NANA DVD in stores!

Our beloved NANA is in stores tomorrow, April 8, 2008. This is a much-anticipated release for us, as we've gotten a lot of feedback from our friends at Scarecrow Video, The ImaginAsian and all over the web. NANA, the manga turned live-action movie, features two hot stars: J-pop icon Mika Nakashima and Japan's sweetheart Aoi Miyazaki. The boys in the cast are quite the heart-throb crew as well. Check out the story of two girls who try to survive Tokyo together and with their friends.

NANA is currently playing at The ImaginAsian Theater in NY until the 10th.
If you enjoyed NANA, then watch for NANA 2 this summer! Stay tuned to this space.

The NANA DVD is available at our online store tomorrow.

April. 07, 2008

SAKURA-CON 2008 in the snow!

This was our first year attending Sakura-Con. Altough it was snowing (the locals told us that this was very odd), the cherry blossoms were still blooming in full force. We got to enjoy a rare Seattle experience last weekend.

At the convention, we screened five of our movies with the theme "Because Japanese Girls Simply Rock!" We were so pleased to see the turnout at LOVE?COM THE MOVIE and Honey and Clover. We really appreciated our enthusiastic fans that giggled throughout our screenings.

Our friends at Scarecrow Video had a booth and advertised heavily for us this year. Most of our DVDs sold out!

Thank you Sakura-Con for putting together an awesome gathering for loyal anime fans and the new otaku generation!

April. 03, 2008

Death Note hosted by SFIAAFF at the Castro!

We had a crazy night last weekend at the Castro Theater, San Francisco. The line to Death Note wrapped around the corner all the way up to Orphan Andy's passed Hot Cookie and the Twin Peaks Bar. This was the first glance for us to see our audience and fans who came to see the live-action Death Note. We were so impressed by the turn out. What about Death Note 2? Well, we did license it...and we will disclose more about it in the near future. Please stay tuned!

Thank you SFIAAFF for a wonderful festival and screening two of our films.
Our other feature is Traveling with Yoshitomo Nara, a documentary about the famous Japanese modern artist.

We also want to thank our friends from VIZ MEDIA, LLC. for showing up to show us their support. Thank you!

Mar. 20, 2008

Double ISHII feature at the ImaginAsian Theatre

This Friday at the ImaginAsian Theater in NYC we're opening a huge double feature -- Katsuhito Ishii's Funky Forest: The First Contact and The Taste of Tea. When we licensed Funky Forest, we were hoping such an event would come about. If you are an Ishii fan and will be in NYC, this is your week to go watch both films on the big screen. Thanks to the ImaginAsian for being great supporters of our movies!

We also have NANA and Maiko Haaaan!!! scheduled to screen at the ImaginAsian Theater in NY and the ImaginAsian Center in LA, so stay tuned...

Mar. 5, 2008

We Love JERO!

Have you heard of JERO? He's the newest craze in Japan's Enka scene!
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, Jero is an African American who is one-quarter Japanese, with a voice and attitude of a career Enka singer! His late grandmother from Japan turned him onto Japanese Enka.

We heard rumors of him recently and checked him out on Youtube. His debut single "Umiyuki" (Ocean Snow) is ranked No. 4 on Japan's Oricon Charts, and he appears to be unstoppable. Click here to see his latest video. As promoters of Japanese pop culture, we're excited for Jero's future success.

Feb. 29, 2008

LOVE☆COM THE MOVIE in Stores!

We are happy to announce the DVD release of LOVE☆COM THE MOVIE! Some of you Shojo Beat readers may already know about this high school romantic-comedy based on the manga Lovely Complex.

LOVE☆COM THE MOVIE will be one of the "Because Japanese Girls Simply Rock" features in the upcoming Sakura-Con 2008 in Seattle (March 28-30, 2008) along with our three other "girl" films: HULA GIRLS, Honey and Clover, and Linda Linda Linda. If you are going to Sakura-Con, you will be able to experience LOVE☆COM THE MOVIE firsthand!

Check out the DVD page to read more about this colorful bubblegum comedy! We love it!

Feb. 19, 2008

Happy New Year! Our third year...a great year!

We are gearing up for another year of licensing and distribution of great J-POP films. With a tight schedule of eight DVD releases and many theatrical campaigns, our New Year resolution is to stay in good health. ;-) The definite HOT picks of this year are DEATH NOTE and DEATH NOTE: The Last Name. We are hoping to introduce this huge movie to new audiences. If you are already a /Death Note/ fan, you know what we are talking about!! Also, no one should miss the abstract and somewhat disturbing journey of Funky Forest: The First Contact by Ishii + Miki + Aniki. Ask no more. You just need to see it...

Outside of movie licensing, we will be launching two websites this year for both The J-POP Center and VIZ Cinema. The J-POP Center, which will house the VIZ Cinema, is scheduled to open in 2009. (That will be next year's news.) For more information about our 2008 releases and other projects, please keep coming back to www.viz-pictures.com. We will continue to bring you the hottest news!

Jan. 16, 2008

New York Anime Festival: 3 premiers and more!

The New York Anime Festival took place at the Javitz Center this year (12/07-12/09) bringing in anime fans from all over. We were lucky to have six of our films featured in this event, and got to meet many die-hard anime fans that also love the live-action films that we bring to them.

NANA, Honey and Clover, LOVE☆COM THE MOVIE were all premieres and Kamikaze Girls, Ping Pong, and Gackt: The Greatest Filmography RED also played as all-time favorites. We'd like to thank many people for singning up for our e-mail newsletter. If you missed out on this opportuniy, please give us your information here. We should be coming out with one very soon!

Thank you New York Anime Festival for having us. Thank you all the fans for being so involved! While it was rainy and grey outside, we felt very warm at our booth.

