Updates - November 2nd, 2007

Now that the Ghosts and Ghouls of Halloween have been put to bed for another year, we find that the holiday shopping season is upon us, so we know that crunch time is only a couple of weeks away (you can always tell what time of year it is by the amount of window dressing the other retailers are doing). This year will be different from previous years in that there will be a larger than usual amount of items that are being discontinued or will be harder to get, and to complicate matters the studios have made it clear that they will not be carrying large holiday inventories as they have in the past, so my advice is to shop early and get your holiday gift items ordered well before the crunch that occurs between Thanksgiving and about the second week of December. As always, we'll be stocking up and working overtime so that we can do the very best job possible for you.

This week we finally received confirmation of what we already knew - that Illumitoon is pretty much history (at least from doing anymore DVD releases), which leaves several rather lackluster series like BoBoBo, B'tX, and Beet the Vandel Buster incomplete on DVD. It also leaves the DVD release of AM Driver canceled altogether. I don't think that Illumitoons demise is a product of a weak market, I think it was a product of bad management. The company was fairly new, formed by a group of former Funimation execs who got some venture capital and tried to license and produce series that they thought would be mainstream hits, only to release those titles with a very poor marketing and distribution infrastructure. They did manage to get their titles picked up for cable TV, but they never put any weight behind the DVD releases which were actually produced on the cheap and poorly packaged - so they never developed a following and thus, they are now gone from the DVD scene. My feelings are with the fans that did start to collect their series, but at least we can take solace that their they only got one or two volumes of each series out and that fans have not made too large an investment in their products.


Bandai Entertainment and Kadokawa are leading us to believe that they will be releasing Lucky Star soon, which is quite exciting. Bandai has no comment on the show for now, but they have included a teaser trailer on the forth Haruhi DVD, and you can view that trailer here. Bandai will probably make a formal announcement once they have set a date for the release, and we'll be anxiously awaiting that!

The folks at Adult Source Media called us up and asked if we would like to run a sale on their items through some of November, and I thought it was a great idea, so you can now save up to 40% off on all of their titles. Adults only for a limited time!

All ASM Titles On Sale Up to 40% Off MSRP! Limited Time!

It's been a heck of a week in regards to new arrivals, with most of the studios pushing titles out to us deep into November's release schedule. I love it when we get stuff in before anyone else, especially when we are able to get a new release to you 2, 3 or maybe even 4 weeks before people can buy it at the store. This week we are shipping Death Note 1, the final volume of Haruhi, Witchblade 2, My-Otome 3 and tons of others way before fans going to place like Best Buy will ever see them. You can always count on us to have it first (shameless plug).

It's the first week of a new month, and as usual we received an absolutely HUGE new manga shipment on Wednesday that included great stuff like Claymore 10, Silver Rain 7, Shana 2 and several excellent new series such as Fall in Love Like a Comic and Yagyu Ninja Scrolls - 51 new manga in all! We also have another lavish new figure update, and I wanted to mention that - once again - the new Motoko figure has sold out within 24 hours of her arrival, just like the last one. Sorry if you missed her! I also want to mention that we have not yet received our entire shipment of the gorgeous Saber Maid figure, and what we do have is already spoken for, but the rest of her are in transit now and will be arriving mid-next week so get your orders in now before she sells out! Check below for the scoop on everything that's come in, or check our updates page for the complete story!

My parting word for you this week is - CHI! That's it for this week.

Have a great week - and remember - ENJOY your Anime! :-)

Updates - October 26th, 2007

The wildfires out in Southern California went from mess to catastrophe this week, but the firefighters (who are doing an incredible job) out there did catch a break mid-week when the winds shifted and gave them the opportunity to try to get the fires under some level of control. On our end the postal service has issued a notice that several areas of Southern California will be out of service where the post offices have been closed:

Malibu, CA (90265), Dulzura (91917), Jamul (91935), Potrero (91963), Rancho Bernardo (92127/8), Escondido (92025), Fallbrook (92028), Palomar Mountain (92060) Pauma Valley (92061), Rancho Santa Fe (92067), San Marcos (92069), Santa Ysabel (92070), Valley Center (92082) and Warner Springs (92086), Blue Jay (92317), Cedar Glen (92321), Crestline (92325), Fawnskin (92333), Green Valley Lake (92341), Lake Arrowhead (92352), Rimforest (92378), Running Springs (92382), Skyforest (92385), Twin Peaks (92391)

The list gives you a good idea of how widespread the damage is. We will probably not be able to ship to these areas for some time so if you live in one of the effected areas and have anything on order with us please e-mail us at your convenience to make alternative delivery arrangements. Our thoughts are with everyone effected by this disaster, and we're here to serve you in any way we can.

Courtesy of Steven DB, here is a great blog entry from Jason that rounds up the new fall series in Japan including Gundam 00 and Clannad. Check it out as it gives us a taste of what we'll be seeing here in late 2008 or early 2009.

One show that you won't see featured is Romeo X Juliet which was released in Japan this past Spring and has been getting some incredible reviews in the fan community. As a fan of the Baz Luhrmann movie version of Romeo and Juliet (you know, the one with Leonardo DiCaprio & Claire Danes), I can never get enough of the story and the Anime is something fantasy/romance genre fans can really look forward to. And I'm sure many of you have already read a lot about it as it's been a bit controversial. It was being heavily fansubbed shortly after it's Japanese TV debut (it's still in DVD release in Japan now), and Gonzo made the bold move of giving Funimation the rights to enforce their copyright here in the US before the series was officially licensed, and so Fun did sending out several cease and desist letters to fan sub sites earlier this year - a topic that's been highly debated in the fan community. You know there was actually a letter from the Japanese Government this week in that regards. Anyway, for those of us who wait for the officially licensed releases, here's the OP. :-)

We learned this week that fellow Anime fan Christian Neff was killed in action in Baghdad on September 19. The Savannah Morning News reported that a tree planted in his honor has been decorated by family members with an anime character figure at the United States Army's Fort Stewart in Georgia. Because Neff was an anime fan, his family hung one of his figures from the newly dedicated tree. Our thoughts and prayers go with his family.

Ron just shot me a text message and told me that two new titles from Funimation just hit the dock and are being unloaded as I write this: Witchblade 2 , and BECK 4. I haven't announced either on the site yet, but they are both being checked in now and will be shipping with orders today. You heard it here first!

