Comic-Con International announced the nominees for this year’s Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards on Thursday. The following manga received nominations in the Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia category:

Chang Sheng’s Yan comic and Sanho’s Purgatory Funeral Cakes comic were also nominated for the category.

Kazumi Yamashita earned a separate nomination for Best Writer/Artist for the first volume of the Land manga.

Shintaro Kago‘s “Blood Harvest” and “The Curse Room” short manga stories received nods for Best Short Story. (Both are available in the Brain Damage book that collects Kago’s short manga.) Anime director Rintarō‘s My Life in 24 Frames per Second manga is nominated for Best Graphic Memoir. Kodansha USA‘s hardcover release of volumes 1-5 of Katsuhiro Ōtomo‘s Akira manga is nominated for Best Archival/Collection Project.

Manga’s First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics by Andrea Horbinski is nominated for Best Academic/Scholarly Work. The Art of Manga (designed by Tessa Lee) and Fruits Basket: The Complete Box Set (Collector’s Edition #13) (designed by Wendy Chan) are nominated for Best Publication Design. Viz’s release of hakei’s DeadAss is in the running for Best Digital Comic. 

Taiyo Matsumoto‘s Tokyo These Days (translated by Michael Arias) won last year’s award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia. 

Manga creator Gō Nagai will be inducted for the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame this year.

Source: Comic-Con International

McDonald’s Japan teased a new collaboration with the Saint Seiya franchise on Wednesday by posting an image of the iconic circlet worn by Saint Seiya protagonist Pegasus Seiya with the caption, “This light… it’s Pegasus ___?!” An image of Japan with four silhouetted McDonald’s menu items followed the caption, “The chosen gourmet, assemble!”

A handful of replies to the initial post poked fun at Saint Seiya with images from several live-action adaptations of the franchise, particularly the 1991 Bandai Super Musical Saint Seiya starring the six members of idol group SMAP. A separate joke reply features Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters character Pegasus J. Crawford wearing the circlet.

The next day, McDonald’s Japan formally unveiled the Saint Seiya collaboration menu with burgers inspired by regional dishes: the Hokkaido Jaga Cheese Teriyaki (Hokkaido Potato Cheese Teriyaki), Nagoya Meibutsu Tebasakifu Kurogoma Juicy Chicken (Nagoya Chicken Wings-Style Black Pepper Juicy Chicken), and Hakata Mentai Butter Teriyaki (Hakata Marinated Roe Butter Teriyaki). The burgers will go on sale for a limited time beginning on May 20.

McDonald’s Japan released four commercials for the collaboration, set to Saint Seiya‘s opening theme song, “Pegasus Fantasy.” The first commercial features all three of the limited-time burgers. The final three feature the burgers individually. Appropriately, comedian Seiya Ishikawa of the Shimofuri Myōjō (literally, “Late Autumn Venus” but also a wordplay on marbled beef) duo stars in these ads:

Sources: McDonld’s X/Twitter account (Link 2, link 3), McDonald’s Japan‘s You Tube channel (link 2, link 3, link 4)

The official website for Holoearth, a game project within Cover Corporation’s hololive Alternative metaverse project, announced on Thursday that the game will end service on June 28 at 9:00 p.m. JST (8:00 a.m. EDT).

The game launched its first public release 1.0.0 version in April 2025, after three years of limited beta testing.

Holoearth is set in the world of hololive Alternative, an “alternative world” featuring the girls of Cover’s Hololive Production stable of VTubers.

Trigger‘s Masaru Sakamoto (SSSS.Gridman, SSSS.Dynazenon) designed the female main character of Holoearth, known as the Pathfinder.

Wit Studio animated a teaser video for the game, which debuted alongside the game’s first public release in April 2025.

Source: Holoearth game’s website via Yaraon!