Good News from ADV Films

We received some good news from ADV Films late this afternoon. Most of the February releases that had been put on hold have been rescheduled and will ship shortly.

Here is the list of rescheduled titles and dates. Please note that these dates are estimates and we will begin shipping these whenever they actually arrive:



Feb 26, 2008 (Note: due to intershipment time, we are scheduling these as Mar 4th)

Kanon, Vol #2 DVD
Kanon, Vol #2 DVD w/ Art Box
Kurau Phantom Memory, Vol #6, To Split Infinity DVD
Moonlight Mile, Vol #1, One Small Step DVD
Project Blue Earth SOS , Vol #1, Invasion! DVD
Pumpkin Scissors , Vol #3, Wounds of War DVD
Tokyo Majin , Vol #2, Dark Arts: Predestined Power DVD
Tokyo Majin , Vol #2, Dark Arts: Predestined Power DVD w Art Box
Wallflower , Vol #2, Lesson 2 Shrewring of the Timid DVD
Wallflower , Vol #2, Lesson 2 Shrewring of the Timid DVD w Art Box
Welcome to NHK , Vol #3, 3rd Conspiracy DVD

Mar 4, 2008

Five Centimeters Per Second DVD (Thank Goodness!)
Kanon, Vol #3 DVD
Ah! My Goddess TV Season 2, Vol #6 DVD
Red Garden , Vol #4 DVD

Mar 11, 2008

Project Blue Earth SOS , Vol #2, Infiltration DVD
Project Blue Earth SOS , Vol #2, Infiltration DVD w/ Art Box
Venus Versus Virus, Vol #3, Plague DVD

Mar 18, 2008

Moonlight Mile, Vol #2, A Gambler's Moon DVD
Moonlight Mile, Vol #2, A Gambler's Moon DVD w/ Art Box

I chatted briefly with Mike Baliff at ADV late this afternoon. There are a couple of things I want to point out regarding this announcement:

1) Many of these titles have actually been advanced on the schedule from their original dates. In fact, 'assuming' they have already been pressed, it's possible ADV might ship us all the titles on this most or all of this list all at once, or at least send us most of these titles in short order. It appears to me that ADV is anxious to close the books on their current open business and thus advanced the release date on many of these - possible based on what they already have in their warehouse. ADV has gone several weeks with severely reduced receivables, and by now the business must be absolutely starving for money, so they want to get as much shipped as quickly as possible in order to re-establish their receivables pipeline quickly.

2) Gurren Lagann and future volumes of Devil May Cry (after Vol #1) is not included in this list. Mike could not comment on the status of either, however, he did say that more announcements will be coming shortly.

3) All of the previously released titles that have been on backorder since mid-January will immediately begin shipping again. This will include Devil May Cry DVD #1.

4) The titles scheduled for 2/26 are supposed to be shipping to us today, so obviously they will not actually be streeting on 2/26 and we have set them up as 3/4 on the store site. They will be available as soon as they arrive here at our warehouse. I'm estimating we should see them by Friday of this week.

5) Other than Gurren Lagann, this update covers all the titles that were on the last published release spreadsheet provided to retailers by ADV. In fact, we ran off the end of that schedule this week as Red Garden 4 was the last line item which we were required to pre-book today. We currently have no information for any new releases beyond Red Garden 4. What this means is that this update from ADV covers all the DVD items that retailers had information on to offer for advanced sale to customers, and have already preordered from the company. This closes the books on whatever open orders they currently have (remember, fans are our customers - ADV's customers are retailers - so they handle their business based on retailer requirements). The next thing we need to see from ADV is a revised new release schedule covering previously unsolicited items after Red Garden 4.

So today's announcement solves most of the immediate problem of Feb/Mar new releases as well as all those backordered titles. We should begin getting shipping reports from ADV tomorrow for our stuff, so we will begin pre-processing all the booked backorders and the Feb 26 and Mar 4 preorders once we have that info. That way we can begin shipping these items to you guys the morning they hit the dock.

Hopefully we'll get some more info from ADV by weeks end regarding Gurren Lagann and what the plan is going forward out to April and May. If that happens, then by the end of next week this will all be a bad memory. Stay tuned.