Manga and anime powerhouse VIZ Media, LLC and Manila, Philippines-based entrepreneur Bernard Chong have invested $600,000 at a $2 million valuation in anime and manga recommendation and social platform Kitsu (formerly Hummingbird), the companies announced Wednesday.  VIZ Vice President of Business Development Rob Pereyda led the deal at VIZ and will serve as Senior Advisor to Kitsu; VIZ Chief Marketing Officer Brad Woods and Chong will join the Kitsu board.

Josh Fabian, Kitsu founder and CEO, was previously Lead Designer, Groupon Stores.

The Kitsu platform is being rewritten to recommend content users will enjoy, using one-to-one, show-to-show recommendation pairings (what we’d call "if you like..." recommendations), as well as taste-based content cohorts (interest clusters).  The Kitsu platform will remain open-source, according to the announcement.