News Flash! Discotek Media's Licensing Storm of Awesomeness Continues!

Extra, extra, read all about it! Discotek Media might just be the best anime licensing company in North America right now!

Man, it's been a while since I did a "news story" on this blog, hasn't it? Well, that's usually because it takes a truly awesome news story to make me take the time to write up my own thoughts on it; usually, a forum post or a small tweet on Twitter is enough. But Discotek Media has just been on a roll for the past half-year, and what was announced today has finally made me decide to talk about why Discotek might just be the best thing in the North American anime industry right now.

Last time I talked about a license of theirs was back in July of last year when they announced their license of the original Lupin the 3rd TV series, coming out June 26, 2012... My birthday, no less! Anyway, since then Discotek Media has announced a smörgåsbord (yeah, we're going full-on Swedish!) of anime licenses, so let me list them off:
The Fantastic Adventures of Unico & Unico: To the Magic Island
Panda! Go, Panda! & Panda! Go, Panda!: Rainy Day Circus
Locke the Superman
Venus Wars
Space Adventure Cobra the Movie
Retro Game Master/Game Center CX
Casshan: Robot Hunter
Samurai Pizza Cats & Kyattou Ninden Teyandee
Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo

Media Blasters Announces Mazinkaiser SKL license and "Vocal Collections"

After having some bad hiccups in terms of releases being delayed, some indefinitely at the time, due to their warehouse moving to The Right Stuf International, and a new distribution deal with Allegro Media Group, Media Blasters is certainly coming back with some renewed vigor. Not only are their delayed shows being worked on, and that includes Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei, but they are slowly getting back to releasing their continually-delayed releases, like their Remaster of Magic Knight Rayearth 2. But arguably the biggest news just came within these past two days.

First of is their announcement that they licensed the 3-episode Mazinkaiser SKL OVA, which hasn't even been released in Japan yet, and are planning to release that on one DVD in May of next year, with a BD release depending on Japan's release! Just by looking at the 3-minute promo that they're showing off, this OVA looks to be great destructive fun in the way that only Go Nagai can do. Here's hoping that this can lead to Media Blasters trying out mech anime more often again. There are just so many titles that could be brought over: Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo, Koutetsushin Jeeg, the Mazinkaiser movie (how ADV released, and year later re-released only the OVA is just astounding), among other titles... And hopefully, finally, GaoGaiGar FINAL.

The second piece of news just came in, and it's the announcement that Media Blasters will be returning to some of their sub-only releases and giving them brand-new dual audio releases under the "Vocal Collection" name. The first two announced are BL title Loveless and yuri title Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl. Now Loveless was a given, as Media Blasters head John Sirabella already said that Loveless sold so well as a sub-only release that a dubbed release was going to happen once sales slow down, but Kashimashi is a nice surprise to go with it.

Now there's a slight renewed hope for what I'd love to see: King of Braves GaoGaiGar Season Two Vocal Collection! I'm sure Mike Sinterniklaas would gladly come back to New York solely so that he could voice Gai Shishioh once again... And Dan Green as Kotaro Taiga was just godly, and Taiga becomes all the more badass in the second half of the show.

Source: Mania 1, Mania 2