Viz Media, a U.S.-based manga publisher and anime distributor, announced a deal to make its entire catalog of digital manga available through the Amazon Kindle Store. Beginning today, more than 1,500 volumes covering about 160 Viz manga series are available for download to the Kindle Fire tablets and Kindle Paperwhite devices, generally for about $6.99.
Until now Viz has distributed its manga via its own Viz Media app for Apple and Android and through Vizmanga.com and Weekly Shonen Jump, a weekly digital anthology that publishes Viz manga titles simultaneously in Japanese and English. Under the new deal, new volumes of digital manga will be added to the Amazon Kindle store each week. Updates of the print and digital will be released simultaneously.
Viz is one of the largest publishers of manga (licensed Japanese comics) in the U.S. and the deal will make such perrenial bestselling series as Bleach, Bakuman, Naruto and One Piece available via the Amazon Kindle store.
Gargan Singh, executive v-p, chief technology officer at Viz, said the deal will expose “millions of readers to and fans in North America,” to Viz Media’s deep catalog manga titles. “We are strong advocates for the continued growth of digital manga content and are very pleased to partner with Amazon.”
