Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi will have an special episode released!

Kadokawa Shoten announced that the sixth limited edition volume of creator Shungiku Nakamura's Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi boys-love manga will come with an anime DVD titled "Episode 12.5" in late September.

The manga already inspired an ongoing Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi television anime series and an earlier original anime DVD that came with the fifth manga volume.

The special episode is sorta like an OVA or mini OVA that lasts 20 minutes.

The limited edition volume will also have an exclusive cover, a DVD jacket illustration by anime character designer Yoko Kikuchi, and a special box. More details will be provided in Kadokawa's Ciel and Très Très magazines.

The main story follows the tension between a newly recruited manga editor (Takashi Kondo) and his tyrannical editor-in-chief (Katsuyuki Konishi) — who happen to share a common past. The media distribution site Crunchyroll has been streaming the anime outside Japan since it premiered in Japan last month.

It's already a hit series since it premiered, because of its quality and premise. The dreamy appeal of the protagonists doesn't help, either ^_^

Mobile Suit Z Gundam manga announced!

There's quite some interesting developments in Kadokawa Shoten as of lately, as Gundam Ace magazine and another Kadokawa magazine, Monthly Newtype, are collaborating this summer on a new manga magazine.

The magazine will feature tie-in manga for franchises in other media, and the announcement features images from Sunrise's upcoming Sacred Seven television anime series and BONES' upcoming Towa no Quon anime film series. More details will be provided in the next issue of Monthly Gundam Ace.

Also, more great news for mecha fans!

The June issue of Monthly Gundam Ace is also announcing that creator Hiroyuki Kitazume is drawing a new manga adaptation of Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sunrise's Mobile Suit Z Gundam robot anime series in the next issue in May. Kitazume had worked as an animation designer on the Z Gundam television series, and then he designed the characters in the Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ and Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack sequels. Kenichi Matsuzaki, the scriptwriter who was responsible for the first Gundam series' scripts, setting, and science-fiction research, is acting as the supervisor of the new manga.

Matsuzaki is credited with Gundam's version of space colonies (based on physicist Gerard K. O'Neill's original concepts), Minovsky particle, and Solar System weapon. Kitazume had previously drawn the Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Deleted Affair ~ Portrait of Young Comet manga in Gundam Ace from the magazine's inaugural issue in 2001 to 2009. The character designer of the first Gundam series, Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, has also been drawing his Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin re-imagining of the first Gundam story since Gundam Ace's inaugural issue. The magazine happens to be celebrating its 10th anniversary in June.

Source: ANN

Which are the highest circulating manga magazines for 2010?

US Shonen Jump, January 2011, in shelves now! 

The Japanese Magazine Publishers Association showed today the latest chart pertaining to the top circulating manga magazines, taking the period between October 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010.

Weekly Shonen Jump by Shueisha definitely came on top with 2,876,459 million of readers, followed closely by Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine with 1,571,063, losing quite a bit from last year.

Coro Coro Comic Shogakukan 950,834

Monthly Shonen Magazine Kodansha 847,250

Weekly Shonen Sunday Shogakukan 678,917

Weekly Shonen Champion Akita Shoten 500,000

Jump Square magazine by Shueisha remains with a respectable 360,000, despite having great cult mangas such as Ultimo and Ao no exorcist.

In seinen mangas, Young Magazine by Kodansha is the absolute leader with 807,871

And Ciao mangazine by Shogakukan is the leader in shojo manga with 745,455 of estimated readers.

New SoraOto Forte trailer! The series' second season will premiere on October

Kadokawa animation has just released a new trailer of this series by Suu Minazuki.

Sora no Otoshimono Forte (its real long name) is a romantic comedy manga with some elements of fantasy. It started to be serialized in Shonen Ace magazine in 2007. The rapid success of this story impulsed its adaptation to anime in 2009 with 13 episodes.



Now the second season will premiere on October 1.

This is the story of a boy named Tomoki Sakurai, a high school boy that just looks to live his life peacefully. The perverted type, he often looks to spy on girl's locker rooms and/or bathrooms.

He always wakes up in the morning crying because he always has a same horrible nightmare that he cannot remember well. His friend, Sohara Mitsuki, tells him to go meet Sugata, who may know the answer to his worries. Sugata believes that it's all related to a strange black hole in the sky that appears every night in the sky of the city, Soramani, so they decide to investigate.

But Tomoki goes alone and sees that from the black hole came a rain of meteorites, along with a girl with the aspect of an angel. He rescues the girl, turning out to be an angeloid, a special being created in New World Synapse, the other dimension if you get into the black hole. They must follow the orders of the Master at all cost, being always united by a mythical chain to him.