Funimation's June 2009 Release Schedule Posted

We got ahold of Funimation's June release schedule earlier this afternoon, and we just completed building all the items on the store site for pre-order. I'm pretty excited as it's well rounded and has something for everyone. Here's what it looks like:

Aquarion Season 1 Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-26)
Baccano!, Vol #4 DVD
Black Cat Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Viridian Collection)
Blade of the Phantom Master DVD (Re-Release)
D.Gray-man Season #1 Part #2 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #14-26)
Darker Than Black, Vol #5 DVD
Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie, the Conquerer of Shambala DVD (New Lower Price!)
Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie, the Conquerer of Shambala DVD (Limited Edition) (New Lower Price!)
Heroic Age Collection DVD Boxed Set #2 (Eps #14-26)
Kaze no Stigma Season #1 Part #1 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-12)
Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple Season #1 Part #2 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #14-26)
King of Bandit Jing in Seventh Heaven OVA DVD
Kyo Kara Maoh Season 1 Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Re-Release)
Law of Ueki Complete Series Collection DVD Boxed Set
Moeyo Ken DVD (Re-Release)
One Piece Season 2 Part 1 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #53-65) (Uncut)
Origin: Spirits of the Past the Movie DVD [BLURAY]
Romeo X Juliet Collection Part #1 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-12)
Samurai Champloo Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-26)
Venus Versus Virus Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set

In addition to lots of series continuations and welcome re-releases (like Kyo Kara Maoh Season 1, Samurai Champloo, and the first Venus Versus Virus boxed set) we are also getting the first half of two new series - Kaze no Stigma and Romeo X Juliet (which I for one have eagerly been waiting for!). In case you have been in a coma for the last 3 years and are not familiar with either series, here are the synopsis:

Kaze no Stigma Season #1 Part #1 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-12)

Ayano is the heir to the house of Kannagi, a house with ties to the spirit of fire, whose members are all fire users. All except for her cousin, Kazuma. After he was defeated by Ayano, his father banished him from the house in disgrace. Kazuma ran off and changed his surname to Yagami. He formed a contract with the spirit of wind and becomes a powerful wind user. Four years later, he returned. Four years ago, Kazuma Kannagi was defeated by his cousin Ayano Kannagi for the right to be the successor of Enraiha, a sword passed down in the Kannagi family. His defeat, along with his lack of talent for En-Jutsu, the fire arts, the Kannagis' specialty, resulted in his banishment from the family. Now, Kazuma returns as Kazuma Yagami, a skilled master of Fu-Jutsu, the wind arts.

Romeo X Juliet Collection Part #1 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-12)

This is a story of a young and tragic love, set in the aerial city of Neo Verona. Tyranny rules this island in the sky after the Montague family took control 14 years prior. The disparity among the wealthy and poor is apparent in the present state, the earth dries and water stagnates. The sky itself is wrapped in a deep dense fog. Both Romeo and Juliet's lineages are of present and past ruling families of Neo Verona. Romeo is the son of the current Montague dictator, Juliet (a beautiful woman) masquerades as a man (Odin), she's the last descendant of Capulet the previous rulers who were killed by an assassin's dagger 14 years ago. Her true background is not to be revealed to her until her 16th birthday. The cruel hands of fate introduces 2 people who will become "Star Crossed Lovers"...

Bleach Uncut Box #3 Available for Pre-Order At Last!

You Guys can stop writing in every week to ask, Viz gave me the word today that they have scheduled the 3rd Uncut Bleach Boxed Set. The box will contain the next 20 uncut episodes, be released as a regular and special edition, and will street on July 14th:

Synopsis: The day of Rukia's execution draws ever closer, and to save her, Ichigo and his loyal comrades must navigate the madness of a Soul Society on the brink of collapse. Ichigo and Renji face the most difficult training of their Soul Reaper careers as they struggle to achieve bankai, without which they have no hope against the most powerful captain of the Seireitei--Byakuya Kuchiki. While all the players converge at the site of Rukia's imminent execution, in the background, a group of Soul Reapers slowly uncover an unimaginable betrayal at the hands of one of their own--a betrayal that will shake the Soul Society to its very core.

Special edition extra's will be announced shortly. We have them both available for pre-order now!

Funimation Inks R1 Deal With Gonzo

Funimation announced on Friday that they have cut a deal with studio Gonzo for pretty much exclusive R1 distribution rights for their stuff:

FUNimation® Entertainment and Japanese producer GDH have entered into an
agreement to broadcast GDH's current and future hit series via online media
distribution and to collaborate on each series DVD launch in the US.

This really comes as no surprise considering all the Gonzo licences they have announced over the last two months. The good news is that it means we'll almost certainly see Romeo × Juliet, Strike Witches, and Rosario + Vampire released here in the US at some point in the near future. It also will help solidify Funi's position as the top R1 Anime studio.

UPDATE (3/24): Funimation has announced the first half season box of Romeo X Juliet for release on June 23rd, and Kaze No Stigma for June 30th. We will also be getting a re-release of the first season of Kyo Kara Maoh and Samurai Champloo in June. We should have all Funi's June releases posted to the site by 8 or 9pm tonight.

Bandai's June Release Schedule Announced

We received Bandai's June release schedule late in the day on Friday, so we stuck around a little longer to get it posted to the store site before we left. With only four SKU's it didn't take long, but it was worth it all the same.

But first, Bandai announced several more schedule changes:

The Gurren Lagann, Part #3 DVD Bundle w/ Limited Edition Art Box (Eps #19-27) (Bilingual Version) which had been bumped from March 17 to April 7th has been bumped again, and is now scheduled for May 5th. They also rescheduled the Part #3 Regular Edition for May 5th even though we already received our initial order stock on it a couple of weeks ago. We have almost sold out of that shipment and it looks like we won't be able to get anymore of those in until around mid-April.

The Ghost Slayers Part #2 DVD Bundle (Eps #11-20) has been rescheduled from April 7th to May 5th. That won't make anyone happy I'm sure.

And finally the Freedom (Freedom Project) Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set has been bumped from April 7th all the way out to July 7th. Bandai hired a new replicator in January and the bad news is that the new relationship is causing a lot of release delays, but the good news is that Bandai is trying to solve it's 'bad disc' problem, and I hope like everyone else that we've seen that last of those issues.

