France has decided to knight manga creator Jiro Taniguchi, who's works include The Walking Man and The Ice Wanderer, Taniguchi will have the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters)conferred onto him.  France has not announced a specific date as of yet.

On her Twitter Account Thursday, Natsumi Matsumoto announced that her hit manga, Yumeiro Pâtissière, will end in the July issue of Ribon. Reaching 10 volumes by the end of the series, Yumeiro Pâtissière has been awarded the Shogakukan Manga Award, Children's Category, been adapted into an anime, as well as a second season anime titled Yumeiro Pâtissière SP Professional, both of which were simulcast on CrunchyRoll.  

Matsumoto also worked on St. Dragon's Girl, the last volume of which was published by Viz earlier this year.

Links:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-06-02/yumeiro-patissiere-shojo-cooking-manga-ends-on-friday

Pictures From:ANN, Twitter, Simon and Schuster Publishing Company.

The Meiji Confection Company has released a line of original  commercials, which they created with the help of  the Madhouse animation studio, to showcase their line of new fruit flavored ( Grape, Mandarin Orange) gummys.  The 1st of the ad's was directed by Rintaro(Metropolis,X) with character designs by Yusuke Nakamura,and theme by GReeeeN. A second spot will air in July.

Official Commercial Website:
http://www.meiji.co.jp/sweets/candy_gum/fruits_gummi/TLS/index.html

Today, police arrested Tomokazu Furuichi, 24, for threatening the life of voice actress Aya Hirano. Furuichi allegedly made numerous threats on the life of the popular voice actor, many of these threats were made on the internet forum, 2channel(2ch). These threats, made between April and May, included his statement that he would "Blow up Fuji TV.", and other "forcible obstruction of business".  Someone, using the name Tomokazu Furuichi, has been sending Twitter messages to Hirano's fans,  threatening them, saying he would kill her. 

For some time, Furuichi had been harping on Hirano's role in Picaru no Ashi demanding that the producers remove her from the show.  As time progressed, the tweets became more violent and direct, telling Hirano to kill herself, and so on.


FNN News posted a video (Japanese) covering the story.

Sources:
http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00200595.html
http://www.ayahirano.net/
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-06-01/man-arrested-for-threatening-voice-actress-aya-hirano
http://twitter.com/#!/ja777J
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/06/online-death-threats-lead-to-arrest/
picture from ayahirano.com

The 10th anniversary celebration of Youtsuba&! was cut short because of the deadly earthquakes in Japan, and now has been rescheduled for July. The exhibition will be housed in the Gallery LE DECO, in Shibuya in Tokyo, from July 5-17th.

The song Cantarella, sung by Vocaloid Kaito, has inspired a musical, directed by Yukio Ueshima, with Kentarō Kanesaki and Daisuke Watanabe staring. The show will be preformed from August 3rd to August 7th, in Tokyo's Shibuya's Space Zero theater. If you can't be in Tokyo, the show will be streamed live on the Nico Nico Douga website.

Nico Nico Douga Website:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/
Cantarella Music Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3U-IGxt_qU
Cantarella English Sub:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC49twXag2o&feature=related
Picture Copyrighted: Crypton Future Media

After two or so years of inactivity, Maki Murakami announced that she will be resuming Gravitation EX, and the newest chapter will be launched in the June 28th of Gentosha magazine.  Gravitation EX was launched as a sequel to Gravitation in 2004, however Murakami set aside the manga almost immediately.