This week we've had some excellent new DVD arrivals including the final volume of Haruhi (though just the single so far), Eureka Seven, and Guyver + the first volumes of the new series Venus Versus Virus and Simoun. ADV has told us that the pressing of Goddess 4 and Air 3 will be coming a little late, but we should get our copies in before the street dates. We also have some absolutely lavish new figure arrivals for you including lots of stuff from Tandem Twins and Queens Blade. Check below for the scoop on everything that's come in, or check our updates page for the complete story!

My parting word for you this week is - Baaaaaaaaa-d!

That's it for this now. Have a great week - and ENJOY your Anime! :-)

Updates - October 19th, 2007

So let's see, what going on? Hmmmm....

I have two minor date changes to report this week as Bandai Visual shuffles their release schedule around a bit. Super Robot Wars Devine Wars and Freedom 3 have been bumped from Nov 13th to Dec 11th. The good news is that we have completed distribution arrangements with Bandai Visual so that we will continue to receive their new titles. We will also be able to restock their existing titles, so you can now order them with confidence.

There have been two licensing announcements recently that I got really excited about. First ADV picked up Kanon, which is a fabulous Comedy/Drama that was originally an 18+ PC Game and has been way too long coming to the North American market. How do I know that Kanon is fabulous if it's not out yet? - don't ask questions grasshopper... 'some people' say Kanon is one of the best Anime ever made - here's a little taste...

Also, John Sirabella recently announced that Media Blasters has licensed Mahou Shoujo Tai Aris (Tweeny Witches), an Adventure/Comedy from Studio 4C. OP can be seen here.

Both titles should appear on DVD early next year.

It's been 3 weeks now - so what's going on with Geneon? In a word - 'nothing'. If they're working on something they are not giving any hint as to what it is. Despite our best efforts and a huge final reorder we did with them their titles have already started to stockout, and as our original inventory evaporates we've been forced to buy some of their items from middlemen at higher cost just to keep them in stock a little bit longer. I had hoped we could keep their items mostly in stock through the holidays, but instead of the 3x or 4x volume increase I had guessed, it has been something more like 20x so Geneon titles have literally vaporized out of our warehouse. For example, we shipped more volumes of Fate/Stay #6 in 24 hours than in seven weeks for volume #5. Still, we'll do our best to keep these items available as long as we can, even if we have to buy them at a higher wholesale cost. Right now the series that are in the most jeopardy of selling out are Shana, Fate/Stay, Ergo Proxy, Dears, and Girls Bravo. Unless we can find more re-supplies these series may be completely gone by the end of the month.

While I'm discussing industry stuff, I just want to take a bit of time and rant about a certain manga publisher. If you've read me for awhile you know it's no secret that I've had some angst in the past with the way TokyoPop handles their business, and recently has been no exception. Some times I want knock on some of these industry executives heads and ask "hello, is anybody home??!!" :-) I personally do not believe that a manga publisher should allow older volumes of a manga series to go out of print while new volumes are still being released. Economics be damned. Makes it impossible to offer customers value bundles, and also guarantees declining market share for longer running series as newer volumes are released. I also don't believe that a manga publisher should hold certain titles hostage to the marketplace by only making them available directly from the publishers web site. But these are not the only problems. Recently we've had supply issues with TokyoPop titles in that the initial pressings of their books seem to be way too small, so when demand exceeds initial expectations these issues are not readily available for re-order and then can take weeks to restock. Come on TP, you guys can do better for us than this. Nuf said.

Ron (direct from the warehouse) say's that Naruto 17 (Zero Hour) just hit the dock and is being unloaded now. It will be added to the other new arrivals that came in this week like Hell Girl, GSD 11, Flag, and of course, the 2nd volume of Karas. We're offering Karas at 40% off the MSRP to help everyone forget the long wait of nearly 2 years. We had a relatively light week for new manga and figure arrivals, but have started to catch up on new posts and managed to get about 20 new figures up for pre-order. Many more to come in the following days. Finally we posted some of the new music CD's that recently arrived from Tokyo, including the great single by Hikaru Utada from the new Evangelion movie. Check below for the scoop on everything that's come in, or check our updates page for the complete story!

My parting word for you this week is - Otaha!

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

Updates - October 12th, 2007

Ahhhhh, Autumn is finally here! After more scorching hot weather this month the air has finally turned cooler, there is a gentle breeze in the air, and the leaves are starting to change colors. It even smells like fall! Jamie and I will be shopping this weekend for a good Halloween pumpkin to carve, and in that spirit we're going to build our first fire of the season and try out a few episodes of Pumpkin Scissors which I've heard good things about. We're also going to finish up Ergo Proxy (I absolutely love Re-L's character), and as I've gone out of my way not to read anything about the end make sure not to write in over the weekend and tell me about it! :-)

I've got two scheduling announcements for you this week. First, the on again/off again second Hare Guu OVA was pushed back by Funimation from Oct 30th to Nov 20th, but in the same breath they also announced that the Burst Angel OVA is back on the schedule and is now due out Nov 13th. We still have all your pre-orders for it on the books from when it had been set to street over the summer, so no need to reorder it if you already have. Two more CPM titles are off the radar - Angel Sanctuary and RG Veda. They will not be repressed, but we're pretty much assuming that none of CPM's titles will be repressed again once existing stocks are depleted.

Eiji Orii, the president of Geneon, issued a letter to fans a few days ago, that in typical Japanese fashion it said mostly nothing. On our end we received our huge - and final - factory restock from Geneon this week. So aside from a few remaining backorders and the handful of pre-order items still left to be released that's the last of what we will be getting from them. I've spent the last week filling holes in our Geneon inventory from anywhere we could find it, and going forward we will continue to cross buy Geneon products from middlemen and distributors (though many of the big ones have already been picked clean), and even other retailers if necessary in order to keep their titles in stock as long as possible and to make sure that any backorders we book for you will be filled. Once these titles run out and we can no longer obtain them from any other sources we'll begin the forlorn task of taking them down off the store site.

You know, Ocean studios had actually finished dubbing Black Lagoon Second Barrage - which is a bitter pill, but that also means it would probably be one of the first new releases should some miracle deal get done. Several people have written in asking how we are handling pre-orders for the post Nov 6th Geneon releases that have been canceled. As it stands now we're assuming those titles are not going to be produced (as Geneon has stated) and we've stopped accepting pre-orders for them, however, existing pre-orders will remain on our books through the middle of November 'just in case' there is some surprise announcement that somehow these titles will in fact be released - though that appears very unlikely in the short term.

