Kodansha, Shueisha to join J-Comi website

Kodansha and Shueisha plan to collaborate with Ken Akamatsu’s J-Comi online manga website, Akimatsu reported Monday on his site.

The company plans for a second beta test before the end of the year. Shueisha will make available a 2007 unnamed Shonen Jum Series and a seinen series Kootsuu Jiko Kanteinin Tamaki Rinshirou by Kengo kagi, and Kodansha will bring a one-shot Shojo manga from Mayu Shinjo.

As of Tuesday, the site has had nearly 2 million downloads.

The full site will launch on Jan. 10, 2011. Akamatsu said in a press conference Monday that he feels free distribution of manga paid for by advertising is the only way to combat illegal distribution.

Akamatsu manga site downloads surpass 1 million

J-Comi (Jコミ), Ken Akamatsu’s new manga site, surpassed even the creator’s expectations with more than 1 million downloads in its inaugural weekend.

Akamatsu started the site to feature online versions of out-of-print manga. The beta version of the site launched on Black Friday with all fourteen volumes of Love Hina available for download.

As of 11 a.m. Central time the site received a total of 1,349,611 downloads, and 86,967 online views. Most downloaded, to be expected, was the first volume of Love Hina with over 250,000.

Akamatsu has said in his blog that he was surprised it was as popular as it was, and expects the site will be profitable.

The site will launch in full Jan. 21.

Akamatsu will launch new manga site

Ken Akamatsu, noted manga-ka behind Negima and Love Hina, will launch a new online manga site on Nov. 26.

Called J-Comi, the site will feature out of print manga users can download for free. Akamatsu will start with his hit series, Love Hina. He has also enlisted several artists with out of print works.

The November date is the soft launch of the site, which will feature PDFs of Love Hina. The full site will launch Jan. 21.

Negima! Mou Hitotsu no Sekai to get extra OAD

Negima! Mou Hitotsu no Sekai will get a new OAD extra series this fall, according to the 10th volume of Weekly Shonen Magazine.

The series will pick up the magical girl arc from the original series.

The extra series is being produced to thank fans for making the first series a success, according to the magazine.

A release date is yet to be announced, but the last volume of the Negima OAD is slated for Aug. 20 of this year, with vol. 31 of the tankoban release.

For a trailer for the OAD series, click here: (Negima OAD)

New Negima movie officially announced

If the Maho Sensei Negima: Mou Hitotsu Sekai OAD wasn’t enough to whet the appetites of fans of the series about a foreign boy magician, then the latest announcement should take a step toward satiation. The official website of Mou Hitotsu Sekai announced that a full-length animated feature for Negima is in the works.

The film won’t be released until sometime in 2011, and came as a response to the larger-than-expected sales of the latest OAD series, which packaged with volumes of the Negima Manga.

Watch the first episode: Here!

New Negima OAD promo streamed

The second OAD Negima series now has a three-minute promo video streaming on the Kodansha website.

Called Mahou Sensei! Negima!:  Mou Hitotsu no Sekai (Magical Teacher Negima: A More Unified World *my translation* or Another World *Anime News Network’s), the story was created by Ken Akamatsu and supervised by him personally.

The first of four volumes ships with the 27th tankoubon on Sept. 17.

To watch the three-minute promo, click: Here!

New Negima OVA announced; promo streaming

In anticipation of the new Negima OVA series, Mahou Sensei Negima – Mou Hitotsu Sekai, the official Negima website has begun streaming a two-minute promo.

The series, which revolves around a 10-year-old sorcerer from a foreign country who must, as part of his training, teach English at an all girls junior high school — and his class of 31 girls are almost unanimously enamored of the young magician.

The new OVA will begin shipping DVDs with the ongoing manga series, starting with volume 27. 

To see the promo, click: Here!