After a chaotic 2012 and plenty of drama here and there, Media Blasters’s John Sirabella has taken to the company’s Facebook page to update on what’s gone down, where they’re going and what to expect from them as time goes on.
Hello Blaster Supporters!
We keep getting posts and emails about a few issues that the boss would like to clear up. Hoping this will clear up the clutter.
There are a few major questions we get asked and to clear them up we have to first give a little story. MB at its highest was at about 50 people and releasing 5 or more DVDs per month. Well as the home video industry went down so did MB in size and sales. A major issue at MB was a major back accident in the warehouse that slowed down my ability to manage the company and stopped me from travelling especially to Japan. Hence it threw the company into a major tailspin which culminated to a former boss of mine and business associate going around Japan showing a tax paper stating we were out of business than leading to the few remaining people in production leaving and no Japanese licensor wanting to work with us. I was actually personally planning to go on to Fever Dreams and produce films and let MB finish its last days. Well the whole situation upset me enough mainly cause MB did not go out on my terms. Hence I made a promise I would rebuild one last time while still trying to enjoy my love of film making with Fever Dreams. Belleville happened and the Factory was born! Like myself, left for dead and needing lots of work, it got me going and rebuilding. The ghosts are alive and well in the factory! 2013 is looking good!
But lots happen in between so finally to the meat of it.
Bakuman is no longer an MB title and any guesses of who or if it will be released is simply a guess.
Sayonora Sensei and Moyashimon are titles that were once acquired and no plans to be released at this time. These titles can and may be licensed to another company.
Godzilla and Toho, we do still control both titles and are still in negotiations to resolve issues with all the releases except for Godzilla vs. Megalon barebones edition. We are hoping it can be resolved in 2013.
Many titles have expired and the list is too long here. Of the major ones, Kenshin and Berserk are no longer MB titles.
The only labels MB will continue to acquire and release in for 2013 are AnimeWorks, Tokyo Shock and Kitty. In addition there will be a focus to produce and release original productions through Fever Dreams.
Kitty is a major focus in 2013 with atleast one title per month and the Kitty site getting more content.
We have focused once again on acquiring new titles and release them on DVD and through New Media as BD sales are just not there. SO AW and TS will have many announcements.
I believe this covers most of the bigger emails. If there are certain titles or issues you want addressed, please post on FB and we will try to answer them.
Thanks for the support and we will continue to announce new titles in 2013!
-John Sirabella
There’s another post on MB’s Facebook that mentions they won’t be releasing Squid Girl season 2. That was the one title I was looking forward to most from Media Blasters this year… but that’s not the most troubling news.
The one thing that worries me most is that they no longer have the rights to Kenshin and Berserk (two series that were top-tier sellers a decade ago). On top of that, they also no longer have the rights to a bunch of titles (which ones, I can’t say for sure, but I’m not expecting a re-release of Dokuro-Chan Special Edition anytime soon).
It sounds like they’re attempting to make a comeback, but given that they’re focusing on their “Kitty Media” label and acquiring and releasing original material, even if they manage to get back on solid financial footing, they’re beginning to look a lot less like the Media Blasters I knew and loved. At this point, I can’t tell if they’re making a concerted effort to stay relevant in the anime industry (which they haven’t in a while), or if they’re simply circling the drain (which seems plausible, given the number of times they’ve been pushed to the edge).
Rant over.