Store Stuff, News, and Tab Clearing
Couple of discontinuation notices to pass on this week:
Sentai Filmworks let us know this week that the recently released
Persona 4 - The Animation Collectors Edition DVD/BD Combo Set is now completely sold out at wholesale and they are not planning to press anymore copies. This will mark the first Sentai collectors edition that has essentially sold out by the street date, and demonstrates the importance of grabbing one of these sets in
pre-order as it appears Sentai is ratcheting back the amount of these being pressed. We do still have a
handful of copies left in the warehouse for anyone who still needs one, but once those are gone that will be it.
And the good folks at NIS America informed us of two license expirations this week. As of now their licenses for both
Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day and
Occult Academy have officially expired and both of these titles are now sold out at wholesale and OOP. We currently have stock on both the Anohana TV SE and the Occult Academy BD SE, but I'm sure that won't last long (especially with Anohana) so grab a copy while you still can!
Japanese Anime studio Manglobe entered bankruptcy this week. This follows a flurry of twitter activity by several directors saying that the company has shuttered "for the moment". Manglobe just finished airing the Gangsta series and was involved in the production for the upcoming theatrical feature film Genocidal Organ. The company began in 2003 with the ONA Trip Trek and later gained attention for its work on Samurai Champloo. They had last worked on Psychic Squad: The Unlimited, Karneval, The World God Only Knows S3, Samurai Flamenco and Hayate the Combat Butler! Cuties.
FUNimation Entertainment announced this week that it plans to release the
Evangelion: 3.33 You Can (Not) Redo on home video in Early 2016. Funimation also confirmed over Twitter that it is aiming for late 2015 or early 2016. Posted without comment, except that I won't believe it until I have a copy IN MY FRIGIN HAND....
In other news, some theatergoers to the screenings of the live-action Attack on Titan film in the United States on Wednesday have reported experiencing subtitle issues during the film. According to some of the attendees, at a point during the first half of the film, the film displays "I've been waiting for this day!" on the subtitles, and continues to do so, without displaying other subtitles. Funimation is handling the film's distribution in North America and blamed a technical glitch for the error.
And finally, October is going to be a good month for Naruto fans. In addition to the home video release of
The Last: Naruto the Movie (which we just got in), the little ninja that could will be appearing in cinemas across the U.S. and Canada in his latest feature adventure,
Boruto: Naruto the Movie. On October 10, 52 cities across North America will show subtitled theatrical screenings of Boruto: Naruto the Movie thanks to VIZ and Eleven Arts. In this latest feature, Naruto is now Seventh Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village. Boruto, his troublesome son, resents his father's responsibilities that take his time and attention away (I know, that sucks). Sasuke, now with a family of his own, takes Boruto under his wing, while his only daughter, Sarada, dreams of being Hokage one day. Meanwhile, the new Chunin Exams are threatened by evil lurking around the corner. Screen times and tickets
can be had on Eleven Arts site here.
RACS Packaging - Why We're The Best
One of the things we pride ourselves on here at RACS is the extra care we take when packaging your orders. Anyone that has ever gotten a parcel from Amazon or one of those other Anime retailers in the US knows they just really don't care much about how your items arrive. Not so here, and a recent experience one of our customers had exemplifies this:
Quang in Texas wrote us this week to let us know the condition his Pri Mail parcel arrived in:
"I just wanted to let you know that this is how I saw my package when I came home and
it was not handled with care what's so ever. I know that this is not your fault, this is the carriers fault."
Those fragile stickers that we use certainly do make a difference, don't they? The good news is that the crew packaged his
Beyond the Boundary Collectors Edition well enough that it still arrived in perfect condition:
We always want your Anime items to arrive at your door 100%, but we know carrier mis-haps will occur from time to time, and we always do our best to ensure that no matter what happens to your parcel in transit, your stuff still arrives in perfect condition. Why those other guys don't care more about that I haven't a clue...
Funimation Update
Just a quick heads up that the
One Piece Season 7 Voyage 2 DVD sets, originally scheduled to street on Sept 1st, finally shipped from Funimation this week, so we now have all the scheduled Sept releases from Funimation in stock that were not either moved or canceled. As of yesterday it's a new month, and based on our contact experiences with them so far this week, it's looking like yet another month of hand-wringing and follow ups to try to get their October releases in on time. I also wanted to mention that due to the supply chain disruptions of late there may be temporary delays and/or stock-outs on some of Funi's catalog items as well, though we are doing our best to keep as much of their stuff in stock as we can until these issues are cleared up. Please try to be patient with us on their releases as we are doing the best we can and I will relay anymore delays and/or cancelations that may come up here in our weekly newsletter.
And, as a note directly to the folks at Funi who will read this newsletter, you guys need to be doing much more than you are to facilitate getting this supply chain situation back on track, and without naming any names there so far I have found the handling of it quite unprofessional. Lets get these ridiculous issues in the rear view mirror so I don't have to include anymore 'Funimation Update' tabs in future newsletters.
