VIZ is really shipping out the PR this week– the latest announces that VIZ Media anime titles are now available on iTunes. And they’re not starting with any second-tier titles: Death Note is online its entirety, along with the first season of uncut Naruto and the first two Bleach story arcs– dub-only, natch.
Presumably they’ll do well, and VIZ will add more anime to iTunes– but it depends on your participation, kids!
9-5 Mac reports that Starz Media has promised to make “four cult Manga anime classics available through iTunes, including the ground-breaking Ghost In the Shell.” It’s available elsewhere too, but hey, iTunes! (I despise iTunes, for the record.)
Anime News Service reports that Tezuka Productions, the Japanese company that manages the rights to all Tezuka works, has contracted with Apple directly to provide various Tezuka anime, including the well-known (Astroboy, Phoenix, the ‘99 Blackjack OVA, Jungle Emperor Leo) to the slightly obscure (8 of Tezuka’s ‘62-’88 experimental short animations).
I find the report a little confusing; tAstroboy, Phoenix, and Blackjack are definitely all going to be English dubbed versions, and the way ANS puts it, it ALL could be dubbed, which is possible– I believe that all the anime on iTunes to date is dub-only, so far. But on the other hand, those three had already BEEN dubbed, and I don’t know if Tezuka Productions will/would have them dubbed again. I guess we’ll see!
At any rate, it’s the first time a Japanese company has directly contracted with iTunes in the US, so, groovy.
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