Haruhi Limited Boxes Are All Shipped - Hallelujah!!

Thank God it's over! After three full days at it I can finally report that we've completed shipping out all of the pre-orders for the Haruhi Limited box.

As one of the largest pre-order batches we've ever processed (for pretty much anything), I want to let everyone know that I appreciate your patience this week while we worked our butts off to ship all of these out as quickly as possible alongside regular orders. We got em done a full day ahead of schedule, and a pretty good percentage of the ones that went out Priority Mail should get to customers by this weekend, and the rest early next week.

Now it's Miller time...

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend Everyone, and enjoy the pics!

Jamie helping process Haruhi domestic batch #21 . There were 30 domestic batch's of 25 units each, and 5 international batches. Here you can see that determined look on her face of "'Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead" - or maybe that's an "Oh My God - How Many More...." Ron can be seen (with a similar look on his face) in the background working on some of the Overseas shipments.

Robert (ME) helping to process Haruhi tickets and answering e-mails from customers asking if their box has shipped out yet. Notice the tired look, slightly receding hairline, dark circles under the eyes, and 3 days stubble from not shaving - these are all requirements if you are thinking of running an Anime store... -_^

School Rumble Coming in Late August

This just in, hot off the press!

One of my inside sources at Funimation has confirmed the rumor that the first volume of School Rumble will be scheduled for release in late August and that we should have a firm date for it shortly. This is very exciting because School Rumble is one of the highest rated Anime series to come out of Japan for some time and a lot of folks have been e-mailing in asking us about it.

Better still, Funimation is planning a limited edition Tin starter box for the first volume of the series that sounds extremely cool - it's going to be shaped like a locker. I'm trying to get some preliminary (first peek) art to post so you can see what it will look like.

Update: Here's that first peak tin box art I promised you. :-)



Funimation's School Rumble site can be found here.

Barring realignment for release announcements coming later this year that we don't know about yet, so far I predict the top 8 most popular Anime DVD releases of 2007 will be:

1. Haruhi
   
2. Full Metal Panic 2nd Raid
   
3. School Rumble


4. Gits Solid State Society


5. Black Lagoon


6. Naruto


7. Bleach


8. Tsubasa
   

Of course this is highly speculative to try to call any of these this early in the year, but it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

(I think we can also drop Death Note into that list assuming Viz manages to get it out on DVD before the holidays. I sure hope they do!)

We'll get the first volume of School Rumble posted to the store as soon as Fun gives us a firm date.

School Rumble Synopsis:

Tsukamoto Tenma is an ordinary 2nd year high school student who has fallen in love with one of her classmates, Karasuma Ooji. However, currently she is unable to confess her feelings to him. To make things worse, she found out that Karasuma is transferring to another school in a year. On the other hand, Tenma's other classmate, Harima Kenji (who is a delinquent) is also in love with Tenma. Not being able to confess his feelings, Harima gets depressed day by day.

UPDATE: Video Scan reported today that the first DragonBall Z Remastered Box is the #1 selling Anime DVD so far this year, but my list above only had new series in mind, not repackaged releases.

Upcoming Black Lagoon & Hellsing Ultimate Limited Editions

Our inside contacts over at Geneon shot a couple of e-mails my way this week with the inside scoop on two upcoming exciting limited editions.

Black Lagoon DVD Vol #3 Limited Edition

The first is the proposed (BUT NOT CONFIRMED) Limited version of Black Lagoon Vol #3. Keep in mind this is early release info and final decisions have not yet been made, but Geneon is considering including a special limited edition authentic Zippo lighter and packaging it at a proposed $50 MSRP price tag. Here are images we were able to obtain of the 5 draft designs they are considering:



Hellsing Ultimate Vol #2 Limited Edition

We also have the scoop on the packaging for the next Hellsing limited edition. It comes with a 200 plus page production art collection book with tons of illustrations/original sketches and the steel case will have some pretty controversial artwork (note the 'big bird').


Pretty Sweet!

Blog Back Up - Thanks Google

Hey, we're back!

Sometime yesterday Google apparently did an electronic sweep and identified my Blog as a potential SPLOG (or Spam Blog) and automatically took it down. Google sent me an e-mail and I had to go to a screen a jump through a couple of verification hoops and then submit the Blog for review.

How it happened I have no idea, but their algorithm apparently needs further tweaking. About 4 hours later, I find it back on line, so they have seen the err in their ways.

"Hello, Your blog has been reviewed, verified, and cleared for regular use so thatit will no longer appear as potential spam. If you sign out of Blogger andsign back in again, you should be able to post as normal. Thanks for yourpatience, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. Sincerely, The Blogger Team."

Good, I have a new post in progress so now I can finish it up. We'll, Jamie made Chicken and baked beans tonight for dinner, so maybe later....

UPDATE: Steven Den Beste over at Chizumatic writes:

"Blogspot is a lot like training wheels for a bicycle. A lot of people find out about blogging and decide they want to try it. They may make a few posts, and then lose interest in it. Blogspot is a good place for someone to try blogging out, but if they turn out to be serious and to really want to keep it up, then they should move on, because in the long run Blogspot is worth what you're paying to use it. And we still don't have an explanation for why Google decided to replace Bob's blog with a 404 page written in Japanese."

He's Right, and that's exactly what I've used this space for - a place to try out a Blog in a space that had a reasonable opportunity to gain an audience (in theory). The one thing that I have discovered is that, while I always seem to have a great deal to say, I have very little time to put those thoughts down, or when I do have those thoughts it may be several hours or days later before I have an opportunity to actually write them down and by then they are pretty stale in my mind and I don't want to write about them anymore. Most evenings I get home from the office pretty tired, and 'Post New Blog Entry' is often too far down on my things to do list to make it. If I didn't have a business to run, I'd probably Blog every day.

But I am trying and haven't given it up by any means.

Bandai Visual's Pricing Policy DOA

During a routine panel at Sakura-Con last weekend, Tatsunori Konno, who is the head of Bandai Visual USA, got in a little hot water with fans who openly questioned him about Bandai Visual's new pricing and release policy. In a nutshell, Bandai Visual is attempting to do something no other company has ever done - to release their titles like 'Freedom' simultaneously on DVD in the US and Japan.

This has created a number of problems:

First, since the US releases will not see the usual lead time to market, they can only be made available initially in subtitled versions. This is a rather desperate response to the piracy and downloading that is killing the industry, as fans simply refuse to wait for properly licensed titles to become available on DVD.

(For an example, just look at how many people have illegally downloaded episodes of Haruhi Suzumiya prior to the upcoming DVD release. There are already more series reviews out on in the blogosphere than you can shake a stick at from folks that have downloaded fansubs and already seen all the eps. The number of these people that will actually buy the series on DVD is questionable.)

The second, and most relevant problem facing Bandai Visual is with the DVD pricing. The Japanese DVD market is vastly different from the US market, however, since the simultaneous release means that the R1 US DVD's will potentially compete (theoretically) with the R2 Japanese DVD's, thus the US DVD's need to carry a similar price point as their Japanese counterparts. That means the most of the R1 DVD's will have 2 episodes and retail for around $40 MSRP ($50 in the case of Galaxy Angel Rune).

The business practices at work here taken as a whole are sound, yet terribly flawed. The Japanese are doing their best to exploit the US Anime market, which they are finally taking seriously, and are also desperately trying to address the piracy issue but without do anything to threaten their core market in Japan, which is still an order of power larger than in the US.

