News

Katsukon 2002 - Viz Panel

Manga

Although no release dates were given, Viz has acquired the titles Gundam: Origin (manga version of the original Gundam TV series), and GUNNM: Last Order (continuation of Battle Angel Alita). The company has also regained control of the rights to CLAMP's X manga.

Volumes 11 and 12 of Rumiko Takahashi's Inu Yasha: The Dog Demon manga will be released respectively in May and September.

Kaiji Kawaguchi's critically-acclaimed political manga Eagle, the story of a Japanese-American senator's U.S. Presidential campaign will be completed with the April release of a fifth collected volume.

Anime

Hamutoro has been licensed and will be shown on Cartoon Network at an unidentified future point.

Although Viz has the rights to the Corrector Yui TV series, no release is expected until the TV run of Card Captor Sakura is finished, due to the name similarity between the two shows.

The Inu Yasha anime will be released starting in August, with three episodes per disc (9 volumes) and a disc a month, at an MSRP of $24.95 or possibly $19.95. However, the release schedule will be delayed if the series is shown on TV

The Season 2 DVD box set of Ranma 1/2 will be released by April.

Continuing its relationship with Rumiko Takahashi, Viz is considering acquiring the remaining "Rumik World" anime titles, several of which have been available in English on VHS for several years.

There are plans to release the currently-available episodes of Maison Ikkoku as a DVD box set. If it is successful, the remainder of the series will be dubbed and released as well. The company is looking at releasing the rest of its back catalog on DVD as well, but there are doubts as to titles' commercial viability.