Now onto the new announcements:

Kurokami The Animation Part #1 DVD Bundle (Disc #1&2) (Eps #1-8) - June 16th

Kurokami The Animation is based on the manga by the same name from Korean creative team consisting of writer Young Lim Dall and artist Park Sung Woo (the manga has been released in the U.S. by Yen Press under the title Black God). The anime is directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi (director of The Twelve Kingdoms) with series story composition by Reiko Yoshida, and character designs and animation direction by Hiroyuki Nishimura (Fatal Fury, Fullmetal Alchemist the movies). The story focuses on Keita, a high school student living on his own, lost his mother in his youth. One night at a ramen stand, he meets a mysterious girl named Kuro. Keita is told the story of how if a person runs into another that looks just like them, they would die. From Kuro, Keita learns of the Doppeliner System and the Coexistence Equilibrium and how his life would never be that same afterward.

Sword of the Stranger DVD and BLURAY - June 16th

What qualifies a man as good or evil? Is it the amount of political power one attains, the quality of his swordsmanship or how well he serves his lord? With the fall of the second shogunate Japan has sunk into a state of disarray historians now call the Sengoku period, or the era of Warring States. Civil wars rage on throughout the many feudal holdings, where a man may raise his station in life simply by killing his superior. Whilst wandering this war torn country side a nameless ronin stumbles upon a young boy by the name of Kotaro, his dog and the many Chinese assassins dispatched to claim the boy in some strange ritual for immortality. Seeing something of his own past within the child, the nameless swordsman chooses to act as his bodyguard but can he truly keep Kotaro from the clutches of the Ming and their bloodthirsty blonde mercenary, Luo-Lang?

Eureka Seven Complete Collection #1 DVD Boxed Set (Anime Legends) (Eps #1-26) - June 16th

Eureka Seven will finally be getting an Anime Legends release in two boxed sets, the first of which will be released on June 16th. For Renton, every day’s the same. Nothing happens, nothing changes. He goes to school, he goes home. The only thing that keeps him happy is lifting on his ref board. Nothing exciting ever happens to him. Until one day, a giant mecha called an LFO comes crashing down on him - literally. And inside is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen! The thing is, though, that the girl is on the run from the military with her stolen mecha, and she’s brought trouble with her. Renton will have to summon up all his courage to face his childhood hero; get the girl he’s hopelessly smitten with to like him; and - oh yeah - live up to the legacy of his father who saved the world. But hey, at least it’s not boring anymore.

All of these are available for pre-order on the store site now, so book em at your leisure. Have a great weekend everyone! :-)

I''s and I''s Pure DVD Set Recall

Just a quick FYI for all our customers:

Viz has issued a general retailer recall for the entire first pressing of the I's DVD Collection. This afternoon I got this e-mail from Viz:

...we need to recall the recent shipment of I's Vol 1 (782009240099), which streets on 3/24/09. The disc overlay was switched, so on some sets the content on Disc one is actually Disc two content, etc. This product shipped from Simon and Schuster before the transition. They are sending call tags for the bad product and we are sending out new shipments with the corrected product....

So a small portion of the sets in the first pressing of I's have been found defective and apparently have the content for the second disk pressed on the first disk. Viz has issued a general retailer recall for these so we have pulled all our remaining inventory to send back for replacement and have placed the set back on pre-order. They will be shipping us replacement sets sometime next week.

Now I know the street date for this set was set for March 24th, and replacements should be available before the official street date. Thing is, we got them in and have been shipping them to customers since mid-February, and have sent out around 185 sets to date (of the 240 we got in) before we pulled them for the recall. So far NO ONE has reported this problem or any problem at all to us with the sets and personally I don't think any of the sets we got in have this issue, but we're participating in the exchange anyway just to be safe. If you do have a problem with this set (and darn it, only if you actually bought it from us please!), let us know and we'll replace it for you once Viz ships us our replacement stock.

Those folks at Viz like to keep our lives interesting, that's for sure... -_^

UPDATE (3/23): All of our in stock copies have now been replaced by Viz, so this title is good to go again. Order away!

New R1 License Round Up

While some R1 studios seem to be spending their time trying to figure out how to get through next week, Funimation is mirroring our 'damn the topedoes, full speed ahead' spirit by announcing no less than seven new licenses since Katsucon a couple of weeks ago, and promises more to come.

Here's what we've got so far:

Rin Daughters of Mnemosyne

6 Episodes
Horror, Mystery, Science fiction, Supernatural, Yuri

Rin Asōgi may look like an ordinary office lady on the outside but she is actually a private investigator taking on any jobs, from finding a stray cat to infiltrating a high-security corporate lab. What's more, she appears literally indestructible, supernaturally healing any injuries and mutilations. Together with her partner Mimi, Rin delves into the darkest secrets of the society but the ones she hides herself are by far more sinister...

El Cazador De La Bruja

26 Episodes
Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Supernatural, Girls with Guns

Ellis, a young girl suspected of murdering prominent physicist Heinrich Schneider, is on the run from prosecution when she is tracked down by a female bounty hunter Nadie in a small Mexican town. However, instead of turning her in, Nadie impulsively decides to help her and the two embark on a journey south where they hope to find clues about Ellis' past. The guiding stars of their journey are the mysterious gemstone "Rosa del Inca" and the "Eternal City" of Wiñay Marka.

Seto no Hanayome (being released as 'My Bride Is A Mermaid')

24 Episodes
Action, Comedy, Romance, Slice of life, Supernatural

A young boy gets saved from drowning by a mermaid but, according to mermaid law, if a human sees a mermaid's true form, both have to be killed. The only solution to the problem is for him to marry her.

Bamboo Blade

26 Episodes
Comedy, Slice of Life, Sports (Kendo)

Toraji Ishida is a high school kendo teacher. His friend and fellow kendo teacher makes him a bet: if Ishida can assemble a girls' kendo team that can defeat his girls' team in a practice match, he'll treat Ishida to free meals at his father's sushi restaurant for a whole year. Now Ishida must find five girls to join the team. Bamboo Blade comes from the licensor D. Rights, while the other four projects come from GDH, the parent company of the Gonzo anime studio.

