bozou writes: *The New York Times' Dining and Wine section features an article on Kami no Shizuku (The Drops of God), a manga which highlights different wines of the world. The main character of the manga, Shizuku Kanzaki, faces a challenge from his late wine critic father. To gain access to his inheritance, he must identify the 12 extremely unusual wines named in his father's will.

The article interviews Kami no Shizuku's creators, the brother-and-sister team of Shin and Yuko Kibayashi who write under the pseudonym AGI Tadashi. They are wine lovers themselves with a 3,000-bottle collection, but have no formal training. Instead, they strive to describe fine wine in words that would make sense to average readers. Some of the attributes they have attached to particular wines have included "the voice of Queens' lead vocalist," "reminiscent of a marsh north of Tokyo," and "a woman…with black hair."

The Times piece also notes that the manga has had a significant effect on wine sales in Japan as well as in South Korea, where vintages mentioned in the manga's pages have sold out almost immediately. This trend was noted last year by the wine industry's website, and reported by Great Britain's Telegraph newspaper in September.

Taken from: AnimeNewsNetwork*

bozou writes: *The November issue (released on October 9) of [sitelink=publishers.html?id=94]Kadokawa Shoten[/sitelink]'s Monthly Dragon Age magazine announced that AMAGI Shusake's Chrome Shelled Regios (Light Novel) will spawn its fourth manga series in the next issue on November 8. FUTABA Masumi's Koukaku no Regios no 4-Koma: Feri no Uta (Chrome Shelled Regios Four-Panel: Feri's Song) will be a four-panel gag comic that focuses on the popular character Feri Rosu. The light novels will also be animated for television broadcast next January.

Source: Chuosha

Taken from AnimeNewsNetwork*

Well, once I looked at the results of the previous poll, this question came up in my mind (along with the help of member Zekky). Please answer truthfully.

There isn't much to discuss about this one, so no official forum topic to chat

Note: We did this poll a little over a year ago, and males had won that time...

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Favorite Demographic?
Choices:
Hentai - votes: 1807 (12.1%)
Josei - votes: 616 (4.1%)
Lolicon - votes: 746 (5%)
Seinen - votes: 2364 (15.8%)
Shotacon - votes: 185 (1.2%)
Shoujo - votes: 2684 (18%)
Shoujo Ai - votes: 282 (1.9%)
Shounen - votes: 1921 (12.9%)
Shounen Ai - votes: 516 (3.5%)
Yaoi - votes: 3069 (20.6%)
Yuri - votes: 742 (5%)
There were 14932 total votes.
The poll ended: October 18th 2008

Today is a sad day to die when yaoi wins...(Sorry, but I'm a guy myself, and yaoi = no way). Shoujo came in behind yaoi by about 400 votes, while seinen trailed behind shoujo by about 300...As you can see, the top 2 are mostly targeted toward girls...
Interestingly enough, hentai got a pretty nice percentage.

In the practice of fair scanlations all around, we (MangaUpdates) do not endorse, permit, allow, etc any sort of "claiming" series as projects from any individuals or scanlation groups.

This means please don't put a message "Future project of ____ group" on a series info page or a download message on a release to the effect of "We of ____ group plan to do _____ series" or anything similar to that effect.

This has always been our policy, and we have previously warned offending individuals. Please comply with our wishes.

[color=red]Offenders will be warned and then punished on second offense[/color]

Last time was genre, this time is demographic. 'Nough said. It'll either be shounen or yaoi that wins...

Discuss on the forums here:
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=8228

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Favorite Genre?
Choices:
Action - votes: 576 (4.8%)
Adventure - votes: 395 (3.3%)
Comedy - votes: 1345 (11.3%)
Drama - votes: 213 (1.8%)
Ecchi - votes: 1222 (10.3%)
Fantasy - votes: 586 (4.9%)
Gender Bender - votes: 881 (7.4%)
Harem - votes: 452 (3.8%)
Historical - votes: 121 (1%)
Horror - votes: 161 (1.4%)
Martial Arts - votes: 444 (3.7%)
Mecha - votes: 82 (0.7%)
Mystery - votes: 130 (1.1%)
Psychological - votes: 412 (3.5%)
Romance - votes: 2611 (21.9%)
School Life - votes: 317 (2.7%)
Sci-Fi - votes: 123 (1%)
Slice of Life - votes: 441 (3.7%)
Smut - votes: 750 (6.3%)
Sports - votes: 120 (1%)
Supernatural - votes: 372 (3.1%)
Tragedy - votes: 143 (1.2%)
There were 11897 total votes.
The poll ended: October 11th 2008

