Summary: Viz was created in 1986 to bring Japanese manga to an English language audience, primarily in the USA. Viz's earliest series include such classics as Lum*Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, Maison Ikkoku (they pretty much license anything by Rumiko Takahashi), El-Hazard, Tenchi Muyu, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. The majority of their earlier manga and accompanying anime versions were for a mostly male, college age audience. Viz tested the waters with shoujo manga in the mid-90's by publishing a few select titles under the "Flower Comics" label, but this was unsuccessful and quickly shelved (no doubt due to the death of female customers in comicbook specialty shops at the time). However some of the shoujo series were successful: X/1999 and Moto HAGIO's They Were Eleven were published as monthly comics and in Animerica Magazine. A number of short stories were serialized in the now-defunct Manga Vizion (precursor to Animerica Extra) and compiled into the graphic novels Love Song and A, A' [A, A Prime].
Viz originated as a subsidiary of the Japanese publisher Shogakukan. "Viz Communications", as it was called, was comprised of Viz Comics (manga), Viz Video (anime), and the now defunct Viz Films (live-action "art house" films). Viz has gone thru a couple minor name changes and, as of April 2005, is legally known as Viz Media. Since the late 1990's Viz has increased their shoujo products and brought us such fan favorites as Fushigi Yuugi, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Alice 19th, and Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers), along with popular shounen series like Dragon Ball, Pokemon, Rurouni Kenshin and Yu-Gi-Oh.
Viz tested the waters with shoujo manga in the mid-90's by publishing a few select titles: X/1999 and Moto HAGIO's They Were Eleven were published as monthly comics, and a number of short stories ran in the now-defunct Manga Vizion. Viz now publishs an entire line of shoujo manga which includes some of Japan's best girls' comics. Graphic novels have proven much more successful for Viz than the 32-page single issue comic book format that is used for American superhero comics. Individual chapters of shoujo manga run from 40 to 50 pages when published in Japanese anthologies, and their pacing is better suited to longer formats. Since spring 2003, Viz has published their manga exclusively in graphic novels, to great success.
March 18, 2005
Viz has announced that they will be releasing a new monthly shoujo manga anthology called Shojo Beat, starting in June 2005.
A special #0 preview issue will be available for free in limited numbers in April, most likely in comic book stores (as they did with Shônen Jump's preview issue). [Source: Shôjo Beat Issue 0 in April]
Shôjo Beat is both the magazine and a line of graphic novels, some of which will run first in the magazine, and some which will be published straight to book form: "To further complement the new magazine’s launch, VIZ will also simultaneously debut a SHOJO BEAT graphic novel line, which will offer an ongoing library of new shôjo titles at $8.99 each."
Shôjo Beat will initially serialize the following manga: NANA (by the author of Paradise Kiss) and Absolute Boyfriend/Zettai Kareshi (Yuu Watase), Akachan to Boku (Baby & Me), Crimson Hero, God Child, Kaze Hikaru. Each issue will be 250-300 pages long and will carry a cover price of $5.99 with a subscription price of $34.95 for 12 issues; a promotional subscription will be available for $29.95. [Source: Shôjo Beat Details]
The first batch of graphic novels to released under the Shôjo Beat imprint are set for June 5th, 2005 at $8.99 USD each.
The Shôjo Beat website currently consists of a sign-up form for the newsletter: www.shojobeat.com. Although they are promoting the new line as "Manga from the Heart" there is no indication that this will be an all-romance magazine, as evidenced by series like Crimson Hero, Hikaru Kaze, and God Child. Phew.
Viz's Animerica Extra was cancelled in December 2004 as of the December (Vol. 7 - Issue 12) issue. Rumors at the time were that AniExtra was being shut down to make way for a new shoujo magazine from Viz, and it's true! Shôjo Beat is a new, less expensive magazine slash book line similar to Shônen Jump. For the last year of its publication, AniExtra became exclusively shoujo and was marketed as a shoujo mag. Prior to that it had been half shoujo/half shounen. Earlier, Tokyopop published the shoujo Smile Magazine for a couple of years. Shôjo Beat will be the first magazine specifically modelled after the numerous shoujo zasshi (phonebook mangazines) published in Japan. It's about time!