The lessons of the US market have already been learned, yet these types of mistakes continue to be repeated. Think back recently to when ADV got crucified for trying to release the first season of Gantz as two eps per disk for $18 MSRP. We just rolled our eyes when they announced that move, and the blow back among fans was so acute that the folks in Houston quickly reversed the policy in subsequent DVD volumes. Still, the damage had been done and the lower sales of the single DVD's caused ADV to advance the release of the less expensive series thin-paks, decreasing their overall potential economic return on the license. Not to mention their loss of credibility (face) with the fan base.

In the US subtitled releases will mostly sell only into the hard core fan base, which is fine with us, and do allow the domestic release of some titles that may otherwise be marginalized by economic necessities. But Bandai Visual's new formula seems destined for failure as far fewer US fans, even hard core Anime fans, can afford to pay $40 or $50 for 45-60 minutes of Anime. Granted, we'll do our part to make these releases more affordable, but the pricing issues effect us as well, limiting the potential sell through for us on some of the best new titles booked to be released later this year. Bandai Visual is determined to carry through this new release strategy, even to the consternation of the fan base and their retail partners, so we'll just have to wait and see if we, as fans, can embrace these 'early releases at a price' or if we'll have to send Bandai Visual back to school to learn about how Anime fans do business here in North America.

My estimate from experience is that it will be the latter...

Updates - April 9th, 2007

I've found myself quite busy lately here at Anime Corner World Headquarters, with little time for diversions, and there is a stack of DVD's the size of Everest on top of my entertainment center. I did some catching up on some good old wholesome Anime viewing over the holiday weekend and finally started the Basilisk series. I have to say...so far so good!


Boxed sets have been replacing previous Anime DVD releases, and as the older single volumes sell out we've been taking them down off the store. This past week we've cleaned up and updated about 165 pages on the site, mostly consolidating older single dvd releases into boxed sets pages. Since the Anime Corner Store site is some 7,760 pages it's a constant process of additions, updates, and subtractions. While you may not realize it, the store gets updated on a daily basis 7 days a week (and yes, the weekend duty falls to me quite often), so while the front page might only change every week or two, there are updates going on somewhere on the store every day. All new arrivals are consolidated on the store updates page, and this is the place to go for the latest info about what's new (and hopefully improved!):

As the genre has expanded over the last few years, Anime prices have come down rapidly. Even though lots of people still say Anime prices are too high, let me give you an example to put this into perspective. Back in 1999 the few anime titles that were available on VHS cost around $8-$12 per episode for the dubbed version, and around $12-$15 per episode for the subtitled version. The original release of Evangelion from ADV was on 13 VHS tapes, and the Subtitled videos were $30 per tape (2 eps per tape), or about $15 per episode in only one language and few or no extras. Back then, if you wanted the series in both languages you had to buy 26 video tapes at a cost of around $650.00, or about $25 per episode. The original tapes ADV produced were fairly low quality in terms of materials, and the transfer for the VHS version was shaky and rather poorly done. Theb kicker is that hard core Anime fans lined up to pay those prices back then. I know I did! Now you could not imagine paying that kind of price for one series, but back then we sold hundreds of those $350 Eva VHS bundles.b Today you can buy the whole Evangelion series in a premium Thin-Pak DVD boxed set from us for $67.98 (remastered) which comes in both languages and has tons of extra's. That's a cost of about $2.60 per episode, about 1/10th the cost it was 7 years ago. Just a little food for thought. -_^

I have no date bumps or delays to report this week (can you believe it!). We did get a grocery list of 196 mostly older items that are being discontinued by Bandai, and I'm glad for it. Most of these titles are just older versions of stuff that's been re-released under the Anime Legends label, but included some series we've been wondering about like Pilot Candidate. We're sorting through the list now and I'll let you guys know next week if there is anything else of interest that's going away.

Illumitoon announced this week that they are finally getting with the program and getting out of 'dubtitling' their DVD's. In fact, fan feedback has been so adamant that they have decided to offer an exchange program for their current DVD's in circulation. Anyone who bought BoBoBo-Bo, Beet, or B'tX can now have their 'dubtitled' DVD's exchanged for properly 'subtitled' disks. Thank goodness!

More info can be found on Illumitoon's exchange page.

I talk about logistics alot here, and I often wonder how many times a new figure or toy ultimately gets cancelled because of some accident, like a container full of figures washing overboard during a storm. Accidents in transit happen more often than you might think, as these incredible pictures demonstrate.

We have an excellent batch of new arrivals for you this week in just about every category. We have new DVD's like Hack/Roots 1, Elemental Gelade 6, Solty Rei 3, and Nerima Daikon 3 just hit the dock and will begin shipping today. We have 36 new manga volumes, including some of those late Del Rey titles like Genshiken 8 and School Rumble 5. We have a new CD shipment in from Tokyo which includes some great new arrivals like all 3 Basilisk soundtracks, and the gorgeous new 9 disk sound box from Kingdom Hearts that was just released in Japan a few days ago! We have two new figures from Disgaea that came in from Enterbrain, and the latest Bome girl which is a beautiful version of Kasumi from Dead or Alive. She's only $26.98, so I doubt she'll last very long.


We have some new DVD bundles from Geneon that are so cheap, they're wholesale, if you get my meaning. While they last, you can pickup Ai Yori Aoshi, Gatekeepers, Cardcaptors, or Heat Guy J for up to 80% off the MSRP. Check below for details.


And finally I've setup a great Easter sale for you! The savings will last all week, but the big savings is here for the weekend only. Saving this big across the store are rare, so take some time over the holiday and grab some of that Anime stuff you've been wanting!

From now until Thursday, April 12th you can save up to 7% off every product on the store. Coupons can be applied to any items on the store, including pre-order and sale items. The more you order, the more you can save. US customers can combine this offer with our free super saver shipping option to save even more!

To save 3% off any order over $37, use the following coupon code during checkout:

EGGSTRASAVINGS3

Or, to save 5% off any order over $137, use the following coupon code during checkout:

EGGSTRASAVINGS5

Or, to save 7% off any order over $337, use the following coupon code during checkout:

EGGSTRASAVINGS7

Coupons are valid ONLY for NEW orders, and are good through Thursday, April 12th only.

Updates - March 25th, 2007

Welcome spring at last!

The first day of spring was a couple of days ago, and I for one am glad to see it - except that I can already tell the pollen is starting to come out. I'm like a human barometer for that every year. :-)

On Blogging:

I'm sorry I have not posted much here over the last few weeks. I've been incredibly busy with regular store business. For folks that blog several times a week, or even several times a day, my question is - how the heck do you guys have the time? I always think of Glen Reynolds over at Instapundit. He posts maybe 10-20 times a day all day long, and I figure whatever else he does, his entire life must revolve around his blog. When he's not blogging, he's thinking about blogging, or looking for things to blog about, or conversing with people that write in about the blog. I seem to always have something else to do that needs to be done NOW. Anyway, my goal here is going to be to post at least once a week, so we'll see how that turns out.

On Business:

It has been another exciting week here at Anime Corner world headquarters, and I have several items to share with you:

Ergo Proxy 3 arrived on Friday - we had it air freighted in from Geneon so we could start shipping orders as early as possible. We're shipping it now and all of your pre-orders were filled by close of business on Friday March 23rd. Oh yeah, all of our copies of Ergo 3 in this shipment have the limited pencil board - we'll be shipping those first until they run out.