The Tower of Druaga: the Aegis of Uruk & the Sword of Uruk (Both Seasons)

12 Episodes (S1) & 12 Episodes (S2)
Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Romance

The Summer of "Anu": In a summer once every five years, demons in the mysterious Tower of Druaga lose their powers due to the magic spell cast by a god named "Anu". King Gilgamesh, ruler of the kingdom Uruk, uses the appearance of demons as an excuse to invade the tower and find out the construct's secrets. As 80 years passed, the Uruk army managed to fight back the demons and built a fortress city and safe haven on the very first floor of Druaga - Metz Kier. Thus begins the story of a warrior named Jil who, finding companions along the way, embarks on a quest for the fabled Blue Crystal Rod, a powerful artifact rumored to be in the highest floor of Druaga. However, other competitors, including the kingdom of Uruk itself, want the treasure, all for their own reasons.

Dragonaut - The Resonance

25 Episodes
Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Science Fiction

In order to avoid Earth's impending destruction from an asteroid, the International Solarsystem Development Agency (ISDA) works on the "D-Project", and creates dragons after finding a dragon egg under the ocean. However, they soon find out that the asteroid is not their only threat, as powerful dragon-like creatures appear on Earth. After witnessing a murder by one of the creatures, Jin Kamishina gets involved in the mysteries of the dragons and becomes a dragon pilot, otherwise known as a "Dragonaut". Helping him on his journey is Toa, a mysterious girl who saves him from falling to his death after the creature attacks him. As they delve deeper into the mysteries of the dragons, they encounter new friends and enemies, and also begin to develop a closer relationship.

Blassreiter

24 Episodes
Action, Drama, Horror, Science Fiction

Faced with an outbreak of demonic blood, which transforms humans into insane and hideous creatures bent on violence and death, only one man can stand against the tide of destruction. Joseph Jobson, the only man able to control his cursed demonic form, must hunt down the man who cursed him and save the world from apocalypse.

Funi has not scheduled any of these as yet, but they will all probably fall somewhere on the 3rd and 4th quarter release schedule this year.

Oh, and Bandai announced at Wondercon this weekend they have licensed the Lucky Star OVA. Hey, anything new coming out of Bandai at this point is welcome news indeed. :-)

It Was In an Advertisement, So You Already Know You Need It...

Just when you thought you had the latest and greatest electronic gizmo to vampire away more of your precious life, Sony has decided to up the ante with it's newest device:

This will really put the pressure on Apple to invent an even better time wasting device. Oh wait, they already have:

HEH.

Feeling Better, but Not About The Stimulus

Yes, I am finally feeling a little better today, thank you very much! (No seriously, thanks for all the nice notes you guys sent via e-mail, I appreciate it!) I'm back to work but not pushing too hard this week, and I'm not too worried about my part of the scheduled updates and such to the store site - I'll ease back into that stuff over the next few days. We'll take care of the daily's and let the rest sort itself out later.

In the mean time, here are a few Odd's and Sodd's:

1) We got in a bunch of new figures yesterday, but I'm not going to let them post some of them until we have all the pre-orders sorted out. When that post does come, you'll understand why. :-)

2) I do plan on doing a regular newsletter this week, and I have a lot of content flagged for it so it should be a good read.

3) Recent schedule changes: The Case Closed Season #4 DVD Box Set got bumped to Feb 17th, but that's a moot point now since it came into stock early before I could tell you. Bandai has bumped the Gundam Seed Destiny DVD Collection #2 Boxed Set (Anime Legends) collection from Feb 24 to Apr 21, and the Wolf's Rain Perfect Collection DVD Boxed Set (Anime Legends) - Bumped from Feb 24 to Apr 7, which actually I may have already mentioned. Media Blasters finally gave us word that the previously MIA Voltron: Defender of the Universe DVD Collection #7 has been officially moved from Jan 14 to March 24, and I also just got word that Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit DVD #3 is running late and won't be shipping until around the end of February. I'm seeing other retailers post all sorts of new guesses for it from Feb 28 all the way out to Mar 17, but none of those are official and MB has only committed to shipping it as soon as they can. Bandai announced that they have killed the Limited Edition version of Lucky Star #6, but the regular DVD will ship as scheduled, providing further reinforcement that R1 Anime studios never die, they just fade away...

4) Much to my surprise, people are jumping all over the new Sam 7 BluRay box and the Akira BluRay releases. In fact, at this rate, we're going to be sold out of both in a couple of days and we've had to order more stock - a lot more! I thought the MSRP on both was a little too high on these, but apparently there are a lot of people who don't.

5) I was going over schedules in my sick bed over the weekend, and noticed that between the Jan and the Feb versions of ADV Films release schedule, their planned March releases went from a total of 18 to only 11 and all the Switchblade stuff disappeared along with a few other things, and there are no Switchblade titles scheduled for April now either. They've been releasing 4 or 5 of those \ a month since September, and I wonder if that line isn't working out, or if more trouble is brewing down in Houston. You know, one day ADV is going to roll over and you guys are going to go nuts trying to find UltraValkyrie or King Jing on DVD. Oh wait, I forgot, if that happens Funimation will probably re-release those as well. When that happens I'm going to fly to Houston personally to buy John Ledford's desk at the auction. HEH...

So onward and upward. And not to switch gears or anything, but I do want to soap box about a couple of non-Anime items:

First ,this stimulus bill they are trying to pass is probably one of the worst pieces of pork barrel spending ever crafted. We'll, maybe Bandai Visual's R1 marketing strategy might come a close second on the all time most ill conceived hit parade. I listened to the senate debates on C-Span (on my Zune no less) while I was sick, and just can't believe how bad this bill is. It seems like they have jettisoned all the good ideas out of hand and what's left is just the garbage (just REALLY expensive garbage). So I watched the presidential address on TV last night, as I'm sure all the rest of you did, and it struck me how frustrated Obama looked. I think if you read between the lines, he's not frustrated that the stimulus bill is taking so long to get worked out, I think behind the scenes he's frustrated with having to go before the American people and sell that lousy bill. He went to Harvard, he knows it's crap, but he can't go against the party. Or maybe I'm wrong about that. Welcome to Washington Barack, where helping people is not the consideration, only getting re-elected. Personally I think they should tear it up and start over as I've never seen anything good come when someone rushes to make a terrible mistake.

