Viz Media has announced an agreement with IGN's Direct2Drive digital retail store that will make the Death Note anime series available via digital download (see 'Viz Gets Death Note Download Rights') of a subtitled version starting on May 10th. The Death Note anime, which is based on the hugely popular Death Note manga, is one of the hottest anime series in Japan (see 'Death Note Goes Global'), and this will mark the first time that a well known anime will be available (legally) to North American audiences at the same time that it is still airing in Japan.
Although Viz Media has made some of its titles available for free downloads via the Toonami Jetstream Website (see 'Viz and Cartoon Network Stream Together'), this is the first time the company has offered digital downloads for a fee, and Daniel Marks, Viz Media's Vice President, Strategy and Business Development, sees selling downloads as 'an important extension of our video business.'
Death Note is an extremely high profile property, and the sale of downloads will definitely reduce illegal downloading. Of greater interest to the trade is whether it ends up having an impact on DVD sales, which are coming later (see 'Death Note DVDs Later').
A number of other