I spend a lot of my time here on 'logistics' - you know, figuring out where and when and how stuffis coming, and there certainly has been a lot of activity in that dept this week. We got a slew of new solicitations over that last couple of weeks for June and July titles and we'll have them all up on the site shortly. A couple of the new titles include Galaxy Angel AA and MAR which are already posted. Also, Geneon will be re-releasing Ikki Tousen in a Thin-Pak (same price, same bat channel) in June and won't be repressing the old box, so it will probably be unavailable for a short time until the new boxes come out. Finally, we now have the last volume of Inu Yasha up for pre-order - volume #55! Wow - 4 years to get a series released, it reminds me if Urusei Yatsura or DBZ. Now when are the rest of those IY boxed sets coming??.... -_^

We have a couple more date changes this week - in fact there have been so many lately they are getting hard to keep up with. Tactics 4 was pushed from 3-20 to 3-27, but became moot as it has already arrived. The new company Illumitoon pushed the BoBoBoBo 2 DVD from 4-6 to 5-1. They also announced that the Beet 2 DVD and the BT'X 2 DVD have been pulled entirely from the release schedule and will be re-announced at a later date. Since these titles have sold moderately well, one can only speculate at this point as to what their plans are, but we'll keep on top of things and let you know. Geneon cancelled the Paradise Kiss 3 Special Edition DVD, but the regular edition is still set to street on April 17th.

I know I've done a lot of talking about the upcoming Melancholy limited edition boxes. Sam, the product manager at Bandai, told me this week that they are producing exactly 20,000 boxed sets for the North American release, and they were surprised by the massive amount of retailer pre-orders for them that have already been placed. The boxes are made overseas and the order has been placed by Bandai, so Sam says quote "once they are gone there is no more - period". I can almost guarantee you that this box is now, or almost is, sold out in pre-release and will be allocated to retailers by Bandai. Sam said that retailers who order early will be more likely to get the product that they ordered. That's good news as we got our order in on the first day, so our units are right at the front of the line and we will be able to guarantee delivery of boxes up to about the first 500 pre-ordered (we're 82% of the way there now as of 3/23), and I will probably close the pre-order window once we hit the 500 mark.

We have posted quite a few new announcements for pre-order, some of the more notable include Wings of Rean, the 4th Naruto Uncut Box, the 2nd Prince of Tennis Box, the 2nd Ranma 1/2 Thin-Pak, and the first Freedom DVD (HDDVD/DVD) which will be the very first HD-DVD Anime release here in North America. I was wondering when that was going to happen. :-)

A lot of people have been asking us recently what we plan to do about the postal rate increase coming next month. Admittedly shipping charges have been a point of consternation for us as we try to offer you a great deal of choices, excellent delivery time and quality, and still offer shipping at a reasonable price. We have not increased our shipping prices in 3 years even though all of the carriers have increased their rates to us several times during this period. As shipping has become the 'condiment' of the internet shopping world (you know, serve a lower quality hot-dog but give the mustard away for free), it's become very challenging for us to try to put together a new shipping program that covers our actual freight costs but that fits the requirements of all of your diverse needs. We are currently working on a new shipping program that is similar to what we offer now, with our usual diverse selection or types, carriers, and quality of delivery, but that will also offer more choices for budget minded customers. We'll be integrating the new program into the new order checkout manager, and we would greatly appreciate any input on this subject that you guys have for us. Your comments help us better tailor our program to fit your specific needs, and that's what it's all about.

After many requests, we've expanded our trade in program to include video games, even really old ones. Check our trade in FAQ for details.

I have two great sales for you this week, one is a newsletter exclusive set of coupons that you canuse across the store, and the other is a nice set of overstocked figure discounts (up to 35% off) that we need to move out to make room for new arrivals. Newsletter subscribers can combine the two offers to save even more! See below for all the info.

To save 3% off any order over $75, use the following coupon code during checkout:

spring75

Or to save 5% off any order over $150, use the following coupon code during checkout:

spring150

Coupons are valid ONLY for NEW orders, and are good through Thursday, March 29th only.

You can combine the two offers to save even more!

We have some great new stuff for this week in just about every category from DVD's to Manga to Figures to Statues, and even some cool new character merchandise including new scrolls and a couple of rare Anime themed bath towels that arrived from Japan. Be sure to take a look at the excellent new Sana Horiuchi figure from Pia Carrot and the very large Tamaki Kousaka from To Heart as they are two of my favorites. Also, we have a few of both of the new Tandem Twins girls left over after filling your pre-orders - including the much sought after 'option' parts that bring the figures, well, to their full potential. :-)

Finally, we received a special shipment of art books that I was able to coax away from one of our vendors in Tokyo. Many of these gorgeous art books have been out of print for more than 5 years and since they are extremely rare we might only have as little as 2 or 3 copies of each.

This little shipment was a long time in the making, and I hope we are able to help you fill some of the holes in your collection. I know it certainly helped mine. :-)

Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Limited Edition Box - Available for Pre-Order!

Bandai has finally announcd the first DVD that will be available for the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya series, and they have done it right offering not only the first disk, but a beautiful limited edition collectors box to go along with it!

This lavish limited collectors edition will include DVD Vol #1 (episodes #1-4) and a gorgeous collectors art box (complete with a storage drawer for your extras!) that will hold all the individual DVD's once released. It also includes the original soundtrack, Cosplay Hair Ribbon, Pencil Board, and an exclusive Iron on!

This is going to one of the most important releases of 2007, and we are asking customers to please order now to reserve your copy as this box may sell out in pre-order and not be available after the release date. We have gone very heavy on these and have already placed our initial order with Bandai, however, because they are limited production and will be in such high demand there is a high probability that they will either sell out in pre-order, or they may become allocated which means they might become over ordered and Bandai may only be able to fill part of each retailers initial order.

Our customers have already started to pre-book this box very heavily, and we will be working very closely with Bandai to ensure our quantities so that we can guarantee availability for those customers that order with us early.

Series Synopsys:

On the first day of school a beautiful girl named Haruhi introduces herself as having "no interest in ordinary humans"...

She asks for any aliens, time travelers, sliders or espers to join her. Watching her weird behaviour is Kyon a boy who sits in front of Haruhi and is the only person who talks to her. Commenting on Haruhi's joining every club in school and then quitting Kyon unwittingly gives Haruhi an idea to start her own after school club which will become known as the Spreading Excitement All Over the World with Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade (the S.O.S. Brigade for short)!

Bandai's Announcement regarding the Limited Edition Episode Ordering

Bandai Entertainment has announced that they will include the broadcast order version of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya with the special edition DVDs. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was originally broadcast on Japanese TV in a non-chronological order, however the DVDs were released in chronological order. Bandai Entertainment had announced that the North American DVDs would also be broadcast order, however with this new announcement, the series will be available in both versions. Broadcast order DVDs were never released in Japan, they will be unique to the North American market at the time of their release. The broadcast order DVDs will be included with the special edition releases, starting with volume 2, and will not include the English dub, they will be in Japanese only with English subtitles.

The asosbriogade.com website has a page with further details about the ordering of the series.

Bandi Press Release on General Release

THE MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA REGULAR EDITION SPECS ANNOUNCED; BROADCAST ORDER AND CD UPDATE!

