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Viz Media to Release JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 1 on Blu-ray Disc
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Anime News Network's Anime Expo 2016 news coverage sponsored by Yen Press.
Viz Media announced at a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure panel at Anime Expo on Friday that it will release Part 1 (Phantom Blood) of the new JoJo's Bizarre Adventure television anime series on Blu-ray Disc. The company confirmed that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, who released Parts 1 and 2 in a DVD set, still holds the DVD rights to the series.
Viz Media also confirmed that the Blu-ray Disc release will include an English dub featuring Patrick Seitz as Dio, but didn't confirm if the company is redubbing the series or if it is using Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's dub (Seitz voiced Dio in the Warner dub).
Viz Media had announced in March that it would stream JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Parts 1, 2, and 3, as well as the the ongoing Part 4 anime series. The company had also announced in February 2015 that it was the North American master merchandise licensee for the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime series, but clarified at the time that the license agreement covered the merchandise based on the anime, not the anime itself.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment released Parts 1 and 2 of the series on DVD with an English dub on September 22.
Viz Media also revealed at the panel that it will release JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga creator Hirohiko Araki's How to Create Manga (Araki Hirohiko no Manga Jutsu) book in English for US$19.99. The company did not reveal a date.
The book features Araki's techniques for drawing manga and his trade secrets. Araki has said before that manga is the "strongest work of art," and the book provides concrete explanations on his methodology while also giving advice such as to study the story creation process of Ernest Hemingway.
The book contains seven chapters starting with "How to Draw an Introduction," and continues with chapters about creating a story, creating characters, what a "worldview" is in manga, and a final chapter titled "Tying Together the Theme of All the Parts." The book also contains two practice chapters titled "Until You Can Do Manga" and "How to Draw a Short Story." The book shipped in Japan in April 2015.