In the spirit of the Cuban Missile Crisis, remember that we never find out how close we came to disaster until six months later. Here is Rep. Paul Kanjorski of PA (a Democrat), who is the Capital Markets Subcommittee Chair telling C-Span yesterday how close we came to total economic collapse back in September, and what the original TARP money was really about. Pretty scary:

Those damn evil bankers with their big salaries and casino junkets - who can figure out why they don't want to loan any more money against assets that are still dropping in value like a stone. It's just like those damn R1 studios. Why don't they want to license titles that they will loose money on? Just another a bunch of greedy bastards...right? -_^

Oh, by the way, about those little, um, 'porky' amendments in the stimulus bill? Well Sen. Chuck Schumer says people really just don't care about those anyway....

Feeling Like Ass...

You know Tuesday I was feeling just fine, and Wednesday I woke up with a terrible sore throat. It was so bad I thought it might be strep, so I haven't been into the office since so I didn't contaminate the place. I finally got into the Dr's office this morning and sure enough, full blown Strep Throat - which I haven't had since I was maybe like five years old. Now I'm on high dose antibiotics and I should be able to mingle again with the general population in a couple of days. As of right now, I totally feel like ass and I'm going to be spending a good portion of my day in bed.

So there will not a be an e-newsletter today. Perhaps Sunday if I feel up to pounding it out on the keyboard. There is a lot to tell you, so I'll try. Also, I'm not answering any e-mails right now that aren't directly about store business. Don't worry, I'll get to them, just not right now. Just letting you guy's know in case it seems I fall off the radar for a couple of days...

A Few Schedule Shifts / Cancellations from Bandai

After Bandai Entertainment's recent revelation of layoffs and downsizing, we expected more schedule changes, and Friday we got them. In their April solicitation mailer they anounced that they are bumping the Gundam Seed Destiny DVD Collection #2 Box from Feb 24 to April 21st, and has also bumped the Wolf's Rain Perfect Collection DVD Boxed Set from Feb 24th to April 7th. This sets up fully half of their planned April releases. The good news is that we will finally be getting a regular edition standard DVD boxed set of Freedom for a good price ($39.98 MSRP), and I for one am damn glad to see that title come down to earth after all the pain it's caused fans, first getting messed around on the ultra expensive HDDVD release, and then getting that overpriced BluRay re-release.

In a very suprising move, they have 'indefinately delayed' the Limited Edition version of Lucky Star #6, and also the planned Gurren Lagann Best CD. 'Indefinately delayed' is just Bandai speak for 'canceled', or at least that's what we're assuming at this time. This was a surprise to us because the limitd version of Lucky Star 5 sold so well through direct retailers like our store, and is actually one of the few upcoming Bandai titles that still had the potential to sell in volume - but hey, what do I know.

Anyway, please note the regular edition of Lucky Star #6 will be released on schedule. Phew! :-) If you have the Limited version on pre-order, probably a good idea to drop us a line and let us know you'd like us to switch the order to the regular version.

Are the Wall Closing In on TokyoPop?

Slowly but surely, the walls seem to be closing in on TokyoPop. We've continued to watch the restocking situation on catalog (older) TokyoPop volumes deteriorate over the last 3 or 4 months, and in some cases we've been forced to take some volumes down off the site (which we absolutely hate to do).

The situation with Aria Vol 4 (which seemed to be short pressed and not followed up even though there is plenty of demand), has caused a lot of folks to start looking closer at the company's health.

Now we are seeing that Diamond Comics has listed a number of upcoming TokyoPop volumes "canceled by publisher".

This is not the first time TokyoPop has canceled or delayed the release of a substantial block of previously announced volumes, but this list is disturbing in that (unlike previous announcements) these are some of their best selling titles (at least at our store). And some of the titles are high sequence volumes from series that have been in release for a long time (like Initial D, Tactics, King of Hell, and Moon Phase) and represent substantial investments by fans that have been following these titles. It's hard to believe TokyoPop would leave fans hanging on a series after collecting 33 volumes, even if sales of those later volumes are a little soft.

Here's the list that Diamond is showing canceled:

Aria Vol #5 TP
Cause of My Teacher TP
Demon Flowers Vol #5 TP
Demon Sacred Vol #1 TP
Hack//Sign Special Edition Novel
Elemental Gelade Vol #11 TP
Get Backers Infinity Fortress Vol #3 TP
Initial D Vol #34 TP
Jyu Oh Sei Vol #3 TP
King of Hell Vol #23 TP
Love Hurts Aishiatteru Futari TP
Speed Grapher Vol #3 TP
Tactics Vol #8 TP
This Ugly Yet Beautiful World Vol #1 TP
Tsukuyomi Moon Phase Vol #13 TP
VB Rose Vol #6 TP

In regards to the cancellations, the folks at MangaBlog contacted the always helpful Marco Pavia (TokyoPop's Marketing Director) who claimed Aria 4 sold out "mainly because orders came in much higher than projected", but then he was non committal regarding if TokyoPop will reprint the issue saying "It all depends on demand...". First he says demand was overwhelming, and then in the same breath said demand may not justify a reprint. Huh??? I think things are a lot worse over there than they are letting on, and I also think they would buy a lot more fan capital by being more upfront about their problems and especially, their future plans. We'd like to know more than "we're watching the market and will let you know". I've said it before, but no one seems to be listening.

UPDATE: The folks over at ICv2 are reporting that they have contacted Marco Pavia regarding the reported cancellations, and he has stated that these volumes are just 'delayed' as part of their plan to cut 2009 output by an additional 50%, so they are just getting reshuffled in the schedule. TokyoPop is still handling PR on a 'damage control' basis, and this update is not much of a comfort to fans that are waiting for these volumes to come out. I would like to note that TokyoPop cut their output by around 50% last summer, and this additional cut will probably bring the total number of new volumes they are publishing to maybe 10-15 per month, way down from the 40-50 per month they were putting out a year ago. As far as 'reshuffling' the schedule, we'll see...

Snow (Ice) Day / Macro Economics

We needed to close the warehouse today due to the snow / ice storm that come through the Washington area over the last two days. Most of us managed to get in and take care of business yesterday in the snow, but the ice that followed today pretty much closed everything down. If you have an e-mail inquiry in and haven't heard back yet, don't worry, Jamie and I will be working on them later this evening here at home and all morning tomorrow to get caught up. We'll have quite a few orders to catch up on tomorrow.

