story Tokyopop are to offer a chance for UK creators to earn prizes and receive a chance to have their own Graphic Novel.
Read More... | Souce: Tokyopop.com
Category > Freaky Things
Anime and manga fans in the UK have always dreamed of their favourite hobby becoming more mainstream, without doubt over the last year or so this has happened. What key indicators are we using for this? Sales figures in highstreet retailers? Availability of manga in bookshops? No, we're using hair products. Anime and manga characters have always been noted for having very distinct hairstyles and beauty products company Garnier have just released Fructis Style Manga Head styling putty in the UK. It seems that either their marketing department are cool and hip or Garnier have found a niche market of otaku who want to emulate their favourite characters.
Read More... | Souce: Garnier Beauty Bar
Category > Events
The International Manga and Anime Festival have just announced the winners of their first international competition. The London based event started last year as a trial run and has proved very successful indeed. The entrants work was displayed in London County Hall in December. This was a very high profile event, located near the famous London Eye, with a $75,000 prize fund which even ran adverts in national newspapers. We covered the story originally here.
The Otaku News Crew would like to congratulate all the winners in this competition, especially talented artist Wing Yun Man, who is well known in UK anime fandom as part of the Sweatdrop Team, she is also a member of the Otaku News Crew and finds time post the occasional story and draw lovely artwork for us!
Read More... | Souce: IMAF
Category > Manga
Following on from our story about Viz being distributed in the UK, we now have the offical press release from Gollancz.
Read More... | Souce: Orion Books
Category > Manga
For some time Viz titles have only been available through specialist importers in the UK, but thankfully for those without access to these services the UK will finally get versions of it’s own. UK publishers Gollancz have struck a deal with Viz and will be publishing Viz’s titles in the UK under the imprint Gollancz manga. Titles include: Dragon Ball, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Case Closed and Fushigi Yugi. The books will be priced at £4.99 and be available from August.
Souce: The Book Standard
Category > Press Releases
UK manga style art group Sweatdrop Studios has announced that they will be attending the London MCM Expo and will be running the artists alley section of the 'anime village'. The MCM Expo is running on the 14 & 15th May.
Read More... | Souce: London Expo
Category > Events
Comic Expo is a new UK comic convention in Bristol 14th - 15th MAY 2005. Which seems to be making an effort to include manga fans within the convention. The biggest news is that Tokyopop UK will be launching its new 'Rising Stars of Manga' competition which for the first time will be open to UK artists. The convention also lists a "Tokyopop cine-manga night" but there are no details so it's hard to understand what this means.
Tokyopop Cine-manga are comics made out of animation screenshots (which with Tokyopop aren't all based on anime e.g. Disney), so it's unclear if it's some sort of presentation, anime screening or broader animation screening.
Also of interest is a talk by Paul Gravett which is billed as 'PAUL GRAVETT gets Re-Animeted. Celebrating 60 years of the genre.'
Read More... | Souce: Comic Expo
Category > Manga
The Otaku News Crew have been sent this request from a Publisher who requires someone with a large manga collecton -
Publisher seeks manga collectors in South East England with collections of 75-100 plus translated titles, mostly non hentai. Author and publisher would like to visit you and look at your titles as part of picture research for new book. Small fee and thanks in book. If interested send your list of titles/authors and your address to
chippymouseuk@yahoo.co.uk
Souce: Publisher
Category > Manga
Sonia Leong from UK manga style art studio Sweatdrop has sent us some details regarding an exciting collaboration with Artists & Illustrators Magazine. The March issue heavily features manga style artwork in the form of two full colour cover-mounted mini comics and a make your own manga tutorial, covering details such as sketching, inking and using colour markets to produce authentic looking illustrations.
The Sweatdrop crew will also be representing the UK manga community at the Artists & Illustrators Exhibition 2005 event.
Artists & Illustrators Magazine is the UK's best selling magazine for practising artists. You can grab a copy of the Sweatdrop Planet Manga mini comic with the March Edition of the magazine, which is available from 4th March.
