VIZ Has Monster, HxH Anime; What Will They Do With ‘Em?
According to Anime Nation, VIZ will be soliciting both the anime adaptation of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster and the anime of Hunter x Hunter at an upcoming conference, which proves once and for all that they have a license for them (it’s long been speculated, especially since they have the manga versions of both, but no official announcement ever came). They hold the master U.S. licenses for each, but this announcement doesn’t necessarily mean they’re planning to distribute either title– it could depend on whether they get on TV.
That said, they’ll be soliciting the show at the National Association of Television Programming Executives conference– and yes, that is the same NATPE that has been suffering from the writer’s strike in Hollywood. Will their desperation for new content that doesn’t require them to hire writers make anime look like a better bet? Hard to tell, but Monster in particular could be an excellent experiment; it’s suspenseful and adult and more likely to interest, say, the 24 crowd than Hunter x Hunter.
Of course, they’re soliciting other titles as well: Bleach (…already on cable), Blue Dragon, Buso Renkin, Death Note, Deko Boko Friends, Honey and Clover, Nana, and Naruto.
Of these, I think Monster has the best odds of being picked up during or around primetime for the reasons I mentioned above; Death Note would also be a possibility. The rest are either likely to be picked up for the after-school crowd or might be tricky for non-anime-fan western audiences to pick up on (Honey and Clover, for example– if *I* was weirded out by the 18-year-old-who-looks-12, it would probably throw off plenty of potential watchers who aren’t used to anime. I suppose Nana is a possibility; I haven’t watched enough of it to really be sure).
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