For Bandai Visual titles, we're going to continue to post their new solicitations to the site for pre-order, though some of the nearer terms titles may still be delayed as they have yet to arrange new retail distribution for their DVD releases. It's going to be an interesting holiday season to say the least.

We've been so tied up dealing with the Geneon debacle over the last couple of weeks that a few scheduled updates had to slip, but now that we're getting caught up we'll be getting back on track. We have quite a few first quarter 2008 figures to get posted for pre-order, and we've just received another large shipment of import music CD's from Tokyo and have about 70 new ones to post to the site - including the excellent CD single from the new Evangelion movie. Look for those to start going up next week. I've also got a holiday gift guide in the works, and that should be going up sometime in early November - right around the time the 2008 import calendars begin to arrive. We will be bringing in a limited number of Japanese calendars this year, but after being burned in the previous years for quantities, we're not going to post them to the site until they actually arrive from Tokyo. The exchange rate is pretty fair right now, so we should be able to price them pretty good as well.

This week, as usual, we've got lots of new stuff (in all categories) already on the site for you guys and gals to peruse this weekend. In addition to new DVD titles we were restocked on both the Gits Solid State Society Limited Edition and the Gits SAC Season 1 DVD Boxed Set. We've got both priced at 40% off retail everyday, so don't be shy. Did I mention they would make great gifts? :-) We also have the Fate/Stay, Ergo Proxy, and Shana DVD bundles available again for a limited time. Several new manga series arrived this week including two excellent horror titles - Variante and Presents. If you have been reading me for awhile, you know that's right up my alley. The best selling manga from last week was by far Vol #17 of Ai Yori Aoshi - so much so that it completely sold out earlier this week (more copies are on the way). For you adult fans we restocked Pink Sniper this week which has been unavailable for months. And finally we have some excellent new figures in stock like the gorgeous Gothic Lolita Kanu-Unchou from Ikki Tousen and the Masane Power-Up figure from Witchblade - of which we only have a few. Check below for the scoop on everything that's come in, or check our updates page for the complete story!

My parting word for you this week is - Kos-Mos!

That's it for this week. Have a great day - and ENJOY your Anime! :-)

Updates - October 5th, 2007

This week has actually been a bit surreal. Not only has the weather been unseasonably warm (still feels like August), we have needed to drop all other plans for a few days to focus on Geneon's departure. Still, chaos is business as usual in the Anime industry, and we've been through stuff like this many times before. As we come up for air we find that time has crept up on us and the holiday shopping season is only a few weeks away, so it's time for us to start getting ready for that as well. Even with some of the Geneon stuff going away, there are still many great titles in the pipeline, and those are what we're going to be focusing on in the coming weeks.

So no news is good news, aye? Baka. -_^

There were a couple of delay announcements this week, all from Bandai:

Galaxy Angel AA, Vol #3 DVD Oct 3rd to Oct 23rd
Eureka Seven, Vol #10 DVD Nov 6th to Nov 13th
Eureka Seven, Vol #10 DVD Limited Edition Nov 6th to Nov 13th

None of them are really a big deal and the delays look routine.

In store news we have finally let go of DHL as an international carrier, which has been a long time coming. I know that we still have a handful of customers who prefer them, but their service has been steadily deteriorating for the past couple of years while their delivery pricing has skyrocketed with higher rates, extra fees, and ridiculous fuel charges exceeding 30% to some destinations. FedEx has proven themselves to provide our customers better express service worldwide at lower shipping rates. And, of course, you will still be able to select regular Airmail or Express Mail services if you prefer economical delivery of your orders by the postal service.

Bosatsu has created another absolutely brilliant set of top banners for us featuring more of the Anime Corner girls engaged in various antics. Look for more of them to appear in our regular rotation over the next few weeks!

Bandai Visual, who sports several excellent (but overpriced) DVD releases, has yet to find a new distribution partner since dissolving their partnership with Geneon last week. So a couple of days ago they announced that their corporate website will become their 'interim' retail channel, meaning that they are self distributing directly to the public until they can find another suitable partner to keep their stuff in the stores. So for now they temporarily are without a warehouse operation and retailers cannot restock their product, at least not directly. This will also probably delay retailer availability of their upcoming titles in the next few weeks. I love most of what Bandai Visual publishes, but I like virtually nothing about the company itself (I've written about their pricing strategy before). From conversations with some high ups at other Anime companies I understand that their retailer and distribution agreement is difficult and highly unprofitable for the company handling their titles, which explains some of why they are looking for a third distribution partner in less than a year. My advice to them is to get a new distribution agreement in place ASAP. I like Tatsunori Konno (the head of BV) as he's a very smart guy, but his attempts to remake the US Anime market into a mirror image of Japan's has no future.

I finally spoke with Jim Yardley out at Geneon this week, and now I feel like I have a much clearer picture of what happened and where we are at going forward, but for now the situation has not changed. We have been absolutely swamped with orders for Geneon products over the past few days and I've been spending a lot of extra time personally arranging product and reviewing customer orders individually to decide what orders will be shipping immediately and which ones need to hold for incoming product so they can ship as complete as possible. A few titles have already stocked out, however, we have one very large final shipment in route from Geneon that is scheduled to arrive on Monday. In fact, we had originally planned to take Monday off (Columbus Day) but in the Anime business chaos reigns. So we'll be working on Monday to keep up with the increased order volume, and to ensure that when our final Geneon shipment arrives any orders we are holding for product will ship right away. If you currently have a Geneon order in with us that has not yet shipped we appreciate your patience, and I want you to know that we will ship your order as soon (and as complete) as possible.

New Arrival Alert! As usual, Ron just peeked in a told me that several new DVD titles just arrived a few minutes ago and are being checked in now, including:

Inu Yasha Movie Collection DVD Boxed Set Limited Edition
Kashimashi Girl Meets, Vol #3 DVD
Prince of Tennis Collection #3 DVD Boxed Set

They will be posted on the site later this evening but we'll be including it in outgoing orders today, as well as processing your pre-orders for them now. And as usual, we've got lots of new stuff (especially DVD's & Manga!) already on the site for you guys to peruse this weekend. Check below for the scoop on everything that's come in, or check our updates page for the complete story!