OK, so I'm spending a rare afternoon not working, reading the news, and wondering back to my Macro Economic days in college 16 years ago. The thing that strikes me in all the economic headlines is how difficult it is to figure out what the data means. For instance, home sales apparently turned around a bit in December, and inventory was down - BUT - 45% of those sales were banks dumping foreclosed properties for whatever they could get, accounting for a huge drop in median home price levels. The MSM will spin it however they want, but is that a good thing, or a bad thing? The proposed 825 Billion so called 'stimulus' is so large the number seems to loose all meaning to the masses, and will be financed strictly through more borrowing. This is in addition to the 750 Billion TARP funds, which is in addition to the existing budget deficit, whatever that is (it seems to change from week to week). I have to wonder just how much debt our government can really afford to take on. In other words, how much annual tax revenue, which is a direct reflection of our national productive capacity, will have to be consumed making interest payments on our dept, and were is the tipping point when we have to increase deficit spending just to pay the debt interest.

It’s just mind boggling to me, and I don’t claim to be able to understand it all, and I suspect most people and commentators can’t either which is why everyone seems to try to boil the problems down to some common denominator that probably misses the big picture. Is this just another negative blip in our history (which is what we want it to be), or will it be the perfect storm, the 500 year flood that will alter our way of life forever. I have no idea, but it does seem to suggest a Black Swan when you see something like this:

I had seen this scary fed borrowing graph highlighted here a few days ago, and now someone has made a movie (above) out of it that demonstrates how the current economic situation is an order of power higher in scale than anything we’ve ever seen before. What does it mean when the Fed borrows more money in one month than in the previous 70 years? I have no idea, but you get a gut feeling that it can’t be good. Those huge borrowing numbers over the last 14 months are purportedly funds drawn by banks and financial institution at the Fed’s open discount window under the emergency rules that allow them to use assets of questionable value and quality as collateral for Federal Reserve loans, and that money is being drawn to keep up the government required capital ratios up to par at thousands of financial institutions as they have to write down the value of commercial paper assets that have gone bad. Since lending is still stalled, I can only assume that this money is currently sitting on Bank balance sheets waiting for better times. What happens if the government decides to nationalize the banks? – something to me that has implications far more reaching than just trying to stabilize the economy. Do these people really know what they are doing, or are they doing things because they simply have no other choice?

And here again, I have no answers. Where do these trillions of new dollars come from? Do they borrow it? Do they print it? What happens if that new money gets turned loose on the economy in general? Will people’s habits change? Will they start saving more than they spend? Will this lead to a period of terrible deflation like in Japan during the nineties? Or will all this new money lead to a period of hyper inflation that will devalue the US dollar and deflate the US debt, and along with it destroy the net worth of every asset holding household in America? The latter seems to be the only way the government can deal with it’s massive debt long term, as there seems to be no chance what so ever that debt will ever be paid off, and just making the interest payments will become the biggest budgetary challenge in coming years. How will entitlement programs possibly be able to remain solvent in the near future? How will business owners like me have any opportunity to continue to create value under such conditions?

As you can see, I have no answers to these questions. Maybe some of you guys and gals out there who are a lot smarter than me can give me some reassurance that my concerns about our economic future as a nation are – well – unfounded?

On the Anime front, Funimation's parent Navarre will release Q4 earnings on February 6th. If anyone is interested in sitting in on Cary Deacon's conference call, there is info here. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Funi will report relatively strong numbers.

Note: No political commentary or political finger pointing in your comments please. That would be subject of an entirely different conversation.

Perhaps Sales Are Down So Much at Retailers Like Best Buy Because...

Best Buy, like so many other B&M retailers, reported dismal December sales numbers Friday, with same stores sales down 6.5%. I mentioned in Friday's e-newsletter that any R1 Anime studio relying heavy on Best Buy for their sales volume (cough - ADV - cough) is going to be finding themselves in a tenuous situation going forward, but that's a discussion for another post. Perhaps I should say it like this 'If you are an Anime studio and the majority of your revenue stream is coming from Best Buy and not independent dealers, then you already have one foot in the grave...'

The only industry that seems to be doing very well right now is the gun business. In the post presidential election period, I begin to wonder just how much money has been funneled from casual spending on things like consumer electronics and cars into people buying (for whatever reasons) firearms and ammunition. While it's being grossly under reported in the MSM, the fact is that over the last 60 days guns sales have gone up exponentially. In fact SO MANY guns are apparently being sold, that the ATF recently put out this bulletin informing dealers that they are running out of form 4473, which is the form you have to fill out every time you purchase a weapon from a licensed gun dealer. The ATF authorized, for the first time in my memory, that they will now allow dealers to use photo copies of the form. It's seems that people are forgoing flat screen TV purchases to get a couple extra FN-FAL's, a SIG 556, another Romanian SAR2, maybe that pre-ban HK94 they always wanted, or that Mossburg 'Roadblocker' that you were thinking of buying but could never pony up the scratch until it became a priority.

As I travel in gun circles a little bit (hey, I read Xavier's blog), I can report that the experience of visiting any of the local Gun stores in the Winchester VA or Martinsburg WV area in November and December was akin to getting into a life boat during the sinking of the Titanic. Stores were mobbed, and inventory of guns and ammo were mostly sold out. I was told one major manufacturer of AR type rifles has booked a 2 year backlog in just two months. Ammunition is being bought up in record levels as well, and surplus stocks have vanished from all of the major Internet ammo dealers. Prices are going up very fast as well as people make 5 or 10 years worth of gun and ammunition purchases in a period of 60-90 days. And these purchases are not cheap either, with people happily laying out two or three grand to get their hands on whatever is available to take home today. Here's a good example - try finding a Barrett M82 in stock anywhere - and they sell for $9,000 each and are severely back ordered - also the ammo which sells for $4 bucks a round is also sold out just about everywhere unless you are willing to pay a handsome premium. Gun industry retailers, of course, have capitalized on this by fanning the flames whenever possible. Just look at the blurb (highlighted in Yellow) posted on the front page of the popular gun accessory store Cheaper Than Dirt.

