Ask John: Are There Any Recent ‘Must Buy’ R1 DVDs?

Question:
I’ve been away from the R1 anime DVD scene for the past few years and want to get back into it. Is there anything I would just die without having that’s been released in the past year or two? I did preorder the Dirty Pair TV sets from Nozomi, and was horrified the cover art has Kei and Yuri in their OVA silver uniforms rather than the ones they actually wore in the TV series. Blasphemy!

Answer:
First and foremost, regardless of scarcity or speculation, anime fans should purchase the DVDs that they find interesting or appealing. The diminishing R1 anime DVD industry of the past few years may suggest that there are few releases worth tracking down. However, exactly the opposite may actually be the case. Completists or collectors who are particularly obsessive about obtaining unusual, rare, or scarce domestic anime DVDs may be wise to pick up select discs now while the DVDs are available. After all, even most domestic anime DVDs that are now rare and expensive were once common and inexpensive.

Every anime fan should hope that new and small distributors prosper. However, reality necessitates some prudent caution. Domestic distributors including NIS America, Discotek, and Anime Midstream have relatively limited distribution and may have smaller print runs for their discs since they’re new companies still feeling out demand and market support. NIS America’s current releases of Persona -Trinity Soul- and Toradora are upscale, relatively expensive releases with very limited distribution. Limited distribution will limit potential sales. The higher pricetag may also scare away some potential consumers. The result are two nice titles that are somewhat difficult to acquire now and may become far more difficult to obtain in the future. Of course, hopefully NIS America will succeed and its releases will get cheaper, more plentiful, and more widely available. However, until that happens, collectors may be smart to pick up Persona & Toradora now while they’re available. Discotek seems to be slowly expanding, but in today’s market circumstances are never predictable. Recent releases including the second edition Fist of the North Star movie (with just Kenshiro on the cover, not Kenshiro, Bat and Lyne), the first Fist of the North Star TV series collection, Lupin the Third: Episode Zero ~ First Contact, and Sea Prince and the Fire Child haven’t gotten a lot of publicity or advertising. So despite fairly widespread availability, they’re still somewhat obscure releases which collector’s may want to get now, while they can. Anime Midstream seemed like a longshot from the outset, so the fact that the company has successfully released two DVD volumes of Raijin-Oh is commendable and worth supporting. Considering that the Raijin-Oh DVDs come from a little known distributor and have a small consumer audience, the discs are almost certain to always remain a rarity.

The nature of exclusives makes them attractive to collectors. The two Gurren Lagann movies may have little appeal to viewers outside of absolute Gurren Lagann die-hards, but the especially limited distribution of the domestic DVDs makes them collectible. Crunchyroll’s upcoming 5cm Per Second DVD will be the distributor’s first packaged disc release. While I hope that it will be the first of many, it could just as easily become Crunchyroll’s only DVD release. Once again, regardless of the quality of the anime, limited distribution automatically makes a DVD more scarce.

FUNimation DVDs don’t seem to be in any immediate danger of disappearing. However, I suspect that a large percentage of America’s anime fans aren’t aware that FUNimation’s Save Me Lolipop complete DVD collection even exists. This short shoujo series doesn’t have a big fan following, and the domestic DVD release has never gotten much advertising or publicity. So I can’t imagine that FUNimation will invest a lot into keeping the Save Me Lolipop DVDs in print and circulation indefinitely.

No distributor keeps every title in print and circulation indefinitely. However, Viz Media traditionally maintains a shorter window of support for its DVD releases than most domestic distributors. I personally recommend purchasing the three Honey & Clover DVD collections immediately. The show is one of the very best, well, ever, and the domestic DVDs come in very attractive packaging. Viz Media has allowed more titles to quietly slip out of print than it currently distributes on DVD, so there’s no telling when or how soon the Honey & Clover DVDs will suddenly go out of print and seemingly vanish from the market like Viz’s Maison Ikkoku DVDs.

Just to demonstrate that I do put my money where my mouth is, I have purchased all of the forementioned releases except the Gurren Lagann movies (which I’m just not interested in) and Crunchyroll’s 5cm Per Second (because I already own the earlier ADV Films’ release).