Volume #17 of the Ai Yori Aoshi manga is now in stock and in it those two finally get it together - and I mean for REAL - so my parting words for you this week are - Kaoru-Sama (you're the man!) If this volume doesn't put a smile on your face, then nothing will! :-) A word of caution though, we haven't received all of our copies from TokyoPop yet, so there are only a few to go around until the next shipment arrives.

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

US Anime Biz Gets Nuked - But Still No News at Eleven...

Halo what? Halo III was setting records all over this week, and many of us Otaku hardly noticed...

So lets talk about Geneon, shall we?

Without a doubt, the thing that is on everyone's mind this week is the sudden announcement Tuesday from Geneon that they will cease DVD sales operations as today (Friday) at 5pm. This comes on the heels of last weeks revelation that their distribution deal with ADV had fallen apart, leaving them no viable distribution channel after the end of this month. While Geneon is exiting the DVD distribution business, they have not revealed any of their other plans going forward - which has created a lot of rampant speculation regarding the future availability of their existing catalog, titles in current release, and future licenses. Let's leave that discussion (and the idol panic) to the Anime forums and blogs and talk about what we do know as of right now:

1) All Geneon DVD's will no longer be available for us to order from them after today. This means that availability of ALL Geneon produced titles will be limited to what is currently in our warehouse and what we have on order or in transit from them as of today. This situation will require a massive update across our entire catalog, so please be patient with us as we update the store site on a daily basis.

2) All Geneon scheduled releases up to Nov 4th will still be pressed and released. That means we do expect to the be able to fill pre-order for these titles:

Tenjho Tenge Complete Collection DVD Set
Fate/Stay Night, Vol #6 DVD Limited Edition
Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Christo Complete DVD Boxed Set
Hakkenden Legend of the Dog Warriors Vol #3 DVD
Hellsing Ultimate, Vol #3 DVD
Hellsing Ultimate, Vol #3 DVD Limited Edition
Kyo Kara Maoh Season 1 Complete Collection DVD Set
Rozen Maiden Traumend, Vol #1, Puppet Show DVD
Story of Saiunkoku, Vol #2 DVD
Zipang, Vol #7 DVD

We have plenty of copies of all of these titles already on advance order with Geneon, however, since we will not be able to go back to Geneon to restock these titles after our initial shipment we will be filling pre-order on a first come, first served basis so I suggest everyone get their orders in now for these titles.

3) We are assuming that all Geneon releases previously solicited for release after November 6th have effectively been canceled. This (unfortunately) will leave several current series unfinished including Hellsing Ultimate, Karin, Kyo Kara Maoh II, Story of Saiunkoku, When They Cry, Law of Ueki, Shonen Onmyoji, etc.

So we do not expect to be able to fill pre-orders for:

Karin, Vol #4 DVD
Karin, Vol #5 DVD
Kyo Kara Maoh!, Season 2, Vol #7 DVD
Kyo Kara Maoh!, Season 2, Vol #8 DVD
Shonen Onmyoji , Vol #3 DVD
Shonen Onmyoji , Vol #4 DVD
Black Lagoon The Second Barrage, Vol #1 DVD
Elemental Gelade Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Law of Ueki, Vol #10 DVD
Law of Ueki, Vol #11 DVD
Paradise Kiss Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Saiyuki Reload Gunlock Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Story of Saiunkoku, Vol #3 DVD
Story of Saiunkoku, Vol #4 DVD
When They Cry: Higurashi, Vol #4 DVD
Rozen Maiden Traumend, Vol #2, Revival DVD
Rozen Maiden Traumend, Vol 3, The Alice Game DVD

4) Most of Bandai Visual's releases were also distributed by Geneon, and they have announced that until they find another distribution partner they will only be able to sell their titles through their own web store. No shipments to retailers are currently happening. This is not that big a deal as they have very few new titles in the pipeline, so we should be able to get the supply situation on their products worked out with minimal delays. I've already talked to them, so that's my take on it for now.

As of Tuesday we were very well stocked on existing Geneon products, and we have made a huge capital commitment on their titles by placing several very large emergency orders with them prior to the deadline in hopes that we can stock their catalog very deep and keep their titles available at least through the end of the year. That said, we are currently experiencing a huge surge of orders for Geneon products that may require a few days for us to sort out, so please try to be patient with us in regards to this. Even if a title is out of stock we will work as hard as possible to fill your orders as soon as possible, and as completely as possible.

OK, so what are my thoughts? How will this effect us?

Personally, I've been loving Karin, Hellsing Ultimate, When They Cry, and especially Black Lagoon so the news that they will not be finished this year - well, it stinks. I share in every other fan's utter disappointment. Professionally there will certainly be a financial impact to the industry across the board. Geneon makes up a significant portion of retailers Anime sales (they are exactly 16% of ours - a big chunk), so this will certainly dampen our holiday expectations and will hamper our efforts to serve Anime fans with the broadest possible catalog of titles. I do feel that market distribution for Geneon's titles will, one way or another, eventually be worked out. Geneon is not going out of business, they are changing their business model, though the execution is extremely poor. Ultimately they want to become a licensing house and let other companies publish and distribute their titles. Geneon's business problems have been around for some time so this is not entirely a surprise - and they are problems the other studios like Funimation, ADV, Bandai, Viz, and Media Blasters do not have. While this will cause us all some short term pain we can take solace in that there are many other strong companies publishing great Anime titles that we will be able to enjoy going forward.

Until then we'll keep the faith and update you with any new news that comes along. I'm sure there will be plenty...

That's it for now. Have a great weekend everyone.

(10/1) UPDATE:

Dentsu to Post Y5 Billion Loss on Geneon's Downsizing

The Japanese advertising firm Dentsu Inc. announced on September 27 that it will post a 4.7-billion-yen (US$41 million) loss on a consolidated basis and 5.1-billion-yen (about US$44 million) loss on a non-consolidated basis due to the downsizing of its Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. anime subsidiary's "scope of business." It will also post a 7.2-billion-yen (US$63 million) loss on its withdrawal from D&T, a joint sales partnership between Dentsu and Tohokushinsha Film Corporation for broadcasting rights in Japan to foreign movies and television programs. Both losses will be reflected in the financial results for the first half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008.

Loss due to business downsizing of Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc.
Dentsu's subsidiary, Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc., which undertakes animation related business in North America, has decided to downsize its scope of business and increase business efficiency. As a consequence, Dentsu will post extraordinary losses, etc. of 4.7 billion yen on a consolidated basis and 5.1 billion yen on a non-consolidated basis in its financial results for the first half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008.

