Viz on Pokemon success/upcoming plans, Yo-Kai Watch doing well, Zelda Legendary Editions

A portion of a ICV2 interview with Beth Kawasaki, Senior Editorial Director at VIZ Media...

ICV2: What are the big VIZ kids hits over the last six months or so?

BK: Pokemon continues to amaze us. It’s Pokemon’s 20th anniversary as a brand (see “Super Bowl 50 Spot Kicks Off 'Pokemon' 20th”). We have been with Pokemon that whole time, so we have a lot of things planned with that, the continuing manga line. We’ve been doing a series of Pocket Comics. We have a boxed set of the first two volumes that are going to come out in October. And a third volume of the series that focuses on the XY arc, that’s going to come out in December.

ICV2: Are there any specific 20th Anniversary Pokemon products coming out?

BK: We are going to do some stuff at San Diego Comic-Con, so we’re super excited and honored that the artist and writer for the Pokemon Adventure series are going to come as official guests of the Con and make their first appearance at a North American convention. We’ll be releasing details on that. There will be a panel, we’ll do an autograph signing, and we’re looking at doing exclusive items for sale. One of them will be tied into the exclusivity that you were talking about.

ICV2: What other properties are doing well?

BK: We’ve had great success with Yo-kai Watch. We thought it would do well, but it’s really gone above expectations. We’ve seen a lot of support in all channels for that property. It’s a video game for Nintendo, and the animated series is airing here in the States on Disney XD. We have seen a lot of pick-up on that across all channels. We’re seeing a lot of support through our regular retail channels, as well as Diamond has been supporting it (we’ve seen some reorders there), and with Scholastic also, so we’re really getting a nice reach with that property. There was some placement at Walmart when we launched the property.

ICV2: What is the product pipeline on Yo-kai Watch for the rest of the year?

BK: We’ve announced through volume 5 and then beyond that, we’re working to see if there is some additional content that we can secure. There are some more volumes that have come out in Japan, so that is under discussion.

ICV2: You’re doing some new packages of The Legend of Zelda: Legendary Editions this year, right?

BK: We are. We’re doing some more deluxe two-in-one editions of that, which have some extra material. There’s a color art piece in there, in addition to some pages that are being colored by the artist that were not colored before. They’ve gone back and colored about 16 pages for each volume. That was originally a 10-volume series and it will be collected into five volumes. It’ll be a bigger size, nicer paper stock. We’re really looking forward to it. Kids may buy it as well, but we think that will reach a little more into the adult audience.