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New Licenses
Sentai rolled out a few announcements this week, letting us know that they have picked up the following shows:
Comet Lucifer
Chivalry of a Failed Knight
Young Black Jack
These are all new shows in Japan, so any home video release details won't come down the pipeline for awhile yet.
And Pony Canyon USA announced at its panel at Anime Weekend Atlanta that it will release the
Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers in three home video sets. The first set will ship on December 10, the second set will ship on February 10, and the third set will ship on April 10.
It might be worth mentioning that sales of Rokka in Japan were abysmal. I've heard numbers as low as only 500 copies of the BD sold, so I can't imagine PonyCan thinks there will be more than a couple hundred customers for it here in the US. But whatever, we should have the first set up for pre-order after October 10th. PonyCan USA noted that it will announce more details about the release a little later. One thing we already know about it though - it will be ridiculously expensive.
Upcoming Releases
We added one upcoming release to the store site this week, from Nick:
Avatar: The Last Airbender Complete Collection (Season #1-3) DVD Box (16 discs)
Toko Fukami thought she had settled on what she wanted in life: to hang out with her four best friends in their small seaside town, and to eventually become a professional glassblower working in her family's glassworks. But now two things have happened that may change her destiny forever. First, she's seeing things. When she looks into reflections in glass, sometimes she catches glimpses of things that haven't happened yet. And then a new boy, Kakeru, transfers into town, claiming that a voice from the future led him to her. Suddenly Toko is re-evaluating everything she thought she knew, from the proper care of her school's chickens to how she really feels about each of her friends. Get ready for an amazing summer that stands between the possibilities of the future and the memories of the past as six young people come of age in GLASSLIP.
Our two heroes are facing the world's most skilled duelists in the World Duel Carnival - the greatest tournament in history! Yuma and Astral squeaked by the preliminaries, but they're about to face their ultimate test in the finals where unexpected new rules - and devices - await!
Luffy turns a mermaid auction into a pirate-style brawl when he knocks the snot out of a celestial dragon. The punch heard 'round the island may have saved Camie, but it lands the Straw Hats squarely in the sights of an entire fleet of marines! A little help from fellow pirates Trafalgar Law and Eustass Captain Kid buys the crew some breathing room, but the situation goes from bad to worse when an army of Kuma-clone Pacifistas make their presence felt. Throw in some Light Speed Kicks from Admiral Kizaru and Senfomaru's battle axe, and things couldn't get much worse for the Straw Hats. Or could they? Luffy is forced to watch in horror as the real deal Bartholomew Kuma makes his beloved friends vanish one by one until the rubberman ends up a lonely castaway on the island of Amazon Lily!
A vampire is on the loose, and it's up to dashing supernatural detective Tsuzuki to stop her. Along with his new partner, a volatile young man with a mysterious past, he's on the most dangerous mission of his afterlife!
In the world of Japanese animation, Go Nagai is a legend. As one of the most prolific creators of anime works of all time, Go Nagai has single-handedly created entire genres, as well as pushed boundaries and set new standards for generations of artists and writers to come. Whether exploring anti-war sentiments through extreme violence with his most popular work, Devilman, or carving through a culture of shame towards sexuality with Harenchi Gakuen, it's no exaggeration to say that Go Nagai has changed Japanese culture forever. And now, his creations are super deformed! Akira Fudo wakes up one morning to find his body isn't quite right. And he isn't the only one! Alongside Miki and Ryo, Akira will need to find a way to return his body to normal, and along their three episode OVA journey, they'll meet strange people from strange lands--yet are all too familiar to fans! Catch all the super deformed fun of Go Nagai World in this DVD!
When Marina looks up, she doesn't see the sky; she sees the world of the surface. As the youngest princess of the undersea kingdom, she's always longed to see what lies above. Stealing her way upwards during the dead of night, the mermaid princess finds the man of her dreams as he sails across the dark sea. But one encounter, no matter how dramatic, isn't enough for her. Marina visits the sea witch, and begs to have her fishy tail replaced with human legs. As the story goes, the princess must pay with her voice--but also agree to a condition. If her prince does not return her love, and instead loves another, then she will turn into foam! In a tale more faithful to the original Hans Christian Andersen story, The Little Mermaid is a fairy tale at once familiar, but also darkly different. Join Princess Marina and Fritz the Dolphin on an adventure, with an ending you won't see coming!
Today, Kei Katsuragi's only concern is the love of his life. It doesn't really matter to him that he has more than one love--after all, as a pilot for the Freedom Space Corps, he might be dead tomorrow! In the future, war has changed, and Kei is all too familiar with the horrors it can bring. Atomic, biological, and chemical weapons are all in use, but worst are the dimensional weapons, ordnance that can tear apart even time and space! As it happens, his next mission just so happens to involve one, a risky gambit in the war over Earth's space elevator. During the mission, Kei disobeys orders, and his brash actions have consequences beyond just a big kaboom! Kei is thrown into the future, and finds himself caught in an entirely different struggle between the militaristic Chiram and the mercantile Emaan--with himself as the prize! Will this womanizing hot shot pilot make it back to his own time, or is there something more to Kei being the "singularity"? Find out in this DVD boxed set, containing all 35 episodes!
