According to World Screen News, VIZ has announced a new licensor of Death Note– The Northwest Company, a manufacturer of home decor items. Yes, now U.S. and Canada-based fans can buy Death Note pillows and throw blankets…you know, the ones that aren’t imported or knockoffs. This looks like TNC’s first anime merchandise, but I guarantee if you’ve ever set foot in a Hot Topic, you’re familiar with their wares. For some samples, try their Pirates of the Caribbean swag.

I just hope they make an L dakimakura. WOULD TOTALLY WANT!

Edit: This post has been altered per the wishes of the moderator of the community that was its source. She provided an alternate source that also confirmed the information.

So! The last we heard of Central Park Media was that they were considering suing Japanese BL publisher Libre. See, way back when, CPM licensed a whole bunch of popular yaoi titles from Biblos for their Be Beautiful line. Biblos later went bankrupt and was replaced by Libre, who now says that CPM’s licenses are invalid because they weren’t renegotiated, as all the other BL publishers did. CPM says they paid up-front for the licenses and that they’re still valid. Libre posted an announcement on their website denouncing CPM’s releases as being illegal, and some fans and retailers started boycotting CPM’s books (or at least the ones in question).

One of these licenses is the popular Finders series by Ayano Amane. According to the editor blog and comments from a Libre editor, who says in comment #481 that a plan to release the Finder series in English– even though CPM has released it in English, but it is (for the moment) out of print and very, very hard to find –is in the works. In #484, the editor says that a specific plan is in progress but that the details haven’t been finalized.

It’s not surprising to me that it took them this long to find a publisher willing to take on the Viewfinder manga. It seems to me that the manga companies generally aren’t especially hostile to each other, and whoever takes it on could wind up a target of a lawsuit from CPM– if CPM ever even gets around to suing Libre. And yes, it’s a VERY different situation from when, say, Bandai Entertainment snagged the Gurren Lagann rights or even manga license rescues from ADV; in those cases we can assume that the original contracts were voided, whereas in this case the validity of the contract is in question.

We’re already speculating on what publisher it could be; 801 Media (with their recent hints at a major license that could get them in trouble) seems the most obvious choice.

Oof, Golden Week is always such a slow news week! But there’s still some occasional tidbits of US news: a friend of mine pointed me to this post on 801 Media’s forums, in which mascot 801-chan teases the forumgoers with a new, not-yet-contracted license.

All I will say is that you all asked for it. So you had better buy it. Like seriously, a bunch of people didn’t want to do the book for various reasons and I went out on a limb on this one. (Like, we mentioned it in confidence to a few people and they tried to talk us out of it!!!)

Some of the usual guesses appear: Okane ga Nai (which is a little shota-tastic, but hey, Kitty Media already put out the OVA…though 801 has said previously that they don’t have it), Under Grand Hotel (no one would have to be convinced to do that title– EVERY yaoi publisher wants it).

….And then they start fantasizing that 801 might try to bring over one of the hardcore doujinshi of a popular series (such as Antique Bakery and Gravitation, both of whose creators have created smutty doujins for). As for me, I have no clue. But among all the other things they enjoy, I happen to know that yaoi fans like guessing games and speculation. So, hop to it.

According to Yahoo!JP, Haruo Mizuno’s Hitchcock-inspired suspense film series Siberian Express is going to be remade into an anime by Madhouse and Takashi Shimizu, of The Grudge fame.

The anime doesn’t appear to be related to the manga adaptation that Akita Shoten started running in the bi-monthly Susperia Mystery anthology in 2006, which is currently still running as Siberian Express FINAL…though I can’t find any tankoubon for it. Hmm. But the manga isn’t mentioned in the Yahoo! article, so I’m assuming the two are unrelated.

Figures, I finally manage to get out and DO stuff on a weekend, and something actually HAPPENS.

So, if you’ve got a single anime news feed on your reader, odds are good that you’ve already heard that Go! Comi has licensed 07-Ghost, Yuki Amemiya’s 2005 shounen fantasy (and debut manga). It revolves around Teito Klein, an elite student at a military academy where he is among the top student users of “zaiphon,” basically a magic ability. Just as he’s passed his final exam to get into the army, he overhears something he isn’t supposed to and becomes a fugitive. Oops!

Also of note, I spotted this in their store. If you’re a fan of Aimee Major Steinberger, who created Go! Comi’s Japan Ai comic, they’re selling a limited quantity of her doujinshi sketchbook, Water Lily. Just thought it was kinda neat.

On a sidenote releating to 07-Ghost, it runs in Ichinjinsha’s Zero-Sum anthology. Canned Dogs has a report from Ichijinsha about the readership of Zero-Sum and its other anthologies. It’s interesting data; be sure and check it out.

