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NEWS: MediaOCD Launches 'Discotek Deep Dives' Project to Offer Discotek Media's Back Catalog Titles


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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3862
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 9:34 am Reply with quote
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MediaOCD noted in its announcement another retailer (a post on the Discotek Media Subreddit confirmed this retailer was Crunchyroll) had "started delisting a significant portion of their back catalog," including titles that are not out of print, which encouraged MediaOCD to begin the project.

I don't quite understand? Relevant shops I've used online, whether in UK, Finland, Sweden, and various Japanese shops, if there's an item not currently on their catalog but available at the publisher, usually will accept special orders for those, and sometimes backorders if it might be found elsewhere. Why would a shop specializing in anime-related merchandise be so rigid not to allow that?
In the same vein, bookstores also accept orders for stuff not in their catalog if it can be obtained, at least around here.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 3016
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:29 am Reply with quote
Blanchimont wrote:
I don't quite understand? Relevant shops I've used online, whether in UK, Finland, Sweden, and various Japanese shops, if there's an item not currently on their catalog but available at the publisher, usually will accept special orders for those, and sometimes backorders if it might be found elsewhere. Why would a shop specializing in anime-related merchandise be so rigid not to allow that?
In the same vein, bookstores also accept orders for stuff not in their catalog if it can be obtained, at least around here.


This more or less ties into what was recently uncovered by the MangaAlerts account over on Twitter & Bluesky, which is that Crunchyroll plans to start delisting anything that they deem to be a "Slow Seller", & will even cancel any orders for said items that are in waiting, all without notifying the publisher that they'll be doing that in advance.

This is actually something that Crunchyroll has been doing a few years already, but since it was for uber small name companies (Anime Midstream & Ascendant Animation, for example) or for series that don't have any real popularity at all it wasn't really noticed or cared about by people until the recent mass delisting of Discotek's back catalog.

Essentially, Crunchyroll wants to turn its digital storefront into nothing more than a giant popularity contest, and if something isn't "popular" enough for them then they'll simply delist it wholesale & stop selling it without telling the publisher about them no longer selling it. At this point, if you truly want to buy something anime or manga you shouldn't rely on Crunchyroll, and especially if you want anime on home video then you should start buying directly from the publishers themselves, as by this point nearly all of them already have their own respective online stores (Discotek & Viz are essentially the biggest exceptions).
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azabaro
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Joined: 06 Jul 2007
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 10:41 am Reply with quote
If you mean you don't understand the situation: the Crunchyroll Store is explicitly de-listing titles which are still in print and available for sale - that is, they had them on their site (even if listed as out of stock) so they were available for order, and now they cannot be ordered. In addition, I've seen at least one person claim that for some time he was in the practice of sending Crunchyroll information about titles their store didn't have listed and they were consistently in adding those titles; this changed about a year ago, at which time Crunchyroll started responding to him saying they thought the suggestions wouldn't sell that well.

This most recent delisting is happening around the same time Crunchyroll is cancelling longstanding backorders from RightStuf (which they had previously stated they would honor), so these appear to be symptoms of a larger change in direction for the Crunchyroll Store.

If you mean you don't understand why Crunchyroll would make this sort of change, about the only thing I can say is you aren't alone. Delisting in-print titles means your storefront will tend to lose its status as the one-stop shop for merchandise within its niche, at which point customers will tend to either look for other places to shop or in many cases just default to Amazon.
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Pokenatic



Joined: 24 Jan 2012
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Location: Neo Venezia
PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 1:23 pm Reply with quote
Wow, alright. RightStuf used to be THE place to buy anime and manga, but now that Sony forcibly took over the company, they’re willing to keep the more niche stuff out because it doesn’t sell as fast. For me at least, it feels like it’s better to look elsewhere than buy from the Crunchyroll store. (still absolutely infuriated by how they are only releasing Blu Rays for like one in ten anime series that they license now; as someone who buys a ton of Blu Rays, Love Live! Nijigaku S2 and Love Live! Superstar S1 are somehow still amongst the latest releases that I’ve bought that are Crunchyroll and those are years ago)
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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 1:26 pm Reply with quote
Pokenatic wrote:
Wow, alright. RightStuf used to be THE place to buy anime and manga, but now that Sony forcibly took over the company, they’re willing to keep the more niche stuff out because it doesn’t sell as fast. For me at least, it feels like it’s better to look elsewhere than buy from the Crunchyroll store. (still absolutely infuriated by how they are only releasing Blu Rays for like one in ten anime series that they license now; as someone who buys a ton of Blu Rays, Love Live! Nijigaku S2 and Love Live! Superstar S1 are somehow still amongst the latest releases that I’ve bought that are Crunchyroll and those are years ago)


I'm still wondering why CR hasn't put Laid-Back Camp out on home video yet. It's seriously one of their most popular shows, and all three seasons have dubs! What's taking them?!