It sorta reminds me of how the Anime business was in 2004. -_^ Ahhh, nostalgia...

Anyway, since the gun industry is made up mostly of small independent dealers and privately held distributors and manufacturers (much like the Anime industry) it's really hard to estimate what sort of dollars are being diverted to the gun industry right now, but my guess would be that it's a lot more than most people think. And it would be interesting to speculate on how much of the sales declines that regular stores saw in November and December could be attributed to this.

Even in this terrible economy, people are spending copious amounts of money on something, and this is what it is. I wonder why this is being so under reported by the MSM? Perhaps it's not exactly in line with the message they are looking to get across?

UPDATE: Now that we've had regime change, the MSM is finally starting to report on this. I'm seeing more and more stories about it, and even Katie Couric's getting in on the action.

Happy NewYear Everyone!

Akemashite Omedeto Gozaimasu everyone!

Just a quick note. We're back from vacation (and oh my God it was heaven!) and will be working hard over the next couple of days to catch up on orders, requests, and e-mails. Also, since I had the audacity to actually take some vacation time for the holidays I did not send out newsletters for the past two Fridays. Gosh, there were even a couple of days there where I didn't touch a computer. WOW! My regular weekly newsletter will resume this Friday Jan 9th, and I'll have a lot to tell...

OK, back to work! :-)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring - not a cabbit nor mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Noemi soon would be there...

With Anime goodies packed all in her sack,
Toys, movies, manga, and imported postcard packs...
She had everything the kids wanted - that and much more,
...of the best Anime treats found only at Robert's Anime Corner Store!

We wish you every happiness this Holiday Season and prosperity in the New Year, and we look forward to continuing to serve your Anime needs in the coming year!

All our best wishes to you and your family!

Robert, Jamie, Ron, Fuller, Jenn, and the Rest of the Anime Corner Team

Funimation's March 09 Releases Posted

We've just about wrapped up holiday shipping as of this evening, though there is one day left for anyone who wants to bear the expense of FedEx overnight shipping, we can still get an order delivered to you before Christmas as long as you place it before around 4pm (EST) on Tuesday.

You place the order - we'll do the rest. :-)

There will NOT be any deliveries on Dec 25th. I know everyone should already know that, but I want to remind you anyway because a few people always forget and try to get us to overnight something to them on Christmas eve. I also wanted to give everyone a heads up that due to lighter than expected holiday volume (nationally), UPS has decided not to make any ground deliveries on Friday, Dec 26th. FedEx will decide by region if they will be doing ground deliveries that day, but they will be delivering on Saturday the 27th so we'll be funneling ground shipment towards the FedEx truck this week. FedEx Air will be delivering on the 26th, so 2nd Day airs shipping Tuesday and Next Day airs shipping Wednesday will be delivered on Dec 26th.

Now that thing are calming down a bit we've been working on getting a few things done before the break. Today we posted both Funimation's and Media Blaster's March 09 release schedule. Here's what they look like:

Media Blasters March 09:

Ah My Buddha (Amaenaideyo!!) Vol #2 DVD
Doujin Work , Vol #2, Quill & Ink DVD
Kite DVD (Remastered)
Kite (Remastered) / Kite Liberator DVD Double Pack
Voltron: Defender of the Universe DVD Collection #8 Box Set

Funimation March 09:

Baccano!, Vol #2 DVD
Claymore Vol #4 DVD
D.Gray-man Season #1 Part #1 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-13)
Darker Than Black, Vol #3 DVD
Dragonball Z Super Saiyan / Second Coming / Bio-Broly Triple Feature DVD
Dragonball Z Super Saiyan / Second Coming / Bio-Broly Triple Feature DVD [BLURAY]
Fruits Basket Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Viridian Collection)
Fullmetal Alchemist Season #2 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #29-51)
Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple Season #1 Part #1 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-13)
Negima Season 2 Part 2 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #14-26)
One Piece Season 1 Part 4 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #40-52) (Uncut)
Pani Poni Dash! Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Shigurui: Death Frenzy Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-12)
Shigurui: Death Frenzy Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-12 (BLURAY)
Shuffle Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Solty Rei Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Viridian Collection)
Speedgrapher Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Viridian Collection)
Tokyo Majin Season 1 Part #2 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #14-26)
Trinity Blood Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Viridian Collection)
Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, Vol #12 DVD
Wallflower Complete Collection Season #1 Part #2 (Eps #14-26)

For the next 10 days Funimation will be announcing one new license per week, but the 'BIG' event isn't all it's cracked up to be as several of the 'new' licenses will be stuff previously released by Geneon. Their first announcement today was for Ikki Tousen - the original series. Well, at least it will be coming back out. What we REALLY want to hear about is Dragon Destiny and Great Guardians, but the re-release of the first season is a start. Maybe they'll surprise us tomorrow?....

Have a great evening everyone!

New Figures In Stock / February and March New Releases

It's the last shopping week before Christmas, and we're still busy as hell getting orders filled, so this post will be brief. I'm not going to pick on last minute shoppers like I did last year, because the ordering has been very orderly (so far) and relatively incident free this year, and we thank you all for that! :-)

We had a new batch of figures due to arrive around the last week of December, but we expedited them and managed to get them delivered this week - in time for Christmas delivery if anyone cares to use one of our express options (sorry folks - Super Saver, Pri Mail, and Ground shipping might not get it there at this point). Here's the list of what we got in:

