Tell Me Everything...

Sometimes I Even Amaze Myself...

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

Section 23 has sent over their awesome July 2013 release schedule! We now have it up on the store site for pre-order.

Here's what's coming:

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere Season 2 Collection DVD - Jul 2
Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere Season 2 Collection BLURAY - Jul 2
Ruin Explorers DVD - Jul 2
Black Magic M-66 DVD - Jul 9
Queen's Blade Rebellion Complete Collection DVD - Jul 9
Queen's Blade Rebellion Complete Collection BLURAY - Jul 9
Patlabor TV Series Collection #1 DVD (Eps #1-12) - Jul 16
Patlabor TV Series Collection #1 BLURAY (Eps #1-12) - Jul 16
Special A Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-24) (Bilingual) - Jul 16
Phi-Brain ~ The Puzzle of God Season 2 Collection 1 DVD - Jul 23
Phi-Brain ~ The Puzzle of God Season 2 Collection 1 BLURAY - Jul 23
Another Complete Collection DVD - Jul 30
Another Complete Collection BLURAY - Jul 30

A Brave New World

What the kids are doing when they aren't on Tumblr.

What We Need in Our Warehouse

I Hate You Dad!

It is a really deep show, but you know, when you look at it in that light, Shinji really was kinda a tool...

Thanks to Sean for sending!

Ten Anime Series That Need a BluRay Release

If you ask 10 Anime fans what they would like to see out on BLURAY you'll get 11 different answers, and over here at RACS we just figure they ALL do if not already. This week our friend BDUB gives us his list of ten titles he'd like to see re-released on BLURAY in North America:


No doubt some pretty epic titles. We'd like to just see some of them re-released on anything. -_^

Media Blasters Confirms Several License Expirations

John Sirabella of Media Blasters has made a statement updating us on the state of several of their licenses. As of now, Media Blasters no longer has the rights to:

Bakuman
Rurouni Kenshin
Berserk

He also confirmed that while Media Blasters once had optioned to rights to Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, Squid Girl Season 2, and Moyashimon, they no longer have any planes to release those titles and they are open to be licensed by other companies. Sirabella also said many other licenses they previously had have expired, but did not mention any others by name. We can pretty much guess what those are by what has gone on 'out of produiction' status with their distributor.

Going forward AnimeWorks, Tokyo Shock, and Kitty are the only Media Blasters labels that will continue operations, and that they are going to specifically focus on new Kitty (Adult Only) releases this year. Aside from that they are going to focus on producing and releasing original productions through Fever Dreams, which they have established a studio for in Belleville, New Jersey. He said that previously a "major back accident in Media Blasters warehouse" (WTF is he talking about there?) slowed down the company (oh yeah, that was what it was...), and did admit that he was planning on letting Media Blasters end as a company (umm, we knew that John) to pursue original productions through Fever Dreams, but has now decided to 'rebuild' Media Blasters (apparently around mostly the Kitty label).

Honestly, no surprises here folks. I'm not sure what sort of 'back accident' he's talking about regarding their warehouse, which has been closed for almost 2 years after they sold the distribution operation end of their business to Allegro and outsourced distribution of all the Kitty stuff to the third party warehouse. Since then everytime their active stuff has gone out of stock it has pretty much stayed on the backlist for months at a time. I just figured they were too broke to continue to replicate everything on a regular basis. Last week when we started getting updates on their inventory through Allegro, I thought that might mean some big change was in the works - or a 'going out of business' announcement was going to be forth coming. Apparently not yet. While he does say that they are going to continue to 'aquire and release new titles' I'm not sure what that will add up to outside of Kitty. So as always, we'll have to wait and see what happens.

You know what we say in the biz - Anime studios never die, they just fade away...

No More to Give..

I feel pretty depleted lately too Obi-Wan.

Fandom Personified...

We live as we dream... alone...

From Up on Poppy Hill's English Dub Clip Posted

The new English dubbed clip for Studio Ghibli's 'From Up On Poppy Hill' anime film:

NIS Announces The Everyday Tales of a Cat God BD Premium Edition for June!

