Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - Collect 'Em All
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zawa113
 Posts: 7357 |
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Bah, to everyone who's complaining about this problem with anime, it's like ten times worse with manga. I'm quite fortunate to have copies of like, everything I need at least right now (for example, all of Monster, Maison Ikkoku, Flower of Life 4, Please Save My Earth, Banana Fish, GTO), but those impossible to find volumes are all over the place. Not to mention Basara, I'd love to get that some day, but Viz, reprinting it? Ever? HA!
For example, Monster. Viz, for whatever reason, only put out 15 eps on DVD despite dubbing most if not all of the series (and just tossing it on hulu) but the manga? Yeah, they printed all of that too. But much like the recent East Coast earthquake, all of a sudden you were like "what's going on....?" and bam! Like half of the Monster manga is now OOP. For 18 volumes, I'd wager at least a third of them are hard to find, people were snatching them up all over Otakon. I was lucky in that I got the series as it came out, but that's really the only way to do it with manga most of the time, you never have any idea what will go out of print when, it's even harder to guess then it is for anime! And CMX, Go Comi, Tokyopop, those all went out too so manga has that similar problem that a lot of Geneon titles had. And not a whole lot of titles have been rescued from any of those husks, for Tokyopop, not counting what Kodansha announced before TP went under (like Sailor Moon), I think only GTO:The Early Years has gotten any sort of rescue and from CMX, Viz took Tenjho Tenge. Some of Tokyopop's old titles were license rescues as is from ADV Manga (Your and My Secret, Aria) and I doubt anyone will take a chance to rescue those again. But while a lot of singles can go OOP, like the article mentions, Darker than Black, at least DtB got a complete collection re-release (twice now I think), but that's not quite as feasible for manga. At most you'll get 3 or 4 manga in an omnibus, unless the series really is only 3 or 4 volumes long, you can't usually just put it all out in one go as a re-release, it's much harder. So yeah, Eureka 7's vol 11 is OOP, but there's still the legends set, even if you do get repeated discs, at least you've got the whole thing in one way or another. Try doing that with Firefighter Daigo, not only was the series print run low, but no scans exist of this series anywhere on the internet. A quarter of the volumes I have are ex-library books so that means you likely can't go that route any more (the books are in great shape though, clearly no one was renting them). So you can either shell out $40+ for the super OOP volumes, or borrow them from a friend, all four of us who actually have that series in complete in English in the US, lol. If you want to read volume 4 of Flower of Life, you're just as out of luck. Vols 1-3 came out in 2007 and 4 came out very quietly in 2009. Not even 6 months after I got my copy in 2010 did copies shoot up in price to well over $40 at best. And much like Firefighter Daigo, I've never seen even illegal ways to read FoL 4, it either you have the book or nothing. And for an anime series with 6 singles, it's much more likely for the company to finish publishing them except for the rare Geneon case when a company totally shuts down, odds are good that at least every single disc came out. When you've got a manga series over 10 volumes, it becomes increasingly more worrisome that for any reason, it won't be completed. Future Diary stopped at 10, Gintama stopped at 23 (and Viz isn't shutting down or anything, they're just not publishing any more volumes!), it's just so much easier for manga series to stop being published for any reason (like poor sales, do you have any idea how frightened I was that Hikaru no Go wouldn't make it to the end? It took Viz 7 years to put out all of Hikago, that's longer than the series ran in Japan!) And even if they were published in full, just look at old Del Rey titles that weren't snapped up again by Kodansha. Parasyte, Eternal Sabbath, Kurogane, good luck getting those in just a year! And this was the second time Parasyte came out in English too! They're both OOP! I have an entire shelf full on only stuff that was publisher abandoned, I've got Moyashimon, Song of the Hanging Sky, Petshop of Horrors: Tokyo, Genju no Seiza, Cromartie High School, Bastard!, Future Diary, Demon Sacred, and Scary Book on it. Those are merely the ones I have, there's way more than that, sadly. So yeah, as much as it sucks for anime to go out of print, an awful lot of it gets re-issued in collection packs and the stuff that doesn't, well odds are there are less than legal ways to get it. Next time you complain, just remember that it's way way WAY worse for us manga collectors. Often times we don't even have illegal ways to get the next volume in the series! We're just totally screwed outta luck. If we're lucky and can read another language, we might be able to get Adolf in German or French, but I can't imagine many of us in America actually can (and then you gotta get them shipped from Europe after all that). I still enjoyed the article a lot, I'm just saying someone always has it worse off 
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wandering-dreamer
 Posts: 1733 |
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Think I was the one who said CCS on twitter, what makes me really frustrated is that the gorgeous looking Japanese BDs don't have subs so that's not an option (besides you know, the insane prices). Also frustrated that I didn't snag The Story of Saiunkoku when it was announced that the Genon relicenses were going to expire. I've only seen a bit of it (and hadn't seen anything at the time) but it sounds like it's right up my alley and dang that was a short window, less than a year and a half for the full set. The Paradise Kiss DVDs don't look so bad, although volume two of the manga looks tough to find and I remember how fast Kamichu! sold out on TRSI, yet another series I didn't get since I hadn't gotten a chance to watch it....