Evangelion: Asuka Langley Gothic Lolita 1/8 Scale PVC Figure (Black) - Only 7 Available!
Evangelion: Asuka Langley Gothic Lolita 1/8 Scale PVC Figure (Crimson) - Only 4 Available!
Funny Knights Masterpiece of Kuchu Yousai No. 1: Shinobu-chan (Ideal Woman Version) 1/7 Scale PVC Figure - Only 3 Available!
Ghost In the Shell: S.A.C. Motoko Kusanagi 1/6 Scale RAH Action Figure - Only 7 Available!
Gurren Lagann: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann Revoltech Action Figure #62 - Only 2 Available!
Hoshiful: Kotone Kuruhara 1/8 Scale PVC Figure - Only 4 Available!
Hoshiful: Ruka Hoshikawa 1/8 Scale PVC Figure - Only 4 Available!
Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny: Kanu Unchou Wet Uniform 1/6 Scale PVC Figure - Only 8 Available!
Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny: Kanu Red Bikini w/ Removable Top 1/6 Scale PVC Figure - SOLD OUT for Now - More Coming In a Few Days!
Kangofu Rock (Nurse + Rock): Elena Varenskaya 1/8 Scale PVC Figure - Only 6 Available!
Kangofu Rock (Nurse + Rock): Elena Varenskaya 1/8 Scale PVC Figure - Olive Black Version - Only 10 Available!
Koihime Musou: Ryofu (Ren) 1/6 Scale PVC Figure - Only 4 Available!
Please Teacher: Mizuho Kazami 1/7 Scale PVC Figure - Only 5 Available!
Shakugan no Shana: Shana Nendoroid Figure - Only 8 Available!
Soul Calibur III: Ivy (White Color) 1/6 Scale PVC Figure - Only 3 Available!
Soul Calibur III: Ivy (Purple Color) 1/6 Scale PVC Figure - Only 3 Available!
Vocaloid: Miku Hatsune 1/8 Scale PVC Figure- Only 14 Available!
Vocaloid: Nendoroid Len Kagamine PVC Figure - Only 5 Available!
Vocaloid: Nendoroid Rin Kagamine PVC Figure - Only 4 Available!
Vocaloid2: Len Kagamine Figma Action Figure - Only 4 Available!
Vocaloid2: Rin Kagamine Figma Action Figure - Only 4 Available!
Xenosaga: Kos-mos EPIII Version 4 1/8 Scale PVC Figure [Alter] - SOLD OUT!

After accounting for pre-orders, we did have a few of both the Ikki Kanu Red Bikini and Xenosaga Kos-Mos figures left over, but our extra stock sold out within two hours of us posting them yesterday. I made some calls, and the Kos-Mos figures are gone, but I did manage to secure a small additional number of the Kanu Red Bikini figures which will arrive after Chistmas.

Aside from new arrrivals we've recently recieved several more February and March new release schedules from various studios. Here's a round up of what we have posted for pre-order over the past couple of weeks:

Bandai Mar 09

Gundam 0080 DVD Complete Collection (Anime Legends)
Gurren Lagann, Part #3 DVD Bundle (Eps #19-27) (Bilingual Version)
Gurren Lagann, Part #3 DVD Bundle w/ Limited Edition Art Box (Eps #19-27) (Bilingual Version)
Lucky Star, Vol #6 DVD
Lucky Star, Vol #6 DVD Limited Edition

Bandai Feb 09

Akira DVD (Remastered) (BLURAY)
Clamp School Detectives Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Part #3 DVD
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion Part #3 DVD Limited Edition
Ghost Slayers Part #1 DVD Bundle (Eps #1-10)
Ghost Slayers Part #1 DVD Bundle Limited Edition (Eps #1-10)
Gundam F91 the Movie DVD (Anime Movie Classics)
Gundam 08th MS Team Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Anime Legends)
Gundam Seed Destiny DVD Collection #2 Boxed Set (Anime Legends)
Wolf's Rain Perfect Collection DVD Boxed Set (Anime Legends) (Contains All 30 Episodes!)

Viz Mar 09

Bleach, Vol #15 DVD
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Collection #3 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #35-51)

ADV Feb 09

Cyber Team in Akihabara Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Re-Issue)
E's Otherwise Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Re-Issue)
Full Metal Panic Season 1 & 2 Heavy Metal Collection DVD Boxed Set (FMP & FUMOFFU!)
King of Bandit Jing Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-13) (Re-Issue)
Kino's Journey Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Re-Issue)
Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden Season 2 Collection DVD Boxed Set (Economy Box)
Najica Blitz Tactics Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Re-Issue)
Pet Shop of Horrors Compete Collection DVD
Saint Seiya (Knights of the Zodiac) Complete Collection DVD Box Set #2 (Eps #31-60)
Sister Princess Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Re-Issue)
Zaion: I Wish You Were Here Complete Collection DVD

Funimation Feb 09

Afro Samurai Resurrection DVD (Uncut)
Afro Samurai Resurrection DVD (Uncut) (BLURAY)
Claymore Vol #3 DVD
DragonBall Z Season 8 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #220-249) (Re-Mastered)
DragonBall GT Season 2 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #35-68) (Re-Mastered)
Dragonball Z Super Android 13 / Bojack Unbound Double Feature DVD
Dragonball Z Super Android 13 / Bojack Unbound Double Feature DVD [BLURAY]
Kurau Phantom Memory Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Love Hina Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Nerima Daikon Brothers Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak) (Re-Issue)
Ragnarok Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Shattered Angels Complete Colelction DVD Boxed Set
Shin-Chan (Crayon Shinchan) Season 2 Part 1 DVD (Eps #27-39)
Shonen Onmyoji , Vol #6 DVD
Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, Vol #11 DVD

That's all I've got for right now, better get back to work...

Getting It Done / Upgraded Shipments / Coupon Deal Extended

We're two weeks deep into the holiday shopping season - so far so good. In fact, our performance metrics this year have been absolutely excellent. The fill rate for orders has been nearly 98% next business day, and we have broken the 99% complete marker for the first time during a holiday season. In fact, we've only booked 7 backorders out of around 6,600 unit shipments over the past 10 days, so our aggressive stock and inventory plan this year has worked out very well, and I'm glad considering the amount of hours we've all been putting in.

The only two snags have been with that darn Black Mokona and the Lyrical Nanoha DVD boxed set. The Black Mokona has been the most popular 'gift' item under $15 this year (we're out, but more are coming), and you guys have absolutely burned through our more than ample supply of the Lyrical boxes with one (I swear) being on every 4th or 5th order for the past 2 weeks. Funi sent more out to us in an emergency shipment yesterday, so they should arrive right before we run through the last of our stock on them. Having watched about 1/2 of it so far I highly recommend the series myself (hey, I like Lolicon shows...), and Steven Den Beste also liked it giving the show 3 stars, and let me tell you - he's so damn finicky that's about the best endorsement an Anime can get!

