NIS America Offer Replacements for Fox Deity #2 Box Art

NIS America announced a replacement program today for the less than perfect box art that came on the 2nd Our Home's Fox Deity (Wagaya no Oinarisama) Premium DVD box (NIS-011134). They blamed a 'manufacturing error' for the less than pristine box art image quality on the premium collectors box. The box contents and DVD's themselves (nothing wrong with the actual DVD's) are not effected by this, only the box art.

If you have purchased this set and would like a reprinted art box at no cost, just fill out NIS's replacement form here. NIS says the reprinted boxes will be available to ship to customers who want them in about 4-6 weeks.

Funimation Changes Date (Again) for Rosario / YuYu Hakusho BD

Ugggg, what can I say? Today we heard that Funi is moving Rosario out even further on the release schedule. Here are the date changes they announced today:

Rosario+Vampire Complete Collection DVD Boxed Set (Eps #1-13) - Jul 19th to Aug 30th
Rosario+Vampire Capu2 (Season 2) Complete DVD Boxed Set (Eps #14-26) - Jul 19th to Aug 30th
Yu Yu Hakusho Season 1 Box (Eps #1-28) (BLURAY) (Classic Collection) - Apr 26th to May 30th

It seems like the release date for Rosario has become the ultimate moving target. In the last 45 days it has moved from Mar 29th to May 19th to Jul 19th and now to Aug 30th. Seriously folks, I hope this is the last change because if it moves out any further the light from it alone will take millions of years to reach us...

IDA Posts English Cat Shit One Trailer

IDA has finally posted the long promised English trailer for the Cat Shit One. The director of the war anime, Kazuya Sasahara, also announced on Saturday that the previously announced free English stream of the anime has been rescheduled for February 5.

In addition he said the planned DVD and Blu-ray Disc release has also been rescheduled for the same date on Amazon, but as of today Amazon still shows both as 'unavailable' for order.

~sigh~ This one had so much potential too. Those guys at IDA could F$#& up a cup of coffee. :-) Anyway, here's the trailer (comes after the ads):


I love Botasky's EBR... do want!

UPDATE: OK, just for fun, lets take a look at Packy & Botasky's kit:

Botasky has a pretty straight forward EBR setup, the enhanced 7.62x51 (.308) M14 build that Smith Enterprise (and Fulton Armory I think) puts together for the Military using their parts and a special stock designed by Sage International. The Smith Enterprise three point scope mount for the M14 is about the best you can get - I have one on my M1A. He also is setup with a suppressor and a laser designator (probably an AN/PEQ of some type) for night operations. His optics are probably a variable Leopold Mark 4 with a mil dot reticle, and he has a diffuser cover on the front lens to prevent reflected light from giving away his position. On top the scope he has an Aimpoint reflex site for close in work should it become necessary. Finally, he is using some sort of Harris style bi-pod, which is very common. I think his backup piece is a custom 1911 of some sort judging by the backstrap safety.

Packy's weapon is definately an AR style flat top, but it's not an M4. His rifle has a vertical grip with a pressure switch for a laser mounted under the quad rail hand guard. He has flip up sights and also an Aimpoint red dot or reflex sight (maybe an M68?), and also a Voltor style adjustable stock. These are all features you'd expect to see on a regular M4, but Packy's weapon is clearly chambered for 7.62x39 which is the cartridge the AK uses. While unusual, there are a lot of AR makers that produce versions chambered for this round. This is a good choice for Packy, because as they operate deep behind enemy lines cut off from re-supply, he would want his battle rifle to run the same ammunition and magazines the enemy uses. An interesting choice by the film producers that is a credit to their attention to detail. I believe Packy's backup gun is also a highly customized 1911. This also makes sense, as the two could easily exchange magazines.

Anyone have any other thoughts?

What We DON'T Do to Your Packages...

Sometimes all that high tech, high volume package moving equipment can work against you. Ships fast? Yes. Ships well? hmmmm... Here is a parcel at Amazon, and a great example of what WON'T happen to your package here at RACS:


Just imagine if that one had your Anime figurine order inside...uggg.

Media Blasters / Allegro Media Partnership

Media Blasters made the announcement this week that they have struck a deal with Allegro Media (a small entertainment media firm that hasn't updated the news section of their website since January) to handle sales and distribution of all Media Blasters Anime and movie labels starting in December. That includes everything published under the Anime Works, Tokyo Shock, and their other live action movie labels. Interestingly, Kitty (their adult Anime line and no doubt their most profitable) will remain in house and will not go out to Allegro.

Most of you guys probably don't know this, but Media Blasters closed up their New Jersey distribution warehouse over the summer (and sadly layed off all the staff there), and outsourced all of their retailer fulfillment to Brand X's wholesale warehousing and shipping service. That was shortly after they shut down their manga division. This transition has been one of the big causes of all the MB backorders and stockouts since July. Now, it seems, they will be moving their inventory again out to Allegro's warehouse over the next few weeks - all of this going on during the busiest selling season of the year. While MB was making a lot of promises to us back in September that weren't filled , I now expect the major stockouts and shortages to last well into January, which can't been good - especially over the holiday selling season.

Regarding the move, John Sirabella (President of Media Blasters) said that this arrangement:

"frees up Media Blasters to focus on localizing properties for the US market, developing new features and series, and producing the highest possible quality DVD, Blu-ray, and digitally distributed releases."

Really? And it has nothing to do with cost cutting due to declining revenue and market share? We'll, no one can ever say THAT publicly - except me - it seems. I've been around this business for a LONG time, and have seen a lot of Anime companies come and go. One thing I would make an observation about is that when a studio outsources their retailer fulfillment, it just means they are trying to cut costs, but when they outsource the outside sales function too, it usually means the company is either going down the tubes, or is no longer planning to pursue that aspect of the business. If you are interested in staying in the Anime business, you keep your sales function IN HOUSE. Period.

We were informed of Media Blasters deal with Allegro last Friday afternoon, before it went public on Monday. I was tempted to fire off a quick blog post to 'break' the news, but I decided to hold off for a few days - frankly because it was a little depressing and I just didn't feel like writing about it at the time. At the end of the day, I hope Media Blasters is not ending up just another casualty of the R1 downturn. Hopefully this is not the case.

Nowadays, MB is the only company left with the guts to license titles like Kanokon or Queens Blade. Come on John, stay with us man, the Anime community needs you.

Comcast DNS Issue - Resolved

Just a quick note for everyone who might have had an issue getting on our store site this morning. There was some sort of DNS resolution issue that Comcast customers ran into trying to access the RACS web store servers. As far as we can tell only Comcast customers were effected. The issue lasted about an hour and has been resolved.

It's never a dull moment, that's for sure... :-)