Omnibus Editions: A Sign of the Times

In a sign of the times, Del Rey has recently canceled a handful of upcoming manga volumes in favor of Omnibus editions that allow them to incorporate more material together in a lower priced package. Instead of Wallflower 22 and 23, we will now get a Wallflower Omnibus 22-24. Orange Planet 3 has now been replaced with the Orange Planet Omnibus 3-5, and the first volume of Wild@Heart will now be the Wild at Heart Omnibus 1-3.

We've updated the store site to reflect these changes.

The downside of this is that, for finicky collectors that like their manga shelves to be 'just so', the new volumes will be fatter and won't match the old ones they already have. The upside is that instead of paying $10.98 MSRP per volume, we get three volumes for just $21.98 MSRP. Nothing wrong with that!

Update: Seven Seas has announced that it has licensed Yu Aida's Gunslinger Girl action manga and Masayuki Takano's Blood Alone vampire manga. The publisher will release the first six volumes of Gunslinger Girl in two omnibus volumes starting in February of 2011, and then release single volumes starting with volume 7. There are currently 12 volumes in Japan. The first three volumes of Blood Alone will be compiled in one omnibus volume in May of 2011, followed by single volumes for the remaining volumes. There are six volumes in Japan currently. Seven Seas also announced that it will release Strawberry Panic! The Complete Manga Collection, which will contain "both volumes of the manga, plus two all-new previously unreleased chapters," and the first Venus Versus Virus Omnibus book (with three collected volumes) this October. The three-volume Hayate X Blade Omnibus 1 and three-volume Inukami! Omnibus 1 will follow in November.

Kanonon DVD Vol #1 Price Correction

Media Blasters sent us a note today to let us know that the MSRP of $29.98 for the Kanokon: The Girl Who Cried Wolf, Vol #1, Sexy Like a Fox DVD (Eps #1-4) was incorrect - the correct MSRP was actually supposed to be $19.98 - a full ten dollars lower!

We've corrected our every day low pricing on the store site for this volume to $14.98. We will also be sure to automatically adjust any existing pre-orders for this volume to the new lower price.

First Code Geass R2 Bundle is Seven Episodes - Not Nine

Just a quick post to confirm what everyone has been asking all day via e-mail. The first Code Geass R2 bundle is indeed 7 episodes and 175 Minutes, not 9 episodes and 225 minutes as it was originally solicited. They totally slipped this past us under the radar, so I apologize that we did not have the correct stats and episode counts listed on the site until last night.

In response to this discrepancy, Bandai says that the DVD info included in the original solicitation mailer sent out to retailers was incorrect. R2 is going to be released as four parts (probably 7 ,6 ,6, and 6 eps) , not three (9, 8, and 8 eps) as was originally planned. The first DVD bundle contains seven episodes, and the subsequent parts will have six episodes each. Bandai does, however, "apologize for the initial information regarding Part 1 being incorrect in the mailer”, and did make it clear that their solicitation mailers state 'all specifications are subject to change without notice'.

And so they did. They do love surprises over there. :-)

Update: I'd also like to note that the most recent mailer (that Bandai sent us last week) for their October releases indicates that the 2nd Code Geass R2DVD bundle will be 225 minutes (9 eps), however, this is incorrect, it will actually be 6 episodes and 150 minutes.