And romance wins! Followed by comedy...and then ecchi?...

bozou writes: *This year's 20th issue of [sitelink=publishers.html?id=75]Hakusensha[/sitelink]'s Young Animal magazine has announced on Friday that Honey and Clover artist UMINO Chika will be drawing for MIURA Kentaro's Berserk fantasy manga — specifically, drawing an alternate cover for the manga. The magazine's 21st issue will bundle UMINO Chika's alternate cover for Berserk's 33rd volume as a bonus extra; the magazine issue and the manga volume will both go on sale on October 24. The special promotion will mark the return of Berserk to Young Animal after a four-month break. UMINO Chika made news last year when she switched from drawing in shoujo magazines to drawing her current March Comes In Like A Lion series in Young Animal, which is a seinen magazine.

Source: Muhyojo

Taken from AnimeNewsNetwork*

GolSho writes: *Hello folks, GolSho (the founder and leading horse of TEA-Scans) talking.
Lately I became too busy with work and studies, which put almost all our projects in a state of silent death, cause I didn't have time to supervise anything... And I thought that the best option would be to enter the family of Dynasty Scans. We were like sister groups from the very beginning after all. So most of our projects will now be worked on by Dynasty Scans. Even new ones like Gift - Under the Rainbow that was released today~
So, as of now, officially, TEA-Scans has died.

I, personally, will still be working on Kannagi, mostly as QC, and Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru, or so I believe. Stay tuned on Dynasty Scans for more awesome releases, and don't be shy to come and say hi. And we thank all of manga lovers that were hooked on TEA-Scans's projects.*

bozou writes: *This year's 45th issue of [sitelink=publishers.html?id=100]Kodansha[/sitelink]'s Morning magazine has announced on Thursday that URASAWA Naoki (20th Century Boys, Monster, Yawara!) will launch the Billy Bat manga series in the next issue on October 16. The magazine's advertisement talks about the great American comic characters of 1940s that many know, but asserts that there is a "lost American hero" that URASAWA Naoki will reveal in 2008. URASAWA Naoki is working with NAGASAKI Takashi, his story collaborator on 20th Century Boys and Pluto, on this deliberately retro plot. URASAWA Naoki's appearance in Morning represents a strategic shift in his work; up until now, all of his major titles have been published in [sitelink=publishers.html?id=149]Shogakukan[/sitelink] magazines.

[sitelink=publishers.html?id=235]Viz Media[/sitelink] is publishing URASAWA Naoki's Monster, 20th Century Boys, and Pluto manga in North America.

Source: Muhyojo

Taken from: AnimeNewsNetwork*

Something a lot of you have been waiting for:

lynzajw writes: *After being down for nearly two months, The Evil Empire returned yesterday. The site had faced server issues and having its domain expire.

Administrators have asked that members help out in finding and reporting broken links and files deleted due to inactivity in order to help get the site's file system back in order.*

bozou writes: *Artist MASHIMA Hiro drew Jason Thompson, the manga section editor of Otaku USA magazine and the Eisner-nominated author of Manga: The Complete Guide, into a cameo in a September installment of Mashima's Fairy Tail fantasy adventure manga. The two had met when Thompson had interviewed MASHIMA Hiro at Comic-Con International 2008 in San Diego in July. After the interview, a Del Rey staffer asked Thompson for photographs and said that Mishima would like to draw Thompson into his manga.

In installment 104 of the manga, Thompson appears as the excitable "Weekly Sorcerer reporter Jason" who has come to interview the members of the Fairy Tail mage guild. However, he all but ignores the heroine Lucy and unintentionally rubs the main male character, Natsu, the wrong way — to slapstick comic effect. [sitelink=publishers.html?id=207]Del Rey[/sitelink] published the fourth volume of the manga in North America last month.

Taken from: AnimeNewsNetwork.com*