Almost a year ago Cartoon Network launched Toonami Jetstream, a website where you could watch certain anime titles for free. The problem was that you could only view them using a Windows computer.

Starting today, though, Cartoon Network has changed the format and now viewers from all platforms and watch anime on the web. Awesome! Current titles include Naruto and Hikaru No Go, both of which I recommend.

Congrats Cartoon Network, on being inclusive rather than exclusive. You’ve even added the ability to embed video from your site to ours. Awesome.

Fast forward to this past week. VIZ Media has just officially launched its blog which is called, cleverly, VIZBlog. There’s not much there yet, but it’s pretty funny stuff. Very informal. I love Urian Brown’s Godzilla post!

I’m really happy they’ve built out this blog but, and I hope my co-workers who worked on this really hard don’t take it personally, it’s going to have problems going forward. Comments look like a disaster (they’re published inline!), the template has most irritating Flash (automatic turn off for most blog readers) and the scaling and layout is, frankly, awkward. That being said I believe this is still a work in progress so I will go talk to a few people and at least give some feedback. They could also make it a little more obvious from the front page on how to get to the blog.

And regardless, if you’re a fan of manga, anime and particularly VIZ Media, check it out regularly!

(Disclosure: I am currently an employee of VIZ Media.)

He also spoke tonight at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum for the Marvel of Manga exhibition opening featuring manga legend Osamu Tezuka who created Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. He also created one of the most interesting twists on a Hitler theme, Adolf.

Congrats, Jason!

I am curious who the “hosts” are (there are only pictures, no bios?). There are a LOT of categories and too many titles I had never heard of. I guess I’m not nearly the anime fan everyone thinks I am. *wink*

If you’re an anime fan go and vote. At the first link you can find the vote link. I know it’s a niche market and even if you’re a fan there is far too much to be truly edumacated on the subject, but it’s a great service to/from the fans and the people who bring anime (legally) to the American markets.

(Disclaimer: I work for VIZ Media and we have several titles up for awards. Don’t let this color your choices!)

The article really seems to focus on ADV which I found interesting since I’m quite new to the scene. Now I’m working for one of the largest distributors and licensers of this Japanese Invasion, VIZ Media, I should get some perspective on who else is out there, what they are doing, and how it all fits together.

I’ve started a new category here on the site for things like this, plus random Japanese language lessons, observations and thoughts. It seems easier than trying to figure out where to put this particular story in the existing goliath framework.