Nominees for the 12th Tezuka Cultural Awards were announced in the latest edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. Ten manga in all:

• [url=http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=13135]Umimachi Diary (1) Semishigure no Yamugoro[/url] by Akimi Yoshida
• [url=http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=6741]Ooku[/url] by Fumi Yoshinaga
• [url=http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=7511]Kaijuu no Kodomo[/url] by Daisuke Igarashi
• [url=http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=655]Nana[/url] by Ai Yazawa
• [url=http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=10516]81diver[/url] by Yokusaru Shibata
• [url=http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=15619]Moyashimon[/url] by Masayuki Ishikawa
• [url=http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=5708]Yamikin Ushijima-kun[/url] by Shohei Manabe
• [url=http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=5]Yotsuba&![/url] by Kiyohiko Azuma
• [url=http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=1969]Lucu Lucu[/url] by Yoshitoo Asari
• [url=http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=7254]Red[/url] by Naoki Yamamoto

Before you yell at me, I REALIZE that we are a manga site, while the article is about anime. But remember, what happens on that side also influences this side. We like the same stuff, right? (No arguments about which is better!)

The original article came from ANN:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2008-03-11
The person interviewed is Tofusensei from the group Live-Evil. As a former fansubbing AND scanlator, I totally understand his sentiments. I would consider myself "old-school" in that sense, even though I've only been on the scene for a few years (read the article for what I mean).

Now the question is, will this spread to manga scanlators too? Notice all the one-man teams that speed scanlate the most popular series? (Some are just individuals that have a tiny knowledge of Japanese and editing and just throw together a sad looking thing they call a "scanlation") How about the large speed groups that do tons of series, but in LQ? Will the book industry decline like DVD sales? It's all to be seen...

First, sorry about being a day late with updating the poll. I've been too busy the last few days to manage much, but here I am!

The new poll is Who knows you read manga? I realize most people have some sort of mixture of the options, but please just choose the one that most applies. There is also no "other" category, or else most people would vote for that one (probably), and we'd not really have much of a poll there, would we? Personally, I'm interested in knowing how many closet readers we have.

As for the old poll:
Question: How do you get most of your manga?
Choices:
IRC - votes: 1207 (17.5%)
Torrents - votes: 386 (5.6%)
The scanlation group's website - votes: 2213 (32%)
Manga hosting sites - votes: 2496 (36.1%)
I buy most of my manga - votes: 480 (6.9%)
Other - votes: 128 (1.9%)
There were 6910 total votes.
The poll ended: March 9th 2008

Torrents are dying for manga releases (although I wouldn't say the same for anime releases). IRC interestingly enough still has plenty of people using it! If you haven't already, visit #lurk and you'll be in heaven. As for the top results, scanlation group websites and manga hosting sites ran neck to neck. Quite an turnout, I'd say~

Some good news for once~

snowdrop writes: Serenus Dreamers decided not to shut down. The group will continue their work but dropped a couple of series. For more details http://www.serenus-dreamers.com/~sizzle-manga/Dream/

barbapapa writes: *ANZAI Nobuyuki, author of Flame of Recca and Marchen Awakens Romance, is starting a series called MiXiM ♀ 12 in issue #21-22 of Shonen Sunday.

FUJITA Kazuhiro, author of Ushio and Tiger and Karakuri Circus is starting a series called Gekkou Jourei in issue #17.*

Anonymous writes: For the past few months the site of long time manga distributor, MagicBulletGirl, [also the home to the group Endless Youth and Co.] has been the target of hacking. She scans in various mangas from the magazine Shonen Sunday and seems to always be willing to buy manga if requested. Those zips of raw manga, as well as the ones of manga her group scanlates, were deleted in the most recent spree of hack-deleting.
The identity of the hackers is unknown.
The zips are currently in the process of being restored according to a message on the site.

Unfortunately, a fairly new group is forced to close down. Guerriero, staff of HYDE Ltd., has stated that his group is dead for right now due to time constraints, including school and Air Force training.

We hope that in the future, they can once again take up scanlating

I'm going with a more "serious" poll this time. Just choose the method you usually get your manga. I'm interested in knowing how many people use manga hosting sites...
Thanks go to Razril for suggesting the original question, to fallofkakashi for adding in another option, and last of all to MajorMarmot for reminding me to change the poll (or else I'd have forgotten...)

As a reminder, our mascot contest is still running:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=4274
We've had some good entries so far, but the more the merrier!

New for the previous poll:
Question: You are in a school based manga, what are you?

Choices:
The guardian (bully) of the school - votes: 423 (4.9%)
The head student, respected by all except by the gangs - votes: 676 (7.8%)
The pervert with the camera - votes: 603 (7%)
The quiet person in the corner - votes: 4467 (51.6%)
The beauty with friends - votes: 506 (5.9%)
The loud athlete - votes: 314 (3.6%)
The showy geek - votes: 633 (7.3%)
Not part of the breakfast club - votes: 792 (9.2%)
The one everyone beats up - votes: 235 (2.7%)
There were 8649 total votes.
The poll ended: March 1st 2008

It appears most of our users are the shy librarian types that'd rather be alone and read manga by themselves...

barbapapa writes: *NISHI Yoshiyuki's Muhyo & Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation and KONOMI Takeshi's Prince of Tennis (both published in English by Viz Media) are both ending in issue #14 of Weekly Shonen Jump, on sale in Japan March 3rd.

Mr. Fullswing's SUZUKI Shinya is starting a new series in issue #16 of Weekly Shonen Jump, called "Bari Haken".*

Edit: Corrected an issue number for the magazine

We are happy to announce a little contest here! We're planning to spice up the look of the site a little, so we are announcing a

Mascot Contest

Go here to read the rules: http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=4274
That means if you have not registered on the site already, you must register in order to post your design in that topic.
The winning design will be used as officially as a mascot, and posted everywhere on our next version of the site
Good luck to everyone!