February 27th, 2007 (Cypress, CA) – Kadokawa Pictures USA, Inc. and Bandai Entertainment Inc., made a new announcement today regarding the specs for the Regular Edition Vol. 1 DVD of the upcoming hit Japanese anime series, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

“After announcing the Special Edition specs at this past weekend's New York Comic Con, we wanted to get the word out on the great features in the Vol. 1 Regular Edition,” said Robert Napton, Director of Sales and Marketing at Bandai Entertainment.

In addition to having the first four episodes in chronological order both English-language dubbed in Dolby 5.1 and subtitled with the original Japanese audio, the Regular Edition of Vol. 1 will include TV Broadcast Previews, Making Of… Clip #01, Making Of… Clip #02, TV Commercial #1, TV Commercial #2, Texless Ep.00 Opening, Textless Ep.00 Ending, and three episodes of The Adventures of the ASOS Brigade. Regular Edition Volume 1 will be released on May 29th and retail for $29.98.

In addition, up to six CDs are planned for release, with more being discussed, but will NOT be released on the same day as the regular and special editions on May 29th as reported by some news outlets. These will be released sometime later.

“Also, a lot of fans at New York Comic Con asked about TV Broadcast Order DVDs. As Mr. Takashi Sakuda from Kadokawa Pictures USA explained, Kadokawa Japan originally didn't want us to release Broadcast Order DVDs at all. Even though we requested it knowing many fans preferred that sequence, the first answer was no,” clarified Napton.

Takashi Sakuda, Senior Vice President of Distribution and Licensing for Kadokawa Pictures USA, explained the rest at New York Comic Con, “Because I knew you [U.S. fans] wanted Broadcast Order so much, I was able to convince Japan.” The compromise was to release Broadcast Order bonus DVDs in the Special Editions. Because they are bonus DVDs, they will be subtitled only with the original Japanese audio

Each Regular edition of the four English-language The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya DVDs will also contain many extras with details to come later.

Updates - February 25th, 2007

Hello everyone! It's been another great week here at Anime Corner world headquarters, and there is a lot to tell, so I'll get right to it!

New York Comic Con is happened this weekend, and that means we'll all be hearing about the big first annual Anime awards program they are having. My own personal votes, if you're interested, went something like this:

Robert's Votes:

• Best DVD Package Design: Hellsing Ultimate Steelcase


• Best Comedy Anime: Ah! My Goddess TV


• Best Short Series: Elfen Lied


• Best Long Series: Fullmetal Alchemist


• Best Manga: Death Note

It will be fun to see which series get the most votes and by how much!

We've been very busy this week, and I've got lots of news and announcements to pass on. The Final Fantasy Advent Children Limited Edition came in on Monday - on time! This is a one pressing deal from Sony, and many retailers sold out in pre-order and can't get anymore. We didn't take pre-orders for it because I have a long memory and didn't trust Sony to set a firm street date. They've been selling briskly since we made then available on Monday and I'm sure our current stock won't last much longer.

The Gunbuster boxed set that we announced late last week absolutely vaporized, and our first allotment is just about gone - which is amazing when you consider we ordered an estimated 4 weeks worth up front - boy did we blow that number! We've already gone back to Bandai Visual for more, but they are also sold out, so once we run out we might have to wait a few weeks until more are pressed.

Rozen Maiden and Karin are now up pre-order, which I'm sure everyone will be happy about. We're still working on getting the final SKU info from Bandai on Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - they sure are taking their time getting that out to retailers, and we'd like to put the first volume up for pre-order as soon as possible.

For everyone that has one of the Iria Collectors Tins (AWDVD-0402) on backorder, sadly Media Blasters announced this week that they have given up on the tin cases and put the sets on permanent moratorium. We will be cancelling all backorders currently on the books for the tin. MB will be re-releasing the DVD only that came in the tin in May, so at least we'll still be able to get the series, just not in the neat collectors case.

One of my all time favs, the Arcadia of My Youth DVD, is going out of print this Spring. All units are last call, and it will not be available after our current stock is depleted. If you're a Harlock fan, you MUST see this movie!

Couple of date changes this week. Black Cat 3 got bumped from 3-6 to 3-20, and Bandai pushed Hack//Roots again back to April 17th now

In the good news segment, we finally received our shipment of good (fixed) Gundam Seed Destiny 6 DVD's from Bandai, and everyone we had replacement tickets setup for has now shipped out and people are already writing in to say the new disks work perfectly. If you've been holding off buying Vol #6 because of the initial problems, you can order a copy now with no worries.

Per your many requests, we've expanded our trade in program to take regular non-Anime DVD's and CD's. A lot of you have asked is there is any way we can take regular movies in trade, and now you can send us just about anything as long as it's a licensed official release, in excellent condition, and is something you don't want anymore. See our trade in page for the full story.

It's been a great week for early DVD arrivals with some key items like 2nd Raid Vol #3, Solty Rei #2, and Disgaea #2 coming into stock. A very light manga update this week as everyone except Ice Kunion took a break. Still, there are some exceptional new volumes from series like Antique Gift Shop and Hissing. We were not able to get any new figures up for pre-order this week (nor did we get any new figures in except the Revoltech Optimus Prime's) but from our post last week a lot of people are asking us how big those die-cast Tachikoma's are going to be - we're trying to find out exact specs now, and will post them as soon as we have reliable information on EXACTLY how big they are.

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend - and, as always, ENJOY your Anime! :-)

Slippery When Frozen - Happy Valentines Day!

Our fulfillment warehouse will be closed on Tuesday Feb 13th and Wednesday Feb 14th due to the huge snow and ice storm that has passed through our area. Because of the heavy icing I do not want our employees taking the risk of trying to come in to work until the roads are clear.

We will resume processing and shipping orders on Thursday Feb 15th, and we will work around the clock until we are caught up. The storm we experienced is worse in many areas of the north eastern part of the country, so please expect delivery delays to areas effected by the storm.

I took these photos today around our development. As you can see by the ones below, the only thing the ice doesn't bother are the geese over at the lake. :-)





Thank you for your patience and understanding - we'll be sure to setup the next warehouse in Tampa FL.... -_^

[UPDATE 2/15]: We're back in this morning. We had to chip away through about 6 inches of solid ice to get the rear bay doors of the warehouse open - of course they open out! The bottled water company left our Tuesday delivery outside the back door. Not only were the 5 gallon bottles frozen solid, but they were encased in ice and frozen to the pavement. We had to chip those free as well and bring them in to thaw. I wish I had my camera with me for that one!

As of 9:30am we have a full crew working furiously to get the order backlog caught up. We should be pretty much all caught up by tomorrow afternoon.

Irresistible!!

If you want a defintion of the word irresistible, here is Flash Gordon's (who writes our brilliant staff reviews) new dog Talullah...

...OMG, we just can't stop looking at the pictures...

Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya DVD Announced!

Bandai has (finally) announced that they will be releasing the first DVD of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya on May 29th. I know this will make a lot of folks very happy.

They announced the title in a video clip featuring three cute actresses dressed as characters from the series who 'invade' Bandai Entertainment's headquarters in CA and "liberate" the debut date for the first DVD in the series.

The highly anticipated Haruhi Suzumiya anime has been a huge hit in Japan where it has developed a cult following. An awful lot of fans have been e-mailing in asking us when it's coming out, and now we know!

