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Right Stuf Removes Urban Vision Titles from Catalog (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
The online retailer Right Stuf removed all titles released by the North American anime distributor Urban Vision from its catalog on Tuesday. When asked about the removals, Right Stuf told ANN, "We have chosen to remove products from this vendor because, despite repeated requests, shipments have not been forthcoming for some time. It's not fair to our customers to accept orders for product that we can't obtain."
ANN contacted Urban Vision about Right Stuf's removals on Tuesday afternoon, and an Urban Vision representative said that the company is still in business and, while focusing on low-risk digital distribution, working to improve their physical media distribution.
Rhona Medina, director of sales at Urban Vision, later stated on Wednesday:
Right now Urban Vision Entertainment has been going through restructuring our business model and operations. Given today's economic climate, physical distribution of goods has become riskier — just look at the companies that were devastated when Musicland threw it in. Thus, we've been working more towards broadcasting and online avenues of distribution — such as Amazon on Demand, Netflix, and YouTube.While our DVDs may be harder to find right now, we're working on ways to improve our distribution.
Urban Vision released Azumi 2, a live-action film based on Shusuke Kaneko's action manga, in 2008. Prior to that, the Los Angeles-based distributor released a number of anime titles such as the Gatchaman video series, Goku: Midnight Eye, Golgo 13: The Professional, the Ninja Scroll television series, Pet Shop of Horrors, Tekkaman Blade II, and the first Vampire Hunter D video anime. Urban Vision released the Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust film in theaters and on home video.
Update: Urban Vision's Wednesday statement added.
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