Anime

Battle in 5 Seconds Goes on Hiatus Due to Author’s Poor Health – News

Published

14 hours ago

August 13, 2026

Shogakukan‘s Manga ONE app announced on Thursday that Miyakokasiwa‘s Battle in 5 Seconds (Deatte 5-byō de Battle) manga (a remake of Saizō Harawata‘s original series) is going on hiatus. In a written message, Miyakokasiwa stated that they have been struggling with poor health for some time, but it had reached a point in June where drawing manga has become difficult. After getting medical examinations, Miyakokasiwa was diagnosed with depression and the underlying medical condition was identified. Miyakokasiwa is taking a break to focus on treatment and recovery. Miyakokasiwa also thanked the readers for their support, with the manga reaching its 11th anniversary.

Miyakokasiwa previously went on hiatus in October 2024, noting health and personal issues since the start of 2024, and added that the series is approaching its end. The manga resumed serialization in January 2025.

Comikey publishes the series in English and describes the story:

Akira Shiroyanagi is a high schooler who loves challenging games and Konpeito candy. One day, while heading to school, he encounters an enigmatic woman called Mion.

After that, Akira and a host of other individuals are kidnapped and forced to become test pilots for a mysterious organization. They are given unique abilities and pitted against each other.

Armed with his newfound, special ability, Akira becomes determined to take down this sinister group and beat their game. He has to rely on his guile to overcome all sorts of obstacles in a captivating battle of wits!

Harawata posted the original manga online before artist Miyakokasiwa launched a “remake” of the manga with new art in Shogakukan‘s Ura Sunday web comic service in 2015. The manga is also on Shogakukan‘s Manga ONE app. Shogakukan published the manga’s 31st compiled book volume on July 10.

The series inspired an anime adaptation in 2021. Crunchyroll released an English dub for the series.

Source: Manga ONE website

Anime

Shigeru Mizuki’s ‘White Flag’ WW2 Manga Gets Anime Special on Sunday – News

Published

40 minutes ago

August 14, 2026

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NHK announced on Friday that it will air a special anime based on Shigeru Mizuki‘s “Shiroi Hata” (White Flag) manga for its NHK Special documentary program on Sunday, August 16. The special is titled “Iwo Jima no Shiroi Hata” (The White Flag at Iwo Jima).

Mizuki’s original manga tells the story of an Imperial Japanese Army lieutenant in World War II named Nishiōeda. After fierce and brutal fighting between American and Japanese forces at the Battle of Iwo Jima, Nishiōeda raises the white flag of surrender in order to allow the the troops under his command to live. The surrender went against the army’s orders to fight to the death, and Nishiōeda was executed for treason.

Mizuki has said in an afterword to the story that the manga is based on a story he heard about a friend of his older brother, who was an Imperial Japanese Navy officer. The story has never been verified. Mizuki first used the character in his “Futari no Chūi” (Two Lieutenants) manga story, first published in Hinomaru Bunko’s Hinomaru magazine in 1964, before reworking the story into “Shiroi Hata,” which was published in Seirindō’s Garo magazine in 1968. Mizuki used the Nishiōeda character in three different manga stories. Kodansha has compiled four of Mizuki’s World War II manga stories, including “White Flag,” into a book also titled White Flag, which the publisher released in 2010.

The NHK documentary will show the anime based on Mizuki’s original story, as well as research on both American and Japanese reports of a raised white flag and a surrender.

The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought at the tail end of the Second World War, with American forces landing in February 1945. The island saw fierce fighting for about a month, and sporadic fighting with holdout forces for months afterward. For the first time since American forces conducted amphibious landings against Japanese forces in the Pacific campaign, American casualties outnumbered Japanese casualties, despite American forces vastly outnumbering Japanese defenses. Joe Rosenthal took his iconic “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” photograph of six U.S. marines raising the U.S. flag to claim victory on the island’s Mount Suribachi. American forces eventually built an airfield on the island, which hosted bombers that would later go on to bomb military and civilian targets on the Japanese home islands for months before the war’s ultimate end.

Mizuki was born in Osaka in 1922, and he grew up in Tottori Prefecture. He was drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II, where he injured — and later lost — his left arm. He penned multiple manga based on his experiences in World War II, such as Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths and Watashi no Hibi.

Mizuki was famous for his manga about yōkai — Japanese supernatural creatures. His manga and research into yōkai is largely responsible for the popularity that yōkai stories have today.

Mizuki died on November 30, 2015.

