Barnes & Noble and VIZ Media Bring the Digital Manga Experience to NOOK Tablet™ and NOOK Color™

New York, New York – Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the leading retailer of digital media and educational products, today announced that it has teamed up with VIZ Media, LLC, the largest distributor and publisher of anime and manga in North America, to bring the digital manga (graphic novel) experience to NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color customers. Debuting in the NOOK Store™ today, VIZ Media’s collection includes 18 series, featuring 107 volumes, from its popular Shojo Beat, Shonen Sunday and VIZ Signature imprints. Volumes are available for purchase and fast download in the U.S. and Canadafor $4.99 - $9.99 (U.S. / CAN) each. New digital manga volumes, including previews, will be available weekly.

Viewing manga on NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color is authentic thanks to Barnes & Noble’s newly implemented technology that formats manga in its original right-to-left reading order. Read your favorite graphic novels on the award-winning NOOK 7-inch devices, which feature a full-color VividView™ touchscreen. NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color also give you access to the world’s largest digital bookstore, popular movies, TV shows, music and more through the top entertainment services, as well as a collection of high-quality apps, fast Web browsing and e-mail.

Over its 25 year history, VIZ Media has led the transformation of manga and anime from a niche category into a mass media phenomenon, telling stories that resonate with audiences and fans all over North America. The VIZ Media library includes global hits like BLACK BIRD, BLEACH, CROSS GAME, KEKKAISHI, NARUTO and VAMPIRE KNIGHT.

“NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color are ideal devices for our customers to enjoy manga in stunning high resolution color that virtually makes the action leap off the page,” said Theresa Horner, Vice President of Digital Content for Barnes & Noble. “We’re excited to work with VIZ Media to offer NOOK customers access to some of the most popular manga titles available in North America.”

“The Barnes & Noble team and VIZ Media have put together a fantastic manga reading experience by giving NOOK customers full control of their reading experience with the ability to pinch and zoom to dive into the tiniest details,” says Alvin Lu, Senior Vice President and General Manager of VIZ Media. “Barnes & Noble has been a major partner with VIZ Media for many years in growing the North American print manga market, and we’re very excited to expand our relationship to make our vast digital library of manga titles available to NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color customers. Over 100 volumes will be available at launch and we look forward to quickly expanding these selections to more than 500 in the coming months.”

The following manga titles are available today with many more coming:

Absolute Boyfriend Vols. 1-6 · Rated “T+” for Older Teens
Arata: The Legend Vols. 1-8 · Rated “T” for Teens
Backstage Prince Vols. 1 & 2 · Rated “T” for Teens
Beast Master Vols. 1-2 · Rated “T+” for Older Teens
Black Bird Vols. 1-11 · Rated “T+” for Older Teens
Children of the Sea Vols. 1-4 · Rated “T+” for Older Teens
Cross Game Vols. 1-4 · Rated “T” for Teens
Dengeki Daisy Vols. 1-7 · Rated “T+” for Older Teens
Fushigi Yugi: Genbu KaidEn Vols. 1-9 · Rated “T+” for Older Teens
House of Five Leaves Vols. 1-5 · Rated “T+” for Older Teens
Hyde & Closer Vols. 1-6 · Rated “T+” for Older Teens
I’ll Give It My All...Tomorrow Vols. 1-4 · Rated “T+” for Older Teens
Kekkaishi Vols. 1-19 · Rated “T” for Teens
Maoh: Juvenile remix Vols. 1-7 · Rated “T+” for Older Teens
not simple · Rated “T+” for Older Teens
Oishinbo Vols. 1-5 · Rated “T” for Teens
Saturn Apartments Vols. 1-4 · Rated “T” for Teens
Solanin · Rated “T+” for Older Teens
What A Wonderful World! Vols. 1 & 2 · Rated “T+” for Older Teens

For more information on VIZ Media manga titles, please visit www.VIZ.com.

For more information on NOOK, please visit www.nook.com.

To purchase VIZ Media manga titles for the NOOK Tablet and NOOK Color, please visit the NOOK Book Store.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS), the world’s largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 703 bookstores in 50 states. Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barnes & Noble, also operates 637 college bookstores serving over 4.6 million students and faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States. Barnes & Noble conducts its online business through BN.com (www.bn.com), one of the Web’s largest e-commerce sites, which also features more than two million titles in its NOOK Bookstore™ (www.bn.com/ebooks). Through Barnes & Noble’s NOOK™ eReading product offering, customers can buy and read digital books and content on the widest range of platforms, including NOOK devices, partner company products, and the most popular mobile and computing devices using free NOOK software.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company’s corporate website: www.barnesandnobleinc.com.


About VIZ Media, LLC
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, VIZ Media distributes, markets and licenses the best anime and manga titles direct from Japan. Owned by three of Japan’s largest manga and animation companies, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., VIZ Media has the most extensive library of anime and manga for English speaking audiences in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland and South Africa. With its popular monthly manga anthology SHONEN JUMP magazine and blockbuster properties like NARUTO, BLEACH and INUYASHA, VIZ Media offers cutting-edge action, romance and family friendly properties for anime, manga, science fiction and fantasy fans of all ages. VIZ Media properties are available as graphic novels, DVDs, animated television series, feature films, downloadable and streaming video and a variety of consumer products. Learn more about VIZ Media, anime and manga at www.VIZ.com.