Forum - View topicNEWS: Media Blasters Lays Off 60% of Its Staff
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Sam Murai
 Posts: 1051 |
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Considering their size and the number of licenses they snatched up, including a few notable ones (e.g. Squid Girl, Queen's Blade, Bakuman.) (w/ dubbed releases for most of them, including some re-releases) I imagine something had to give, sometime. It's a sorry thing to hear and maybe freelancing is the proper way to go from here on out, but I have been finding MB's business decisions to be questionable of recent.
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Crisha
Moderator
 Posts: 4290 |
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Damn, the industry is maiming all of the companies I grew up with and love. First Bandai and now Media Blasters. Those two companies own a large proportion of what exists on my shelf.
MB, I started my collection with you. All of the Rurouni Kenshin and Magic Knight Rayearth VHS? Please survive. On a pure nostalgia basis, you guys are my favorite company. I'm wishing you all the best! |
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kusanagi-sama
 Posts: 1723 Location: Wichita Falls, TX |
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I got the most important thing from Media Blasters, and that was the first season of Ah! My Goddess.
Some of the other stuff I want is: Jungle De Ikou (OOP) Magic User’s Club TV+OVA (long out of print) Golden Boy Complete Collection Step Up Love Story Collection Grenadier Complete Collection Genshiken Premium Collection Ikki-Tousen Dragon Destiny Complete Collection Twelve Kingdoms Complete Collection boxsets 1-3 Ikki-Tousen Great Guardians Complete Collection |
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Prede
 Posts: 388 |
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As usual Cody, your post hits the nail on the head. For those who care, Media Blasters had a store in Secaucus, New Jersey until recently, and they played around with producing live action movies among other things. And they still license and release live action stuff from around the world. That stuff usually sells decently for them. And as Mr. Sirabella said tons of other companies have moved to this strategy of high use of freelance work recently as well. Still it's far from good news. Buying a few Media Blaster titles you've been putting off would do them some good. I suggest we all do this, just incase. Anyway sad to hear these people are losing their jobs. I knew a few workers from their store, who continued to work for Media Blasters AFAIK. I would assume they're the ones getting laid off. They were great people, very nice, and they've been thrown off into this hostile economy. Finding a new job won't be easy, I hope they can manage  .
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1229 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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I feel really bad right now that I haven't really done anything to support Media Blasters. They didn't have a lot that appealed to me (Only things I can think of, the Ikki Tousen series, Squid Girl-which I watched both seasons on CR as it aired-, and Rurouni Kenshin. Can't think of more at the moment.), though I only finally started getting much more money to buy anime last year. I haven't watched any of their legal streams to be honest.
Closest thing I can say I did to support them was watch Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit on [adult swim]. I should sometime rewatch that on Hulu (Seeing as how they are legally streaming it.). I was this year even intending on getting some stuff from them, mainly that Rurouni Kenshin Complete Series box set. Guess it's a good time as any to help them stay afloat, I don't want to keep seeing more of this happen to the R1 industry. More of a reason to get a job (I've argued with my parents on the issue a lot. I want a job badly, I'm 17 and in the 11th grade for gawd's sakes.). Lawn mowing, yard work, and snow blowing isn't going to be enough to really earn enough money to buy more releases to help this industry. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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Not happy to hear this. I was down on MB for a while there when they were missing multiple street dates on multiple titles, but they seemed to have gotten that under control. Really, really do not want to see another distrib close up shop.
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Prede
Posts: 388 |
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They have a lot of weird titles, that's for sure. But their catalog is pretty vast and varied enough that I'm sure they have something for everyone. Personally I cannot say enough good things about Kite and Tweeny Witches (bought this from their store!) . So I highly recommend those gems. Figure 17 also stands out as a really well done series all around. |
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 1229 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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TronBonne
 Posts: 127 Location: Toronto, Canada |
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I hope all the people who lost their jobs are able to find new employment elsewhere!
I hope they don't shut down. I feel terrible that anime is dying in NA. I try my best to support the industry when I can, but I feel like soon there won't even be an industry for me to support. That said, I don't think I have too many things from MB, maybe I should start buying more from them...I know I have Magical Witch Punie-Chan though. |
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TG72
 Posts: 334 |
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Hoping for the best here...but I'm sure glad I already bought Moribito and Figure 17
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Bored_Ming
 Posts: 242 Location: The Edge of ...... |
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*wild guess here * Sounds to me like its a business move to cut HR costs. The article states employees that were let go will be asked to return as freelancers. Seems that MB wants to continue to release currently licensed titles with the hopes of operating with less overhead. Sound right???
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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I just went to Righstuf and did a search on Media Blasters and DVD media, and beside Moribito, which I have, I was reminded that I don't have a copy of either Strawberry Panic (definitely among the best The Graduate references in anime) or Simoun. Also, that mostly they don't tend to license the kind of stuff I want to buy ... but while its notable that they have downsized down to one more than Bandai Entertainment were employing before they bowed out of R1 publishing, its still bad news for those forced to decide between the uncertainty of freelancing and going to seek work elsewhere in this brutal, brutal labor market.
That does sound right. It may be that they were just too small to to balance the workload to operate on the level of full time versus freelance staff that they had, and needed to cut down on salaried overheads to have the flexibility to increase workload when they have landed titles, to get them out the door and generating cashflow, and then less workload when there is less production at hand. Also only FUNimation and neo-ADV still have in-house dubbing production anymore, and it seems likely that NIS and Aniplex and Nozomi rely heavily on freelancers, so it may be that the cost margins of their competition also served to push them in that direction. But note that they seem to not have been able to offer equivalent terms or equivalent workload to their freelanders, given that an unspecified number were unable to take them up on the offer to continue working with them on a freelance basis. So even those who are taking them up on the offer are probably doing so on less pay than previously, which is also unfortunate. Last edited by agila61 on Tue Jan 10, 2012 9:57 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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jmfsilenthill
 Posts: 1863 Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz |
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Yeah, because Viz has such a good track record of releasing all their series to completion.  Geeze Mario, you almost sound happy that MB is downsizing (people losing their jobs). And why would you wish NIS goes down as well? They release some quality stuff; I for one love their premium editions. Bah whatever.
These is really crappy news, and so soon after Bandai's closing. I hope Media Blasters can keep publishing anime for years to come, and I hope those people who were let go can find meaningful jobs elsewhere. |
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 1229 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Still, though all they do these days is stream everything subbed-only, rarely release anything new they get on DVD, and release Bleach and Naruto Shippuden. |
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tangytangerine
 Posts: 439 |
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Sad to see that this is happening right after the holidays. They were probably hoping sales would pick up and just wouldn't.
If that's true, then this was probably a way to keep the company to stay afloat for the meanwhile. That way stuff licensed & being produced can have all their releases out and not leaving fans & customers hanging.
That's one thing I have noticed too. The only stuff I have that they licensed is the first season of the Ah! My Goddess tv series. Most of their releases seem to be very niche titles that have a very limited fan base. Last edited by tangytangerine on Tue Jan 10, 2012 9:30 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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