Japanese game developer Odd Number and related companies Ignis and Pulse have entered bankruptcy proceedings after the Tokyo District Court issued commencement orders on August 5. According to Tokyo Shoko Research, Odd Number had liabilities of approximately ¥10.32 billion as of December 2024. The company developed and operated Link! Like! Love Live!, the mobile app at the center of the Love Live! Hasu no Sora Jogakuin School Idol Club project, which ended service on June 30 after operating since May 2023.

Odd Number had struggled with substantial development and operating expenses. By the end of 2023, the company reported a net loss of roughly ¥5.6 billion and liabilities exceeding its assets by about ¥6.8 billion. The liabilities of Ignis and Pulse are still being investigated, and available reporting does not establish that Link! Like! Love Live! alone was responsible for Odd Number’s financial collapse.

The bankruptcy ends Odd Number’s involvement with the discontinued game, but the broader Hasu no Sora project is continuing independently. The official Love Live! website currently lists a new television anime series beginning in January 2027, and other franchise activities remain scheduled. No official announcement indicates that Odd Number’s bankruptcy will delay or cancel those projects.

The Pokémon Company will end service for Pokémon Bank on February 26, 2027 at 03:00 UTC, closing the long-running Nintendo 3DS storage service. Players who still have Pokémon stored in Bank should move them to Pokémon HOME before the shutdown if they want to preserve access to those collections through the current service.


Transfers from Pokémon Bank to Pokémon HOME remain available until the shutdown and require a paid Pokémon HOME Premium Plan. Players can transfer selected boxes using a Nintendo 3DS, while users whose Nintendo Network ID is linked to their Nintendo Account can also initiate a transfer through HOME without the 3DS, which moves all Pokémon stored in Bank at once. Once transferred to HOME, Pokémon cannot be moved back to Bank.


Pokémon Bank is no longer available to download, so the remaining transfer window primarily affects players who already have access to the software or eligible linked accounts. Any Poké Miles stored in Pokémon Bank cannot be converted to Pokémon HOME Points or otherwise carried over, giving longtime 3DS players another reason to review their stored Pokémon before the February deadline.

Ichi Yukishiro’s The Skull Dragon’s Precious Daughter will go on hiatus for roughly six months, with the manga scheduled to resume in spring 2027. The hiatus notice accompanied Chapter 44 on Mag Garden’s Mag Comi service. Yukishiro explained that stress had accumulated over a long period and that the break would allow time to recover before continuing the series.


The hiatus temporarily pauses the story as The Skull Dragon’s Precious Daughter prepares for a wider audience through its upcoming television anime adaptation. The anime was announced earlier this year with Doga Kobo producing, Kuniyasu Nishina directing, and Yuka Yamada handling series composition.


English-language readers can currently follow the manga digitally through J-Novel Club, while Seven Seas Entertainment publishes physical editions. No specific date has been announced for the manga’s spring 2027 return, and the hiatus announcement does not indicate any change to plans for the television anime.

Skip and Loafer will return for its second season in April 2027, with a newly released teaser offering the first look at the continuation of Mitsumi Iwakura and Sosuke Shima’s school life. Crunchyroll has confirmed that it will stream Season 2 when it premieres, giving viewers outside Japan continued access to the anime.

Director Kotomi Deai returns for the new season at P.A. Works and is also credited with series composition alongside Yoko Yonaiyama. Manami Umeshita returns as character designer and chief animation director, while Tomoyo Kurosawa and Akinori Egoshi reprise their lead roles as Mitsumi and Sosuke.

The first season aired for 12 episodes from April through June 2023, adapting Misaki Takamatsu’s ongoing manga. The April 2027 premiere will bring the anime back almost four years after its first season concluded, with Crunchyroll once again serving as its international streaming home.

Shogakukan has announced company-wide reforms following a third-party investigation into its Manga ONE editorial operations and its handling of manga creator Shōichi Yamamoto. The independent committee found that decisions surrounding continued work with a creator who had previously committed serious misconduct raised the possibility that Shogakukan’s actions could be regarded as encouraging or contributing to further human-rights harm. The publisher said the case exposed broader failures in editorial decision-making, information sharing, management oversight, and corporate governance.

Shogakukan's response includes financial penalties for senior leadership, with President Nobuhiro Oga returning 50 percent of his monthly compensation for three months and other executives returning between 20 and 30 percent. The company is also establishing a Human Rights Commission with outside experts, expanding employee and creator training, and requiring greater involvement from legal and management departments when serious concerns arise.

The changes will directly affect Shogakukan’s relationships with manga creators and other outside partners. Contracts will include human-rights provisions, major concerns will no longer be left solely to individual editorial departments, and expanded anonymous reporting and grievance systems are intended to give creators, business partners, and other affected parties clearer ways to raise concerns and seek remedies. Shogakukan says implementation and effectiveness of the reforms will be reviewed on an ongoing basis.