Updates 

Lots to pass onto you this fine week, so let's get to it!  

Couple of administrative updates first:   

As many of you are already aware, most places are sold out of Funi's OniAi Compete Collection DVD/BD Combo Set (Limited Edition) FN-09221 (the series that takes brotherly love to, um, new extremes) and there have been rumors that the set is now discontinued. This is not the case, and Funi has assured me that they have more of the sets in re-print and that they should be shipping to retailers again in around 3 weeks or so. Takes a little longer for these because of the special packaging. 

While everyone started to panic again about many of the Berserk manga's going out of print - and we know this from the number of folks who have wandered into the store out of nowhere lately looking for the volumes they couldn't find anywhere else - eh hem - we managed to restock ALL 37 of the Berserk volumes this week, and I'm determined to keep them stocked pretty deep in the warehouse while they are available. Dark Horse can't seem to figure out what they want to do with the series, but they are in stock again and we're going to buy them up like crazy just in case this REALLY is the last repressing. 

The new most excellent PSYCHO-PASS - Season One Complete Collection BLURAY Set (Eps #1-22) (Premium Edition) arrived early this morning and the crew is shipping re-orders for it as I write this. If you want to see what's included in the box, Funi has a Hey! Nice Package video for it posted here - just ignore all the stupid 'Shop Funi' crap they put all over the video - geeze Funi, if you want us to highlight and link your stuff or post your videos to our store site to promote your products, don't put shopping references to other sites in them. I know the marketing kids over there are fresh outta college and their minds have been completely rubbished growing up on social media and such, but that's just dumb.

Some executive at Neurowear suddenly decided to raise the MSRP on their ultra cool Nekomimi ears from $70 MSRP all the way up to $120 MSRP this week, and as a channel partner of theirs we are obligated to raise the advertised price to the new level as well. That this move will effectively kill the entire market for this product fell on deaf ears (no pun intended), and this huge out-of-the-blue price increase really has us scratching our heads. Since these have now been out for a couple of years and have likely plateaued in the marketplace, perhaps they felt like they could make up the drop in unit revenue by just doubling the price. This philosophy is not unique to Japanese run companies and is similar to what executives at the postal service have been trying to do with Priority and First Class mail. One thing is for sure, it makes it pretty clear that the folks making the decisions at these companies have no idea what to do but feel like they need to do something - and that something is usually pretty dumb. 

The adventures of the Neighbors Club continue - hilarity ensues!

The DBZ BD re-releases continue unabated, and that's good to see. I don't think there is any chance Funi will bail on them this time around. SO GLAD to see Haganai NEXT get on the schedule - I'll be taking that one home the day it comes in. And it seems like Shiki had one of the shortest product cycles from release to S.A.V.E. edition of any Funimation title ever, but I always forget it came out Summer of 2012. Just doesn't seem like it was that long ago. 

Our favorite Anime company (you know, $15 per episode LooLoo) added two new releases to the schedule this week, and yes, we have added them to the store for pre-order:

Nekomonogatari Black : Tsubasa Family BLURAY Set (Limited Edition) - Apr 22
Nekomonogatari White : Tsubasa Tiger BLURAY Set (Limited Edition) - Jun 22

Because it's not the shows fault it gets released by that company... 

The folks at NISA let us know this week that their Premium release of Wagnaria!! Season 2 (which I just finished watching again) is now completely sold out at wholesale. More units will be available in about a month, and I'm pretty sure we have enough on hand to bridge the gap between now and then, so it shouldn't cause any problems. Not sure if this will be the last pressing though - hint hint. 

 

RACS,

"Do you know how many manga have been discontinued?"

Logan

I suppose Logan was probably sitting around that day having a lively conversation with a few of his manga friends, and the subject came up about how so many older manga series seem to be out of print now, and somewhere along the line the conversation turned to the big question of exactly how many have come and gone. No one knew of course, but someone  said - "hey, lets ask Robert - he'll know - he knows everything" - well if I knew everything folks, why don't my lottery numbers ever come up? Explain that, can ya?? 

The only answer I could give is that it would be somewhere in the thousands. How many volumes were in TokyoPop's or CMX's catalog alone that never got rescued? But someone somewhere knows everything, so lets have a game of it. If someone can tell me exactly how many English manga volumes (volumes, not series), TP format only, across all US publishers (past and present) have been printed and then discontinued since Jan 1st of the year 2000 to say Jan 1 2014, and actually substantiate their answer with something believable, I'll give them a $100 store credit on the RACS store site. In fact, if you can just answer to how many total volumes have been published at all in that period and back up your answer, that would certainly suffice. 

Good luck! :-)

And finally, I wanted to mention that Gene from Nation is selling his awesome Superscale Veritech statue they used to display in the store down there on Craigs list. I have a great deal of respect for Gene and what him and his wife accomplished in the industry over the years. They are good people, and I'll tell you, if I had the extra scratch laying around right now I'd be headed down to Florida to get that Veritech - man it would look terrific in my office! :-)