We've contacted Bandai for SKU info and will have it up for pre-order the minute they provide us with the info.



Series Synopsis:

On the first day of high school a beautiful girl named Haruhi Suzumiya introduces herself as having "no interest in ordinary humans". She asks for any aliens, time travelers, sliders or espers to join her. Watching her weird behaviour is Kyon a boy who sits in front of Haruhi and is the only person who talks to her. Commenting on Haruhi's joining every club in school and then quitting Kyon unwittingly gives Haruhi an idea to start her own after school club. Thereafter Kyon and several others find themselves literally dragged into the Save our world by Overloading it with fun Suzumiya Haruhi's Brigade (the S.O.S. Brigade for short).

Updates - January 30th, 2007

I was talking a little bit in my last about how cold it was here at Anime Corner World Headquarters, but that was when it was around 30 degrees (F) outside. Last night it got down to 4 degrees with a 30mph wind so whatever perceptions I had last week have been shattered - it REALLY IS cold now! Of course, everything is relative, and while 4 degrees is extreme weather to someone living in Florida, it might seem like a nice day to someone living in, say, Minnesota. I was talking to one of our contacts at Navarre last week - they are up there in New Hope, MN. I was joking around with her that we would have to do lunch sometime, and she said lunch sounded great - as long as it was anywhere WARM!

Speaking of things that are 'relative', this coming Wednesday is my 37th birthday. Now before you all start sending in masses of birthday wishes (wink) you should probably know that it's mostly just a technical date and that I stopped officially aging at 29 (and mentally at about 17) so to me it's just my 8th 29th birthday... -_^

Seriously though, while everyone will tell you 37 is young, in Anime circles I'm considered 'relatively' old, at least among most of the fan base. Nothing is falling off yet though, and there are two or three Anime fans older than me, like my friend Jerry who turned 50 this week (happy birthday!). The cool thing about Anime for us 'old men' is that despite our rapid aging, it helps us stay young at heart - and that's all that really matters!

In the news this week we have one date change for you. Geneon has pushed the 4th Shana DVD a couple of weeks from March 6th to March 20th. We got the word that Solid State Society is coming to a DVD near you in July, and we've made it available to you in pre-order at 40% off MSRP for a limited time. Fun finally announced a new date for the rescheduled Initial D season 1 DVD boxed set (March 13th), and we also have made it available to you in pre-order for a short time at 40% off MSRP. In other news Funimation announced 5 new licenses this week as part of their 2007 kick-off event - Ragnarok: The Animation, Suzuka, Aquarion, Shuffle!, and My Santa. All 5 are set to begin coming out on DVD during the second half of 2007.

After getting some exchange requests, we hit up Bandai this week about the problem a few people are having with the Gundam Seed Destiny Vol #6 DVD where part of Episode 25 is not playable. Bandai did some investigating and found out that one batch (but not all) seems to have been delivered bad from the presser. Right now this problem appears to be effecting about 15% of customers, but we have pulled all of our GSD 6 DVD's and returned them to Bandai. I apologize in advance for any backorder situations that this may cause. Also, if you do have a bad disk, you can let us know and we'll replace it for you, or you can e-mail Larry at Bandai directly (vongl@bandai.com) and they will send you a new disk.

The backorder situation with Geneon continues (we are calling it the 'GENEON EFFECT' around here), as they still have not completed their warehouse move. A few catalog items have started to ship again, but all of the new January releases are still in transit and won't start to ship to retailers again until next week. We apologize for any backorder situations (or extended order holds) this has caused for titles like Disgaea - with Geneon being closed for almost a month now it's been a difficult situation for everyone. We're staying on top of them (I've really been giving them hell for not planning this better) and we will make sure we get these back in as quickly as possible in order to get your copies out to you. Hopefully in about another week this will all be just a memory.

Our work continues on updating our checkout process to make it more user friendly, and I think you will be very pleased with the results once we get it finished. One feature will be an integrated shipping/billing screen that will eliminate one step from the current checkout, and another will be a calculator right in the shopping cart that will allow you to apply a coupon code or credit code prior to checking out so you know what your order total will be ahead of time. And the big announcement is that we are planning to bring back PayPal as a payment method on a trial basis. Long time customers will remember the terrible fraud problems we had with Paypal back in 2004, but that was a long time ago and we're hoping things are better now. We've built an ASP right into the checkout process that will allow you to access your paypal account and fund your order quickly, easily, and securely through PayPal, and we are currently testing it to make sure there are no bugs or snags in the process. We're hoping to make that live around the second week of February, so stay tuned!

Lots of new DVD arrivals this week including Shadow Chronicles for all you Robotech fans, and the early arrival of the DBZ Vegeta remastered set. Since the DBZ set arrived early, I've extended the 40% off 'pre-order' price through the street date of February 6th, but they are shipping now! We have another batch of beautiful new PVC figures for you this week including the very large and beautiful 1/5 scale Chi's (we're calling her the B.F. Chi around here), and the burst version of Fate Testerossa which comes in a gorgeous window box. We've been diligently adding new figures for pre-order, and I've included a partial list below. Finally, since my birthday is coming up, I have some special B-Day coupons that will help you guys celebrate along with me!

To save 3% off any order over $37, use the following coupon code during checkout:

birthday37

Or, to save 5% off any order over $137, use the following coupon code during checkout:

birthday137

Or, to save 7% off any order over $337, use the following coupon code during checkout:

birthday337

Coupons are valid ONLY for NEW orders, and good through Wednesday, January 31st only, so don't wait!

Updates - January 19th, 2007

It's cold out here at Anime Corner World headquarters, but so far this winter we've managed to dodge the bullet of those ice and snow storms that have been hammering the western part of the country. It's good weather out here to curl up on the couch and enjoy a few new Anime episodes, and hopefully all those folks that will be ice'd in this weekend already have a few DVD's on top their entertainment center (and electricity) to view and enjoy! I know we will be!

Lots of stuff going down this week, so I'll get right to business. First, on the home front, Ron (our ops manager) got through his surgery just fine, and he'll be back with us in a few weeks. In Anime news this week are a couple of delays. First, Geneon pushed the release of Paradise Kiss 3 DVD back a week to Feb 27th, and Stuf needed to bump the first DVD of To Heart back a month from Feb 27th to March 27th as they need more time to get the quality of the transfer right. They also gave us the good news that the Season 2 Super Gals boxes are finally on the way to us, and in fact, they have arrived on our dock a few minutes ago and will start shipping today!


We've being doing inventory, and as a result, I've got some great deals on overstocks that we'd like to move out the door. We've added these items to the store specials page, but I've also provided a short list below of the ones that I think are the best deals - most are priced between 40% and 60% off retail (this week only though), so take advantage of our excess inventory to grab some of these fan favorite titles while they are on the cheap!

