TOKYOPOP Rising Stars of Manga People's Choice Online Voting Underway Talent Competition Offers New Genre-Based Format

TOKYOPOP announces the online voting portion of the Rising Stars of Manga 7 competition.  Due to a voluminous flood of participant feedback, we've reinstated the People's Choice Award for this seventh running of TOKYOPOP's manga talent competition.  All manga fans are encouraged to visit the TOKYOPOP website between March 6 and March 12, 2007 to place their vote and choose their next Rising Stars of Manga. 

Vote today at :  http://www.tokyopop.com/peoples-choice-voting.php
<http://www.tokyopop.com/rising-stars-of-manga.php>

New this year is a genre-based format-gone is the era of the Grand Prize Winner.  Eight winners will share equal prizes, taking the top spot in one of eight different genre-based categories:  Action, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Romance or Sci-Fi.  The People's Choice Award, determined by fans who vote in the coming week on TOKYOPOP's website, will celebrate one winner not based on genre.   

TOKYOPOP is on a mission to identify and develop the artists and writers who will define manga in the years ahead.  The Manga Revolution is sweeping the U.S., and a new generation is being inspired by this innovative art form.  In the Rising Stars of Manga competition, the top nine entries, as chosen by TOKYOPOP's editorial staff (and by fans for the online People's Choice selection), will receive monetary prizes and be published in the seventh Rising Stars of Manga anthology.  All the winners will have an exclusive opportunity to pitch a full-length manga story idea to TOKYOPOP executives for possible development. 
 
Complete details about the Rising Stars of Manga competition are available at: http://www.tokyopop.com/C-132/