Sailor Moon manga soared again in US Bookstores on April

Blue Exorcist manga is also on the rise!

The tenth volume of Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon manga ranked at #4 on Nielsen BookScan's list of top 20 graphic novels in American bookstores for April.

The same volume had ranked at #5 on the list in March. The Sailor Moon volume is one of four manga titles on the list. Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto volume 60 ranked at #7, dropping from #3 from last month.

Kazue Katō's Blue Exorcist volume 9 and Tite Kubo's Bleach volume 56 ranked at #11 and #18 respectively. Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead comic series continued to dominate the chart, claiming nine places this month, with The Walking Dead Compendium volumes 1 and 2 again taking the top two spots.

Gene Luen Yang's Avatar the Last Airbender: The Search -- Part 1 ranked #3.

 The BookScan rankings represent sales at Barnes & Noble and other book chains, independent bookshops, and online purchases — but not sales at comic book stores, Walmart, and some other venues.

Source: ANN, ICv2

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Tite Kubo announced that he got married

Best of wishes!

It was reported yesterday that author Tite Kubo, best known for his manga series Bleach, got married.

It was announced via a comment he made on the handouts at the Jump Festa 2013 event. He did not mention any details such as when he actually got married, and anything about his wife, as he simply announced, “I got married.”

With this announcement, the fans have been sending words of congratulations to Kubo’s Twitter, and he replied to everyone with “Thank you-!”

Source: TokyoHive, Cinematoday

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Naruto tops August manga sales in US Bookstores

The latest volume (57th) of  Kishimoto's Naruto manga placed #9 in Nielsen BookScan's list of top 20 graphic novels in American bookstores for August.

Whereas Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor Moon volume 6 dropped at #17, and Tite Kubo's Bleach volumes 44 and 45 ranked at #19 and #20, respectively.

The BookScan rankings represent sales at Barnes & Noble and other book chains, independent bookshops, and online purchases — but not sales at comic book stores, Walmart, and some other venues.

Source: ANN, ICv2

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Bleach manga volume 55 has already sold 500 thousand copies in Japan!

The latest volume of Kubo Tite’s Bleach manga (55) made it’s debut on the shelves of Japanese retailers on June 4th, 2012. There is great feedback on the new saga that allegedly will finish the manga. 

By the end of the sales week, June 10th, over 500,000 copies had been sold. That’s more than 18,000 than the number two highest selling manga volume last week.

01 – Bleach Manga Volume 55 – 521,626 copies sold
02 – Bakuman Manga Volume 19 – 332,706
03 – Katekyo Hitman Reborn Manga Volume 39 – 226,893
04 – Beelzebub Manga Volume 16 – 152,893
05 – Claymore Manga Volume 22 – 144,521 

Source: Oricon, SaiyanIsland

Screenwriter Dan Mazeau on Bleach live action movie: we want to avoid the failure of Dragon Ball movie

Dan Mazeau is known as the screenwriter for the Wrath of the Titans movie and is currently working on the live action adaptation of Bleach.

Mazeau explained that both getting the rights and the scriptwriting itself were a long process for Bleach: "But early on we set down with Tite Kubo the creator and the publisher of the series, and we had a long meeting, making sure we're respectful to the property. Nobody wants to, well… Let's just say that if you enjoyed [the live-action] Dragon Ball Z movie, that's great, but I thought it was a noble effort that ultimately didn't succeed. That's what we're trying to avoid. We want to make sure this movie lives up to what the manga is."

He added, "I'm currently working on Bleach and the idea is to set it in Japan and really be respectful to the source material. It's an amazing story. I've been shorthanding it as an 'action-adventure Sixth Sense,' but obviously on a bigger canvas than that. So I'm incredibly excited about that. It's a good one.”

Bleach anime March 2012 schedule (FINAL)

So these are the 4 final episodes of the anime. It's been quite the run. There's the remaining final arc of the manga, we still have to see whether it will be made into an OVA or a movie.