So now I'm uber-paranoid and try to buy everything ASAP. 
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TsukasaElkKite
 Posts: 3950 |
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I'm hunting for Beck volume 6 and the Rayearth OVAs
As for bragging rights, I have all the Sailor Moon S and SuperS DVDs (took me years to complete the set, bought them all used), both End of Eva and Death and Rebirth, all three Samurai X OVAs and the movie (all single volumes, natch). |
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bravetailor
Posts: 817 |
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A lot of times it can be just patience and persistence. I waited more than half a decade to finish Now and Then, Here and There because of how scarce the second volume was (I got the 3rd volume early on but didn't watch it until I bought the second volume about 5-6 years later).
It took me years to hunt down the final volumes of Gatekeepers. I'm satisfied with my GTO collection, have every volume except I am still missing volume 1. I know what happens in it and everything, but it's just nice to be able to get it someday to complete it. Regarding Maison Ikkoku, I got the last box rather easily but I'm still missing a large gap in the middle, volumes 4-5 or so. I didn't seem to have missed anything really important, but there are a few walk on characters in the last episodes I didn't recognize. I would say the scarcest/rarest anime I own are Sailor Moon S and Seven of Seven. One is in high demand, the other one nobody cares about. 
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pajmo9
 Posts: 630 |
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Wow! I bought a lot of the shows Mike mentioned as they came out so I never had any trouble finding them. Although I will admit I didn't pay a mere $2 for any of them. I guess I'm pretty lucky that non of my collections have any holes in them.
I loved the article by the way. Thinks. |
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kawaiibunny3
 Posts: 534 Location: Houston, Texas |
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Volume 5 of Saint Tail is the one that pops up in my head right away.
I mean I can have it on amazon. I just hafta fork over 80+ bucks for a 7 episodes sub only Tokyopop DVD. I haven't finished collecting the whole series just because of that (luckily i grabbed the final DVD set for it for a pretty reasonable price, so I have the ending at least) the thing that gets me is that the disc in question doesn't even have very good or important episodes on it :/ oh and the rest of Card Captor Sakura like you said. but I've given up hope on that. I'd have better luck selling my soul for it to get re-licensed and then there's Maison Ikkoku.......yeah... |
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silentjay
Posts: 304 |
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RahXephon vol. 7 is my Holy Grail.
It seems that the only version of it available these days is the R2 release, and while I could buy the brick, I too don't want to purchase the whole series for 3 episodes. (And I don't want to pay the MSRP of $38 for it, when it does pop up, as I could buy that brick for a couple of bucks more.) That said, I did get an amazing deal from a store that was selling off all it's rental anime for ridiculous prices: $5 for the complete Crusher Joe, when folks on eBay are asking over $100 for it. (I also snagged the original Eva movies recently for $5 each from another store that was going out of business.) |
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pajmo9
Posts: 630 |
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You can buy the "Maison Ikkoku TV Series Complete Box Set Collection" on Amazon for a mere $1,499. Get it while supplies last!
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toyNN
 Posts: 252 Location: Seattle, WA |
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Disk 3 of Black Lagoon has me and sounds like if I wait too long getting the new full release for s1 might disappear.
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Ovan~the~Rebirth
 Posts: 127 |
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Yes a safari! I'm currently trying to hunt down the .hack//G.U. vol. 4 novel, that was published the same month as Tokyopop closed its doors. I originally thought the book was never printed it but it was. I have a copy ordered through Right Stuf, but its "on order" so i doubt they will be able to get me a copy. Amazon has one for $88.98 but its not worth that much for a poorly translated book. Most if not all the .hack novels from Tokyopop are literally as bad as some fan translated project. But, if i can get this book, I am done with collecting .hack//. I have no urge to see the new .hack//themovie crap they're putting out.
