Viz Pictures, an affiliate of Viz Media, has announced that it has become the owner of a 150-seat art house theater that will open in Japantown in San Francisco in the winter of 2008-2009.  The theater, which will specialize in showing Japanese live action films and anime, will be the main attraction in a multi-boutique commercial building that will be known as the J-Pop Center, and which will also include a Kinokuniya bookstore and branch outlets for several hip Tokyo-based fashion boutiques.  The J-Pop center is likely to be a key sightseeing destination in picturesque and attraction-filled San Francisco.

The new theater will feature both film and digital projection systems as well as state-of-the-art THX sound.  Viz Pictures has invested in this theatrical venture in order to have a flagship venue in which it can launch its high quality live action imports from Japan, which so far have included films like The Taste of Tea, Hula Girls, Kamikaze Girls, Train Man, and Linda Linda Linda.