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VIZ Media is promising a new “phase of global expansion” as it’s changing the people in charge of the company — and promoting a former Warner Bros. and Mattel executive to lead things forward as it looks to continue to broaden its appeal and win over new fans.

Current CEO Ken Sasaki will be stepping aside — but staying with the company — as former COO Brad Woods takes on the role, according to a new release from the manga and anime giant.

Sasaki, who has spent the last 13 years in the CEO role at the company, will transition into becoming VIZ’s chairman and executive advisor, with the company saying that he “continues to shape the company’s strategic direction as it enters its next phase of global expansion.” His transition into an advisory role mirrors what happened with Sasaki’s predecessor, Hidemi Fukuhara, who took on the position of vice president when Sasaki stepped into the leadership role.

The aforementioned global expansion will be led by new CEO Brad Woods, who has previously served as chief operating officer and EVP of VIZ for the past decade; as such, he was responsible for sales and marketing at the company, as well as PR and business development — meaning that he’s intimately aware with the substantial growth that the company has undergone in the past few years. However, it’s worth looking at his background before VIZ; he’s worked as a brand manager and in charge of global grand licensing at Mattel, Warner Bros., and DreamWorks Animation, suggesting the level of success VIZ is targeting in the near future.

That’s something arguably borne out by Woods’ quote in the press announcement, which opens with him setting the stage for the scope of what’s to come. “Anime and manga are no longer niche—they are global cultural forces shaping entertainment, fashion, gaming, and beyond,” he’s quoted as saying. “With VIZ Media’s unparalleled catalog and commitment to innovation, we are poised to reach broader audiences and set new industry standards. I’m honored to lead VIZ into this next chapter.”

Woods' bullishness is perhaps earned; during his time with the company, VIZ has almost tripled its revenue as the demand for manga and anime has exploded internationally, as it moved from primarily licensing content from external publishers and partners to creating new anime and manga itself. Additionally, VIZ has pushed into new markets globally, leading to a substantial increase in licensing revenue... all the while creating partnerships with companies including Marvel, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Netflix. 

VIZ Media was founded as Viz Communications in California in the mid-1980s as a manga publisher, before spending much of the 1990s as a general interest publisher specializing in Japanese culture; as the manga audience grew, the company returned to its roots, including distributing an English language version of Shonen Jump throughout the US. Japanese publisher Shueisha became a co-owner of the company in 2002, and three years later, ShoPro Entertainment — an American subsidiary of Japanese publisher Shogakukan — merged with Viz Communications, creating VIZ Media as it exists today. The company remains the largest publisher of manga in the United States. If anyone is reading or watching manga or anime, chances are, they're familiar with a VIZ project, from One Piece and Chainsaw Man to Naruto, Jujutsu Kaisen, and many, many more. The idea of this company attempting a global expansion feels very, very possible indeed.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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• 40 years after its debut, Dragon Ball is a pop culture force like few others
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• Gnosia, the "Among Us meets Everything Everywhere All at Once" visual novel is getting an anime adaptation that needs to be as weird as possible
• Assassination Classroom is a Shonen anime well worth revisiting, ten years on
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