Anime Expo 2013

Viz Media

Viz Media's Sunday panel started off with a rundown of upcoming print manga releases. Two titles will be getting boxset releases this fall—Bakuman and One Piece. The Bakuman boxset will include all 20 volumes of the manga, along with a two-sided poster and the Otter No. 11 mini comic. The first One Piece manga includes the first 24 volumes, a two-sided poster, and the Romance Dawn mini comic. Other upcoming releases profiled include the Tiger & Bunny manga, the two-volume Tiger & Bunny Comic Anthology, and Magi, the latter two hitting shelves this August. Upcoming shoujo releases include Voice Over! And Sweet Rein, while josei fans can soon enjoy Midnight Secretary and Happy Marriage.

In new acquisitions, Viz Media will be publishing three books related to Hayao Miyazaki, with the first being The Art of Princess Mononoke. The other two, Starting Point and Turning Point, are collections of essays, interviews, and memoirs about Hayao Miyazaki and his career.

New title announcements include Kohske's Gangsta. manga, a series about two men who take on jobs from the mafia and the police in the corrupt town of Ergastulum. The first volume will ship on February 18, 2014, with new volumes being released every three months. Also new is Naoshi Komi's Nisekoi: False Love, which will begin publication on January 7, 2014. Dragon Ball fans will be excited to see that Viz Media will begin releasing Dragon Ball Full Color Edition on February 4, 2014. The volumes will be larger than regular manga, approximately the same size as an American graphic novel. The novel is currently running in Viz Media's digital-only Weekly Shonen Jump magazine.

Another new announcement is the release of Kazuma Kondou and Jinsei Kataoka's Deadman Wonderland, a survival action manga about a boy who is thrown into the gruesome Deadman Wonderland prison after he's framed for murdering his classmates. The first volume will be published February 11, 2014.

Old school fans of Rumiko Takahashi's classic comedy series Ranma 1/2 will have another chance to collect the series again, as Viz Media is bringing the comic back in print. For the first time in North America, the manga will be published right to left, and will be released in a two-in-one omnibus. The first volume will be available March 11, 2014, and will retail for $14.99. New volumes will be released every two months.

Afterwards, the topic switched over to Shonen Jump where the panelist talked briefly about Digital Firsts available from Viz Manga. Many titles will be published digitally first, with print versions to follow shortly afterward, including new title Nisekoi. Other digital manga available from Viz Manga include mature titles like March Story, Dorohedoro, Nana, and older classics like Please Save My Earth, MAR, and Case Closed. Manga fans who want to read same-day release manga can subscribe to Viz Manga's digital Weekly Shonen Jump manga anthology, which is currently running One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, One Punch Man, Toriko, Dragon Ball, Cross Manage, and World Trigger. Starting next week, it will also include Akira Toriyama's new series, Jaco the Galactic Patrolman. Currently there are no concrete plans to publish Jaco the Galactic Patrolman in print or in graphic novel format.

Regarding Viz Media's animation and home video department, Neon Alley is now available online for Windows and Mac. Previously this 24/7 programmed channel was only available on PS3 and Xbox 360. The channel is available for a $6.99/month subscription fee. Upcoming Neon Alley anime premieres include the Naruto Shippuden movie, The Lost Tower and the Tiger & Bunny movie The Beginning. Fall series include Puella Magi Madoka Magica and MAGI – The Labyrinth of Magic.

Although the new animation acquisitions were announced at Viz Media's Friday panel, they mentioned once again that the company has picked up Gargantia of the Verdurous Planet, which will be released in 2014 on both DVD and Blu-ray. The release will also include the OVAs. The series can currently be watched on Vizanime.com, Hulu, and Crunchyroll. The other new acquisition is Blood Lad, which is an adaptation of Yuuki Kodama's bestselling manga. It is currently being simulcast on Vizanime.com and Hulu. The series will be available dubbed on Neon Alley, DVD, and Blu-ray in 2014.

The panel finished with a Q&A session.