Death Note Anime from Viz

Viz Media, the publishers of the Death Note manga for North America will soon offer the Death Note anime series available for download to rent or own. The company has made a deal with Nippon Television Network to provide episodes of the anime shortly after they're aired on Japanese tv.

No information has yet been released about the prices of downloads, but the plan will probably be very successful. There has never been a deal like this, where American audiences can legally download episodes so soon after their original airing.

Death Note is one of the best-selling manga in Japan, and is becoming super-hot in America (especially here at Star Clipper). The deal will probably have a wide appeal to fans of the series, many of whom are "tech savvy" as Viz's press release points out.

Depending on the success of this arrangement, audiences can probably expect to see more web-based agreements between American distributors and Japanese companies in the future. Maybe soon it will be standard for popular anime series to be readily available to domestic audiences.

-Elizabeth