American releases of manga in English are notoriously far behind their Japanese counter part, which is probably the leading reason behind manga piracy in America (why wait and pay when you can download it for free the same time the Japanese are reading it?). It is a sad but true fact for most manga, as often series are picked up well after they’ve release a fair amount of chapters in their home country. Of course, one of the ways to combat that and please fans is to release English translations of manga in America at roughly the same time the tankoubon (Japanese collections of manga) are released in Japan. The problem most companies attempting to do this face is…that can be a lot of expensive manga collections coming out in a short period of time just to catch up with Japan; something many fans can’t afford to keep up with. However, with certain series Viz has proved the concept will work. In the past Viz sped up the release of its Naruto manga, putting out 3 volumes a month, to catch up with its Japanese tankoubon releases. Viz has also started translating and releasing chapters of series like Naruto and Bleach digitally through their Shonen Jump Alpha anthology at roughly the same time the chapters are released in Japan. This gives many fans less of an excuse for piracy and more of a reason to support the industry that is supporting their favorite foreign comics. So once more Viz is looking to execute this idea on a popular manga series, just in time to see the comic series enter it’s climactic storyline.

Bleach currently has 55 volumes released in Japan, well beyond the current physical releases in America (though they are up there digitally through their Shonen Jump Digital Warp program). Prior to June 5th, American releases of Bleach from Viz only went up to volume 39. However, now Viz intends to release 2 volumes a month of Bleach through the rest of the year, with volumes 40 & 41 having already hit stores back on June 5th. The plan is to keep this up through December 4th, when Viz releases volumes 52 & 53 of Bleach. Unfortunately for Viz and their attempt to catch up, Bleach is only a few chapters away from forming their 56th volume in Japan, and will likely be around volume 59 by the time Viz actually catches up. Considering that Bleach is in its final story arc, this could be a photo finish for Viz synchronizing physical releases, though I suppose that is why Shonen Jump Alpha is keeping up digitally.  The next two volumes of Bleach in the US are set to come out July 3rd, with 2 more on August 7th, an additional 2 on September 4th, etc. Of course, if you’re all caught up on your Bleach manga reading, perhaps you’d be interested in Tite Kubo’s first manga series, Zombie Powder. Zombie Powder, which has many aspects that were carried over into Bleach,is now available on VIZ Manga, where you can purchase and read digitally right now.