Updates - September 17th, 2007

Arisa joins us in this update as my 'image of the week'. If you think she's as beautiful as I do, you can pre-order her here.

We received word this week that the Spiral Economy Box has now been pushed back from Sept 18th to Oct 23rd. The only Sept 18th release that has not yet arrived (update - it did today) is the Limited version of Black Lagoon Vol #3. There was a delay in production, and Geneon has told us they will be shipping around the 14th (today), so it will be a last minute arrival. We received the regular Black Lagoon 3 DVD about 2 weeks ago, and even though we ordered quite a few copies it promptly sold out (more are coming) as people did not want to wait for the Limited version to ship and just bought the regular DVD instead. It's such a good series I can't say I blame them, I know I ran home that night to watch my copy!

Speaking of Geneon, the transfer of sales management to ADV continues and since all of the inside sales personnel at Geneon have already been let go there will be a sort of 'black hole' for a couple of weeks until ADV assumes full control of those functions starting Oct 1st. I was a little surprised that Geneon decided not to keep their marketing folks on for 3 more weeks until the handover was complete, but many of the things Geneon has done over the last couple of years have been a mystery to me. It was announced this week that Mitsubishi has completely divested itself of it's (large) 34% stake in Geneon leaving Dentsu as the sole Japanese owner, so perhaps I'm not the only one bewildered by how they ran their business. Now that's just water under the bridge. :-)

The folks at ASM and Critical Mass announced this week that they are teaming up to fight illegal download sites and services, with Shawne Klekner making this statement:

"...To add insult to injury, a number of the sites are selling the creative content they have illegally appropriated. The bottom line: When we're not being paid for our content, the Japanese companies and creative teams aren't being paid. In turn, it affects whether or not new anime even gets made... and the Japanese licensors are increasingly vocal about their concerns in this area. Sadly, these site owners are forcing us to go beyond issuing 'cease and desist' orders. They are placing us in a position where our only option is to hire attorneys and pursue legal remedies to this situation..."

That sounds great and we fully support their efforts, but my question is where have they been for the past 3 or 4 years? Cease and desist letters are meaningless without the teeth to resolve some sort of legal action down the road, and while I'm glad they are finally committing to take a stand, I think it would have been better if they had started much earlier with more than just letterhead. We've always taken a stand against bootlegs, illegal imports, and other pirate activity that hurts the otaku community, and we've been campaigning about it in public for years - including spending a lot of marketing dollars to raise fan awareness on these issues. So we'll say 'welcome aboard' to the new comers! -_^ I hope they show the financial resolve to finally get involved with this growing problem.

Witchblade is now in stock and she is ready to kick your ass! Don't believe me? Watch:

Trust me, get this series!

Our Fall Kickoff coupon sale has been extremely popular, and I've decided to extend it through Sept 28th, so you'll have two more weeks to take advantage of the coupon savings - and that means all the new stuff coming in this month is even more affordable!

To save 3% off any order over $67, use the following coupon code during checkout: FALLKICKOFFTAKE3

Or, to save 5% off any order over $167, use the following coupon code during checkout: FALLKICKOFFTAKE5

Or, to save 7% off any order over $367, use the following coupon code during checkout: FALLKICKOFFTAKE7

RED ALERT! As is becoming our usual Friday ritual, Ron just came in a told me that several new DVD titles just arrived a few minutes ago and are being checked in now, including:

Black Lagoon, Vol #3 DVD Limited Edition (Wasn't I just Talking About it?)
Eureka Seven, Vol #9 DVD
Eureka Seven, Vol #9 DVD Limited Edition
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Vol #3 DVD

They will be posted on the site later this afternoon (or Monday morning), but we'll be including it in outgoing orders today, as well as processing your pre-orders for them now. And as usual, we've got lots of new stuff (especially manga!) already on the site for you guys to peruse this weekend. Check below for the scoop on everything that's come in, or check our updates page for the complete story!

My parting words for you this week are - Masane Amaha!

Updates - September 7th, 2007

As we've been pretty busy this week taking care of your orders we've had to push a few things like posting December pre-order items, working up a new front page (and sleeping) into next week... In fact, I think one of my 'deal of the days' stayed up for 3 or 4 days in row there and became more of a 'deal of the week'. Well, at least it gave everyone a fair shot at it. :-) It certainly did not help matters that the 3rd DragonBall Z boxed set arrived early along with several other heavily pre-ordered DVD's and figures, but somehow we got all those pre-orders out within 24 hours of the product arrivals and hopefully many of you will have your stuff by today or tomorrow (a couple of weeks early!). We'll finally be completely caught up today processing all the orders from over the holiday weekend, and I appreciate everyones patience for letting us take Monday off and then giving us an extra day to get your order processed and shipped out. We'll sleep next week.

Folks have been jumping on anything produced by Central Park Media over the last couple of weeks (we finally sold out of both Lodoss War boxed sets for example, and can't seem to get anymore), and I know the rumor mills online have been grinding out reports of their imminent and final demise. I have no 'official' information in that regards, however, there have been no solicitations for anything new from CPM through their distribution partner WEA for a couple of months, and no new releases or re-releases in their electronic press kits since June. They have also disabled their internal secure online order site. We're not quite ready to 'call it' (time of death) but we're working their titles on an 'in stock' basis with WEA, which means once WEA runs out of something they print we're assuming it will no longer be available. So if there are any Central Park Media DVD or manga releases you've been eyeing up and they are still available, I'd recommend you prioritize them in your purchases accordingly as there is no telling how long they will continue to be available.

Only a couple of date updates I want to mention this week. First, the Deluxe wooden box edition of the Inu Yasha Movie Set has been bumped back to Oct 23rd. It's the one that includes all the soundtracks and will definitely be worth the wait. For those that can't, we have the regular movie box in stock now. The head guys down at Illumitoon are taking their time responding to our e-mails, so the fate of their handful of releases (like BoBoBo and BTX) is still hanging in the wind and I suspect they just don't have any information for us. In better news the guys at Imaginasian said that their 3 classic releases Orguss, Cats Eye, and Remi are going to be shipping next week, so after several delays we should have them in stock shortly.

Checkout some of these publicity photos for the upcoming Live Action Negima series beginning it's run in Japan in October. I like seeing all those pretty gals together! I hope this eventually gets released here in the states. (thanks to Steven DB for this).

