Friday, October 24, 2003
Media Play opts to segregate Japan...
Well, last night I went to the local Media Play (in CT right over the border) to pick up the third FLCL DVD and discovered that a lot of things had been moved around. I went to look at the comic section and noticed that all manga was GONE. Now, I mentioned a couple of days ago how they expanded the selection from two bookcases to four. Now there was just two again, entirely full of American/UK type stuff.
I looked in the immediate vacinity and didn't see them, but I knew they couldn't have gotten rid of them. I asked an employee, and he pointed to the back of the store near the 9x9 video wall, and boy did I get a surprised when I got there.
They've pretty much created an entire section of the store devoted to Japan. They have the anime dvds, anime box sets, anime vhs, manga, t-shirts, posters, action figures, plushies, etc. Not only that, but the 9x9 wall was playing anime episodes in Japanese with english subtitles. There was also 4 bookcases of entirely manga...
The only Japan-related stuff in the store that wasn't in that area, was in the magazine section of the store. NewType USA (new issue out early!), Shonen Jump, etc. were were slightly moved but still in the magazine area.
So, this is a pretty interesting move on their part, something I'm of two minds of. One the one hand, it was pretty heavenly to be surrounded by all this Japanese goodness all in one place. It'll probably also encourage people to go to the back of the store past the rest of the merchandise (common technique to encourage unrelated impulse buys). Still, I don't like the fact that the comics have now been separated from each other. Interestingly, there was still a couple of american comics in the manga like Blue Monday, but this may just be a mistake on their part. If the Tsunami titles do come out in bookstores, what section will the be in? Not much chance of the manga fans stumbling on them if they are half-way across the store...
This makes a bit more sense for a media store like Media Play (are Suncoast/Sam Goody doing this also?), and I'd think that bookstores will stay somewhat integrated... Anyway, we are in interesting times to be sure...
The new NewType: On some side notes, the new issue of NewType seems good. It is an anniversery issue and has two dvds instead of one (one of them has two free anime episodes.. not sure on the other), stickers and other fun stuff. For the comic fans, there is a multi-page interview with Neil Gaiman and a 3-paragraph interview with the Marvel editor in chief (I'll type this one in after work) which is skeptical of manga keeping up the pace of growth.
FLCL: As far as the FLCL (Fooly Cooly) DVDs go, these come highly recommended. They have full-length commentary over all 6 episodes from the Japanese director, large printed booklets (15-25 pages each), a music video from the Pillows on the last volume, two-sided covers, a decent english dub, etc. A first class production. I got off my butt to get the last volume since the company has said that (due to a surge in popularity from the TV airing and printing costs) that future printings won't include the booklets, instead telling you how to download PDFs online. If you see a copy with a black sticker on the front, they have the booklet.
New Rightstuf Catalog: Well, I just got the newest catalog from Rightstuf, which is very nice. Pretty much every anime dvd, manga, soundtrack, t-shirt, etc. that is out there is in here, and the whole thing is in color (except for the separate adult booklet). You can order it for $4, get it free with an order, or download the pdfs on the page linked.
I looked in the immediate vacinity and didn't see them, but I knew they couldn't have gotten rid of them. I asked an employee, and he pointed to the back of the store near the 9x9 video wall, and boy did I get a surprised when I got there.
They've pretty much created an entire section of the store devoted to Japan. They have the anime dvds, anime box sets, anime vhs, manga, t-shirts, posters, action figures, plushies, etc. Not only that, but the 9x9 wall was playing anime episodes in Japanese with english subtitles. There was also 4 bookcases of entirely manga...
The only Japan-related stuff in the store that wasn't in that area, was in the magazine section of the store. NewType USA (new issue out early!), Shonen Jump, etc. were were slightly moved but still in the magazine area.
So, this is a pretty interesting move on their part, something I'm of two minds of. One the one hand, it was pretty heavenly to be surrounded by all this Japanese goodness all in one place. It'll probably also encourage people to go to the back of the store past the rest of the merchandise (common technique to encourage unrelated impulse buys). Still, I don't like the fact that the comics have now been separated from each other. Interestingly, there was still a couple of american comics in the manga like Blue Monday, but this may just be a mistake on their part. If the Tsunami titles do come out in bookstores, what section will the be in? Not much chance of the manga fans stumbling on them if they are half-way across the store...
This makes a bit more sense for a media store like Media Play (are Suncoast/Sam Goody doing this also?), and I'd think that bookstores will stay somewhat integrated... Anyway, we are in interesting times to be sure...
The new NewType: On some side notes, the new issue of NewType seems good. It is an anniversery issue and has two dvds instead of one (one of them has two free anime episodes.. not sure on the other), stickers and other fun stuff. For the comic fans, there is a multi-page interview with Neil Gaiman and a 3-paragraph interview with the Marvel editor in chief (I'll type this one in after work) which is skeptical of manga keeping up the pace of growth.
FLCL: As far as the FLCL (Fooly Cooly) DVDs go, these come highly recommended. They have full-length commentary over all 6 episodes from the Japanese director, large printed booklets (15-25 pages each), a music video from the Pillows on the last volume, two-sided covers, a decent english dub, etc. A first class production. I got off my butt to get the last volume since the company has said that (due to a surge in popularity from the TV airing and printing costs) that future printings won't include the booklets, instead telling you how to download PDFs online. If you see a copy with a black sticker on the front, they have the booklet.
New Rightstuf Catalog: Well, I just got the newest catalog from Rightstuf, which is very nice. Pretty much every anime dvd, manga, soundtrack, t-shirt, etc. that is out there is in here, and the whole thing is in color (except for the separate adult booklet). You can order it for $4, get it free with an order, or download the pdfs on the page linked.
