Broken Frontier

VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry's most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation and licensing companies, announced at the 2007 Licensing International Expo that Bandai America, Incorporated has been named as the toy licensee for products based on BLUE DRAGON™, a highly anticipated new anime series based on the popular Microsoft Xbox 360 Role Playing Game. Earlier this year, VIZ Media was named the master licensor for the television, home video and non-video game merchandising rights for BLUE DRAGON by a consortium including TV TOKYO Corporation and Shueisha Inc, for the Americas, Europe and Oceania.

The Xbox 360 game “BLUE DRAGON” was developed by Hironobu Sakaguchi (the creator of Final Fantasy) and also features character designs by Akira Toriyama, the creator of the best-selling DRAGON BALL series of manga (which is published in North America by VIZ Media and also featured in SHONEN JUMP Magazine). The BLUE DRAGON anime series had an enthusiastic debut in Japan on TV Tokyo on April 7, 2007 and is produced by Studio Pierrot, which is well known for its work on NARUTO™ and BLEACH™, also licensed by VIZ Media. The BLUE DRAGON video game has already established itself in Japan as one of Microsoft’s hottest releases in the RPG category and will be released in North America and Europe in August 2007.

“Bandai America will bring its extensive design and manufacturing resources to bear to develop an exciting and must-have line of toys and products to support BLUE DRAGON,” states Shodo Omatsu, President & COO, Bandai America Incorporated. “This property extends the most exciting attributes of video gaming and anime and represents a wide range of possibilities for the development of products designed for fans of all ages. We look forward to working with VIZ Media to make BLUE DRAGON a success.”

The BLUE DRAGON anime series is a classic adventure story of magical Shadow powers, flying air fortresses, and unbounded heroism. Brought together by fate, Seven Soldiers of Light must awaken the Shadow within themselves in time to overcome a despotic power and bring peace to their land. Their ensuing journey through a rich fantasy world is also an internal journey to awaken the great power within each of them. Journey with them into the world of BLUE DRAGON!

“Bandai America is an innovative company with a proven legacy of introducing high quality and unique Japanese anime toys and related products to the North American market, and they will play a critical role in our business strategy for BLUE DRAGON,” sates Linda Espinosa, Vice President, Content Management, VIZ Media “We expect gamers as well as legions of manga and anime fans of all stripes to respond enthusiastically to BLUE DRAGON’s action-packed story of overcoming conflicts through adventure and friendship.”