Sources: NHK, Comic Natalie

Anime

Live-Action Happy Kanako’s Killer Life Season 2 Reveals September 17 Debut – News

Published

47 minutes ago

August 14, 2026

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New visual also unveiled

The DMM TV streaming service announced on Friday that the second season of the live-action series of Toshiya Wakabayashi‘s Happy Kanako’s Killer Life (Shiawase Kanako no Koroshiya Seikatsu) manga will debut on DMM TV on September 17. DMM TV also unveiled a new key visual for the second season.

＼⚡️成分増量で業務再開！⚡️／

エナジードリンク系アクションコメディ🍹💥
『幸せカナコの殺し屋生活２』

2026年9月17日（木）より
DMM TVにて独占配信決定🔫

カナコ（のん）×桜井（藤ヶ谷太輔）
最強バディのキービジュアル初解禁🎨#カナコロ #幸せカナコの殺し屋生活 pic.twitter.com/zCAPxtOjQv

— DMM TV 【公式】 (@DMMTV_PR) August 14, 2026

Non and Taisuke Fujigaya reprise their roles as Kanako and Sakurai, respectively.

Tsutomu Hanabusa (live-action Tokyo Revengers) returns to direct the second season, and is also penning the scripts alongside Ruriko Matsushima and Yūsuke Aose.

The first season of the live-action series debuted on DMM TV in February 2025.

Seven Seas Entertainment is releasing the manga in English, and it describes the story:

Nishino Kanako sure hates her job, and is only too happy to snag the first new gig that comes her way. She never expected that her interview would be at an agency for contract killers…or that she’d be really, really good at bumping people off! Kanako doesn’t have a ton of self-confidence, and adjusting to her new life as an assassin isn’t the easiest. Will she ever earn the respect of Sakurai, her prickly but kinda hot new coworker? Find out in this dangerously funny, full-color manga!

Wakabayashi launched the four-panel web manga on Twitter and his pixivFANBOX account, and Seikaisha has since serialized the manga on its Twi4 service. Seikaisha published the manga’s ninth compiled book volume on May 27. Seven Seas Entertainment released the eighth volume on July 28.

Wakabayashi’s Tsuredure Children manga chronicles a series of short school romance stories in an omnibus format. Wakabayashi launched the manga online in October 2012, and then also began serializing it with new material in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 2015. The manga ended in July 2018. Kodansha USA Publishing released the manga digitally in English. The manga inspired a television anime that premiered in July 2017. Crunchyroll streamed the series with English subtitles as it aired, and Funimation streamed an English dub.

Sources: DMM TV‘s X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie

Anime

The Villager of Level 999 Anime Casts Yōji Ueda, Tetsu Inada – News

Published

2 hours ago

August 14, 2026

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Ueda voices Militaria Remote, Inada voices Dark Dragon in show’s 8th episode next week

The staff of the television anime of Koneko Hoshitsuki‘s The Villager of Level 999 (Level 999 no Murabito) light novel series revealed two new cast members for the anime on Friday. The new cast members will play characters who will both appear in the anime’s eighth episode next Thursday.

Yōji Ueda as Militaria Remote

Tetsu Inada as Dark Dragon

The anime debuted on TV Tokyo on July 1 at 24:00 JST (effectively July 2 at 12:00 a.m. JST), then on BS Fuji on July 2 at 24:30 JST (effectively July 3 at 12:30 a.m. JST). The anime is also streaming exclusively on the ABEMA and DMM TV streaming services in Japan. Crunchyroll is streaming the anime as it airs in Japan.

The anime stars:

Yoshinobu Kasai (180-Byō de Kimi no Mimi o Shiawase ni Dekiru ka?, Aru Asa Dummy Head Mike ni Natteita Ore-kun no Jinsei) is directing the anime at Brains Base. Shinzō Fujita (The World Is Still Beautiful, To Your Eternity) is in charge of series composition. Kentarō Matsumoto (D-Frag!, Grimms Notes the Animation, In/Spectre) is designing the characters. Hiroshi Nakamura is composing the music.

The story is set in a world of swords and sorcery called Earthqualia, where everyone is born with a designated “class” or role. The story centers on Koji Kagami, born into the weakest “villager” class, but is level 999 despite that. Koji has a chance meeting with Alice, the daughter of the demon lord, and together, they seek to find a way for humans and demons to co-exist.

Hoshitsuki serialized the original story on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website from July to December 2018, along with a side story in 2019. Kadokawa published the first print volume of the story with illustrations by fuumi in May 2016. The eighth and final novel volume shipped in January 2019.

Kenichi Iwamoto launched a manga adaptation of the novels in Kadokawa‘s Comp Ace magazine in May 2017. Kadokawa published the manga’s 21st compiled book volume on July 23.

Sources: Press release, The Villager of Level 999 anime’s website, Comic Natalie