VIZ to Ramp Up Naruto Manga & Anime Releases in '09

After the success of 2007's Naruto Nation promo which greatly accelerated the releases of the Naruto manga, VIZ Media announced today that they'll be doing it once more -- this time with an exciting twist for 2009. Beginning on January 15, 2009, VIZ will be offering English-subtitled episodes of the latest episodes of Naruto anime series on Naruto.com, within days of its airdate on Japanese TV. New subtitled episodes will be available every Thursday thereafter.

In addition to that bit of joy, VIZ also announced that beginning on January 2, eight uncut subtitled episodes will be added every Friday, until the current episodes that American fans have been seeing to date catch up with their Japanese episodes. And did we mention that it's free? Pretty sweet.

This accelerated release schedule applies to manga releases as well. Beginning in February 2009, 11 volumes of Naruto will be released over three months, beginning with Volume 34 and ending with Volume 45 in July 2009. The volumes released in March and April will include bonus goodies like stickers or bookmarks.

The Naruto Shippuden saga refers to a turning point in the series when our favorite headstrong teen ninja returns to Konoha Village two and a half years after Sasuke joined up with Orochimaru, and Naruto traveled and trained with Jiraya. While crippled after his battle with the Third Hokage, Orochimaru is still a force to be reckoned with, as the Akatsuki, a mysterious organization of rogue ninjas who have Gaara and Naruto in their crosshairs.

Check out Naruto.com this week for a sneak peek at these exciting new episodes, and here's hoping that this bold move inspires other manga and anime publishers to bring their releases faster, sooner and more often.

Image credit: © 2002 Masashi Kishimoto, 2007 Shippuden