Hey, this time I really died and it took me 5 days to respawn.

Once again I apologise for my absence, this will hopefully be the last time I do this since Summer Vacation is now officially begun for me.


Alive Manga Writer Dies: We begin today on a rather sad note. The writer of the often praised manga series Alive, passed away due to liver cancer. I did read some of the series but not all of it, and from what I read it seemed pretty good! What seems even worse is that Tadashi Kawashima, has been on his sickbed for months and finished the series whilst on his sickbed. This man had such a passion for Manga that he even began another series as he approached his deathbed with liver cancer. I say we all have a brief moment of silence for a fellow otaku. . . You could do even more good by checking out the Alive series as well.

Black Butler still on the Rise: The new anime/manga series Black Butler appears to be on the rise. Almost unknown a few months ago it is quickly becoming a popular series and major clothing companies have taken notice. The afaimed "emo store" Hot Topic is introducing a line of Black Butler clothing. Not like costumes you understand, just apparel with the Black Butler logo. All that appears to be available so far though is just a shirt (varying in sizes) with the main character on the front. I havn't seen or read the Black Butler series yet, but maybe now I should check it out.

One Piece Jeans: Sticking to the topic of clothes in Japan it appears they released a series of jeans with "I'm going to be king of the pirates" on the buttocks. The jeans also comes with the Luffy emblem on the jeans as well as a few other trademarked One Piece symbols. I have to say, this is more good news for us otaku's considering most merchandise we want is only available online and anime clothing seems to be becoming more the norm for some stores at least. Hopefully they'll import some of the clothing to America.

The Top Selling Manga in Japan This Week



#1 Series Kimi ni Todoke Volume #11 Copies Sold 473,058
#2 Series One Piece Volume #58 Copies Sold 379,876
#3 Series Worst Volume #24 Copies Sold 175,012
#4 Series D-Gray Man Volume #20 Copies Sold 141,141
#5 Series Bleach Volume #45 Copies Sold 137,785


Anime Character of the Day: Konata Izumi from Lucky Star
Konata quote: "Those are called moe points!"