Life of Pi

You should see it.

Section 23's May 2013 Releases - Now Available for Pre-Order!

In a surprise early announcement, Section 23 has sent us their entire May 2013 release schedule! We now have it up on the store site for pre-order.

Here's a list of what coming in May:

Kids on the Slope Complete Collection DVD (Eps #1-12) - May 7
Kids on the Slope Complete Collection BLURAY (Eps #1-12) - May 7
Natsuyuki Rendezvous Complete Collection DVD - May 7
Colorful: The Motion Picture DVD - May 14
Colorful: The Motion Picture BLURAY - May 14
Kämpfer ~ für die Liebe OVA Collection DVD - May 14
K-On the Movie DVD - May 21
K-On the Movie BLURAY - May 21
Love Love Complete Collection DVD - May 21
Okamikakushi ~ Masque of the Wolf Complete Collection DVD (Eps #1-12) - May 28
Phi-Brain ~ The Puzzle of God Season 1 Collection 2 DVD - May 28
Phi-Brain ~ The Puzzle of God Season 1 Collection 2 BLURAY - May 28

Funimation's April 2013 Releases - Now Available for Pre-Order!

Funimation has sent over their April 2013 release schedule, and we now have it up on the store site for pre-order. Here's what's coming:

New Material:

Certain Scientific Railgun (Toaru Kagaku no Railgun) Season 1 Part 1 DVD (Limited) - Apr 16
Certain Scientific Railgun (Toaru Kagaku no Railgun) Season 1 Part 1 DVD (Standard) - Apr 16
Certain Scientific Railgun (Toaru Kagaku no Railgun) Season 1 Part 2 DVD - Apr 16
Last Exile -Fam, The Silver Wing- Part 1 DVD/BD Combo Set (Limited Edition) - Apr 30
Last Exile -Fam, The Silver Wing- Part 1 DVD/BD Combo Set (Standard Edition) - Apr 30
Last Exile -Fam, The Silver Wing- Part 2 DVD/BD Combo Set - Apr 30

Re-Releases / Re-Prices:

Summer Wars Movie DVD/BD Combo Set - Apr 16
Rosario+Vampire (Season 1) Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-13) - Apr 23
Rosario+Vampire CAPU (Season 2) Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #14-26) - Apr 23
Eden of the East Complete Collection DVD (Eps #1-11) (Classic) - Apr 30
Eden of the East Complete Collection BLURAY (Eps #1-11) (Classic) - Apr 30
Fairy Tail Season #1 Collection DVD/BD Combo Set (Eps #1-24) - Apr 30
Slayers TV Season 4 & 5 (Revolution & Evolution-R) DVD (Classic) - Apr 30
Slayers TV Season 4 & 5 (Revolution & Evolution-R) BLURAY (Classic) - Apr 30

And finally Funi has lowered the MSRP on one of their current releases:

Chrono Crusade Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set - $49.98 to $39.98 MSRP

Section 23's April 2013 Releases - Now Available for Pre-Order!

Section 23 has sent over their April 2013 release schedule and it's fantastic! We now have it up on the store site for pre-order.

Here's a list of all the new Anime goodness coming:

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 Complete Collection DVD- Apr 2
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 Complete CollectionBLURAY - Apr 2
Inu X Boku SS Complete Collection DVD (Eps #1-12) - Apr 9
Inu X Boku SS Complete Collection BLURAY (Eps #1-12) - Apr 9
Tegami Bachi Letter Bee Reverse (Season 2) Collection 1 DVD - Apr 9
Hiiro no Kakera: The Tamayori Princess Saga Season 1 Collection DVD (Eps #1-13) - Apr 16
Hiiro no Kakera: The Tamayori Princess Saga Season 1 Collection BLURAY (Eps #1-13) - Apr 16
Place to Place (Acchi Kocchi) Complete Collection DVD (Eps #1-13) - Apr 16
Hakuoki: A Memory of Snow Flowers OVA Collection DVD - Apr 23
Psychic Detective Yakumo Complete Collection DVD (Eps #1-13) - Apr 23
Patlabor OVA Collection DVD - Apr 23
Patlabor OVA Collection BLURAY - Apr 23
Qwaser of Stigmata II Complete Collection DVD (Eps #25-37) - Apr 30

Lather, Rinse, Repeat...

