Manga fans rejoice! VIZ Media has a shiny new manga mobile app with day-and-date release concurrent with manga's Japan debut
15 titles will be simultaneously published in English and Japanese
In a move sure to please English-speaking fans of manga, the largest manga publisher in North America, VIZ Media, has launched a brand new digital manga offering the chance to read brand-new chapters of their favorite series in English on the same day as their publication in Japan.
The new service, simply called VIZ Manga, offers more than 10,000 chapters of Shogakukan and Shueisha manga, with 15 titles available as “simul-pub” titles on launch, including work by Rumiko Takahasi, Haro Aso, and series including Bucket List of the Dead and Komi Can’t Communicate. The most recent three chapters of each series will be available for free.
For those not well-versed in manga, Shogakukan and Shueisha are two separate publishers of manga in Japan, both of which are co-owners of VIZ Media, which is headquartered in the U.S. Shueisha is the publisher of the Japanese Shonen Jump magazine, which has been digitally available in an English language edition from VIZ for some time before today's new launch.
Also available will be classic titles including Nana by Ai Yazawa, Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi, Goodnight Punpun by Inio Asano, and multiple works from Junji Ito, including GYO, and Uzumaki. Additionally, the service will offer what VIZ is calling “curated recommendations by VIZ Manga editors, the most experienced editors in the industry.”
“With this new development, VIZ Media builds on its history of innovation and experimentation,” Chief Executive Officer Ken Sasaki said in a statement accompanying the launch of the app. “We want our world-class creators to reach as wide an audience as possible while reinforcing that manga should be read from the official source.”
The VIZ Manga app is available for download now on iOS and Android.
VIZ unveiled their summer 2023 print line at last year’s New York Comic Con.