• Betterman DVD Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Anime Legends) - Only $29.98! (40% Off Retail)


• Black Cat, Vol #1, The Cat Out of the Bag DVD w/ Limited Art Box - Only $23.98! (40% Off Retail)


• Clockwork Fighters: Hiwou's War, Vol #1 DVD - Only $16.49! (45% Off Retail)


• Coyote Ragtime Show, Vol #1, Fox Trot DVD - Only $17.98! (40% Off Retail)


• Geneshaft Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Anime Legends) - Only $23.98! (40% Off Retail)


• Girls Bravo Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set - Only $83.98! (30% Off Retail)


• Gundam Seed Movie Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set - Only $29.98! (40% Off Retail)


• Kyo Kara Maoh!, Season 2, Vol #1 DVD w/ Limited Art 'Book' Box - Only $23.98! (40% Off Retail)


• Michel, Vol #1, The Pilot & The Prince DVD - Only $7.49! (50% Off Retail)


• Naruto DVD Collectors Special Limited Edition Boxed Set #1 (Uncut) - Only $44.98! - (37% Off Retail)


• Negima, Vol #3, Magic 301 Limited Edition DVD - Only $20.98! - (40% Off Retail)


• Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars, Vol #1 DVD w/ Art Box + Bonus T/S - Only $24.98! - (40% Off Retail)


• Tactics Vol #1 DVD - Only $9.98! (60% Off Retail)


• Voltron: Defender of the Universe DVD Collection #1 Tin Box (Eps #1-15) - Only $23.98! (40% Off Retail)


• Witch Hunter Robin Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Anime Legends) - Only $29.98! (40% Off Retail)
  
• Zipang, Vol #1, Future Shock DVD + Art Box - Only $20.98! (40% Off Retail)

Like many of you, we prefer to ship your orders through the postal service. Priority Mail is one of fastest and most cost effective delivery methods (as opposed to media mail, which is not), and we are right next to one of the big regional postal sorting facilities (SCF) here in the mid-Atlantic area, so we can deliver your orders incredibly fast no matter where you are for a great price. Direct Creative (an online marketing firm) likes the postal service too, and recently did some fun shipping tests to see how far they could push the envelope by shipping non-machinable items ranging from frying pans to wheels of cheese. The things they tried to ship are hilarious, and the results are fascinating!

A lot of you have been writing in to ask about when Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya might be released, and in the spirit of that ANN recently did a poll to find out what series fans are waiting for most out of six recent license announcements. As of this morning, the results looked like this:
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Bandai Entertainment) - 38.2%
Death Note (Viz Media) - 34.0%
Ah! My Goddess - Second season (ADV Films) - 7.6%
Rozen Maiden (Geneon Entertainment) - 5.1%
009-1 (ADV Films) - 1.5%
Ayakashi ~ Samurai Horror Tales (Geneon Entertainment) - 1.3%
None of these excite me - 12.2%

That's pretty definitive...

Otaku Blogger Steven Den Beste recently picked up the Battle Athletes OVA and liked it. That made me feel pretty good since I was one of the people that recommended it, and it would have been my ass if he hadn't. Phew! My career in Anime can continue a while longer... :-) He has quite a few interesting comments on it over at Chizumatic. Since then, there has been some discussion as to if the TV series is better than the OVA, and most people seem to agree that the TV series is better. For the record, I favored the OVA, but I like both versions very much. I saw the OVA first, and thought the length was perfect for the story they were trying to tell. The Battle Athletes TV series (Victory) is also very good, and the viewer benefits by being able to get much more back story on the events and some extra character development. I just felt that (like many Anime TV series) 26 eps was probably a little too long for this story, and some of the plot lines got a little tired before the end. They also had time to develop more characters, and I felt that the length of the OVA kept the plot focus tight on Akari and Kris, my two favorites. A little trivia - this is a pretty old release, but it sold great during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.



As many of you know, Funimation never finished the original uncut re-release of the DBZ Vegeta Saga last summer, and I know a lot of you guys were pretty upset about it. Now that the new boxed set is coming up, I've worked out a deal with Funimation to help makeup for the long wait. Not only are the episodes contained in the new boxed set uncut and brilliantly remastered in high def, but we're offering it to you during the pre-order period for a full 40% off the retail price! That's like getting all 39 eps of Vegeta for the price of one DVD! Get your order in today though, because we only have a limited number of boxes on order for the special price, and once they've been allocated this special price will be gone!

We have lots of new items for you this week, including several very early DVD arrivals like Trinity Blood 4, Air Gear, Pani Poni 2, Black Cat 2, along with new manga from Netcomics, ADV, and Dark Horse. We received another excellent batch of new figures including the girls from Eureka 7, a new version of Ingis from Orchid Seed, and the gorgeous Kotona Elegance from Zoids who probably could not be wearing any less otherwise she'd be completely nude! We also received the Elwing figure from Shining Tears that has been a long time coming and that everyone has been waiting for. Finally, we've added some of the latest pocky flavors and snacks to come out of Japan, including the delicious dessert called Yokan that is made from bean paste and has been mistaken during airport security checks for blocks of plastic explosive.

No, I'm not kidding about that! :-)

Busier than a One Armed Paper Hanger

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks. I actually took some time off over the holidays, and now I'm paying for it.

I started the year behind on paperwork, and things have just snowballed as the beginning of every year means lots of things hit that can't be put off. End of year inventory is one. That's huge. Certain business tax filings are another (like payroll filings so the employees can get their W2's before the end of January). Then there are the endless meetings and paperwork for insurance renewals, employee benefits package reviews, business license renewals (and the dreaded form 6 for declaring our assets so they can be taxed - yet again), annual meetings with the shippers to try to stave off another years worth of annual increases, renewing our vendor contracts - stuff like that. I've have at least one meeting with someone every day next week except for Friday. For the first two weeks of January the business allows me to focus about 90% on bureaucracy and about 10% on Anime, which sucks frankly. Sometimes it makes me look back on having a real job with nostalgia. Well, not really. That sucked too - but that sucked ALL year.

Anyway, I'm still up at 2:30am this morning plowing through paperwork, and I'm hoping that after a few more days I can get my head above water and post something meaningful here again.

Happy new year everyone! Watch some Anime for me this week.... :-)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

A very Merry Christmas from all of us here at the Anime Corner. I wish all of you, and your family, and happy and safe holiday season.

Sincerely,

-Robert

Updates - December 17th, 2006

Needless to say, it's been controlled chaos here over the last few days. We have been treating every order as time sensitive no matter what the shipping method is, and the crew here has really been busting butt to get as many orders pulled, prepped, and shipped as quickly as possible. They have been cutting off orders within minutes of the post office closing at 7pm, and we've been shuttling FedEx orders up to the Air Shipping station down the street as late as 7:30pm in the evening so they get on a plane that day. We hope all of your orders arrive on time and when you need them.

Friday was our 'official' cutoff for ground and US Mail shipments to get in the system and still have a chance to make it to you by Dec 24th. That said, most UPS ground and Priority Mail shipments put in the system up through the 18th might still get to you on time. After that, it will all depend on how close you are to our facility (and if you have good joss). If you need to be sure your stuff arrives on time, I cooked up a great Flat Rate 2nd Day air deal for only $12.98 that should have you smiling! This offer is good until Monday, and it gives you guys a way to get time sensitive orders on time for a good price even at this late stage of the game. After Wednesday of next week, please choose FedEx overnight for your time critical orders and we'll do our best to see that it gets to you before Christmas weekend.


One of the small pleasures of doing customer service this time of year is answering the hundreds of customer e-mails that poor in - especially at the last minute from panicking people who are desperate that their attentions are seen to. As I spend my Sunday combing through e-mails and returning timely and courteous answers, here are examples of a few and how, well, after a long day I would like to answer them:

'I need an item by Christmas, but I can only ship it to a PO Box. Why won't the store allow and order to ship FedEx to a PO Box?'

