Company Index: VIZ

Reviewed Titles

• Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle (OAV) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture (Theatrical Movie) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Fatal Fury: Legend of the Hungry Wolf (OAV) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Grey: Digital Target (OAV) [Reader Review]
• Hamtaro (TV Series) [Reader Review]
• InuYasha (TV Series) [Reader Review]
• Key The Metal Idol (OAV Series) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Naruto (TV Series) [Reader Review]
• Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (OAV) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Please Save My Earth (OAV) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Pokemon (TV Series) [Quick Review] [Full Review]
• Ranma 1/2 Movie 1: Big Trouble in Nekonron China (Theatrical Movie) [Quick Review]
• Ranma 1/2 Movie 2: Nihao My Concubine (Theatrical Movie) [Quick Review]
• Ranma 1/2 TV Season 1 (TV Series) [Quick Review]
• Zoids (Season 1) (TV Series) [Reader Review]
• Zoids (Season 2) (TV Series) [Reader Review]

About VIZ

VIZ's Website

Company info last updated 2006-09-15

Overview

VIZ (technically VIZ Media, LLC) is owned by three giants of Japanese manga and anime publishing: Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan Production Co., Ltd. VIZ got its start translating comics, and they're still much more prolific with their paper releases (due to the focus of their parent companies, no doubt) than their videos.

Catalog

From the early days, VIZ's catalog has consisted of the animated versions of their comics--initially the tremendously popular Ranma 1/2, as well as the now-forgotten Mermaid Scar. In addition to Ranma 1/2, their video catalog contains several notable mainstream titles, including Naruto, Zatch Bell, and One Piece, although they also have a small collection of interesting series in the shoujo vein and a handful of more unusual OAVs.

Releases

VIZ's first anime efforts were dub-only, and while they've remained relatively mainstream for the most part, they have improved drastically since those early years. Their titles now include lots of extras and are generally polished productions, although most of their more recent DVDs were co-productions with Pioneer (now Geneon).

VIZ released a fair number of LaserDiscs back in that format's heyday, though were quite slow at moving into DVDs. Once they did, however, they did it with gusto and even their earliest DVDs were impressive bilingual productions.