Square Enix manga award revoked due to plagiarism

This is quite becoming the item of the day as Square Enix revoked the award to its 18th edition of the Square Enix Manga Prize awards after readers pointed that the winning story, 'Compliance -Zettai Hō Rei Toshi', by upcoming author Daiki Matsuura, plagiarized author Tow Ukubata light novel Mardock Scramble 104, licensed by Viz Media in the US.

Daiki Matsuura apologized by posting a notice, explaining that he was in a hurry to make his debut as a manga creator.

The apology notice from Monthly Shonen Gangan's editorial department said that after it received the information from readers about the possible plagiarism, it conducted an investigation and found "several points of similarity" between Matsuura's work and Ubukata's.

The editorial department wrote that in the future it would give new creators training and guidance, and the editorial department would do as much as it could to prevent something like this from happening again.

This just proves that desperation is never the right inspiration. O_O

Source: ANN

Viz Media will release online Shonen Jump supplement and sells downloadable manga

Viz Media announced in the December edition of the U.S Shonen Jump magazine that there will be an online supplement to the print publication, that will give you access to series such as Toriko, Bakuman, Nura, and Rise of the Yokai Clan. Subscribed users will have exclusive access through shonenjump.com.

"Legal" scanlations, anyone????

The publisher also announced that it will start selling manga through the iPad download application. Users can install the app itself for free, and volumes of six manga titles in the initial launch lineup cost US$4.99 each.

The titles that are available since this week are Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, the first volume of Death Note, Dragon Ball, and the first volume of Bakuman. More volumes of Bakuman, Ouran High School Host Club, D.Gray-man, Rurouni Kenshin, and Vampire Knight are planned to be added in the near future.

There's still no support for iPhone or iPod touch devices, but Alvin Lu, senior VP and General Manager, said that there was more to come.

Viz media will release Ao no Exorcist in April!

According to U.S publisher Simon & Schuster, the first volume of author Kazue Kato's Ao no Exorcist (also known as Blue Exorcist) will be released by Viz Media on April of next year. This is great news since it will mean that this manga will have more diffusion across international audiences, and it clearly deserves it!

Ao no Exorcist started being serialized by Shueisha's Jump Square magazine in April of 2009. It is the story of Rin Okumura, a boy who discovers he is the son of Satan.

XD

Editoriales estadounidenses y japonesas le declaran la guerra a los sites de scanlations!

Las 36 editoriales de la Asociacion del Comic Digital Japonés y varias editoriales importantes norteamericanas han formado una coalición para combatir "el rampante y creciente problema" de los sitios web que distribuyen scanlations, copias ilegales digitales de mangas, sea traducido por los fans, o escaneado directamente de su versión en ingles.

La coalicion afirma que hay miles de paginas agregadoras que cuelgan miles de titulos ilegales, ganandose el share de publicidad y cuotas de membresias a la expensa de los creadores originales, mientras que a su vez representan una amenaza para la licencia de los derechos de autor en paises foraneos y un golpe severo a las ventas de los mangas.

Tal es así que incluso Google tiene a uno de esos sites (se dice el pecado pero no el pecador, uy) entre los 1000 mas visitados de toda la web. Un portavoz de esta coalicion tambien indicó que hay aplicaciones para smartphones como BB y iPhone que permiten leer contenido escaneado ilegalmente, lo que se ha convertido en un agravante del problema.

La Coalición va a demandar a alrededor de 30 sitios de scanlations, cuyos nombres no han sido revelados. La organizacion incluye a editoriales como Kodansha, Shogakugan, Shueisha, Square Enix y la agencia Tuttle-Mori, asi como los ya conocidos Vertical, Viz Media, TokyoPop y Yen Press.