I've also been authorizing a lot of product and shipping upgrades when possible. Don't be surprised if you ordered the regular version of something and actually get the limited version, or if they throw in a little Omake with your order. We can't afford to do it for more than maybe 1 in 10 (I wish we could), but still, some of you will have a nice holiday treat when your orders arrive compliments of me and the crew. So far we've had great luck getting orders delivered to you guys very quickly with only a sprinkling of the delivery issues and delays we normally run into this time of year. In fact, we worked out some free ground to air upgrades as part of our contract renewal with FedEx, so a couple hundred of you who ordered using our free Super Saver or FedEx ground methods over the past couple of days will be surprised when those orders are delivered by FedEx air tomorrow instead of next week. Surprise! :-)

Our "Shop Early & Save an Extra 5%" coupon deal was supposed to expire at midnight tonight, and as we move into the 2nd half of the Christmas shipping cycle we'll be transitioning the discount offers into shipping offers. Trouble is we're all so drop dead tired from filling orders that no one has had the time to workup the new graphics for the upcoming shipping promotions, so I've quietly extended the current 5% offer another 48 hours until midnight on Thursday the 11th. That gives us a little more time to get the new offers setup. That also gives you a couple more days to take advantage of the 5% coupon before it goes away.

That's it for me folks, I'm on the tail end of a 16 hour day and I'm pooped. As always - try to get your holiday orders in as early as possible - and enjoy your Anime. :-)

Yawara Coming! + FUNI and ADV Feb Releases Posted

If you've been following some of my newsletter rants you know that we've been back and forth with AnimEigo for about 3 months trying to figure out if we were going to be able to carry Yawara or not. I'm happy to report that Robert W. (who heads up AnimEigo) and I have finally been able to come to an agreement - so we will indeed be carrying the limited edition Season 1 of Yawara! Yeah!


AnimEigo spent quite a bit of time and money producing and mastering this set, and they have to meet a certain number of unit sales at a certain price level to recoup their costs. This was one of the main reasons Robert W. was reluctant to release this series into retail as he was afraid it would put pricing pressure on the sets that would hurt their direct sales. We've agreed to sell it only for MSRP, and he's agreed to let us carry it - so our customers can now buy it directly from RACS. Robert W. and I exchanged quite a few e-mails on this over the past few weeks, and I want to thank him for giving us this opportunity.

Our first batch of sets shipped to us today from North Carolina and should be on our dock no later than Wednesday of this week (12/3), so we'll have it in plenty of time for people who want to give this set as a Christmas gift (even if it's to themselves...-_^). The boxed set includes Eps #1-40, and premium features include stuff like program notes, character bios, and interactive map, image gallery, and a 60-Page Booklet - everything you might expect from a premium AnimEigo release. You can pre-order your set here, and they should be shipping by Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

Series Synopsis: Yawara Inokuma just wants to be an ordinary high school girl. Unfortunately for her, she's been trained since she was a toddler by her grandfather, Jigoro, to be a judo prodigy. Nothing less than an Olympic Gold Medal and the coveted National Merit Award will satisfy him, and he'll do anything to ensure she achieves it - whether she likes it or not!

Funimations and ADV's February Schedule Posted

Funimation and ADV have sent over their February 2009 release schedules, and we've posted both to the store site so the following items are now available for pre-order:

ADV February 2009

Cyber Team in Akihabara Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Re-Issue)
E's Otherwise Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Re-Issue)
Full Metal Panic Season 1 & 2 Heavy Metal Collection DVD Boxed Set (FMP & FUMOFFU!)
King of Bandit Jing Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-13) (Re-Issue)
Kino's Journey Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Re-Issue)
Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden Season 2 Collection DVD Boxed Set (Economy Box)
Najica Blitz Tactics Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Re-Issue)
Pet Shop of Horrors Compete Collection DVD
Saint Seiya (Knights of the Zodiac) Complete Collection DVD Box Set #2 (Eps #31-60)
Sister Princess Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Re-Issue)
Zaion: I Wish You Were Here Complete Collection DVD

Funimation February 2009

Afro Samurai Resurrection DVD (Uncut)
Afro Samurai Resurrection DVD (Uncut) (BLURAY)
Claymore Vol #3 DVD
DragonBall Z Season 8 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #220-249) (Re-Mastered)
DragonBall GT Season 2 DVD Boxed Set (Eps #35-68) (Re-Mastered)
Dragonball Z Super Android 13 / Bojack Unbound Double Feature DVD
Dragonball Z Super Android 13 / Bojack Unbound Double Feature DVD [BLURAY]
Kurau Phantom Memory Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Love Hina Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Nerima Daikon Brothers Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Thin-Pak) (Re-Issue)
Ragnarok Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set
Shattered Angels Complete Colelction DVD Boxed Set
Shin-Chan (Crayon Shinchan) Season 2 Part 1 DVD (Eps #27-39)
Shonen Onmyoji , Vol #6 DVD
Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, Vol #11 DVD

Newsletter / Black Friday Promotion

I hope everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving, and is also having a great weekend like we are. :-) Since Jamie and I are taking a full four day holiday, the regular Friday Newsletter had to wait this week, but will go out on 'Cyber Monday'.

I did want to put out a quick post to mention that out Black Friday promotion is on and will be the best deal we run between now and Christmas, so be sure to take advantage:

SAVE UP TO 10% OFF ALL ITEMS + EVEN MORE ON MOST FIGURES & TOYS!

The holiday season is almost upon us, so that means it's time pickup those gifts for your favorite Otaku (even if your favorite Otaku is yourself!), and we're offering our best holiday promotion to everyone that shops early - before the rush! Until midnight (EST) on Monday, December 1st you can save up to an additional 10% off our already low prices. Coupons can be applied to any IN STOCK items, including existing sale items!

The more you order, the more you can save! Just use one of the following coupon codes during checkout for instant savings:

To save 5% off any in stock order over $99 use code: GOBBLEUP5

To save 7% off any in stock order over $199 use code: GOBBLEUP7

To save 10% off any in stock order over $299 use code: GOBBLEUP10

PLUS - We've discounted almost all of our in stock FIGURES & TOYS 10% off the regular low price. Use your coupon code to save even more! That's a combination that can't be beat!

Be sure to take advantage of this. Since it cuts our margins to just about nil, I only allow one 10% promotion to be run per year, and this one won't be repeated for some time.

Have a great weekend everyone! :-)