Main Feature: BTOOOM! - A Survival Action MangaThe survival manga BTOOOM! has sold a combined total of over 920,000 copies, chiefly to men in their twenties and thirties. The TV cartoon version is now due to start this autumn. 
We bring you the latest information on the cartoon, discover the real Junya Inoue - its amazingly popular but shy author - and observe his steady, painstaking work.

The story is set on an isolated island in the southern sea... a survival game where the goal is to use the eight bombs you are given to kill the other seven competitors and win by escaping from the island. And that's the only rule. 

The hero is 22-year-old Ryuta Sakamoto, an aimless, unemployed youth engrossed in online videogames who is transported to the island and forced to play. While fleeing frantically from strangers who are out to kill him, Ryuta realizes that this is just the same as the online game BTOOOM! that he loves so much. He has to use the different bomb types well and kill to survive. 

The game without mercy begins... But who brought him here, and why? 

The expectations are high for the cartoon version of this popular, ongoing manga series. Will the cartoon now also attract new fans?Creator's interview: Dehara Noriyuki Japanese "Figurine Illustrator" 

Noriyuki Dehara joined an advertising agency out of university but has been devoting his energies to "figurine illustration" since leaving that first job. While working in the fields of ads, book covers and book illustrations, he holds four to six solo exhibitions a year in such places as Tokyo, Taiwan, Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles and Paris. He produces some 300 new figurines a year. We introduce Japan's foremost "figurine illustrator."