Other than that i have Death and Rebirth and the End of Eva, but am also trying to find Beck Mongolian Chop Squad vol.5 at a cheaper price than what amazon has to offer. I thought i saw Eureka Seven v.11 @ my local half price books, and if i can get it there, it would be worth buying the rest of the singles for a cheap price on Right Stuf. And finally I am hunting down first edition prints of xxxholic, because the first prints have the first pages in color! That has been the most craziest to find. I have most of 1st editions, but am short of the volumes earlier on. It is indeed a treasure hunt, but that's what I love about the otaku culture! |
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Sailor S
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They have said so. They say so at every single convention because somebody invariably asks about it. Same with all their other Geneon held properties, like Index. I'll join in the hunt for Galaxy Angel Rune vol. 4. Yes, it's an awful series, but to see an incomplete series sitting on my shelves just bothers me. Also, while for the most part I have never cared about the majority of the series you listed (bleh, mecha) just knowing that they're rare and hard to find makes me want them. I know it doesn't make a lot of sense to think like that, but I'm the sort that tends to want something more when I'm told it can't be had
Otherwise, I was generally on the ball about picking up shows as they came out, so I don't have many gaping holes in my collection. And it does make you feel good when you know a title that people want is out of print and you have it all, like my Nanoha sets and my complete set of CCS singles. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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Can I brag about the fact that I own Cybuster instead, not exactly hard to get but it makes for a great conversation starter. The only series that Mike mentioned that I own completely is Overman King Gainer which I bought like 3 years ago from Rightstuf because Mike Toole gave it a positive review on Anime Jump. |
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tangytangerine
 Posts: 439 |
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I can second it's weird how certain ADV individual volumes are hard to find. When ADV went "out of business" and started clearing out their old stock. I grabbed most of the Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy volumes for a few dollars each, except for Vol. 5.
Waited until recently to finally look into buying that to complete the collection. It is freaking ridiculous how much that 4-episode disc is going for. Cheapest one I could find in decent condition was a used copy for $43. So now I either can pay that or get Funimation's version for $30 and basically rebuy the entire season due to missing 4 episodes. The original Birdy the Mighty DVDs from CPM are pain to track down cheap copies. I keep checking for Double Trouble, since that seems to be the one I could find for under $15. But I've pretty much given up on Final Force. Cheapest one I can find is $100. |
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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I've been erratically buying various series that I missed during my six or seven year 'sabbatical' and some that I ignored for fiscal reasons back then, so I've been affected by this phenomenon. I must have bought one of the last new copies of Red Garden volume 6 available on Amazon.com, because now only one new copy is available from a marketplace seller for greater than the original recommend minimum price. (I also, as it happens, just moments ago paid more than the original price for volume 3 of Key the Metal Idol, although volume one was cheap and 2 modestly priced) I had a surprisingly rough time getting Serial Experiments Lain and have an ugly crazy quilt of different case styles and designs for my trouble.
I was really keen on buying Haibane Renmei, but I'd need to sell organs to get volumes 3 and 4. I've become interested in Black Lagoon and was really surprised to see that it wasn't easy to get. I believe that FUNImation rescued both licenses, but being as they're from Geneon, that's turning out to be a long messy affair. (From Haibane Renmei to Black Lagoon, I sense dissonance...) I would like to see Dominion Tank Police again as it was an old favorite when it was shown on the Sci-Fi channel, but I'd want it cheaper than I usually see it sold for. I'd like a copy of Black Magic M66 too, but that's usually even less agreeably priced. I've also become keen lately on getting You're Under Arrest, but the AnimeEigo boxed sets are hard to gather in toto and I'ven't yet been able to convince myself to accept just the collected single discs. Since the series will soon go out of print, I should probably try to make my mind up.
Statements like these make me glad that I bought a copy of each volume six or seven years ago. One never can tell what might become rare. I somehow doubt that the prices are appropriate; I suspect that there must be some information asymmetry that's putting the prices well above the equilibrium point. (Well, maybe that's it... I'ven't studied any economics in roughly four years) A friend of mine had copies of the Neon Genesis Evangelion films when we were in high school. I wonder if he still does. Last edited by Surrender Artist on Sun Aug 28, 2011 10:11 pm; edited 4 times in total |
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Psycho_Despair
Posts: 376 Location: East of Eden |
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Not only that, I can't even find a reasonable price for the first volume of Saint Seiya!! |
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