Newsarama reports that Japanese ebook seller Papyless is going to be putting a bunch of Tezuka works online for Japanese readers starting March 18th, including my personal favorite, Blackjack. Each volume will cost ¥105 (about $1.02 USD) and must be read within 48 hours.

Not bad for a dead guy, eh? I’ll be checking in to see if the volumes will be available for non-Japan-based readers as well.

Okay, the Vertical panel is actually almost over, I entered late because I had to do an interview, but they’re currently talking about Black Jack which is my personal favorite Tezuka work, so I’m really excited about that. They also chatted about their other Tezuka works (Dororo and Andromeda Stories) and some non-Tezuka stuff (the Guin saga, which apparently features art by Yoshitaka Amano in later volumes).

That’s all I’ve managed to catch myself, but I see Deb Aoki of About.com Manga and Brigid Alverson of MangaBlog here, so I’m sure they’ll have caught the earlier news.

By the way, if you wonder why Vertical Inc. flips Tezuka manga, it’s apparently because Tezuka Productions (who own the rights) like them flipped. Huh. Black Jack will probably be reworked into 13-15 volumes instead of the original 17, which they say shouldn’t matter too much because the series is all short stories rather than a continuous single plot.

They are currently talking to writers to do more shoujo like Hagio Moto and the like. They want to do them but they’re hard to get access too, especially the actual manga masters themselves. They also hope to get out a sci fi book in ‘08, and they just said they’re looking into a, er, BDSM book called Usurper of the Sun– I didn’t catch the Japanese name, unfortunately. They’re also going to try and get a book out by the creator of Shall We Dance called Shall We Sumo o_o

Deb just asked about whether Vertical has considered doing an anthology, and apparently the company has thought of doing an anthology of Tezuka works, but otherwise not in particular, favoring “one-author works.”

They want to do other Tezuka works like Jungle Emperor, but it all depends on what Tezuka Productions says– particularly with Jungle Emperor’s depictions of African-Americans and other such tricky cultural aspects.

Vertical has a separate manga imprint in the works but they’re waiting until they have a good “stable” of titles to launch with; someone just asked how many they plan to have and they’re looking for at least a solid five.

Shorties:

• Blah blah blah Yaoi Con. If you’re interested in it, odds are good you’ve already seen YaoiSuki’s phenomenal coverage of it, so I won’t bother rehashing.
• Hey look– Japan Town San Francisco is revamping, including the building of a Jpop culture center. I’ll have to check that out when it’s done…
• European investors like Japanese love hotels. Who knew?
• Let’s see, I already talked about Lucky Star being licensed. For those of you silly enough to take me seriously, I was annoyed that it happened on a weekend when I wasn’t around to scoop, not because of the license itself. Duh.
• Apparently the gala event for Takashi Murakami’s exhibit at the LA Museum of Contemporary Art was a little star-studded.
• Tsundere GPS device. What the fuck.
• Are we done with Hare Hare Yukai now that even the virtual idols are doing it?
• HOLY SHIT LIVE ACTION AKIRA. Well, maybe. Possibly. We’re thinking about it.
• Remember Dale’s interview with Oreskaband at Anime Expo? No? That’s because animeOnline died before we could post it. (Wait, did we get it through? I don’t remember.) Anyway, the band is going to be in a movie.
• Vertical has Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack. It’s my fave Tezuka series, second to Unico, so HUZZAH!
• VIZ is all like, “look at all of our live-action manga adaptations! LOOK AT THEM! WE SO COOL!” Apparently they hoped we’d forget that everyone’s been expecting all of these for ages, except maybe Love*Com.
• Gong+Blinkx=more legal anime online. And stuff.
• A couple of new series: the sci-fi/greek mythology dark-lookin’ show Mnemosyne, plus an anime based on the character books Zenryoku Usagi. Also, BIOHAZARD CG anime.

At Length:

Ghost Hunt licensed: I love this show– solid characters, interesting stories, and any and all potential romance/personal drama is subtle and mostly not addressed. Also, AMAZING soundtrack by Masuda Toshio, who also did the soundtrack for Mushishi, FYI. Mmmm.

FUNimation vs Atari re: Dragon Ball Z games. I’m intrigued that no one has released the “why” for FUNimation’s move (which was to announce their intent to sever Atari’s rights to the games due to unknown infractions). Apparently DBZ is one of the floundering Atari’s few successful franchises– I wonder if FUNi is just hoping to jump ship before it sinks, or ir something significant really did go down?

B2B anime info portal: So Japanese companies are trying to get more information about their series to both North American and European countries. Given the recent hubbub with U.S. anime companies– e.g. FUNi, ADV, and Geneon’s layoffs and scalebacks –I think it’s a good idea for anime companies to get a better sense of what’s out there and what to license. While the “snag every single anime possible” tactic has its bonuses, I can’t think it’s the best method out there.

…Whew. That should keep you guys busy for a few minutes. Did I skip anything big?

Anime News Service reports that Tezuka Productions, the Japanese company that manages the rights to all Tezuka works, has contracted with Apple directly to provide various Tezuka anime, including the well-known (Astroboy, Phoenix, the ‘99 Blackjack OVA, Jungle Emperor Leo) to the slightly obscure (8 of Tezuka’s ‘62-’88 experimental short animations).

I find the report a little confusing; tAstroboy, Phoenix, and Blackjack are definitely all going to be English dubbed versions, and the way ANS puts it, it ALL could be dubbed, which is possible– I believe that all the anime on iTunes to date is dub-only, so far. But on the other hand, those three had already BEEN dubbed, and I don’t know if Tezuka Productions will/would have them dubbed again. I guess we’ll see!

At any rate, it’s the first time a Japanese company has directly contracted with iTunes in the US, so, groovy.

Anime on DVD has their report up on the Media Blasters panel at Otakon. Doesn’t look like any new licenses except maybe another Bible Black game, and I’m not sure that’s new, plus Mousou Shoujo Otaku-kei, a manga about a dude who falls for a sweet, kind meganekko at his school, only to find out that she’s a raving yaoi lunatic. Here’s a pic from the manga, in which she’s watching something that looks awfully similar to the much-slashed anime Fullmetal Alchemist:

Other than that, the only news is that the Osamu Tezuka anime Phoenix will be dubbed and they’re trying to get the same dub voice casts for the Ikki Tousen, Kujibiki Unbalance, and Genshiken sequels.

Current Mood:  DO WANT

On a lighter note, I pre-ordered this today (get it? NOTE?):

It’s funny, I’m not even very into Death Note, but I absolutely love the character L. @_@ Can’t wait for that spinoff movie ;)

Sometime tomorrow I’ll try to find time to talk about my trip to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco for the Tezuka exhibit, although you can see most of the good pics from it here.

But I have my weekly reckoning tomorrow, and I still have to spend some more time with that Manga Fighter game and try to get it to work so I can write up a bit on it @_@ Yargh!