Shueisha also permitted Udon Entertainment to license The Rose of Versailles, Seven Seas Entertainment to license Hayate X Blade and will later permit Seven Seas Entertainment to license Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs and Super H圎ros, and permitted Tokyopop to license Kodocha, Marmalade Boy and Digimon Next and Manga Planet to license Silver Fang -The Shooting Star Gin- and will allow Kodansha USA to license the Battle Angel Alita manga in America. Some exceptions to this exclusivity exist, however: Shueisha permitted DC Comics's subsidiary CMX Manga to license Tenjho Tenge (although it was later re-licensed and re-released by Viz Media) and Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne, permitted Dark Horse Comics to license Gantz, Lady Snowblood, Shadow Lady, The Monkey King, and recently Yasuhiro Nightow's Blood Blockade Battlefront and CLAMP's Gate 7. Shueisha's deal with Viz may have been prompted by competition with Raijin Comics, a rival manga publisher created in 2002 by editors and artists who had split off from Shueisha, taking their properties with them. When Shueisha became a joint owner of Viz Media in 2002, both Shogakukan and Shueisha began to release manga exclusively through Viz. Shueisha co-ownership and mergers: 2000 to present In the late 1990s, VIZ began making the push to move into the European and South American markets. It also acquired another huge selling title, Inuyasha. The company continued to see success when it expanded into the anime distribution market, began publishing Shonen Jump, an English adaptation of the popular Japanese magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump. Sales also picked up when VIZ Communications acquired the license for the comedy series Ranma ½, which became an instant hit.

The plan worked, and after several years, leading booksellers began to have dedicated shelves for manga titles. Into these titles, Horibuchi began publishing manga, calling them graphic novels so they would be carried by mainstream bookstores. To counteract this problem, VIZ expanded into the general publishing business and began publishing various art related books in 1992.

VIZ Communications released its first titles in 1987, which included Legend of Kamui however, sales were mediocre due to the specialist comic market being averse to venturing into new territory.

The exterior of Viz Media's former headquarters in San Francisco, California.

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