Media Blasters Reduces Staff with Layoffs, Furloughs

That may explain the large amount of delays for upcoming titles:
http://www.mania.com/media-blasters-shifts-titles_article_121093.html

Sucks for those who lost jobs, definitely.
 
SounRAB like they're starting to feel the pinch from Best Buy cutting back on anime last year.

This sucks, Media Blasters isn't perfect-- what company is?-- but they bring over a lot niche stuff that Funimation probably wouldn't touch.

Besides, as relatively well-behaved as Funi's been recently, I'm uncomfortable with their becoming essentially the entire American anime industry. They need competition to keep them on their toes, and that's been seriously hard to come by lately.
 
They are definitely having a harder time getting product into Best Buy. For instance, I didn't see Ikki Tousen: Dragon Destiny vol. 1 at my local BB until a good three months after it was released. And mind you, it was one of the stores that survived the anime section cut-backs. Indeed. Bandai is barely relevant right now (I think the only new titles on their plate are Hayate, Kurokami, and Gundam 00) and keeps delaying what few titles they do have, Media Blasters is scaling back, and Viz... well, they've got the long-stays Bleach, Naruto, and Pokemon. A couple other new titles but not much.

Surprisingly, the company that is really posing the most competition for FUNi right now is Sentai/Section23, even with the handicap of sub only.
 
That's because that's the wrong target market for their stuff! They should be looking to get their stuff into stores like XXX VIDEO 99, LOVE SHOP, or my personal favourite local hangout, THE CONDOM SHACK.
 
In any case, it definitely looks as though Media Blasters is officially in trouble. I really hope they can finish their Dairugger release.
 
Oh noes! If rab goes down how shall we ever complete the majestic saga of Ikki Tousen?

Seriously, looks like catering to John Sirabella's personal fetishes isn't working out.
 
It's because in this economy very few people are going to spend money for titles that are the niche of the niche. I just don't see there being a market for what rab has to sell.

Of course, I also don't know a single soul who pays for hentai, so piracy probably has more to do with it.
 
A case of both it seems. By the time these companies got the sense to stream their shows online, most of it was removed from TV and lost a lot of exposure to the expanded audience.
 
well, the international anime boom lined up with a particularly good and diverse era of anime. years of fantastic work hit all at once while everyone eyes were on it, the simplest way to get it was to go to the local best buy or suncoast and for a good few years there was a lot of new and interesting titles coming out that could build on the moment that backlog built. plus, you had a lot of people running on credit/parent's money/parent's credit more than willing to pay 25 bucks for 3-5 episodes.

however, suncoast folded right as the backlog of marketable titles began to be tapped out right as japan's output began to give way to a somewhat more narrow variety of titles (first by virtue of constant trend-following, followed by that constant trend-following knocking so many studios out of the game that 1/4 as many titles per season are released.) add to that companies expanding dramatically to try to keep up with the demand only to have that demand pulled out from under them, the credit crunch knocking out discretionary spending and yes, piracy forcing price per episode down and free preview streaming, and that just means the market can't be as big now.

you cannot have less new shows that are by and large less interesting available in less locations for more money than people have available to them, and expect to have a growth market. shoot, any one of those problems would have left anime companies looking to cut workforce.
 
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