Media Blasters editor FRank Pannone posts on AnimeonDvd that they will be suspending many of their non-yaoi titles:
Apocalypse Zero and Baron Gong are probably dead. They are not being reprinted and the boss has decided not to get another block of 6 on either of them. It’s too bad because EVERYONE that read Baron Gong loved it…at least everyone who got the jokes.
Pilgrim Jäger – my personal favorite also seems dead. Kamunagara is pushing up the daisies too.
Eiken is in limbo, I’m not sure when we’ll get more. It’s being reprinted and sells well. I hope we’ll see more in the future.
We are doing lots of Yaoi, but there are going to be some other interesting acquisitions in the near future.
In the Yaoi line I’m particularly happy about Crimson Spell because it’s not just excuses for sex scenes. The story is funny and engaging and the characters are really interesting. It’s also the first time I’ve ever had to send printers proofs to Japan for approval by the manga-ka (Ayano Yamane)
MB and Kitty keep plugging forward.
Hm, looks like hot boy on boy action is squeezing the other stuff off the shelves. Wild!
It has always creeped me out that the Adult video line at Media Blasters is called “Kitty”. As if there haven’t been enough problems insisting that anime and manga are not underage inappropriate, if you know what I mean.
:/
Reading Apocalypse Zero started off as a joke after a late-night con-viewing of the anime. But somehow the manga made it’s ridiculous, over-the-top, hyper-violence and masochism actually entertaining beyond that “it’s so bad it’s good” way that I was really enjoying it.
I can’t say I’m surprised that it’s getting canned since this is a market that apparently can’t sustain Guyver, Junji Ito horror books, Bride of Deimos, Mitsuru Adachi, or almost anything Osamu Tezuka (Dark Horse has said repeatedly that Astro Boy continued production there solely at the insistance of Mike Richardson). But it still feels like crap when something you like is canned.
Boo.