Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Media Blasters Changes / Cancelations

Well, we've gotten yet another update from Media Blasters and I wanted to pass it on to everyone. Looks like some of those titles that have been bumping now for several cycles are finally being canceled outright:

Gao-Gai-Gar Complete DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-49) - CANCELED
Fushigi Yugi, the Mysterious Play OVA DVD Boxed Set - CANCELED
Kite BLURAY (Remastered) - CANCELED
Squid Girl Season 2 Collection #1 DVD - CANCELED

The following titles have had their dates changed:

Queen's Blade/Queens Blade 2 Complete DVD Boxed Set - Nov 13 to Mar 22
Ai no Kusabi (OVA) DVD - Mar 12 to Apr 23

Along with these Anime titles they also canceled 8 previously announced live action releases and postponed 5 others way out into March and April. About 3 weeks ago, along with several previous date changes, we got a confirmation from Media Blasters letting us know that Ah My Buddha, Queens Blade, and Gao-Gai-Gar were 'in replication' and we should expect them by the end of November. So based on that I've been telling everyone these three are just about ready and will be arriving shortly - well, not so much I guess. We did get a shipping confirmation on Ah My Buddha today, but it looks like that's the last new release we'll be getting from them until at least January.

I know a lot of folks have been waiting for some of these, especially Queens Blade. If you have an order in with us that has been holding for any of these and want to make a change, just let us know.

My final thought is that I really wish Sirabella would just own up to what going on there and try to publish a release schedule that reflects the reality of the condition of his company and not just the schedule he 'wishes' they could publish. Look, we know the R1 Anime market is bad and is slowly fading away. The fans know the Anime market is bad. The other studio execs know the Anime market is bad. There is no shame in admitting that and being honest about what you can and can't do. All these announcements, schedulings, changes, and then cancellations are just creating a situation were nothing you say can be relied on. Eventually people will just stop listening.

5 comments:

A. said...

Did they ever re-release any of the FUSHIGI YUGI boxes? They delayed the first one for ages...

Ben said...

Jaromir Jagr!

And here I was, hoping to see Squid Girl season 2 on Blu-Ray before the middle of next year.

I'm not quite ready to throw the towel on Media Blasters, but isn't this, like, the tenth or eleventh time in the last couple years they've had to undergo a major scheduling pushback? I'd hate to lose one of the last anime distributors that actually dub their anime AND offer it at reasonable prices, but I'm getting a little bit tired of seeing them bite off more than they can chew, then fail to swallow.

At this point, if Sentai Filmworks decides to snatch up the rights to Squid Girl season 2, then Media Blasters is DOA. Otherwise, I'm still hoping for another turnaround (or at least a little bit of honesty as to what's really going on with MB).

Robert said...

They did indeed manage to get the first season of Fushigi Yugi out though it did get pushed back several times:

http://www.animecornerstore.com/fusyugmyspla.html

Unknown said...

Actually they did NOT cancel the OVA for Fushigi Yugi. The announcement that it was cancelled is incorrect. Media Blasters did confirm that it is going to be released.

Robert said...

HEH. Hope springs eternal, but I think we talked about this in my post.

Remember, back in April Media Blasters posted that they would be releasing ALL of Queens Blade, and that they had actually sacrificed IT Great Guardians to keep pursing Queens Blade releases. A couple weeks later Sentai announced they had picked up Queen's Blade: Rebellion.

At this time, the distributor who handles all of MB's retailer accounts says it's canceled and off the schedule. If it gets rescheduled later, fine. But I don't think we can put any stock in anything MB says anymore until it actually shows up on our dock - which is getting rarer and rarer these days.