Kanokon TV Series DVD - Back In Stock at Last!

Just an FYI to everyone today - both the Kanokon TV Series DVD and the Kanokon OVA DVD are now back in stock. The OVA was only out of stock for a couple of weeks, but the TV series DVD (in typical Media Blasters fashion) has been on hiatus and out of stock since May.

Just a hat tip to everyone who has been waiting several weeks for being so patient. Thanks! All backorders are in the process of shipping now and will be completed tomorrow, so if you have been waiting your copy should be in your mailbox in a few days.

Wagnaria Premium Edition Restocks Delayed - Now Scheduled for Late May

NIS America has been assuring us - as late as last Friday - that the final pressing of the Wagnaria premium collection would be shipping to retailers on May 11th, so we expected to have it sometime late this week. They even worked in some other restocks to ship on the same date.

We'll, in the typical fashion of only a Japanese run US based studio operation, they informed us today that the final pressing of Wagnaria will be delayed until around the end of May:

"It has come to our attention that there occurred a problem in manufacturing process for WAGNARIA!! Premium Edition 2nd batch. In order for us to build and deliver perfect products to our customers, we have decided to postpone the schedule for a certain period. Current estimate of the dispatch will be the end of May, we will update you once we had a fixed date."

Can you hear me banging my head against my desk? Since we have so many pre-billed back orders and hold tickets currently sitting on the shelf waiting for the set, this is obviously going to cause us about 2,000 headaches and if you listen to the talk around the office this morning you'll know that NIS is not our favorite company at the moment, temporarily replacing Bandai (for a few days at least) as the largest source of angst for us as a retailer of Anime DVD's. I've been e-mailing customers constantly for the last few days assuring them that we would be shipping these sets in a few days, and now, of course, I feel like a complete idiot for trusting in a date given to me by a studio. After about 7,480 missed dates over the years by just about everyone, you'd think I'd know better.

Anyway, if you currently have a multi-item order holding for this set, we are going to modify your ticket today so that we can ship your other items out now, and we will place the Wagnaria set on back order for you and will ship it (at our expense) once they do finally arrive - whenever that is. I also want to apologize to everyone for this. I don't like it when we make a commitment to you and then can't meet it, even if the situation is out of our control. If you have any concerns about your order for Wagnaria, please don't hesitate to drop us a line so we can address it.

Sony Admits Total PSN Security Breach - Hackers Have User Info

If you are like me, you have not been able to log onto the PlayStation Network since the middle of last week. What you might still not know is why - it's because the PSN got hacked, and it looks like it might be one of the largest single consumer security breaches in history.

Sony finally came clean today about the "external intrusion" that took PSN down, and admitted that all 69 Million PSN user accounts have probably been compromised. Here is the data that Sony is SURE has been compromised if you have a PlayStation Network Account:

-Your name
-Your address (city, state, and zip)
-Country
-E-mail address
-Birthday
-PSN password and login name

Sony says it is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained,". While the company claims that there is "no evidence" that credit card information has been compromised, it won't rule out the possibility.

Best bet is to assume that the hackers have your credit card information too and cancel the card you use for that account. If you stored your debit card information on PSN - well, shame on you - you should DEFINITELY cancel it and get a new one.

Even Sony said:

"If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."

Sony really is VERY sorry about all this, and they do apologize for the inconvenience.

Yet another reason why we DO NOT allow customer accounts on the RACS store site, nor do we allow you to store your personal and/or payment information on the site. Sure that makes it easier to shop and checkout, but if PSN can get hacked, anyone can. Best way for us to secure your personal information is not to store it at all.

UPDATE: Sony released an FAQ blog post that said credit card data was encrypted and separate from the other data, which was not encrypted but was "behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack."

UPDATE 2: 2.2 Million Credit Card Numbers From PlayStation Network May Be Up for Sale

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... :-)