It was hard for new readers to get into AniExtra since they had been running many of their titles for a number of years. SB will allow new readers to hop on easily, and I assume they will move out the longer series into graphic novel-only after running in the magazine for a while.
Viz has become my favorite manga publisher. Due their historically high prices and long delays between publishing volumes, this wasn't always so. Yet they've always had the best translations and nicely packaged books. Now that they're publishing all their graphic novels unflipped in the cheaper digest size, and created a shoujo line with really cool titles, I love them. The bad: they are still printing X, Ranma 1/2 and Inu Yasha flipped, even in the 2nd edition reprints (they're bound by contracts made years ago). Some of the high profile Shônen Jump titles for young boys have edits (thank stupid parents for that cautionary action). They've also redesigned their books and stepped up their graphic novel release schedule (thanks, in part, to the cancellation of monthly comics). The phenomenal success of an English language Shônen Jump proved that North American readers were ready for a large manga anthology, and would indeed buy comics in mainstream locations. Shônen Jump's sales quickly left tired old American superhero comics in the dust.
Viz's manga catalog consists of a respectable number of well chosen titles which have become extremely diverse. To date, Viz licenses only manga, no manhwa. Historically Viz manga have been primarily for an older male audience, with their few shoujo manga being science fiction oriented. Now they have a barrel of Shônen Jump titles for young boys and a growing Shoujo line of popular and addictive titles, many of which might previously have been assumed too controversial (Angel Sanctuary, Hot Gimmick), openly lusty (Sensual Phrase), "un-girl-like" (Red River, Chicago, Basara) or too long (Boys Over Flowers, Hana-Kimi) for the North American manga market.
Viz divides their manga into four imprints: Shoujo, Action, Shônen Jump, and Editor's Choice (mainly esoteric titles that do not fit elsewhere). They also have a Backlist of titles which have yet to be republished as "2nd Editions" (unflipped, smaller, cheaper, with original covers). I would have preferred that "Action" be named Shônen since that's what it really is: titles like Di Gi Charat, Tuxedo Gin and Video Girl Ai prove that boys' manga is more than just action. Neither is shoujo a single genre. The "Shoujo" editions all use the original Japanese covers, which are unapolegectially girlish, and I love them. Viz's redesigned books resemble attractive mass market paperbacks and fit well on bookstore shelves. The paper is soft yet sturdy, and pages turn easily. Spine designs are uniform and pleasing. The books also have nice little feedback cards in the back of each.
Viz releases a handful of fan favorite anime, but they have a way to go in restoring fans' faith after their poor handling of certain series on VHS. Maison Ikkoku is a series that was never completed on VHS due to poor sales, to fans' great dismay. It is now being released entirely on DVD. When Ranma 1/2 was originally released on dubbed and subbed VHS, it was done very slowly and expensively. Worse, they rearranged episodes and changed around (or dropped) openings and endings to fit them into evenly into "season" sets. The DVD rereleases of Ranma 1/2 correct these mixtakes, so newer fans are lucky. The English dub is best not mentioned, although it has its fans from the olden days of anime. Viz also distributes three anime in only the edited-for-TV dub version: Hamtaro, Pokemon and Zoids. See AnimePrime's No Editing Zone for changes made.
Once Viz switched to releasing anime on DVD, they began doing a much better job. Boys Over Flowers, Ceres: Celestial Legend, Inu Yasha, Maison Ikkoku, and Video Girl Ai are all excellent releases with faithful translations, attractive packaging and reasonable pricing. The rerelease of Ceres in two box sets is a great deal, and the Maison Ikkoku box sets are a wonderful gift to fans.
This page last updated April 14, 2005.