The format battle continues over the next generation of DVD's, and just when you though Blue Ray was winning HDDVD is fighting back and studios are even more divided on the issue than ever before. I think this fight will be decided over the holiday season as we see if people buy more HDDVD or BluRay players - if they buy them at all...

Hello Kitty is going back to basics in Japan. I just wish I had been there to see the 'buyo' dance!

Our Fall Kickoff coupon sale continues this weekend and will run through next Thursday, so be sure to take advantage of the coupon savings while they last.

To save 3% off any order over $67, use the following coupon code during checkout:

FALLKICKOFFTAKE3

Or, to save 5% off any order over $167, use the following coupon code during checkout:

FALLKICKOFFTAKE5

Or, to save 7% off any order over $367, use the following coupon code during checkout:

FALLKICKOFFTAKE7

Ron just peeked around the corner and told me that the Hare Guu DVD boxed sets just arrived from Funimation a few minutes ago and are being checked in now. Phew! - I was a little worried the date was going to get pushed again since the street date is next Tuesday. It will be posted on the site later this afternoon, but we'll be including it in outgoing orders today, as well as processing your pre-orders for them now. And as usual, we've got lots of new stuff already on the site for you guys to peruse this weekend. Check below for the scoop on everything that's come in, or check our updates page for the complete story!

My parting words for you this week are - RIDE em COWGIRL!

That's it for now. Have a great weekend - and ENJOY your Anime! :-)

Updates - August 31st, 2007

Geneon officially announced this week that they are turning their distribution and marketing functions over to ADV. I wrote some of my thoughts on the deal over at the blog earlier this week, and I have since had a chance to talk about the move in depth with Mike Baliff down at ADV Films. The folks at ADV have been working on this deal for a couple of months and have taken great care in planning to see that the transition is as seamless as possible for retailers and transparent to fans. Geneon's entire catalog will remain available to fans through us, and Geneon's announced new release schedule will not be disturbed. In fact, we should continue to get their titles a couple of weeks prior to the street date just as we have in the past, and I think ADV will be able to clear up Geneon's inventory and delivery problems that we have experienced over the past few months.

We'll be working very closely with ADV on this over the coming weeks and I'll keep you all up to date regarding how things are progressing.

Thanks to Jerry for sending over this short YouTube clip that features some fans doing Transformers cos-play where their costumes actually transform while they are in them. One of them even did a Valkyrie from Robotech!

The studios continue to fill out their fall schedules and this week we've posted 22 new DVD releases for pre-order. I also just received Bandai's November list, and we'll be getting those up on the site shortly. We got most of ADV's Oct and Nov catalog up for order now including the next volumes of Ah! My Goddess TV Season 2 , Xenosaga , and Air plus ADV plans to re-release a few collections in Limited Tin Boxed sets for the Holidays like Evangelion and Magical Shopping Arcade. Don't have product deatils on those yet, but we should soon. The most exciting announcements this week are several boxed sets of series that had previously fallen out of print including:

Lost Universe Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak)

Nadia Secret of Blue Water DVD Perfect Collection Limited Tin Boxed Set

Princess Tutu DVD Collection (Thin-Pak)

Now if one of the studios will just re-release Nadesico all will be right with the world! -_^

The summer figure sale ends tonight at midnight, so you've only got a few more hours to take advantage of the savings there, but I'll let you in on a little secret - the fall kickoff coupon special overlaps the figures sale for the next 12 hours, so you can almost double your savings if you get your orders in before midnight and use one our fall kickoff coupons!

To save 3% off any order over $67, use the following coupon code during checkout:
FALLKICKOFFTAKE3

Or, to save 5% off any order over $167, use the following coupon code during checkout:
FALLKICKOFFTAKE5

Or, to save 7% off any order over $367, use the following coupon code during checkout:
FALLKICKOFFTAKE7

Ron just peeked around the corner and told me a few more new titles just got unloaded and are now being checked in, including Black Lagoon Vol 3, Karin Vol 3, Full Moon Vol 6, and Shonen Onmyouji Vol 2. And I thought we were going to get out of here early! They'll be updated on the site later this afternoon, but we'll be including these in outgoing orders today, as well as processing your pre-orders for them now.


And as usual, we've got lots of new stuff already on the site for you guys to peruse this weekend. Check below for the scoop on everything that's come in, or check our updates page for the complete story!

My parting words for you this week are - Ekodona Black Armor!

That's it for now. Have a wonderful holiday weekend - and ENJOY your Anime! :-)

Geneon Taps Out

Anyone who follows Anime industry news has already read the press release from Friday about Geneon throwing in the towel and hiring ADV to do their retailer distribution and handle their sales channel.

...ADV will take over sales, marketing, and distribution functions for all Geneon titles effective October 1st. Geneon will continue to license and produce anime content for the North American market; the changes will affect only how the products reach the market. The notice that went out to retailers made the point. "This change will in no way impact the availability of current or future Geneon titles 'in the pipeline,'" it said.

We are still gathering information on the details. It appears a lot of the fine print has yet to be finalized, but that ADV is already starting to run the show behind the scenes. That's fine, since we have a great relationship with ADV, and they should be able to service the product very well.

ADV will benefit from this. In fact, they need the expanded sales opportunities Geneon's catalog will bring to the table to compete with Funimation. But, regardless of how the 'suits' try to spin this in the media (they will talk endlessly of BS Synergies and Strategics), it clearly does not bode well for Geneon. Outsourcing retailer distribution is not unusual in the Anime industry, but outsourcing control of your sales channel is something a company does as a last resort. It's what happens when you throw your hands up and decide that you no longer understand your market and want to wash your hands of the responsibility of making your company work within that market. Granted ADV will have much better resources for bringing Geneon's product to market. The real red flag is that they are doing this in the forth quarter before the holidays, which is generally a period (for better or worse) when you don't want to make any major changes that will disturb your sales channel - and that they are turning over control of their product line to a competitor. Remember a couple of years ago when Central Park Media, finding itself between a rock and hard place financially, did the same thing by outsourcing their sales channel and distribution to WEA (a 'music' distributor no less). I remember thinking that John O'Donnell must have been suffering from temporary insanity when he made that decision. Later, as CPM has virtually ceased to exist as an operating Anime Studio, we find out that he probably didn't have too much choice.

In the Anime world there is a very simple 3 step business plan that everyone follows:

1) Collect Underpants
2) ?
3) Profit

It's that pesky step #2 that seems to trip everyone up.