Sometimes I can't believe how many people still don't know this. Only the postal service can deliver to a post office box. Your SOL for Christmas delivery without a street address for air service. No, I can't 'make' FedEx deliver there, no matter how bad you want them to. Happy Holidays.

'My credit card is being declined, but I know it's good. Why won't your @#$%ing store take my credit card??!!'

Your bank's declining it, not us. Why don't you call your @#$%ing bank and find out why your balance is overdrawn, or you last payment hasn't been processed yet instead of bugging me. Happy Holidays.

'I'm sorry, I need to cancel an order I just made immediately as I do not have enough money to pay for it. I need a full refund and the order canceled ASAP!! Thank you for your time.'

What do you tell the folks at the supermarket when they've just checked and bagged 100 items and you find out your debit card is overdrawn? ~sigh~ Clearly my time means little to you, but thanks for saying thanks and taking up a little more of it. I live to serve. Happy holidays.

'My order shipped on the 11th via Priority Mail and it's now the 15th and it has not yet arrived. Please explain to me why it is not here yet since I paid extra for Priority Mail, and please check and see if there was some problem that delayed shipment'

DO you have a calendar? Every mother loving SOB on the planet, and their brother, is shipping parcels to someone right now. There is so much extra volume that postal workers are committing ritual sepuku by the dozens. Keep your pants on, it will be there shortly. Happy holidays.

'How late can I order and still get my items before Christmas?'

Basically, about 3 Days ago. But if you select Air and order now and we still have everything in stock we might still pull it off. You're welcome. Happy holidays.

'Some other store says they can ship by ground up until the 19th and still guarantee Christmas delivery. Why don't you?'

No one can guarantee ground delivery on shipments that late. They lie. We don't. Happy holidays.

'I know you're really busy right now, but when you get a chance can you tell me when XX series is going to be released on DVD?'

Considering I've never even heard of 'XX' series, it's probably a long way off getting out on DVD here in the US. By the way, we do have an upcoming releases page you can check, but that's OK, you're probably assuming that we might have missed it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. And yes we are very busy, but thanks for at least acknowledging that. Happy holidays.

'I just placed an order [Sunday Evening] and I just wanted to make sure the order ships out first thing on Monday so I get it by Christmas. Thanks!'

There are about 1,000 orders from Friday and Saturday ahead of you, but I'll tell you what, for fifty bucks I'll move you right to the head of the stack. Yeah, I said fifty bucks - by tomorrow morning it might be more. I know, the audacity to give my people the weekend off. Oh, I see you ordered all $5 sale items, choose free shipping and used a discount coupon at checkout. Yeah, we'll jump right on that one. Happy holidays.

Anyway, just a little fun after 3 weeks of non stop work. All names have been changed to protect the guilty. One of the studios sent me a bottle of Sake as a holiday gift.

After this week, I'm certainly going to be able to put it to good use... -_^

A couple of notable date changes in the news this week. Illumination pushed back their entire catalog including Vandel Buster, BtX, Am Driver, etc. See the full list in our news clips below. Geneon also let us know that the release of the initial volume of Princess Racoon has been changed from January to June 07. No reason was given for the delay. Bandai (our favorite company this year -_^) told us that the Gundam Seed Movie trilogy Box (26024) is now sold out at their level, and they are not sure if they are going to repress it again, so (~ sigh ~) we've put it on 'Stock on Hand' status and we'll see what happens.

Finally, Geneon delayed the Ergo Proxy art box one more week, and is now telling us we should have them on Monday or Tuesday next week. We'll see.

Terence, who is a regular RACS customer and also an avid photographer, has put up a site with pictures from several of the cons he attended this year. His gallery is definitely worth a look. His photographer friend Jerry also has a nice site setup with many cos-play picks from his recent Convention stops.

We got so many e-mails from folks about our 48 hour sale (basically saying it was too short), that I decided to keep it running through the weekend until Monday to give everyone more time to take advantage of that rare deep discount coupon we're offering. See the side bar for complete details and coupon codes - they are good through this weekend on every item in the store (EXCEPT our Cardcaptor Bundle)! The figure sale will continue through next week, and the coupons can be taken right on top of those sale prices. We've got end of year inventory coming up, and the less we have to count the better - so I'm going to try to keep these kind of great deals coming at ya!

Our first batch of the last call $69.98 Card Captor Sakura DVD bundles have arrived and most shipped on Friday. Our entire first batch is going to fill pre-orders and we've already pre-sold about 70% of our current allocation of them. We have these priced at 87% off the retail price and 10% to 15% lower than some of those 'brand x' guys and people are gobbling them up very quickly. If you still want one then get your order in soon as I think these bundles are going to sell out in a few more days. After several interminable delays, we have finally received our copies of Eureka Seven #5, just not in time to get it a blurb in this weeks newsletter.




We also got in IGPX #7 and the latest re-release Yu Yu Hakusho volume. They will get official notice on the site sometime shortly. We received a fairly large new manga shipment this week, and while we were able to get the first 45 books posted to the site, the rest (about 20 more) will be following up this weekend as well. Most of the distributor and studio warehouses close up next week for the holidays and don't reopen until after the new year, so I'm not looking for many big new figure and toy arrivals until early January...

...that's fine though, it will give us a chance to rest and digest some of the stuff we already have. And goodness knows, we'll need it! :-)

Updates - December 9th, 2006

It's crunch time!

Over the next few days we will fill more orders a day than we usually do in a week during the rest of the year, we will respond to every sort of customer question regarding stock levels and delivery times, and we will be totally exhausted by the time it's all done! Did I miss anything? Oh yes, a reminder that if you are just now getting your holiday gifts ordered then you have officially waited until the last minute. :-) If you are ordering over the next few days, please make sure to check our holiday shipping schedule and choose your shipping method wisely. Please don't automatically expect us to be able to get your order out the day you place it (though we will try very hard).

Also, don't forget that super saver orders by their nature get the lowest priority on the shipping line and that orders shipping FedEx Overnight, then 2nd Day, then Pri Mail, then Ground service get the highest priority on the line no matter what order we receive them in.

In Anime news this week, I have to sadly report that ADV has informed us that Golden Boy has finally gone permanently out of print, and they will no longer be replicating it - probably due to a license expiration. There are several other older ADV titles that have been on backorder for awhile and we have inquired to them for status updates. Geneon reported to us that the new Fate/Stay box that we received this week is completely sold out at their level, and we won't be able to get anymore until near the street date. We had just enough out of our first allocation to fill all of your pre-books and a few new orders, and then immediately had to put it back on pre-order status. We'll have them in stock again around the 19th, but that shipment will include the remainder of our allocation from Geneon as we won't be able to get anymore after that.



Geneon also let us know that there won't be anymore Hellsing Ultimate Limited editions made until after the New Year, and only a few at that. We have already sold 80% of our Limiteds, and we are shipping those first come first serve until they run out.