Read More... | Souce: Sweatdrop
Category > Events
The folks over at the London Expo Event have sent us details of their anime and manga lineup. Not only will they have Cosplay events on both days, but they've also arranged sponsorship from MVM and Neo Magazine.
Guest wise, the Expo has Teryleryl Rothery who plays Dr. Janet Frasier in Stargate SG-1 and has been a voice actress in Dragon Ball playing Agent Mai in the 1995 dub and Raven in the first Dragon Ball Movie. She's also played A-ko Magami in Project A-Ko and Kodachi Kuno in various Ranma ½ features.
Read More... | Souce: London MCM Expo
Category > Manga
We've got details from Titan Books regarding the UK release of the new edition of the groundbreaking manga Ghost In The Shell. This is Masamune Shirow's best known work and has been reprinted in a smaller format now uncensored. Titan will also be releasing the new manga Ghost In The Shell 2: Man Machine Interface. The sequel to the original manga has lots more CG art that Shirow has become known for in his popular Intron Depot artbooks.
Both books have been translated by Frederik L. Schodt and Toren Smith, which otaku know are famed for the quality of their translation work. Both books hit the shelves on 25th February and retail for £19.99, which is reasonable considering the page count and the amount of colour artwork in both books.
Read More... | Souce: Titan Books
Category > Events
We've just got news from the nice people at UK manga style art studio Sweatdrop that they'll be representing the UK manga community at the Artists & Illustrators Exhibition 2005 event and also provide workshops, and four 90 minute long presentations covering aspects of Manga-styled art and it's creation.
The event is scheduled for July 21st - 24th at London's Business Design Centre, last years event attracted over 14,000 visitors!
The Sweatdrop crew can be seen regulary at UK anime events, such at the London Anime Club and other UK anime conventions like AyaCon and AmeCon. Recently Sweatdrop also ran a stall at the London Comic Festival, with great success. Regular readers of Otaku News, will also remeber some of our lovely Christmas Desktop Wallpaper created by Sweatdrop artist Wing Yun Man.
Read More... | Souce: Sweatdrop
Category > Events
I've just received the details for AyaCon 5, the next edition of the successful UK anime and manga convention which always proves popular. AyaCon 5 will be held from 19-21 August 2005. Their venue will be the Warwick Arts Centre (University of Warwick near Coventry).
The convention will have use of the entire Arts Centre and extra faclities including a bar, restaurant and additional conference rooms, along with the full nightclub facilities in the nearby Students' Union for two parties on the Friday and Saturday evenings.
Read More... | Souce: AyaCon
Category > Events
Those alert people over at BritAnime have discovered a manga package holiday from 29 March to April 2005 for our British readers.
The price seems good considering the flights and everything, although personally I prefer to go around Japan without a tour guide, discovering things by yourself is a lot of fun! However it is nice to have the option for the less adventurous, or for those who enjoy the convenience of having everything ready for them, especially since many anime fans have a limited Japanese vocabulary, including words such as baka (idiot), which doesn't really go down well when you're trying to book a hotel room!
The 8 day trip includes a visit to the Tokyo International Animation Fair, the fantastic Ghibli Museum, a visit to Akihabara (for all your electronic needs) and also the wonderful Meiji shrine, with huge Tori gates by it's entrance.
Souce: JapanJourneys.co.uk
Category > Manga
Following our previous news items about the educational value of manga in the UK, that appear in both the Times Education Supplement and the Daily Mail, we've managed to get an interview with the organisation that created the campaign designed to get kids reading using manga - The Reading Agency.
Read More... | Souce: Otaku News
Category > Events
One of our contributors Voxie from MAME has just discovered plans in Scotland for Auchinawa which "strives not to be an "Anime Convention" but an "Otaku Convention". Our Mission is to create a Convention/Expo in Scotland, the first of its kind, which caters for your needs and wants as fans."
They plan to screen anime, have DDR machines and will also be catering for J-Music fanatics and furries.
It's not set to run until the summer of 2006 so many of the details aren't finalised yet. However it's always good to plan ahead and conventions in the UK often get booked out quickly, so go take a look and get saving to get to Glasgow, if you're not near there already.
Souce: Auchinawa