VIZ Media

VIZ Media, LLC, headquartered in, , 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.

The company is currently jointly-owned by Japanese publishers and, and licensing house  (ShoPro), a Shogakukan subsidiary.

Summary
In the past, Viz has produced several manga related magazines including Animerica; the English version of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump (shōnen manga), and a shōjo manga monthly called Shojo Beat.

It also 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 (see, josei).

Since then, the company now offers an integrated digital product line of Weekly Shonen Jump and graphic novels, while continueing to license and distribute physical copies of manga and anime.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
VIZ Media produces and distributes the English localization of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga and as of Feburary 2015, has been named the North American master merchandise licensee for the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series. The company oversees the licensing and development of a comprehensive range of products based on the celebrated supernatural/action/adventure anime property across several key consumer categories.

Initial Skipping of Parts
The third part, "Stardust Crusaders" was initially published by Viz in its entirety starting in 2005. It was originally released every other month, however possible low sales forced the company to cut it down to a quarterly release schedule, which pushed its conclusion to December 2010.

One interesting aspect of Viz's initial release of the series was that the first two parts, Phantom Blood, and Battle Tendency, equating to volumes 1-12 of the original Japanese publication were skipped. To compensate for the lack of story material explaining the events of those volumes, Viz put together a special chapter, adding different panels from Part 1 along with a an explanation of Part 1 to the beginning of the first volume, as well as taking the final chapter of volume 12 and adding it to the Japanese volume 13 to make the US volume 1.

Due to this skipping of Parts, Viz initially presented Stardust Crusaders as simply "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure" acting as if the Japanese volume 13 was the official start of the manga and labeling it "Volume 1". This remained the norm in America for Jojo, continuing until the series eventually went out of print and official US Volumes became semi-rare. In May 2014, Viz announced that Stardust Crusaders would be receiving a reprint to coincide with the anime release at the time.

JoJonium
On June 9, 2014, VIZ announced that it would publish the first two parts of the series using the hardcover Jojonium editions from Japan. Starting in Late 2014, the localized volumes were released on Viz's website, starting with Part 1: Phantom Blood. The release consisted of a digital-first platform with the print editions to follow in 2015. The covers of the previously announced reprints of Stardust Crusaders now include the subtitle "Part 3 - Stardust Crusaders" on the cover, restoring that portion of the story to its proper chronological place.

Anime
As of April 2016, VIZ currently streams the entirety of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable on it's digital anime service. At Anime Expo 2016, the company confirmed release of all current seasons, starting with Part 1 (Phantom Blood) on Blu-ray Disc.

Censorship
In the original Stardust Crusaders release, a few scenes involving animal death were changed. In the Yellow Temperance fight, a panel in which a dog lost its head was changed so that, while the dog still died, it wasn't as bloody. In the Death Thirteen fight, the death of another dog was changed in which, instead of a dog, it was a rat.

In order to avoid lawsuits, some of the character's names were changed in the localization. Some by alternating part of their names while others were completely changed. Characters names who were changed include:

Part 1

 * Tarkus = Tarukus
 * Bruford = Blueford
 * Page, Jones, Plant and Bornnam = Pajyu, Jones, Pluton, and Barnum

Part 2

 * Donovan = Donobang
 * Santana = Santviento
 * Loggins = Loggs
 * Messina = Meshina

Part 3

 * Enya the Hag = Enyaba
 * Devo = Soul Sacrifice
 * J. Geil = Centerfold
 * Steely Dan = Rubber Soul, Dan of Steel (JoJonium release)
 * Oingo = Zenyatta
 * Boingo = Mondatta