Ken Sasaki, senior v-p and general manager of Viz Media, a U.S. based manga and graphic novel publisher and anime distributor, has been named president and CEO of Viz Media effective April 1. Sasaki will take over the day-to-day operations of the company from Hidemi Fukuhara, who has been promoted to vice-chairman of Viz Media.
Sasaki joined Viz in 2008 and in recent years directed the company’s strategies for the digital distribution of anime. Viz publishes many of the most popular and bestselling manga titles in the world and Sasaki’s promotion comes at a time when Viz as well as other American manga publishers have finally started to move aggressively to offer American manga fans easy and legal digital access to reasonably priced and current manga content.
Beginning in 2011 Viz launched digital access to its comics on the iphone, iPad and and iPod Touch in addition to lauching Vizmanga.com, a web portal offering access to hundreds of volumes of Viz Media manga titles. And beginning this year, the company halted publication of Shonen Jump, its monthly print anthology magazine, to launch Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha, a near-simultaneous digital serial anthology that will publish new manga material in English for the North Amerian market weeks after it originally appears in Japan.
“We have spent the last few years preparing Viz Media for its digital future,” Sasaki said. “I look forward to expanding our digital distibution channels even further, making manga, graphic novels and anime even more accessible to fans across North America.”
Viz is the largest publisher of manga in North America and among its most popular series are Bleach, Naruto, Inuyasha, One Piece and Death Note. The U.S.–based company is jointly owned by three of the largest manga and animation companies in Japan, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc. and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions. Hidemi Fukuhara joined Viz in 2004 and was responsible for directing financial and overall operations. Prior to joining Viz Media, Fukuhara worked for Merrill Lynch Japan Securities for 19 years.
Fukuhara said Sasaki will be focused on continuing to develop digital platforms for Viz manga and anime and to grow the audience for the digital Weekly Shonen Jump Alpha. And he also said to expect additional digital initiatives from Viz this summer.
“Ken will continue what we started,” Fukuhara said, “ensuring fans of manga and anime all across North Ameica get the stories they love anytime in their preferred medium, whether it be physical media or digitally through the web or phone or tablet apps.”