Dec. 7 - 9, 2007

Shinto purification at the J-POP Center site

As our symbolic first step in the J-POP Center construction plan, we held a traditional Shinto purification ceremony to offer closure to a historical building and an old tree that is standing on the future J-Pop Center site in the heart of Japantown, San Francisco. In this ceremony, we thanked the spirit of the land, offered the building and the tree an apology for its termination, and prayed for safety of the demolition workers.

The formal ceremony was conducted by Reverend Koichi Barrish from the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America in Seattle, WA, the only Shinto priest to ever be ordained outside of Japan. We would like to thank Reverend Barrish and all of those who gathered to pay respect to the former Hokebei Mainichi Newspaper Building and bring proper closure to its history.

Once the demolition is complete and the new foundation is set, we will have another purification ceremony for the new construction of the J-Pop Center.
For more information about the Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America and the fabulous Reverend Barrish, please visit www.tsubakishrine.com.

Nov. 16, 2007

DVD DEBUT OF HULA GIRLS at Yoshi's in Oakland

Aloha! We had quite the exciting Hula Girls DVD release celebration at Yoshi's
on the 7th of November. On tour on the mainland soil, Jake Shimabukuro was in town to play a two set show at the world-renown Jazz club.

One of the world’s top ukulele musicians, and the composer and performer for the soundtrack to HULA GIRLS (available in the US from Hitchhike Records), Jake Shimabukuro is known for his revolutionary playing techniques and category defying music; you name it, he has incorporated it in his style.

Thanks to Jake's generosity and his loyal fan-base, we were able to kick off our
DVD release on a very good note. If you are interested in hearing this phenomenal musician play, please visit www.jakeshimabukuro.com to catch him on his tour.

Nov. 7, 2007

VIZ Pictures licenses four live action films based on popular Shojo Beat Manga titles

VIZ Pictures has licensed the live action versions of four films based on popular titles released under VIZ Media’s SHOJO BEAT imprint. These include HONEY AND CLOVER, LOVE*COM THE MOVIE, NANA and NANA 2.

All films except NANA 2 will have special premiere screenings at the upcoming New York Anime Festival December 7-9, 2007. HONEY AND CLOVER will be released theatrically in select cities beginning in December. LOVE*COM THE MOVIE will be released straight to DVD in February 2008 and distributed by VIZ Media. NANA will be released theatrically in early 2008 and NANA 2 will have a theatrical release in the spring of 2008."

Nov.1, 2007

Destination: Tokyo Int'l Film Festival

Towards the end of this month VIZ Pictures will fly to Tokyo to visit the 20th Tokyo International Film Festival to scope out new talent in the industry. We are looking forward to viewing Japanese festival entries for possible licensing and future distribution in North America.

As the TIFF (Tokyo International Film Festival) is ranked 11th on the list of top film festivals, competition should be spirited. This year marks the festival's 20th anniversary; as the title trailer states, "The child of cinema has turned twenty," signifying the festival's coming of age. Make sure you visit here to check out all of the film entries sent to Tokyo from around the world!

Oct. 20-28, 2007

Gackt's North American Debut on DVD!

Unlike our usual features, Gackt's Filmography is a compilation of music videos featuring one of the biggest Japanese Visual Kei star. Outside of Japan, Gackt has a huge following for his affiliations with anime and games. As a cutting edge specimen of J-pop, VIZ Pictures is very excited to announce the release of the 2 DVDs; RED / BLUE on October 9th of 2007!

"The genre of J-rock and Visual Kei has become increasingly popular with anime fans across North America and we are honored to release these two DVD editions by one of the genre's most notable artist," says Seiji Horibuchi, President and CEO of VIZ Pictures. "The popularity of music drawn from anime and video game titles continues to grow and is an ideal vehicle to bridge cultural and language gaps. The delivery of an even wider range of J-pop culture through visual entertainment is our new challenge."

Oct. 9, 2007

Interview with Kaiju Shakedown

VIZ Pictures had the pleasure of engaging in an email interview with Grady Hendrix for Kaiju Shakedown, Variety Magazine's Asian film blog.

In this interview, we were able to speak of our motivations and goals as a film distributor in the U.S. Grady asked Manami Iiboshi, VIZ Pictures Director of Marketing, and Brian Ige, Director of Sales for VIZ Media, how we choose and distribute our films to theatres in North America, and how we aim to stand out from others in this competitive industry.

"We know the popular Japanese movie genres here are horror and violent or samurai/ninja action movies, and there are so many of those available in the market already, which is really great. But we want to explore something new, so we carefully choose movies which represent 'J-Pop' from our point of view, and that's our difference."
- Manami Iiboshi, Director of Marketing, VIZ Pictures

To read the whole blog, please visit here.

Death Note Live Action Licensed!

VIZ Pictures is proud to announce the licensing of DEATH NOTE and its sequel, DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME, from Nippon Television (NTV) for North American theatrical and DVD distribution. DEATH NOTE is based on the popular anime and manga series which have gained a massive following in Japan and North America. "Both films were smash hits in Japan upon their initial release, and the established popularity of the manga in the United States, combined with the highly anticipated debut of the anime series, will prime audiences for the excitement and tension that the live feature films bring to the story," said VIZ Pictures President and CEO Seiji Horibuchi. VIZ Pictures is looking forward to bringing you DEATH NOTE in theatres and on DVD as soon as possible. Stay tuned!

Future viewings:
*DEATH NOTE will screen at:
Nov. 1-4: Vancouver, BC, Vancouver Asian Film Festival
For show times and tickets, go to http://www.vaff.org/
*Note: This will only be a screening of DEATH NOTE

Sept. 18, 2007