The truth (that no one in the biz seems to want to admit) is that the mass market portion of the Anime business that studios have developed over in the last 3-4 years and built a large part of their businesses around has been a disaster this year. Sales volumes are way off. Licensing and royalty fees from deals made in the go-go period of 2004-06 remain very high, forcing the studios to generate revenue from these titles any way possible. Fan's DVD & Manga shelves are getting full. Even with the cut backs in new releases over the last few months there are still too many titles (or should I say, 'too many marginal titles and re-releases') getting stuffed into the sales channel. Economic factors are creating more pricing pressures than ever before. Marginal fans have too many options for their limited entertainment budgets, and Anime is just not as 'cool' for them as it used to be. Many core Anime fans are turning back to downloads and fansubs more frequently to get access to the really good shows they want to see, but don't want to wait to be commercially released (if they ever are).

Mass market retail chains and book sellers are questioning shelf space allocations to Anime/Manga for the first time in years, causing the studios to make knee jerk reactions, like re-re-re-re-re-releasing old stale titles at rock bottom prices or quadrupling the number of serial manga issues released in a quarter in an attempt to spur interest and "keep up the appearance of demand". After all, if we stuff even more products into the sales channel, that will surely keep the home fires burning, right?

This year many of the older core fans have started to drift away from the genre, partly because there are far fewer quality releases to choose from than in the past, and partly because as they get older priorities begin to change. As these fans move away from the genre, they are replaced by younger fans that have been exposed to Anime in a totally different way than their predecessors, so many of them don't have the same enthusiasm for building huge (and expensive) video and book libraries, nor do they have the same sort of entertainment budgets that the older fans had.

Bottom line? Everyone is getting squeezed in one way or another.

Under all these conditions some consolidation will need to take place, both at the studio and retail levels. I feel like there are too many Anime retailers out there right now, and many are holding on by their fingernails either by subsidizing their margins with bootlegs or making the payroll this week by liquidating Anime at close to cost pricing just to keep the volumes up. Many retailers are relying more and more on sales gimmicks to keep customers coming back. The situation reminds me of the scene from 'A Bridge too Far' when, after holding the bridge at Arnhem by his fingernails for 9 days, British LC John Frost finally gets MG Roy Urquhart on the radio and asks when he can expect relief. Urquhart, taking terrible losses himself, tells him "I'm sorry Johnny, I'm not sure it's a matter of us coming for you, or you coming for us.", and then in classic British understatement Frost says "very well, we'll just wait for XXX Corps then." The last radio message broadcast from the bridge was - "out of ammo, God save the King".

Indeed (but I digress).

As one of the oldest US Anime companies, Geneon finds itself in the position of having as huge back catalog of titles to maintain in a sales environment increasingly dominated by new releases. Not quite knowing what to do with these, Geneon has had terrible problems in execution. I blame Geneon's Japanese management for that - they just don't seem to 'get' the US market, and in fact they have gradually become a rather unfriendly company for retailers to do business with since the change over from Pioneer.

Bad licensing decisions along with a bad marketing organization has caused Geneon to fall into a distant 3rd place in the US Anime industry. After years of maintaining excellent business relations with Pioneer USA, the management at Geneon has become increasingly out of touch with both the fan base and retailer channel, and I have frequently made mention of some of these problems in our weekly newsletters. Their distribution deal with Ditan earlier this year was an attempt to cut costs, and has been a disaster with them frequently having incorrect inventory numbers or not being able to fill re-orders for titles that have only been on the street for a few weeks. I remarked earlier this year to our inside rep at Geneon that it was getting harder and harder to maneuver the product line under these conditions, and whoever made the decision to hire Ditan to do their fulfillment should have been fired.

I now looks that will probably happen...

In the end, the move to ADV should be pretty good for us. One less vendor to work with, one less set of hassles to overcome. It may even cure a few headaches I've had to contend with. After all, it's all about the underpants - so we'll see how it pans out. -_^

Updates - August 24th, 2007

Can you believe it?? - no delays or pushes this week! :-) Even Geneon is getting back on track as they shipped the Popotan DVD box to us after it was delayed by their inventory. The studios and manufacturers are finally starting to fill out their fall schedules, and it seems like we've been working around the clock this week getting everything posted (and we still have a ways to go). This week we posted 25 new DVD releases for pre-order including Funimation's and Media Blaster's Oct/Nov schedule. As expected, we're seeing a lot of re-releases and re prices coming down the pike this fall including an Ah My Goddess season 1 economy box, the 2nd season of Slayers, and a Trinity Blood complete box. There are also some very cool new titles coming like Simoun and Step Up Love Story (aka Futari Ecchi), which I know will definitely become a major guilty pleasure in my entertainment center... :-)

One of the upcoming titles I've been keeping an eye on is the release of the first (of four) Rebuild of Evangelion Movie in Japan next weekend.

As an ardent Eva fan (having watched the original series at least 50 times) I have to admit, I was skeptical when they decided to rework the Evangelion series into 4 new movies, but after seeing the new trailers I've been made into a believer. The animation and character designs look amazing! Reportedly the content is quite different from the original TV series, though the time base of the story is the same. The new project is characterized as a remake, however, it is not a re-creation but a "new work" and there will apparently be a large amount of new material. It's sure to be some time before we see these released in English, but I think it will be worth the wait. Here are a few trailers and video shorts for you to sample to see for yourself:

Rebuild of Evangelion - Trailer 1
Rebuild of Evangelion - Trailer 2
Rebuild of Evangelion - Utada Hikaru - Beautiful World

Oh, I wanted to mention that Utada Hikaru's excellent CD single of Beautiful World (the Eva Rebuild theme song) is streeting next week in Japan and we have a bunch of copies on order that should arrive from Tokyo mid-September. Sorry, but the first copy is mine!

Be sure to check the 'deal of the day' rotation on our front page. Each day we'll be offering something cool to you at 50% off the retail price (and that we actually have in stock...). -_^ Also, the summer figure sale will (definitely) officially end next Thursday, so you've got one more week to take advantage of the savings there. We already price our figures at a discount to MSRP (I know many stores actually mark their figures UP from the retail price) so the extra 10% makes for some great deals off our already low prices.