Yeah, this whole thing is super scummy across the board, though considering everything else CR has done, I can't even say I'm surprised. Will absolutely recommend the MediaOCD store though. They get stock in early, and their points system for registered users is incredibly generous.
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Cypher997



Joined: 08 Apr 2025
Posts: 192
PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 2:16 pm Reply with quote
All I ask for MediaOCD is to do what they can legally to keep their customers happy as quite a number of customers have become frustrated with the contraction that has occurred over the last decade.
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VirgilTB4
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Joined: 04 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 3:40 pm Reply with quote
[/quote]
Quote:
I'm still wondering why CR hasn't put Laid-Back Camp out on home video yet. It's seriously one of their most popular shows, and all three seasons have dubs! What's taking them?!

Yeah, this whole thing is super scummy across the board, though considering everything else CR has done, I can't even say I'm surprised. Will absolutely recommend the MediaOCD store though. They get stock in early, and their points system for registered users is incredibly generous


Unfortunately part of all of this is that Sony/CR seems to be going the Netflix route. Why put something out on physical media and only get a one time profit when you can keep charging a monthly streaming subscription to be able to see it.
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 4:26 pm Reply with quote
VirgilTB4 wrote:
Unfortunately part of all of this is that Sony/CR seems to be going the Netflix route. Why put something out on physical media and only get a one time profit when you can keep charging a monthly streaming subscription to be able to see it.

The obvious consequence of this is that it'll lead to those of us who would have happily purchased said series on home video happily torrenting them instead so we have indefinite access to them. I'm not paying CR or Netflix to rent a series. If I spend money, I want it to be for keeps.
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Nionel



Joined: 08 Sep 2004
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Location: Nebraska
PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 5:06 pm Reply with quote
I'm not happy with this decision by Crunchyroll. On one hand, I can understand not wanting to stock slow selling products at a physical location, but a warehouse?

This just feels like they're flexing their muscle as the market leader to force the smaller companies off their storefront and push consumers only to buy their products. I'm glad that MediaOCD is supporting Discotek to keep their products available somewhere other than Amazon.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5738
PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 5:37 pm Reply with quote
VirgilTB4 wrote:
Unfortunately part of all of this is that Sony/CR seems to be going the Netflix route. Why put something out on physical media and only get a one time profit when you can keep charging a monthly streaming subscription to be able to see it.
The problem with that logic(Which I get is their and not yours), is it assumes that people are not going to subscribe just because they can own the titles on BD.

The library on CR is huge. So in order for someone to not subscribe due to the existence of physical copies, would either buy most, if not all titles on BD, to which they are making regular sales that rival or exceed the price of a subscription. Or, there are so few titles on CR that interests them, that the only way they are ever going to get any money from them, would be through the odd BD sale.
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Tanteikingdomkey



Joined: 03 Sep 2008
Posts: 2473
PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 8:28 pm Reply with quote
fudge SONY and it's management that is destroying the very little morality the American anime industry has
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TsukasaElkKite



Joined: 22 Nov 2005
Posts: 4208
PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2026 11:54 pm Reply with quote
Tanteikingdomkey wrote:
fudge SONY and it's management that is destroying the very little morality the American anime industry has


Agreed full stop.
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thekingsdinner



Joined: 25 Sep 2010
Posts: 1178
Location: Geertruidenberg, Netherlands
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2026 3:54 am Reply with quote
I hate this reality where RightStuf is no more. What an amazing store and service they provided, all for it to be destroyed in what felt like overnight. I wish Discotek and MediaOCD the best in this situation.

On a personal note, as far as I know, MediaOCD does not ship internationally, but if they will at some point, I will support them. AnimEigo and Discotek releases are pretty much the only anime releases I buy nowadays (with an occasional Sentai release), but I'm not spending a single cent on crunchy's store. I don't like using amazon either tbh.
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merr



Joined: 11 Dec 2004
Posts: 521
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2026 7:59 am Reply with quote
I hope Shawne Kleckner and his money are happy.
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bluebaron



Joined: 04 Jul 2025
Posts: 175
PostPosted: Mon Feb 02, 2026 8:28 am Reply with quote
Will fighting food s and dinosaur king be restocked?!
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