Viz Media

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Viz Media
Type Private
Founded San Francisco, California (1986)
Founder Seiji Horibuchi
Headquarters San Francisco, California U.S.
Area served North America, Europe, South America
Key people Seiji Horibuchi
Industry publication
Owner Shogakukan, Shueisha, Shogakukan Productions
Employees 160 (as of 2007)[1]
Divisions Viz Pictures, J-Pop Center
Website http://www.vizmedia.com/

Viz Media, LLC, headquartered in San Francisco, California, is an anime, manga and Japanese entertainment company founded in 1986 as Viz, LLC. In 2005, the Viz, LLC. and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current Viz Media, LLC which is jointly-owned by Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha, and Shogakukan's licensing division Shogakukan Productions (ShoPro Japan).[2]

Contents

[edit] History

Seiji Horibuchi, originally from Tokushima Prefecture in Shikoku, moved to California in 1975. After living in the mountains for almost two years, he moved to San Francisco, were he started a business exporting American cultural items to Japan, and became a writer of cultural information. He also became interested in publishing Japanese manga in the United States, though he himself was not a fan of the Japanese comics until a visit to Japan in 1985 exposed him to Katsuhiro Otomo's single-volume title Domu (A Child's Dream). His idea came to fruition after he met Masahiro Ohga, then managing director of Shogakukan, in 1985 and shared his vision. Shogakukan provided Horibuichi with $200,000 in startup capital which Horibuichi used in 1986 to found Viz Communications.[1][3]

Viz Communications released its first titles in 1987, which included Legend of Kamui, however sales were mediocre due to the specialist comic market being adverse to venturing into new territory. To counter-act this problem, Viz expanded into the general publishing business and began publishing various art related books in 1992. Into these titles, Horibuchi began publishing manga, calling them graphic novels so they would be carried by mainstream bookstores. The plan worked and after several years, leading booksellers began to have dedicated shelves for manga titles. Sales also picked up with Viz Communications acquired the license for the comedy series Ranma 1/2, which became an instant hit.[1]

The company continued to see success when it expanded into the anime distribution market, began publishing an English version of the popular Japanese magazine Shonen Jump, and acquired another huge selling title, InuYasha. In the late 1990s, Viz began making the push to move into the European and South American markets.[1]

In 2004, Viz Communications was merged with ShoPro Entertainment, funding company Shogakukan's American distribution division. Horibuchi became the new company's chairman. In 2005, Horibuchi started a related division, Viz Pictures, for releasing selected live-action films in the US to theaters and DVD.[4]

Viz Media was awarded the "Manga Publisher of the Year" Gem Award by Diamond Comic Distributors in 2007. Viz also received an award for "Manga Trade Paperback of the Year" for its release of the fourteenth volume of the Naruto series.[5]

[edit] Divisions

[edit] Viz Pictures

In 2005, Viz Pictures was officially formed as the company's division for releasing live-action Japanese films as theatrical releases in selected markets. According to Horibuchi, the company will focus on films that focus on the "Japanese 'kawaii (cute) and cool' pop culture."[4] In 2007, the division released seven films to theaters, including Train Man: Densha Otoko and Honey and Clover. DVD releases for all Viz Pictures films are distributed exclusively by its parent, Viz Media.[4]

[edit] J-Pop Center

In 2009, Viz is slated to open a three-story entertainment complex in San Francisco to be called the J-Pop Center. The center piece of the complex will be a 150-seat movie theater that will screen anime and Japanese live action films. The center will also have a cafe, a store selling anime and manga related items, and clothing stores offering Japanese clothing items. Though specific tenants have not been named, all tenants are expected to be ones that cater to some aspect of the Japanese popular culture.[4]

[edit] Criticism

 It has been suggested that some of the information in this article's Criticism or Controversy section(s) be merged into other sections to achieve a more neutral presentation. (Discuss)