Episode 363 "Fierce Fight! Shinigami vs. XCUTION!" (激闘！死神vs XCUTION)  March 6, 2012 


Episode 364 "Desperate Struggle!? Byakuya's Troubled Memories" (絶体絶命!?記憶を挟まれた白哉) March 13, 2012 


Episode 365 "Ichigo vs. Ginjō! Secret of the Substitute Badge" (護VS 銀城！代行証の秘密) March 20, 2012 


Episode 366 "Changing History, Unchanging Heart" (変わりゆく歴史、変わらぬ心) March 27, 2012

Bleach anime is listed to end on March 27, replaced by Rock Lee Spinoff

Yes, this is to be expected.

I had a feeling when I started reading the first page of the last arc in the manga, and I figured that this is pretty much it, folks. The manga is going to end sooner than we all thought.

And it's highly likely that the last arc is going to be made into a movie?

A recent television program listing in Japan reports that the Bleach television anime series will end its run in TV Tokyo's 6:00 p.m. Tuesday timeslot on March 27. When a Twitter follower of Bleach animation director Hiroki Takagi sent him an image of the listings, Takagi responded by saying, "So quick. I was going to paste it… /(^o^)\"

Shueisha had already announced that the weekly Naruto SD: Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden anime will premiere on TV Tokyo on Tuesday, April 3 at 6:00 p.m.

Bleach live action adaptation is already in motion by Warner Bros studios

OH DEAR GOD NO!!!!! O_O

"The Variety entertainment trade news source is reporting on Wednesday that American film studio Warner Brothers licensed the live-action feature rights to Tite Kubo's supernatural action manga and anime Bleach. Warner is now developing the project and has assigned Dan Mazeau (Wrath of the Titans remake) to write a script. Peter Segal (Get Smart remake, The Longest Yard remake, Anger Management) is attached as a producer with a possibility of being the director as well.

The other producers include Segal's Callahan Filmworks partner Michael Ewing, actor Masi Oka (Heroes, Get Smart), and Jason Hoffs (The Terminal) at Viz Productions (a subsidiary of Bleach's North American publisher Viz Media). Branon Coluccio will be an executive producer.

Segal told Variety, "I've always been a huge fan of Bleach and have great respect for its creator Kubo-sensei and the truly original and amazing world he has created in this manga."

Oka, who acted in Heroes and Segal's Get Smart film, is a well-known manga fan. He drew inspiration from Dragon Ball for his Heroes character Hiro Nakamura, and he describes himself as a Naoki Urasawa and Shonen Jump "geek." He brought the project to Callahan Filmworks.

The Hollywood Reporter newspaper's Heat Vision blog reported in 2010 that Warner Brothers was "in the process of securing the movie rights to" Bleach. Heat Vision had reported then that Segal was lining himself up to produce, but not direct. "

EXTRA: Bleach manga will end after final arc

Interesting turn of events! After author Tite Kubo indicated a few months ago that Bleach manga would last another 10 years, it turns out that the upcoming 10th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine is announcing on Monday that Tite Kubo's Bleach manga is entering its final story arc. Kubo has been drawing the manga in the magazine since 2001, and Shueisha published the 53rd compiled book volume of the manga in December.

There's even the layout sketch of the color opening page that kickstarts the Final Arc of Bleach!

Bleach fillerology September schedule

This Kageroza arc has been quite the mixed bag, but it seems it will end this month, with probably another filler arc following:

Episode 337 "The Developer of the Modified Souls" (改造魂魄の開発者) August 30, 2011
Epidose 338 "Kon's Thoughts, Nozomi's Thoughts" (コンの想い、望実の想い) September 6, 2011


(To be updated further)

Aizen = Jose Maria Aznar without the mustache?

You're all going to call me weird and all sort of names for this, but I've always though that Captain Aizen from Bleach gives a similar air to that of the Spanish politician and former President of Spanish Governement Jose Maria Aznar, just without the mustache.

Maybe it's the hair? But Aznar doesn't have a spitcurl. What about the hairline? The nose? The expression? If anything, author Tite Kubo made very sure that the key villain (or not?) in his series looked very Spanish, to go along with the theme of 'Hueco Mundo'.