VIZ Media Partners With Rooster Teeth For RWBY Global Publishing Development

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), a premier company in the fields of publishing, animation distribution, and global entertainment licensing, has announced a partnership with Rooster Teeth, the Austin, TX-based entertainment and media company behind the globally acclaimed animated series RWBY, the first western anime series to be distributed to Japan. VIZ Media and Rooster Teeth will focus on a variety of publishing formats based on RWBY, starting in 2017.

RWBY is Rooster Teeth’s award-winning anime series that tells the story of four different girls brought together for one legendary purpose. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang are students at Beacon Academy, an ancient school designed to train the monster-slayers knows as Hunters and Huntresses. Unfortunately, monsters aren’t the only threat in the world of Remnant, and if these girls want to graduate, they’ll have to learn to work together – both on the battlefield and in the classroom.

“The Rooster Teeth-VIZ Media partnership will showcase the strong creative vision and production expertise between our two entertainment companies to expand the vivid and exciting world of RWBY globally in bold new ways that fans will love,” says Beth Kawasaki, Senior Editorial Director for VIZ Media.

“Through the new RWBY titles, readers will discover more about the RWBY universe and delve deeper into the characters and storylines they love, as well as go on all new adventures,” said Rooster Teeth Head of Animation Gray G. Haddock. “We are thrilled to be working with VIZ Media to bring such beautiful books to RWBY’s audience.”

Rooster Teeth has one of the most active and engaged fan bases in the world and possesses a massive global footprint of more than 25 million subscribers to its YouTube network, and more than 3 million unique monthly visitors to RoosterTeeth.com and 1.8 million registered community members. Rooster Teeth is a subsidiary of Fullscreen, Inc., a global youth media company that develops online creators and produces multi-platform entertainment experiences.

For additional information manga titles distributed and published by VIZ Media, please visit www.VIZ.com.

BLEACH Anime Series Available On Blu-Ray For The First Time From VIZ Media

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), a premier company in the field of publishing, animation distribution, and global entertainment licensing, unleashes the tense anime action drama of BLEACH on Blu-ray for the first time with the home media release of Set 1. Now available, BLEACH Set 1 presents the complete, uncut first 27 episodes of the popular series on 4 Blu-ray discs, and carries an MSRP of $54.97 U.S. / $63.99 CAN. Episodes are available with dialogue selections for dubbed English as well as subtitled, Japanese 2.0 audio, with episodes presented in their original 4:3 format.

In the BLEACH anime series, for as long as he can remember, Ichigo Kurosaki has been able to see ghosts. But when he meets Rukia, a Soul Reaper who battles evil spirits known as Hollows, his life is changed forever. Now, with a newfound wealth of spiritual energy, Ichigo discovers his true calling – to protect the world of the living and the dead as a Substitute Soul Reaper. When Rukia is taken away to face the ruthless justice of the Soul Society, Ichigo and his friends must cross over and do battle in the spirit world...

“Fans have eagerly anticipated the release of BLEACH on Blu-ray, and this summer we invite them to expand their personal anime collections with the release of the first set of this riveting series,” says Charlene Ingram, Senior Marketing Manager, Animation.

The BLEACH animated films and TV series (distributed in North America by VIZ Media, rated ‘TV-14’) are based on a smash hit manga series created by Tite Kubo (also published in North America by VIZ Media, rated ‘T’ for Teens).

For more information on BLEACH manga and anime titles published by VIZ Media, please visit www.viz.com.

Viz Media Partners With Tubi TV

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), a premier company in the fields of publishing, animation distribution, and global entertainment licensing, has announced a partnership with Tubi TV, a leading provider of free movies and TV shows, to stream some of VIZ Media’s most popular anime titles to audiences across North America, including to legions of viewers based in Canada. Based in San Francisco, CA, Tubi TV is the largest North American ad-supported provider of free streamed movies and TV shows. In addition to its own website (Tubitv.com), the Tubi TV app is Naruto-sm-WCopyaccessible from platforms including Apple TV, Xbox One & Xbox 360, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Samsung televisions – in addition to iOS and Android mobile devices.

All VIZ Media content on Tubi TV is presented with original Japanese dialogue and features English subtitles. DEATH NOTE (37 episodes) as well as the full original NARUTO series (220 episodes) are now available for streaming in the U.S. and Canada on Tubi TV. In addition, fans in Canada may now catch the entire classic SAILOR MOON series (200 episodes) and Seasons 1 and 2 of SAILOR MOON CRYSTAL (26 episodes). Additional VIZ Media anime series and episodes will be added regularly. Please visit Tubitv.com or download the app for more details and to access the free episodes.

“VIZ Media has incredibly popular anime series and we are thrilled to stream these blockbusters for free to our passionate anime fans,” said Farhad Massoudi, CEO, Tubi TV.

“Tubi TV has built an extremely robust and interoperable platform that offers audiences a compelling alternative to traditional, paid content streaming services and we are very happy to partner with the service to give anime fans a whole new way to access some of the genre’s most legendary titles,” says Brian Ige, VIZ Media Vice President of Animation.

For additional information on these as well as other anime and manga titles distributed and published by VIZ Media, please visit www.VIZ.com.

Review: Assassination Classroom S.2, E.17

Assassination Classroom is in its final season and all Koro-sensei's secrets have finally been revealed. Episode 17 titled "Discord time" addresses the divide that emerges in the class between the students, after discovering that the assassination of their teacher isn't as straightforward as it first appeared to be. The students realise that Koro-sensei's demise is inevitable (or at least half of the class believe it to be so) but fail to come up with any assassination plans before returning to school for the last term. However, on the day of their arrival Nagisa being the dark horse and nonconformist he is, suggests to the class that they should attempt to save Koro-sensei instead. Almost immediately some of his classmates agree, while the rest choose to kill Koro-sensei, as it's what they have been training for. For the first time ever, Karma and Nagisa are in opposition to one another and Karma's inferiority complex begins to rear its ugly head. While it did not seem conspicuous before, it is made Assassination Classroom s2apparent in this episode that Karma views (and has possibly always viewed) Nagisa as a rival. Nagisa has constantly been praised for having a knack for assassination by peers, teachers and even opponents, which may have slightly fuelled Karma's sense of inadequacy.

As a result two camps form: one for killing and another against killing, with Karma and Nagisa leading the two groups. Before the episode draws to a close we see each camp slowly get whittled down to the two most gifted main leads: Karma and Nagisa. Naturally, in order to keep us in suspense and eagerly awaiting the next episode, the episode ends with what appears to be a showdown between the two leaders.

Anyone care to bet who will emerge victorious from this upcoming battle?

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Assassination Classroom S.2, E.17

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