Ron just peeked around the corner and told me a few more new titles just got unloaded and are now being checked in, including Tide Line Blue 3, My-Otome 2, and the 4th Voltron Tin box. They'll be updated on the site later this afternoon, but we'll be including these in outgoing orders today, as well as processing your pre-orders for them now. And as usual, we've got lots of new stuff already on the site for you guys to peruse this weekend. Check below for the scoop on everything that's come in, or check our updates page for the complete story!

My parting words for you this week are - KOS MOS!

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

New Items Added for Pre-Order

I know I know, I haven't posted for some time. Jamie and I have been enjoying summer activities (as time permits) for the past 3 months (Anime, Boating, Bike Riding, New Kittens - more on all that later...), and working our butts off when not.

After a bit of a summer lull in new releases the studios and manufacturers are finally starting to fill out their fall schedules so we are getting a lot of upcoming product solicitations dumped on us all at once. Here's the list of new DVD's and figures that we've made available for pre-order over the last couple of weeks:





DVD Pre-Orders Added 8-/10 to 8/21:

Kurau Phantom Memory, Vol #4 DVD
Blue Seed Mitama Collection Boxed Set (Thin-Pak)
Air TV Series, Vol #3 DVD
Black Lagoon The Second Barrage, Vol #1 DVD w/ Limited Art Box
Black Lagoon The Second Barrage, Vol #2 DVD
009-1, Vol #3 DVD
Le Chevalier D'Eon, Vol #5 DVD
Air Gear, Vol #5 DVD
Welcome to NHK , Vol #1, 1st Conspiracy DVD
Pumpkin Scissors , Vol #1, Honor & Blood DVD
Pani Poni Dash!, Vol #6 DVD
Slayers OVA DVD Collection (Thin-Pak)
Yugo the Negotiator Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak)
Fighting Spirit (Hajime No Ippo) DVD Collection 1 Boxed Set
Fighting Spirit (Hajime No Ippo) DVD Collection 2 Boxed Set
Zegapain, Vol #1 DVD
Zegapain, Vol #1 DVD w/ Limited Art Box
hack//Roots, Vol #4 DVD
Rescue Me; Mave-Chan DVD
When They Cry: Higurashi, Vol #5 DVD
Peach Girl, Vol #5 DVD
Hare+Guu DVD Boxed Set
Tsubasa, Vol #5 DVD
Dragon Ball Z: Broly Double Feature DVD [BLURAY]
Dragonball GT DVD Collectors Boxed Set #4 (The Lost Episodes)
Mushishi, Vol #4 DVD
Suzuka, Vol #5 DVD
Yu-Gi-Oh Dawn of the Duel, Vol #1, Part 2 (Eps 528-539)
Slayers NEXT TV Season 2 Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #27-52)
BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad, Vol #4 DVD
BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad, Vol #5 DVD
Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles Movie Special Edition DVD
Case Closed the 14th Target Movie DVD
Glass Fleet , Vol #2 DVD
Fullmetal Alchemist DVD Boxed Set #2 (Vol #5-7)
Gunslinger Girl Economy DVD Boxed Set
School Rumble, Vol #3 DVD
Trinity Blood Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Witchblade, Vol #2 DVD
Witchblade, Vol #3 DVD
Ramen Fighter Miki , Vol #2, Tonkatsu Tactics DVD
Ah! My Goddess TV Season 1 Economy DVD Boxed Set
Shura no Toki Economy DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak)
Golden Boy DVD
Simoun , Vol #1, Choir of Pairs DVD
Step Up Love Story DVD

Figure Pre-Orders Added 8-/10 to 8/21:

Ikki Tousen: Sonsaku (Fighting) 1/7 Scale PVC Figure
My Otome: Akane Version 1/7 Scale PVC Figure
My Otome: Akira (Damaged) 1/7 Scale PVC Figure
Oneechanbara Aya 1/8 Scale PVC Figure
Queen's Blade Tomoe PVC Figure
Queen's Blade Elina PVC Figure
Samurai Spirits: Iroha 1/6 Scale PVC Figure [GRIFFON]
Samurai Spirits: Iroha "Player 2" Pink Version 1/6 Scale PVC Figure
Samurai Spirits: Iroha 1/5 Scale PVC Figure
Sengoku Ace Episode III Mizuka 1/6 Scale PVC Figure
Bome: Yano Takumi's Akira PVC Figure Vol 26
Bome: Mitsumi Misato's "Lucia" PVC Figure Vol. 25
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 Ayane 1/6 Scale PVC Figure
Fate/Hollow Ataraxia: Sakura Matou Swimsuit w/ Towel 1/7 Scale PVC Figure
Fate/Zero: Saber/Zero 1/8 Scale PVC Figure
http://www.animecornerstore.com/pedesebscpvc.html
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Ryoko Asakura 1/8 Scale PVC Figure
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Tsuruya Maid Version 1/8 Scale Figure
Witchblade Masane Amaha 1/8 Scale PVC Figure [Organic]
Witchblade: Maria 1/6 Scale PVC Figure
Witchblade: Masane Amaha 1/6 Scale PVC Figure [Kotobukiya]
Witchblade: Masane Amaha 'Power Up' Version 1/8 Scale PVC Figure
Kamichu Yurie Hitotsubashi 1/8 Scale PVC Figure
Art of Shunya Yamashita CoCoNa 1/7 Scale PVC Figure
Chobits: Chii "Maid Alice" 1/7 Scale PVC Figure
Chocotto Sister Black Cat Version 1/8 Scale PVC Figure
Death Note: Misa Amane MoeArt 1/6 Scale PVC Figure
Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Caren 1/7 Scale PVC Figure
Gun X Sword: Fasalina 1/8 Scale PVC Figure
Idolmaster Xenoglossia Iori Minase 1/8 Scale PVC Figure
To Heart 2 Another Days Chie Yoshioka PVC Figure
Utawarerumono Urutori 1/7 Scale Figure
Rozen Maiden Traumend SRDX Hinaichigo PVC Figure
Yakitate Tsukino Azusagawa Swimsuit Version 1/8 Scale PVC Figure
Yatake Yoshinori's "El" 1/8 Scale PVC Figure
Evangelion Sequel to Angel Chromosome-XX Series 3: A-04 Shamshel-XX Figure
Xenosaga: Kos-mos EPIII Version 4 1/8 Scale PVC Figure [Happinet]
Xenosaga: Kos-mos EPIII Version 4 1/8 Scale PVC Figure [ALTER]

It makes for a quick post to get the ball rolling again. :-)

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.