VIZ Media has announced a plan that will allow fans to view the latest Naruto Shippuden episodes mere days after their airing in Japan.

Starting on Thursday January 15, 2009, the latest episode, with English subtitles, will be available on the official Naruto website, not long after its Japan airdate. Each Thursday after that, the new week's episode will be added.

But that's just the beginning of the Naruto goodies. VIZ also plans to post English-subtitled episodes from the beginning of the series, starting with the first eight for free, on January 2, 2009, and adding eight more each week until all the posted episodes have caught up to the current third season of the series.

You can catch a preview of Naruto Shippuden this week on the Naruto.com website, to whet your appetite for the good times to come.

And there is still more!

VIZ also plans to speed up the publication of the Naruto manga in North America. Starting in February of 2009, the company will release 11 new volumes over three months, beginning with Volume 34 and ending in April with number 44. The first print-run editions in March and April will include a special promotional bookmark or sticker. And after the final volume of this special release, VIZ will return to the one-per-quarter schedule, so that Volume 45 will come out in July of 2009.

Starting in 1999 with the initial introduction of Masashi Kashimoto's Naruto series in VIZ's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, the manga and its accompanying anime became one of the most popular and successful stories in the world, with millions of fans in Japan, North and South America, and in Europe. The Naruto Shippuden series begins 2 1/2 years after the end of the original series, when Naruto returns to his village after intense training.

Streaming of both the earlier Naruto episodes and the newer Naruto Shippuden series will also be available through other video-streaming sites with which VIZ has established partnerships, such as the U.S.-only Hulu.com, and Joost.com.