ANN has some Staff Openings

Was at work and had some downtime, so I checked out AnimeNewsNetwork (ANN). Usually I spend my time reading some of the news or checking out the columns. Streaming is a bad thing, so at work, that is taboo.

I found that they had some Staff Openings and figured I share with all you. I would love to get a gig at there, but not much of a professional writer. There are some of you however that have some stunning reviews and should jump at the chance to do this.

What they are looking for is as follows:

• Manga Reviewer
• News Intern
• OpenX Expert (computer stuff)
• FreeBSD Expert (more computer stuff)

If you think you have the merits to do the job, check out the link and drop a line to them. I am sure it would be worth the while as you will never know unless you do.

Where will I buy my Manga?

I have been reading reports of Borders financial woes. I was disappointed when they sold the store right by us in Florida. Now that we are in Maryland, we have a Borders near us once more. We usually go once a week to see what new came out and if any specials.

I end up heading straight for the Manga/Graphic Novel section, my son runs towards the kids books and my wife ends up around the Fantasy/Romance books. This it is the only store near us that sells currently released stuff. There are other stores, but usually only old stuff :(

Why should the closure bother us, well. here are some numbers that came as a shock to me. Several years ago, it seems that Borders held 40% of the Manga book market. Now however, it has dwindled to just about a little over 20% of the market.

This is still a large number considering things for a single outlet. As for their overall book stats, they have an 8% share, so you can see that this is a big deal if they were to close down. It has even caused the Manga Distrubuters to wonder what will happen as well - who will pick up the lost slack?

I guess with everyone going to Amazon (affiliate myself) to order stuff, this could be one of those things that hurt their sales. I would rather review the series in person and enjoy that wonderful paperback smell before I buy.

Because of this, we do belong to their Border Rewards program and even pay $20 year for the Rewards Plus plan version. With the amount of books we get, the additonal 10% off all purchases really has paid for itself. The discount coupons are a great way to save additional money as they are usually 25 - 40% off an item.

In fact, this past weekend I picked up Side Story: Dive in the Vampire Bund and Tegami Bachi, Letter Bee v5. My son actually picked up Blue Exorcist which he read part of in Shonen Jump.

The real ugly truth about all this is that some of the Distrubitors have pith their shipments on hold. Since they filed for Bankruptcy protections and have not paid their bills in a couple months, you can understand why. Add in the ever so declining sales of Manga the last 3 years, this does not bode well.

I have not even touched on the Manga available online for free, but that is a whole different issue upon itself.

Do you have a local bookstore that you get your Manga from or do you purchase mostly off the internet sites?

Source: ANN | ICV2

UPDATE: If they can't find a buyer for the company in the coming weeks, it could be the end for them. They did get some bites from Barnes and Noble, but they just waned the data, website and 10 stores :P

Appleseed XIII Update

I was reviewing the news over at ANN today and found this disturbing report. It seems that Micott & Basara filed for voluntary bankruptcy. They filed at the Tokyo District Court on April 21 and have incurred about $23.7 million (1.938 billion yen) in debt.

For those that are wondering why this affects Appleseed XIII, this is the production company that is working on the series. In fact they were the ones that produced both movies (Appleseed and Appleseed: Ex Machina).

It seems some of the money loss may have came from the dropped computer-animated series Appleseed: Genesis (2008). RADIX Mobanimation Company sued Micott & Basara over lost production costs, while Micott & Basara counter-sued Radix for restitution and compensation. Talk about a Yin/Yang affect - arg!

It has been reported however that Appleseed XIII may continue production (fingers crossed) via animeanime.biz (in Japanese).

I am really hoping that this does come to fruition as I love this series and the Anime is absolutely stunning.

Source: AnimeNewsNetwork