In an Italian trial for a murder in which the victim was found in her bed with her throat slit a day after she wore a bloody vampire costume to a Halloween party, a prosecutor is arguing that a brutal slaying was inspired by a violent manga comic.

Manga also have been linked to a death in Belgium, in which a note found next to the victim’s mutilated body referred to a Japanese comic called Death Note.

Manga also have been connected with the murder of British teacher Lindsay Hawker after piles of pornographic comics were found at the suspect’s flat.

An let’s not forget that Taro Aso is a manga fan…

Full story here.

An imprint of DC comics intended to function as an American alternative to manga, has folded shop. On the surface, Minx seemed like a good idea; why not translate the manga medium for a more America audience, using cultural references that don’t necessarily leave parents scratching their heads? Japundits could have told publishers years ago that manga has a growing audience. To hear one of editor Shirley Bond tell it:

“I started to wonder what was going to happen in a few years when those readers would want something new,” she said at the MINX launch in February, 2007. “So I pitched this line as an alternative to manga, but also as an alternative to traditional fiction, because I thought that it was really about time that teenage readers had their own imprint and that they could experience a brand new visual reading experience.”

But it didn’t work.

One British reporter wonders why and has this to say:

just as British kids of my generation grew up watching so much Saved By the Bell and Sweet Valley High that we talk about “jocks” and “proms” even though these barely exist within our direct experience, tomorrow’s Americans will be looking around for the otaku and bishonen that are supposed to populate every school. It’s nice to see cultural colonialism happening in reverse, and of course teenagers love to plunge into an esoteric world that makes no sense to their parents, but at the same time it does seem a bit ridiculous that an American 16-year-old can’t pick up a comic that more closely reflects her own life.

At Japundit, we’ve observed for a while that popular culture isn’t necessarily flowing in the one, hegemonic direction that apologists always fear. But it does occur to me that part of the appeal of manga may be its very “foreign-ness” and its imaginative use of setting and character and design, and the narrative risks that writers in Japan take naturally. For audiences around the globe, this kind of story-telling is thrilling. Do

I’m curious to hear from the experts–this means you–on what it is about Japanese manga that is so compulsive for you and if you think its success could ever be duplicated in the west.

Japundit reader Colin Fletcher writes in to alert us to a report about a maid coffee shop that has newly opened in Culver City, California.

Sandra Westwood, who oversees the cafe, worked most recently at the restaurants Bread and Brown Cafe in Manhattan. Earlier in her career, as a fashion model in Japan and Paris, she discovered the finer points of serving tea, from a customer standpoint. Ms. Westwood spent nearly a year designing the Royal/T menu and training the staff with Danielle Kurtz, formerly of Simpatica Catering in Portland, and the chef Chris Cooke, a veteran of Izakaya in Tokyo and Megu in TriBeCa. “Most of the food at maid cafes in Japan comes out of the microwave, which we don’t use here,” Ms. Westwood said.

Royal/T, which opened in May for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, also serves curry rice bowls, salads seasoned with yuzu and Japanese-influenced desserts. There are Yoko Moku butter cookies and a layered mousse cake with sesame and red bean paste. The heart-shape chocolate lollipops, from Roni-Sue’s Chocolates on the Lower East Side, can best be described as adorable. But then, cuteness is the whole point at a maid cafe.

The girl on the left of the above image is supposed to be Jesus Christ, who is is the object of the um. . . affections of the boy on the right.

A scanlation is can be downloaded here and here.

Via Topless Robot.

in what is one of the more disturbing trends in contemporary japan, the maid cafes and other perverted male otaku hang outs have spawned a new branch of cafes for female otaku, ones based one gay comic book porn. that’s right, women who want to indulge their childhood fantasy of young effeminate men dressed in high school uniforms flirting with each other, engaging in oral sex, or brutally anal raping each other finally have an outlet for their fetish.

now if you’re anything like me, your fist reaction to this article might be, oh say, wtf? but apparently in japan’s never ending quest to cater to every possible kink, they have stumbled across a sizable subset of female otaku that just can’t get enough of yoai manga and doujinshi. as a consequence proprietors sensing an opportunity for profit have created bars and restaurants much like the one featured in this article. run by a woman by the name of emiko sakamaki, the place goes by the name of edlestein (named after a yoai comic set in a german high school) and features a staff of young cosmetically enhanced men. according to her and others the market is driven by the atmosphere of female indulgence that has been of which japan has, until this time, been bereft of, combined with the popularity of anime and manga, complicated by the desire for relationships which transcend traditional gender roles, all united by a sample population of young to middle aged single women who appreciate the unparalleled beauty of a fragile young teenager being raped by other men (preferably in groups).

The Tokyo District Court recently ordered two homepage owners and two Internet companies to pay 11 manga artists a total of 20.32 million yen for unauthorized uploading of the artists’ works.

According to the ruling, the two homepage maintainers scanned volumes of 45 titles, including [Tetsuya] Chiba’s Ashita no Joe, [Takehiko] Inoue’s Slam Dunk, [Hiroshi] Motomiya’s Salaryman Kintaro, [Go] Nagai’s Devilman, and [Takao] Saito’s Golgo 13, and uploaded them onto the Internet without authorization from September of 2005 to January of 2006.
The ruling calculated the compensation by taking 35% of the average 300-yen (US$2.60) price of the volumes’ e-book versions and multiplying that by the number of times the files were browsed for a total of 18.8 million yen (US$165,000). Ten of the plaintiffs were awarded an additional 200,000 yen (US$2,000) each for costs, and the 11th plaintiff was awarded an additional 320,000 yen (US$2,800) for costs.

Negima Live Action from the creator of Love Hina, Ken Akamatsu. It will start in 2007-10-03

Opening Theme:
“Pink Generation” by Class 3-A of Mahora akademy
Ending Theme:
“Tsuyoku Naaare” by Wakatsuki Sara

The latest indications from the Japanese stock market seem to be that the country may be getting ready to go manga.

According to Nikko Cordial Securities, manga, anime and video game-related stocks have risen noticably following Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s resignation announcment. They say this may be attributable to expectations that Taro Aso, an unabashed manga and anime fan, will succeed Abe as prime minister.

Among the stocks that rose on Wednesday is the Tokyo-based card game company “Broccoli,” whose stocks went up from 92 yen to 157 yen, a 71% rise. Major manga retailer Mandarake saw a 13% rise, while video game retailer Koei Net went up by 15%. Toei Animation, one of Japan’s largest animation studios, and Kadokawa Group Holdings, a manga publisher, both rose 3%.

Aso Taro’s interest for manga is well-known, and claimed in a 2003 interview that he read some 10-20 manga publications a week. Taro also established the International Manga Prize in 2007, for non-Japanese manga authors. He received some headlines ahead of the French presidential election this year for recommending Segolene Royal to read more manga, after she had criticized it for being violent and pornographic.

Another indication that Japan may be on the way to becoming MangaLand is a report that Nissan has come out with a new concept car with a design inspired by manga art.

The bi-lingual manga Ello Bello is going strong over at Rising Sun of Nihon, with Installment #8 posted recently. Go here to see all eight installments.

Bill Belew of Rising Sun of Nihon writes to tell us of a new manga feature on his blog.

Three times a week he will be publishing a manga by Kan Shinoy called Ello Bello, with the dialog presented in both Japanese and English.

Go here to find out more.