Viz announces simultaneous release for new Takahashi manga, Rin-ne

At the New York Comic Con this past February, North American manga distributor Viz announced their license of "Rumiko Takahashi's new manga." At that time, the manga was not even titled, but was sure to find widespread popularity thanks to the preeminent status of its bestselling female author (creator of Inu Yasha and Ranma 1/2). Now, Viz has announced that the series, titled Kyokai no Rinne (or just Rin-ne), will see a simultaneous release in Japan and America when it hits Japanese shelves on the pages of Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine on April 22.

Here in the States, fans will be able to catch the first chapter of Takahashi's newest boy-meets-girl-hilarity-ensues manga on the new English-language home of Takahashi's works: TheRumicWorld.com. This strategy mirrors Viz's recent attempts to cut off the popularity of Naruto fansubbers by streaming the hit anime on the ad-supported Naruto.com. That strategy was seen by some as a noble yet flawed attempt to popularize streaming, simulcast anime, but it did indeed help to pave the way for FUNimation's similar release strategy for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

But Rin-ne's simultaneous release is not only significant because of its parallels to simulcasted anime. It also represents the first time (as far as I recall) that a manga publisher here in the United States has actively sought to translate a title before it has been released in Japan. This joint creation-translation method could be a new paradigm for an industry that fears a decline similar to the one seen in the anime industry in 2008. Let's just hope that their translators can keep up with that insane week-by-week manga schedule!

[via ICv2]