July 4th’s Viz Media panel had a lot of fun announcements by the American subsidiary of Shogakukan-Shueisha. Most of them were manga related. The Way of the Househusband, about a former yakuza who tries to retire into the life of an ordinary househusband, has a lot of fans in the west thanks to fan translation, will have an official English release by Viz in September.
Transformers: The Manga will be available in English for the first time in Spring 2020, bringing its classic gen 1 stories and 80s art to the west.
Viz also announced a Persona 5 manga, a Junji Ito art book, a Kirby art book, and many more Spring 2020 releases. But what captivated me the most was the co-production between Viz Media and Powerhouse Animation Studios, creator of the Netflix Castlevania series, of a pulp action, kung fu, blaxploitation-themed martial arts anime called Seis Manos.
EXCLUSIVE first look our new @netflix original series, Seis Manos! Check out the giant poster at the @VIZMedia booth @licensingexpo in Vegas! #seismanos #licensingexpo2018 pic.twitter.com/yuKFxYfDuS
— Powerhouse Animation (@powerhouseanim) May 23, 2018
The project itself was announced earlier this year, but Anime Expo saw the first screening of a completed, fully animated scene. Showcasing the music, the atmosphere, the blood, and the impressive martial arts choreography, the short clip inspires confidence that Studio Powerhouse will bring the same level of quality to Viz’s first ever original animated series that it brought to the critically acclaimed Castlevania.
Viz welcomed popular anime YouTuber Joey the Anime Man to host a short Q&A with Powerhouse Animation Studios directors of both Castlevania and Seis Manos, but didn’t get much use out of him, in my opinion. After asking a few questions about Castlevania, Joey was mostly silent for the rest of the presentation and didn’t have much to say about Seis Manos at all.
Still, the animation spoke for itself and I am definitely looking forward to enjoying the show on Netflix sometime later this year.
