Gone to Comic Con... and Now Back!

Spent Saturday and Sunday at the world famous San Diego Comic Con and I am still recovering. I have gone almost every year since 1992 and I can now state, unequivocally, that the event is SO big that it is no fun unless you are between the ages of 16 and 22 sped up on meth.

Still! I was able to stop by both the AnimEigo and the Tartan booths and speak with the folks there. Tartan is pushing mainly Korean horror fare right now, but has some tentative plans to release some cool Japanese stuff on DVD if it's financially viable. It's no secret that the DVD market is tanking and obscure Asian horror has found and lost its nitche. As a result Tartan has really taken it on the chin. That said, I understand that they've got a deal with a small mom and pop store called WALLMART. (And a deal with the monster from Bentonville can make or break a company's coffers.)

AnimEigo, on the other hand, has announced a good set of upcoming release titles that some of you already know about. One of the most exciting, though, is the release of the eight film SHINOBI NO MONO series. Vol #1 is slated for an October release with other following at some sort of regular schedule. I'm particularly happy about this, because until now I've been stuck with wretched HK vcd's that's like watching through Yul Brynner's eyes in WESTWORLD. Yay Ninjas!


Other upcoming titles include: Gosha Hideo's amazing THE WOLVES (Shussho Iwai) and Okamoto Kihachi's incredible BATTLE OF OKINAWA (Gekido no Showashi: Okinawa Kessen). Good job Animeigo for getting these titles! (Now if you can put the paper liner notes back in, go back to the original Japanese poster art and make the menus less DVD Studio Pro 101, it would rock!)