Among the most common criticisms of Viz Media is that concerning its policies of Western localization; readers familiar with the original Japanese manuscripts have noticed serious liberties in the translations, as well as heavy art edits that are seen as detracting from the manga's quality.[6] Numerous manga have several translation inconsistencies due to a frequent rotation of translators, and changes such as "panel swaps" from Japan's "right to left" reading format are maintained because Viz affirms such a format allows its products to be more accessible.[7] Viz's ongoing popularity has not provided any incentive to change its policies[8][9], and little was done to address reader complaints until Tokyopop emerged as a serious competitor between the years 2002–2004.[10]

Additional complaints focus on Viz's strict policy of censorship; a number of panels in popular titles like Dragon Ball and its latter portion, renamed Dragon Ball Z to avoid confusion, were subjected to this treatment.[11] Much of this censorship occurred after the previously mentioned titles were published in relatively unedited form. Viz's argument was that the increased censorship (from a "T" for "teen" rating to an "A" for "all audiences") allowed it to distribute manga in more popular marketing venues (such as Wal-Mart) and to earn greater profits from the marketing of its titles.[12][13]

When Shueisha became a joint owner of Viz Media in 2002,[14] both Shogakukan and Shueisha began to release manga exclusively through Viz. Shueisha's deal with Viz may have been prompted by competition with Raijin Comics, a rival manga publisher created in 2002 by editors and artists who had split off from Shueisha, taking their properties with them. Since 2002, most Shueisha manga have been exclusively published in the U.S. exclusively by Viz. There are exceptions; Shueisha permitted DC Comics' subsidiary CMX Manga to license Tenjho Tenge and Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne, and permitted Dark Horse Comics to license Gantz, Lady Snowblood, Shadow Lady and The Monkey King. In 2003, possibly in response to Shogakukan and Shueisha's co-ownership of Viz, Japanese publisher Kodansha formed a co-venture with Del Rey.[15]

[edit] Publications

For a list of anime and Japanese films released by Viz, see the Viz Media category.
For manga titles released by Viz Media, see the Viz Media manga category.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Oikawa, Tomohiro (2007-09-01). Weekend Beat: Cashing in on over-the-counter culture. Asahi Weekly. Asahi Shimbun Company. Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
  2. ^ About Our Company. Viz Media. Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
  3. ^ Reisman, Will (2008-01-21). Seiji Horibuchi: Japanese culture on U.S. shores. Examiner.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
  4. ^ a b c d Interview With Viz Media's Seiji Horibuchi On Viz Media's Live Action Initiative. ICv2 (2007-06-13). Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
  5. ^ Viz Wins Two 2007 Gem Manga Awards from Diamond. Anime News Network (2008-04-07). Retrieved on 2008-04-07.
  6. ^ Rosenfelder, Mark (July 1996). What the translators did to Ranma. Zompist. Retrieved on 2006-09-30.
  7. ^ What Manga Right to Left — Will It Fly?. ICv2 (2002-03-08). Retrieved on 2006-09-30.
  8. ^ Pokemon is America's best-selling comic book. Anime News Network (1999-06-24). Retrieved on 2006-09-30.
  9. ^ Manga Trade Paperback Sales Exploding. ICv2 (2002-03-10). Retrieved on 2006-09-30.
  10. ^ Manga Trade Paperback Sales Exploding. ICv2 (2002-03-10). Retrieved on 2006-09-30.
  11. ^ Viz Unleashes Uncensored Dragon Ball. ICv2 (2001-03-11). Retrieved on 2006-09-30.
  12. ^ Viz and Shueisha To Launch Mass Market Boys Magazine in US. ICv2 (2002-06-10). Retrieved on 2006-09-30.
  13. ^ Interview with Viz Management, Part I. ICv2 (2002-08-13). Retrieved on 2006-09-30.
  14. ^ Shueisha Buys Equity Interest in Viz. ICv2 (2002-08-02). Retrieved on 2006-09-30.
  15. ^ Random House Preps Manga Releases. ICv2 (2004-06-23). Retrieved on 2006-09-30.

[edit] External links