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Kadokawa, Nico Nico's Parents Partner on Distribution
posted on by Gia Manry
Kadokawa Group Holdings has announced on Thursday that it is partnering with Dwango to distribute electronic books, films, anime, and other forms of media content. Kadokawa Group Holdings is the parent company of the publishers Kadokawa Shoten, ASCII Media Works, Fujimi Shobo, and Enterbrain; it is also the parent company of the production company Kadokawa Pictures. Dwango is the corporate parent of Niwango, the company that runs the Nico Nico Douga video site.
Starting next April, Kadokawa will allow part of the content from its new "Book Walker" electronic book service to be readable on a tentatively titled "Nico Nico Viewer." ("Book Walker" is slated to have a beta version with about 100 titles on Apple iPad and iPhone devices in December, followed by versions for Android devices and personal computers.) ASCII Media Works (Azumanga Daioh, A Certain Scientific Railgun) and nine other Kadokawa Group companies will provide about 1,000 "Book Walker" titles ranging from light novels to manga and magazines by April.
Kadokawa will also launch an official channel on Nico Nico; it already has an official channel on the rival site YouTube. In the future, the two companies are considering the production and distribution of original anime that can only seen on this new channel. In addition, Nico Nico will stream events such as pre-launch game events.
Sources: animeanime.biz, Variety, Mainichi
