VIZ MEDIA ANNOUNCES A NEW AUDIOBOOK RELEASE OF THE HIT SCI-FI ACTION THRILLER
ALL YOU NEED IS KILL

Acclaimed Novel Now In Production As A Major Feature Film From Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures, VIZ Media Also Secures Publishing Rights To Official Movie Novel Edition

San Francisco, CA, February 20, 2013 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest publisher, distributor and licensor of manga and anime in North America, has announced the digital release by Simon & Schuster Audio of an unabridged audio book version of Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s science fiction thriller ALL YOU NEED IS KILL. The acclaimed novel, read and narrated by Mike Martindale, is now available for $19.95 U.S. from the Simon & Schuster website.

ALL YOU NEED IS KILL is published in North America by VIZ Media’s Haikasoru imprint and is currently in production as a major feature film directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) and starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. The film is slated for release in the spring of 2014, to be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures. Liman is directing the film from a screenplay by Dante Harper and Jez Butterworth & John Butterworth and Christopher McQuarrie, based on the novel. Erwin Stoff, Gregory Jacobs, Jeffrey Silver, Jason Hoffs and Tom Lassally are the producers, with Doug Liman, Dave Bartis, Joby Harold, Hidemi Fukuhara and Bruce Berman serving as executive producers.

VIZ Media has also acquired the North American publishing rights for the official ALL YOU NEED IS KILL novel tie-in edition for the film that will support the release next year.

Haikasoru publishes some of the most compelling contemporary Japanese science fiction and fantasy stories for English-speaking audiences, and is the first imprint based in the U.S. dedicated to Japanese science fiction and fantasy in translation. Simon & Schuster is the exclusive distributor for VIZ Media in the U.S. and Canada.

In the ALL YOU NEED IS KILL novel, there’s one thing worse than dying. It’s coming back to do it again and again. When the alien Mimics invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to be reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On his 158^th iteration, he gets a message from a mysterious ally – a female soldier known as the Full Metal Bitch. Is she the key to Keiji's escape or his final death?

New York Times best-selling author John Scalzi (Old Man’s War) described ALL YOU NEED IS KILL as, “science fiction for the adrenaline junkie,” and went on to declare it to be a novel that "reads fast, kicks ass, and keeps on coming." The novel was the first title to be published by Haikasoru and, since its North American debut in 2009, it has become one of the imprint’s most successful releases.

“ALL YOU NEED IS KILL garnered significant critical acclaim with its initial publication in Japan and subsequent release in North America and the buzz has grown significantly with the highly anticipated release of the live-action film,” says Masumi Washington, Editor-in-Chief, Haikasoru. “Fans can prepare for the release and get a jump start on the edgy story with this new audio version. Don’t miss this kinetic story from one of the greatest authors of Japanese science fiction!”

Author Hiroshi Sakurazaka was born in Tokyo in 1970 and has emerged as one of Japan's most energetic writers of both light novels and adult science fiction. After an initial career in information technology, he published his first novel, Modern Magic Made Simple, in 2003 with Super Dash Bunko, a popular young adult light novel imprint. There are now seven volumes in the series and it was also adapted into a manga (graphic novel) series in 2008 and a televised anime series in 2009. Sakurazaka published ALL YOU NEED IS KILL with Super Dash Bunko in 2004 and with it he earned his first Seiun Award nomination for Best of the Year honors in Japanese science fiction. His 2004 short story, Saitama Chainsaw Massacre, notably won the 16^th SF Magazine Reader's Award. Sakurazaka's other novels include Characters (co-written with Hiroki Azuma) and Slum Online (published in English by Haikasoru in 2010). In 2010, Sakurazaka also began an experimental digital magazine called AiR with Junji Hotta.

For more information on ALL YOU NEED IS KILL and the Haikasoru imprint, please visit the dedicated website at www.haikasoru.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.