I believe it was Michael Gombos who told me that MPD Psycho v4 had the largest parental advisory sticker ever in the history of manga in the US. But my copy had a bigger sticker than this one shown on Amazon.

So, one of the things I love about Oregon (besides the fact that Portland has the highest number of strip clubs per capita of any city in the country, including Vegas) is the fact that we have some of the broadest interpretations of “freedom of speech” of any state in the union. (As a result, I’ve always wondered why so many anime and manga companies are situated in Texas instead of Oregon.)

However, I didn’t know that back in July, a law was passed that was supposed to forbid the sale of any sexually explicit material to a minor if the material was meant to “satisfy a sexual desire.” However, apparently local bookshops and publishers found the law to be too broad, however, and feel that it criminalizes titles that would otherwise be acceptable. For example, the law could be interpreted such that any book that contained information about sex, like a textbook, might be illegal to sell to minors.

The manga-related news is that Dark Horse has joined the group of stores and pubs suing the state over the law. A few other plaintiffs include Powell’s (remember them?), the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and interestingly, Planned Parenthood.

(P.S. Link via Journalist.)

Okay, the first time I’d even heard of Neko Rahmen* was when Azureus VUZE got the exclusive rights to air a subbed version of the flash anime adaptation on its ‘net TV program, but now TokyoGraph reports that the 4koma strip is now being developed into a live-action flick.

The film is going to be called Neko Rahmen Taisho and follows the surreal adventures of a cat running a ramen shop. Minoru Kawasaki, director of the ‘93 Silent Mobius live-action flick, among others, will helm the film.

* Okay, Neko Ramen probably makes more sense, but in the official website they romanize it “Rahmen,” and I try to go with the official when I can.

Moon Phase has the word on an anime adaptation of Kurozuka, Baku Yumemakura and Takashi Noguchi’s 2002 manga about a pair of immortals named Kurou and Kuromitsu who fall in love and, over the course of a thousand years, fall apart again. (Apparently the manga is an adaptation of Yumemakura’s novel; he also wrote the Onmyouji series, about Abe no Seimei.)

The announcement was made on Animax’s website, which also mentions a date for Kurozuka and for the previously announced Ultraviolet: Code 044 anime: July 1st.

Aaaaaaaand in this corner, we have Slayers REVOLUTION! Moon Phase’s link has an image that tells us nothing about the new series (at first I was like, “Sylphiel’s coming back? Shit!”). The images are actually the first few covers for a re-release of the Slayers novels by Hajime Kanzaka. Do want! *scours Amazon for the Tpop releases in the meantime*

Aurora’s website now officially has Hitohira, a girls love-flavored high school drama about an extremely shy freshman who gets forced into the school’s drama club by its wacky members, in its schedule. The manga was adapted into an anime in spring ‘07, it was a cute show.

Meanwhile those keen eyes at MangaCast have spotted new licenses for Deux in the new issue of Previews: Heavenly Body by Takashi Kanzaki, Maid in Heaven (yes, it’s really a yaoi title) by Hisami Shimada, and Ruff Love (yes, it’s really a yaoi furry title) by Tamaki Kirishima.

…I need a Wii.

Anyway, since I’ve been a bit absent the last couple of days and my weekend looks absolutely insane, I thought I’d put together a big ol’ round-up of recent news. HERE WE GO!

Anime:
- VIZ has announced that Buso Renkin season 1 will be released in a box set on April 29th; the 3-disc set will have the first 13 episodes (of 26) and will cost you $49.98.
- A trailer is up for the upcoming fall series Kurogane no Line Barrels at the official website.
- Another trailer, this time for Bones’ Bounen no Xamdou, is up.

Manga:
- Go!Comi had lunch with You Higuri (creator of Gakuen Heaven and Gorgeous Carat) and reports back that she is probably going to return to finish her historical fiction series Cantarella about the sordid affairs of the Borgia clan, particularly Cesare. Fans of the series, which hasn’t been worked on in some time, will no doubt be thrilled!
- In weirder news, for copyright reasons, the queen of cute manga– Di Gi Charat/Pita Ten/Kamichama Karin creator Koge-Donbo –has changed her name to Koge-Donbo*. Insert various Prince/artist-formerly-known-as jokes here.

Cons:
- An item I didn’t play up enough at New York Comic Con: the creators of Vampire Hunter D, i.e. writer Hideyuki Kikuchi (who wrote all of the Vampire Hunter D stuff, plus Demon City Shinjuku, Darkside Blues, etc) and artist of the new manga iteration, Saiko Takaki, are going to be DMP’s guests at Anime Expo.
- Meanwhile Otakon has scored Madhouse studio founder Masao Maruyama as a guest.

Huh, that wasn’t as long as I thought it’d be.