VIZ Media: World’s Leader in Manga and Anime Works

VIZ Media, LLC is among the world’s leaders in the creation of manga, anime and entertainment works, an industry status it has started building since its founding in 1986 as VIZ LLC. The present-day VIZ Media LLC was formed with the merger of VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment, a joint ownership of Shueisha, Shogakukan, and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions. The Japanese-American company has its headquarters in San Francisco, California.

In accordance with its manga and anime focus, VIZ Media releases its manga ratings for their own content. The ratings include A (All Ages) suitable for all readers; T (Teen) for 13 years and above containing violence, strong language, and crude humor; T+ (Older Teen) for 15 years and above containing intense violence, nudity, and sexual content as well as substance abuse; and M (Mature Readers) for 17 years and above due to extreme violence, graphic depictions, and mature themes. Audiences are advised to follow the manga ratings, which are also used on the licensed anime titles, for full enjoyment of the content.

VIZ Media uses the right-to-left format in many of its publications in accordance with the prevalent Japanese format; these publications include Dragon Ball, as requested by Akira Toriyama, its author; and Vagabond in order to preserve its historical accuracy. Other publications are printed in the Western left-to-right reading format. The company also uses self-censorship practices on some of its titles while also publishing both censored and uncensored formats, such as in the case of Dragon Ball.

For its world-class production quality, VIZ Media has been recognized for its work several times. Its awards include the Diamond Comic Distributors’ 2007 Manga Publisher of the Year Gem Award and the Manga Trade Paperback of the Year for the 14th volume in the Naruto series.

VIZ Media has several ultra-popular series that it has kept on publishing, such as One Piece, Detective Conan, InuYasha, Bleach, and Naruto.