NIS has sent over the paperwork for their The Everyday Tales of a Cat God premium release, and we now have it up on the store site for pre-order:

Everyday Tales of a Cat God Complete Collection BLURAY Set (Premium Edition)

Each collection includes a hardcover art book (full color, 32 pages) that provides a deeper viewing experience with illustrations, and additional personal touches provided by each of the characters from The Everyday Tales of a Cat God! Also includes retail disc exclusive 7 bonus mini-episodes and Clean OP/ED.

Release date is set for June 4th.

Synopsis: Meet Mayu. She is a cat god, but because she could not stop getting in trouble, she has been cast down from the heavens and is now doomed to suffer on Earth! Oh, no! But then, one day, she is taken in by the earnest and kind Yuzu, who owns an antiques shop called "Antiques Unlimited." As Yuzu is quick to learn, Mayu's laziness knows no bounds, as she would rather play video games than turn over a new leaf. The everyday tales of this cat god and her harrowing adventures to the candy shop, a landfill, and a beach resort show Mayu and her friends that sometimes, the simplest things in life are the best. There is also Gonta, who is obsessed with Yuzu, but Mayu wanted his role in this summary to be minimal. So there you have it.

Toren Smith Passes Away

Toren Smith has passed away. He was 52 years old.

Toren was one of the original pioneers of the US manga industry, even before there was one. He did translations for Eclipse, Viz, and Dark Horse, and founded Studio Proteus back in 1986. His long term relationship with Dark Horse ran from 1988 until he sold the studio to them in 2004 and retired. He was also responsible for co-creating the Dirty Pair OEL along with Adam Warren (who was his roommate at one time). A lot of you guys probably don't remember Studio Proteus, but before the big boom and all that corporate money poured into the industry, SP was one of the top publishers of manga in North America for many years.

Yasuhiro Takeda of Gainax said of him in his autobiography:

"Not too long after the move, we became acquainted with another otaku who had come from North America (Canada, actually). His name was Toren Smith, and his love of manga had brought him all the way across the ocean to Japan. He'd run out of money somewhere along the way, however, and was having a hard time of it. Apparently, Okada had met Smith during our Osaka days. The Canadian had visited the General Products store in Momodani with sci-fi author J.P. Hogan, who was in Japan for the Sci-Fi Convention. Naturally, after hearing his foreign friend was down on his luck, Okada suggested we put him up at GAINAX House. Toren went on to be a success in his own right, later returning to North America and becoming president of a publishing company in the U.S. He is one shrewd fellow—not only did he make plenty of manga-related connections while he was here, but he snagged himself a beautiful Japanese wife to boot. I still remember one morning, shortly after we all woke up; the door to Toren's room opened and out walked a young lady we'd never seen before!"

Toren was an avid figurine collector and he was a long time regular patron of RACS (which is how I met him) going all the way back to our beginning. Over the years Toren placed dozens of orders with us for everything ranging from Manga to Anime to Figurines, and over that period of time I had the privilege of having several wonderful conversations with him on all sorts of topics. Outside of Anime and Manga, Toren was also an avid diver and shared my love of the outdoors and my passion for motorcycles.

Jonathan Clements tells the whole story here.

Of all the fellow Otaku that I have met over the years, I have always thought that he, above all, lived 'the life style' in a way that most of us could only dream of. He was an inspiration to me, and I always felt it was a privilege to serve him as a collector and fellow Otaku. If any of us could achieve 1/10th the level of success he was able to, we could look back on a life well lived.

Goodbye my friend, you will be missed.

Time Will Remember Us AMV (Sword Art Online and Amnesia)

I thought this was pretty well done, especially considering all the transitions:

Sometimes...

Sometimes being in the Anime business feels like this:

But really it's mostly like this:

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

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

New Material:

Appleseed XIII Complete DVD/BD Combo Set (Limited Edition) - Jun 4

Re-Releases / Re-Prices:

Birdy the Mighty: Decode Complete DVD Box (S.A.V.E. Edition) - Jun 4
Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom DVD Set (S.A.V.E. Edition) - Jun 4
Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom BLURAY Set (S.A.V.E. Edition) - Jun 4
Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings (Season 1/2) DVD/BD Combo Set - Jun 11
Chrome Shelled Regios Complete Collection DVD Set (S.A.V.E. Edition) - Jun 18

Lots of S.A.V.E. editions coming in June. Maybe they will add more new stuff between now and then.