Viz Media, LLC has announced a master licensing agreement with Bandai America for trading card games based on Viz Media's hit series Shonen Jump's Naruto.  The licensing agreement covers North America and also includes Naruto videogames on Sony-based platforms.  The Naruto manga series (published by Viz Media) is rated the #4 manga property in the U.S. in the soon-to-be-published ICv2's Retailers Guide to Anime/Manga #11, and the Naruto anime series (already a huge hit with the fansub community) debuts on the Cartoon Network this fall.  Naruto is one of the most popular manga and anime properties in Japan where over 50 million total copies of the manga have been sold and the anime series has remained in the top five in TV ratings through more than 130 episodes.

Bandai will release the Naruto Trading Card Game in the spring of 2006.  While there are lots of anime-based TCGs out now and more planned for the coming months, Naruto is already a very strong property and TV exposure could push it to the next level.  If Naruto DVDs hit the market in early 2006 or before, it could become the breakout property in 2006 in much the same way that Full Metal Alchemist has established it self as the major 'hit' of 2005.