New York ComicCon

NYCC - Viz Manga

Representatives: Anthony Jiwa, Cammie Allen, Kit Fox

New/confirmed licenses: Law of Ueki (sixteen volumes, starting July), Train_Man/Densha Otoko (the version that was serialized in Young Sunday magazine, three volumes, starting November). Both of these will be on a bi-monthly release schedule.

At the Viz Manga panel, the Viz Signature imprint was officially announced. This line will feature manga of "cultural significance and universal appeal". The first three titles announced under Viz Signature are Monster (eighteen volumes), Golgo 13 (thirteen volumes), and Drifting Classroom (eleven volumes.) All three will be on a bimonthly release schedule. In addition, Phoenix and Vagabond are moving into the imprint.

The Shojo Beat Manga line will feature Absolute Boyfriend, Aishiteru ze Baby, Baby & Me, Godchild, Kamikaze Girls, and Kaze Hikaru. The Kamikaze Girls novel (currently available) is published under the Shojo Beat Fiction imprint, and a final SB Manga property will be the Shojo Beat Manga Aritsts Anthology, featuring tutorials from a number of Japanese artists Viz has published, such as Yu Watase.

New Shonen Jump titles will include Buso Renkin, Claymore and D.Gray-man. These should compensate for the fact that the final, twenty-sixth volume of Dragon Ball Z will be released in June, and the last, twenty-eighth volume of Rurouni Kenshin - in July.

New additions to the Viz Fiction line include the third Fullmetal Alchemist novelization, and original novels based on Kenshin and Naruto. Responding to a question regarding the possibility of the original Train_Man novel being translated, however, the Viz representatives responded that it would be exceedingly difficult to translate, given how heavily it it steeped in Internet jargon and 2ch-specific terminology.