July Order In

Some of the selections may seem odd, all things considered, but it works for me.

Kanon, Vol #4
Kanon, Vol #5
Witchblade, Vol #6 DVD
Devil Hunter Yohko Boxed Set
Gravion/Gravion Zwei Complete Collection
Grenadier Complete Economy Boxed Set

So, what with all the fallout from ADV’s slo-mo collapse, I decided to take a look at what licenses they’ve lost and figure out what I needed to grab, ASAP. The answer? Not a damn thing. The fact that I don’t care to buy any of their stuff may explain why they’re dying. Ok, I was mildly interested in Le Chevelier D’Eon, but at $132 for the full set? Assuming Robert didn’t go out of stock on one of them before filling my order. Ah, no thanks. Sgt. Frog? Sorry, I’m not amphibisexual, I like pretty girls, not alien tadpoles. Utawarerumono came that close to being on the order; in fact when I first started putting it together, it was on; the concept seems intriguing, and it got moderately positive reviews. But there is not a boxed set, so it falls prey to the same problem as Le Chevelier

But…. dammit, I’m left hanging on my obligation purchase of Kanon. What to do, what to do….

Ok, so I decided to gamble. If I were Funi, what would I do? Picking up a huge swath of titles from Geneon and ADV all at once is going to choke their production and distribution system. The smartest thing to do, to keep from spending two years just trying to get the license backlog out, is to take ADV’s incomplete work and run with it. And since Funimantion has confirmed that they’re in talks with ADV to acquire their completed and in-progress dub/subs, and ADV is obviously trying to create some fan buzz to pressure Funi to do just that… I’m grabbing Kanon #4 and #5, and betting that with just one DVD to go, and the work almost certainly completed, Funimation will purchase ADV’s masters (and stock if already burned), and just throw it out there with stickers on the cases, covering the ADV logos. At worst, they’ll reprint the covers with their own logo, but the same cover art. At absolute worst, they’ll burn new DVD’s to eliminate the ADV logo and ads. That assumes ADV actually burned theirs…I’d not be surprised to find they didn’t, given their earlier excuses.

Well, a two DVD order isn’t worth it, so what else is out there…. Ok, I need to finish Witchblade. And I’m fresh out of obligation buys for the moment. I want to get TTGL, but I’m going to wait until at least 3 discs are out, maybe 4. So, let’s start looking at boxed sets, for some bargains. Hello, Devil Hunter Yoko! I remember that from waaaaaay back. Complete series? I thought there were just 3 OVA’s? Well, the 3rd sucked, I thought, but so what, let’s pick up this old classic. Especially given that it’s ADV, and it won’t be around long if ADV goes under. (Hm, reissuing in August. Right.) Hey, there’s the boxed set of both seasons of Gravion! “God knows (and I don’t mean as sung by Haruhi-sama), the fanservice for this season is looking as thin as two seasons ago. Lets grab it to tide me over.” Done. And then, for the hell of it, I tossed in Grenadier. I still love the OP music and the show was reasonably good too. I bought it for DrHeinous’ Christmas present last year, and kinda wished I had a copy too, so now I will.

And that’s my order. Since I’m putting it in late Friday night (a holiday at that) and I bet Robert’s going to be dealing with the fallout from ADV and Funi’s announcements, I’d guess it probably won’t be put on the truck until Tuesday. Even then, I should still get it by next weekend.

Update: My keen sense for figuring out the completely obvious triumphs again!