From time to time I like to post a customer comment, good or bad, to give everyone a glimpse of what it's like from our side of the screen. Now obviously I don't analyze every customer comment in depth like this, but sometimes one stands out for whatever reason. So on Dec 30th, Meg messaged us the following:

"Hello ANime Corner. You were at the AMKE2012 Convention last year and I wanted to tell you about the poor service on how I was treated when I bought a Shaymin at the vendor booth. I lost my shaymin by accident and the seller did not have a replacement NOR DID he give me a receipt for my payment so to give it to him AND had poor lack of storage supply on doubles. I wanted to tell you that if your attending AMKE 2013 this year please be sure your employees provide receipts for customers and have plenty of items in stock should one lose an item or replace due to being broken or rip..."

First off, I want to make sure everyone knows that no one from RACS has ever set foot within 100 miles of one of the AMKE shows, so clearly she just had us mistaken us for someone else (you know Anime this, Anime that - we all probably look alike to some customers), and later she messaged us again to apologize and let us know that she had sent the message to us by mistake, which I appreciated, so no harm done there. Also, to Megs credit, she PM'd this to us rather than stupidly posting in public on FB, Twitter, or a Forum like some people doubtlessly would have.

Frankly, I was glad to actually not be the target of some fans retailer angst this time around, but I got to thinking about her complaint and a couple of things occurred to me:

1) Anime Milwaukee is a February show, so she is sending this complaint to the vendor a full ten months after her experience at the show? What took so long? I can only assume that with the 2013 show coming up, she was sitting around on a Sunday thinking about it and decided that she needed to let the vendors from last years show know how they can do things better for her this time around - well, at least as she sees it.

OK, fair enough, but it does get me to wondering what the statute of limitations on customer angst is. For myself, no matter how bad of an experience I have with someone, I can almost guarantee that six months after the fact I have long forgotten about it.

2) If I read it correctly, she's upset because she lost the item she bought (Shaymin is a Pokemon character, so I assume she bought a plushy or some other piece of character merchandise) and when she returned to the vendors booth to get another one he either did not have one to replace it or would not replace it for free (or offer her a refund?) because she didn't have a receipt. Frankly, neither of which would have been the vendors responsibility, but the incident made Meg so upset that she's taking her precious time to post about it 10 months after it happened. I assume the guy working the booth was a  little gruff with her, failing in his duty to be the expected Anime Retailer version of Mr. Roboto at all times.

I've fielded my fair share of customer angst over the years for things that I myself thought were fairly insignificant or more often 'mis-directed', and while this incident had nothing to do with RACS directly, it still ended up costing me a couple of minutes out of my life long after the fact that I'll never be able to get back, and it makes me wonder if it's just like this in all retail, or if Anime fans can be a particularly prickly group of consumers?

What say you? :-)

NIS Announces Hanasaku Iroha ~ Blossoms for Tomorrow ~ Premium for April!

NIS has sent over the paperwork for their Hanasaku Iroha ~ Blossoms for Tomorrow ~ Collection 1 premium release, and we now have it up on the store site for pre-order:

Hanasaku Iroha: Blossoms for Tomorrow Collection #1 DVD/BD Combo Set (Premium Edition)

Each collection includes a hardcover art book (full color, 36 pages) which provides a deeper viewing experience with detailed character info, rough sketches, artist interviews and setting illustrations.

The folks at NIS have also indicated that they expect to release the second half of the series this coming July.

Synopsis: When Ohana's mother flees with her boyfriend to avoid paying his debts, Ohana is sent off to live with her grandmother, who owns the hot spring inn, Kissuiso. Upon arriving, Ohana is put to work at the inn. Thrust into a life where the customers always come first, she struggles to find her place at the inn and fit in with her fellow coworkers.

In addition to this April release, they have also announced four standard editions for the end of January:

Arakawa Under the Bridge Season 1 Complete Collection DVD (Eps #1-13) (Standard Edition)
Arakawa Under the Bridge Season 1 Complete Collection BLURAY (Eps #1-13) (Standard Edition)
Bunny Drop Complete Collection DVD/BD Combo Set (Standard Edition)
Ghastly Prince Enma Burning Up Complete Collection BLURAY (Standard Edition)

         

Funimation Recalls / Postpones Release for Baka and Test Season 2 LE

Today our copies of the Baka and Test Season 2 Complete Collection DVD/BLURAY Combo Set (Limited Edition) arrived from Funimation. Just as we were getting ready to print out the pre-order tickets to send them out to the floor to be filled (and in what is probably the first case of impeccable timing since I started in this business 14 years ago) a message from Funimation flashed up on my computer warning us that a defect had been discovered in the set and that Funi was recalling all the sets that had already shipped out.

Apparently the sets shipped with the wrong art printed on the DVD disks. We will be returning our copies to FUni as requested, and they have pushed back the street date by two weeks to January 29th to facilitate the repressing and shipment of corrected sets.