The first volume of Rumiko Takahashi’s Rin-ne manga will debut in the U.S. from Viz Media on October 20th simultaneously with its release in Japan, the first manga ever to be released in this way.  The American market has been a focus of the release strategy since the manga first began appearing in Shogakukan’s Weekly Shonen Sunday anthology earlier this year; it was released on the Web in English simultaneously with its print release in Japan (see “New Takahashi Manga To Debut on Web”). 

Shortening windows between Japanese and American release has been a feature of the anime business for a number of years, culminating in simultaneous Web release here with broadcast in Japan, which began in earnest last year; now it has come to print as well.

Viz is using the release of the new Takahashi manga to launch its new Shonen Sunday imprint (see “Takahashi Debuts Shonen Sunday”).  Takahashi has sold over 170 million manga volumes in Japan alone.