VIZ Media
VIZ Media, LLC, headquartered in San Francisco, California, is a major American anime, manga and Japanese entertainment company formed by the merger of VIZ, LLC, and ShoPro Entertainment. The company is commonly referred to as "Viz", the same name used in previous incarnations of VIZ LLC.
Viz also produces a manga and anime review magazine, Animerica; as well as an English language version of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump (shōnen manga) magazine, and a shōjo manga monthly called Shojo Beat.
It formerly published Animerica Extra, a monthly manga anthology (which was converted to shōjo partway through its run), and PULP magazine, an adult-oriented monthly manga anthology that featured story lines inappropriate for younger readers, though not pornography (see seinen, josei).
It is jointly-owned by Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha, and licensing house Shogakukan Productions (ShoPro), a Shogakukan subsidiary.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Viz is the one that produces the English JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga.
This Viz edition is known for having three main changes done to the manga. One being the art alteration one being the changes in some characters names, and the last being the skip in parts.
Art Changes
As JoJo is known for it's graphic violence, Viz changed a few scenes. While most of the art was kept, a few scenes involving animal death was changed. In the Yellow Temperance fight, a panel in which a dog lost it's head was changed so that, while the dog still died, it wasn't as bloody. In the Death 13 fight, the death of another dog was changed in which, instead of a dog, it was a rat.
Names Changes
In order to avoid lawsuits, Viz changed the names of some characters. Some by alternating part of their names while others were completely changed.
Characters names who were changed include:
- Enya Geil=Enyaba Geil
- Devo=Soul Sacrifice
- Steely Dan=Rubber Soul
- Oingo=Zenyatta
- Boingo=Mondatta
Part Skips
The third arc is currently being published by Viz. The first two parts were skipped, possibly because Part 3 is the most popular part in the series. Viz released a special chapter, adding different panels from Part 1 as well as an explanation of Part 1.
Originally released every other month, possible low sales forced the company to cut it down to a quarterly release schedule, which pushed its conclusion to December 2010.
