ACF 196: VIZ Media & Warner in distribution deal

VIZ Media and Warner Home Video Forge Distribution Alliance

Hit Japanese Animated Properties Include

NARUTO, BLEACH, DEATH NOTE, INUYASHA, POKÉMON And Others

Earlier this month, VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media) and Warner Home Video (WHV) announced that they had reached agreement for the home entertainment distribution in the United States and Mexico of new and catalog DVD releases from VIZ Media. The announcement was jointly made by Hidemi Fukuhara, President and CEO of VIZ Media and Jeff Brown, WHV Executive Vice President and General Manager, TV, Family and Animation.

The new arrangement should have a positive impact on the districution and availability of numerous popular titles. Since this is probably of interest to many of you anime´ fans out there, here's the info from the press release:

Effective April 1, 2009, WHV will be the exclusive home entertainment distributor for new and catalog DVD content based on well-known franchises such as NARUTO, BLEACH, DEATH NOTE and INUYASHA as well as the POKÉMON animated television series and catalog features. The first new DVD releases from VIZ Media and WHV are scheduled to be NARUTO Uncut Box Set 13, NARUTO Uncut Box Set 13 Special Edition

VIZ Media is one of the leading purveyors of Japanese animated content (anime) and manga (graphic novel) publishing in North America. VIZ Media is one of the largest U.S. studios in the non-theatrical anime DVD segment and has played a major role in helping anime gain widespread mainstream popularity.

A leader in the video distribution industry, over the years WHV has successfully signed agreements with content owners of some of the world’s most renowned brands including BBC, National Geographic, Peanuts, Dr. Seuss, Popeye, American Girl, Cartoon Network, Leap Frog, Scholastic, The Wiggles, NFL, NBA and NHL.Other perennial animated properties in the Warner Bros. library include Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Hanna Barbera, Scooby-Doo, Batman, Superman and all of the other DC Comics characters.

Regarding the announcement, Mr. Fukuhara remarked, “We look forward to joining forces with Warner Home Video and are confident that in working with their strength in sales and distribution, we will continue to grow the anime category even more effectively than we have over the last several years. We’re very encouraged by Warner Home Video’s enthusiasm for this category and our properties and look forward to our titles reaching an even wider audience as a result of this relationship.”

Brown added, “The association between Warner Home Video and VIZ Media demonstrates our continued commitment to the growing sector of anime. Adding to our previous success with The Animatrix and Appleseed: Ex Machina, we are looking forward to a successful relationship with VIZ Media, one of the top players in the anime genre and children’s animation.”