VIZ sent out a press release last night announcing that they’re going to work with Greg Oden (left)– who happens to be a member of my home team, the Portland Trailblazers –to promote literacy. They’ll be donating copies of their upcoming release of Takehiko Inoue’s classic basketball manga Slam Dunk to Oden’s charity of choice, Oregon Mentors.

Oden will be joined by a pair of the Los Angeles Laker Girls at San Diego Comic Con for autographs and fan-greeting, as well as early copies of Slam Dunk.

About goddamn time! MangaCast spotted some new VIZ licenses on Amazon.com, including the fantastically badass smuggler dramedy Black Lagoon, as well as another work by Vampire Knight’s Matsuri Hino called WANTED, two Arina Tanemura manga– Time Stranger Kyoko and one called Kanshaku Tamano Yuuutsu (no relation to Haruhi; “Short-Tempered Melancholy”) and the manga of Rosario to Vampire. Oh, and another Akira Toriyama work: Cowa!

Also licensed: Ayumi Komura’s Mixed Vegetables, Hisaya Nakajo’s Sugar Princess, and Youzabara Kanari and Kuroko Yabuguchi’s Gimmick!. MangaCast also has covers for previously-announced (I think) titles Cat Eyed Boy, One Pound Gospel, and of course, Slam Dunk.

Posted by gia in Licenses, Manga, News, Western News • Comments (2)

Okay, so. A while back, Toei established an in-house licensing division for US audiences. Recently they launched an all-you-can-watch VOD service in Japan. And today, ANN posted a poll that Toei apparently asked them to host, to see what Toei anime titles Americans would want to get on demand (including download-on-demand).

Gee, I wonder if Toei is considering expanding their new service to the U.S.? Shame there’re only like two titles on that survey I’d be interested in seeing (Gegege no Kitaro and Slam Dunk).