We have had excellent order fills so far this holiday season, but a couple of items have caused us some consternation like Stray Little Devil 2, Tsukuyumi Moon Phase 2, and Tsukihime 2 manga's. All three are sold out at the manufacturer and we probably won't be able to restock them until after Christmas. On the DVD side the Ergo Proxy Vol #1 w/ Art Box still is not in, but Geneon promises that we should have it no later than Monday next week. Also, Bandai was late getting out Eureka Seven Vol #5, but we're expecting both the regular and special edition to arrive today - hopefully - or Monday at the latest. :-)

The final piece of news is another disappointment. 4Kids announced this week that they are giving up on the One Piece series due to low sales and ratings. Honestly I think the execs at 4Kids need an education in Anime fandom, as they obviously licensed the title primarily for TV broadcast and thus did not option the unedited Japanese content for release. This meant that Viz had only the terrible edited dubbed version to release on DVD, and accounts for the low sales numbers and TV ratings. I remember when Geneon tried to do the same thing with Cardcaptors. The really bad news is that 4Kid's contract ties up the license until 2009, so there is no chance for an uncut release until after that. You can get the full story on this over in our news section.

All of you know that I pick 3 or 4 of your comments each week to feature in the newsletter (a little shameless promotion), but here is one that I wanted to highlight. Richard, who is currently serving in Iraq, wrote in a couple days ago to say:

"Wanted to say that again and again this site delivers beyond expectations. I always seem to get the good prices, good products and good delivery times. I even received my items in a timely manner while stationed in Baghdad, Iraq. The greatest thing about that is that unlike some services, Robert's Anime Corner Store actually ships to APO/FPO addresses. Without this site, my tour of duty would have felt much longer than it was." - Richard

The greatest thing about getting feedback like this is that we have the honor to serve those who are serving our country. Hats off to YOU Richard! We're glad we could make your tour a little easier and you and your mates will be in our thoughts and prayers over the holidays.

We've posted several more excellent Q1 and Q2 2007 figures for pre-order.
Here is the latest rundown:

Emma
Hauruhi
Angel
Shinku
Louise
Amano
Rin

It certainly has been an excellent week for new arrivals. Aside from a few studio glitches which I mentioned earlier, we have just about all but a handful of DVD titles scheduled to street prior to Christmas in stock now, including Black Cat, Ergo Proxy, Trinity Blood 3, Hellsing Ultimate, Rumbling Hearts, Fate/Stay, Paradise Kiss, Naruto Season 2 Uncut, and the list goes on and on! This is the last week for non-panic holiday shopping, so be sure to checkout our specials page for all the great holiday deals we are currently offering.

We still have our entire figure section on sale (these make great gifts!), and we are also offering an additional 10% off a selected list, which you can find here.

Our $5 soundtrack sale is still in effect for a bit longer, that list is here.

We still have a few titles left in our Geneon $5 DVD sale. Some are only $4 now.

We have lots of closeout titles discounted up to 75% off retail, which are listed here.

And finally, as you may be aware, Geneon's license for CardCaptor Sakura is expiring on Dec 31st, and the DVD's will not be available after that date. We have done a deal with them that allows us to offer you an unbelievable price on all 18 of the uncut subtitled series DVD's. We expect these bundles to arrive in about a week, and we will shipping them first come first served. If you don't already have it, this will be your last chance to get the CardCaptors series before it goes off the market.

Cardcaptor Sakura Complete Series Set, Vol #1-18, DVD Mega-Bundle (Uncut Subtitled Edition)
Your Price is ONLY $69.98! - Retail Price $539.82 (That's 87% off the Retail Price!)

Now that's a deal worth offering! Happy holidays!

Updates - December 3rd, 2006

So far so good, things are going smoothly here at Anime Corner world headquarters during the first week of holiday cyber madness. Our new facility gives us so much more capacity that we have not had any problems getting orders shipped on a daily basis. We are also seeing truly excellent fill rates and very few stock outs or backorders thus far ('thus far' being the key operative there), much better than last year. Orders are being delivered even faster this year. We are now able to get most pre-orders shipped out the same day the product arrives, and we are able to get the store updated almost in real time. For instance, yesterday when the Naruto uncut boxed sets arrived, the site was updated to reflect that they were in stock within 40 minutes of them being unloaded. Even though they came very late in the day, pre order tickets were printed last night and the orders have already been filled early the next morning. I want to give kudo's to our staff who are doing just a fantastic job of keeping everything running smoothly during the rush. This coming week will be the real test, as the start of December seems to have kicked people into a shopping frenzy and our order volume so far over the weekend has been...

well...

...it's going to be one hell of a week!

The folks in the mid-west have seen a virtual white out this week due to the first major snowstorm of the year. It looks like just rain and wind for us here, but I'm sure there will be some limited parcel delays in the effected areas, so keep that in mind when ordering and give your parcel an extra day or two to be delivered.

This week Flash Gordon completes his reviews of the Patlabor TV and OVA series with overall ratings and episode guides for the original OVA and the New Files releases.

In the news this week we have a few more product delays. This year the studios across the board have really been struggling to get their releases out on time, and I can't remember when there have been more delays and cancellations. Geneon managed to ship the first DVD of Ergo Proxy on time, but an issue has delayed delivery of the box version until sometime next week. Even as of this morning they were not able to pin down an exact delivery date. Media Blasters says the new Invader Zim boxed set probably won't be shipping to retailers now until the 2nd week of December. They also delayed the second Voltron Tin, resetting the release date back a couple of weeks to 12-12. We've had some trouble recently getting timely manga restocks from Dr. Master, and I'm trying to find out what the story is there. Finally, things have been a little sparse stock wise on the import side as we have not taken any new deliveries from Tokyo since September. We now have our first post move import shipment in process, and will be getting our import stock back up to par shortly. I want to thank everyone waiting for an import CD for their patience during this period.

Anyone planning on getting me something for Christmas? This is what I want ...

We have several new figure arrivals for you this week, including a wonderful version of Ryogi Shiki and another excellent Igunis figure, this one from Max Factory. Now that the relocation is behind us, we have also started putting up new figures for pre-order - the first of which being two beautiful figures from Rumble Roses due in next April. Don't forget, our holiday figure sale is still going on and you have the chance to really stock on one some great figures right now at close to our cost. We also have another excellent manga update this week including two new series Nosatsu Junkie and Soul Rescue from ToykoPop, and new additions to series like Girls Bravo, Moon Phase, Beck, and Yubisaki Milk Tea.

Geneon did get Hellsing Ultimate shipped on time, but just barely. We received the regular edition on Thursday, but the limited's are not due to arrive until the day before or of the street date. We'll get those guys shipped as soon as they hit the dock. We received our Hellsing Ultimate screener copies last week, and after watching it a couple of times I think the worst thing about it is going to be the long wait between volumes! ^_^ I'm checking right now on the status of Eureka Seven #5, and I'm hoping Bandai will tell us it's already in transit since it streets next week. On the flip side of the delivery coin, ADV has been getting us their titles 2 or 3 weeks early. Last week we saw Pani Poni Dash arrive, and this week we received Nerima Daikon Brothers which was originally not scheduled to come out until Dec 19th. We also received the FUMOFFU and E's Otherwise thin-paks a couple of weeks early. Hopefully this trend will continue and all the other pre-Christmas releases will be in stock in plenty of time for you to enjoy them over the holidays.

In the mean time, we'll stay on top of everything and concentrate on getting all your holiday orders shipped as quickly and as complete as possible!

[UPDATE]: The Invader Zimm DVD Boxed sets have now arrived. Figures. :-)

[UPDATE]: Bandai reports that Eureka 7 Vol #5 shipped late from their replicator (par for the course these days), but they are now shipping them out to retailers, so it looks like it will arrive here around mid-week this week.