Okay, by 8 billion I mean 1 million. But that means that volume 50 of One Piece sold 1 million copies in one week. THAT IS A LOT OF COPIES. The actual total number, as of Oricon’s update, was 1,074,745…and it’s only rising, I’m sure.

Now, that doesn’t make it the top-selling manga to date. Nana volume 19 sold 1,374,035 in one week (I’ve been corrected, apparently that’s the 1-month sales figure for that volume– and a couple of people have mentioned that this isn’t One Piece’s highest figure, either, but does that make it any less spiffy?). But hey, Naruto v42 has only sold 922,000 copies in six weeks. Not bad for a shounen series that’s been running for 10 years, eh?

Posted by gia in JP News, Manga, News • Comments (14)

If that headline sounds familiar, it’s because VIZ attended MIPTV in Cannes, France last year as well. This year, though, ICv2 says that they’re primarily presenting two shoujo series: Kilari (also known as Kirarin Revolution and Nana, as opposed to last year’s Bleach/Mar/Honey and Clover/Death Note blitz.

Also being shown this year are Monster– huzzah! Bring it to the US already! –and three already out in the US; Bleach, Blue Dragon, and Buso Renkin. Lest you think it’s a new license, although Monster is unreleased officially in North America, it has been shopped around by VIZ before. Why does VIZ have such an awesome series and refuse to give it to us? I have no idea. Maybe we’ve been too naughty.

Okay, I need to get a shower before I head out to the airport for Anime Matsuri, but before I do that: the first live-action Nana flick is going to be visiting LA’s ImaginAsian center March 21st-27th, playing at 1:30pm, 4pm, 6:30pm, and 9pm. Tickets are $10 general admission, $7 students/seniors (and children under 13, but only for the 1:30 showing). Monday through Thursday, the 1:30pm show is also matinee price ($6).

In other words, most of you can arrange to see it for as much or less than first-run flick at a standard theater. So GO DO IT.

Moon Phase reports that the Korean live-action drama series Winter Sonata is being developed into a Japanese anime.

The series follows two high schoolers, the outgoing and noisy Jung Yujin and the quiet loner Joon Sang who fall in love and start dating. Due to various drama involving jealous friends and other acquaintances, the two fall apart…only to meet again as adults. Or do they? There’s a Joon Sang lookalike involved here too, you see. I shan’t spoil, so if you want to know all the juicy details, get ‘em at Wikipedia.

All in all it’s an immense, multi-generational soap opera. Think Marmalade Boy meets Nana except I think most of the humor is unintentional. But that’s okay! No date has been set for the show, but more details will presumably be offered when the show is officially announced at TAF later this month.

According to ComiPress, VIZ is releasing the first live-action Nana flick for a very short run at the ImaginAsian Center in Los Angeles (March 21-27) and at the ImaginAsian Theatre in New York City (April 4-10). I’m not going to be near either city in those timeframes (nor around the dates of the press screenings, which are a couple of weeks earlier), so I’m afraid I’m just screwed on that front. ♥

SO! You people in LA and NYC, I demand that you ALL pile into your cars/trains/subways/etc and go to these. If they’re huge enough we may yet get to see a wider release. (I can’t believe VIZ isn’t going to run it in their hometown of San Francisco. Lame!)

Posted by gia in Manga, Movies, News, Western News • Comments (3)

According to Anime Nation, VIZ will be soliciting both the anime adaptation of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster and the anime of Hunter x Hunter at an upcoming conference, which proves once and for all that they have a license for them (it’s long been speculated, especially since they have the manga versions of both, but no official announcement ever came). They hold the master U.S. licenses for each, but this announcement doesn’t necessarily mean they’re planning to distribute either title– it could depend on whether they get on TV.

That said, they’ll be soliciting the show at the National Association of Television Programming Executives conference– and yes, that is the same NATPE that has been suffering from the writer’s strike in Hollywood. Will their desperation for new content that doesn’t require them to hire writers make anime look like a better bet? Hard to tell, but Monster in particular could be an excellent experiment; it’s suspenseful and adult and more likely to interest, say, the 24 crowd than Hunter x Hunter.

Of course, they’re soliciting other titles as well: Bleach (…already on cable), Blue Dragon, Buso Renkin, Death Note, Deko Boko Friends, Honey and Clover, Nana, and Naruto.

Of these, I think Monster has the best odds of being picked up during or around primetime for the reasons I mentioned above; Death Note would also be a possibility. The rest are either likely to be picked up for the after-school crowd or might be tricky for non-anime-fan western audiences to pick up on (Honey and Clover, for example– if *I* was weirded out by the 18-year-old-who-looks-12, it would probably throw off plenty of potential watchers who aren’t used to anime. I suppose Nana is a possibility; I haven’t watched enough of it to really be sure).

Posted by gia in Anime, Gossip, Licenses, News, Western News • Comments (3)

VIZ (see liveblog thread) is going to start publishing some of their series in their new “BIG” format, which is three volumes put into one book. The books will cost $17.99, which means you’re getting three volumes at the price you’d normally get two for. The books will also have new covers with gateflaps, as well as some color pages inside - nice stuff. The launch titles for these reprints will be Rurouni Kenshin (pictured), Dragon Ball, and Dragon Ball Z. And if you just thought “wow, now I can buy DBZ the MANGA over and over again, too,” you weren’t alone.

On the new license front: Aside from a number of titles that were leaked a while back, VIZ has picked up Yumekui Kenbun: Nightmare Inspector by Shin Mashiba and Record of a Fallen Vampire by Kyo Shirodaira (story) and Yuri Kimura (art).

And then there’s anime. Two licenses we’ve ALL been waiting to hear about for ages: the Nana (top) and Honey and Clover (bottom) anime series. SO SURPRISING I FORGOT TO GASP!

EDITED TO ADD: They also have the download to own license for Bleach now. (Sorry for adding that on late; I had to clarify because they talked about Bleach, went to Nana, and then jumped back to Bleach, and wasn’t sure which one they had the DTO license for.)

Posted by gia in Anime, Cons, Licenses, Manga, News, Western News • Comments (4)