Over the past year, maybe two, we’ve seen an increasing number of license rescues – shows that were released by a company that simply doesn’t exist anymore, a few years back. From Lodoss, to Now & Then Here & There, to Chobits and Trigun, it seems like the latter years of the bubble are repeating. However, I really can’t say this is a bad thing.
As someone that spent the late ’90s and early ’00s in a crappy job while going through high school (later, college). This was also a period when the single was king, and boxed sets were still trending at close to a hundred bucks for some shows. Unfortunately, this means that I had to pass up on a ton of excellent shows due to simple lack of funds, including a number “must-owns” like FLCL. As a result, I’m beyond pleased when I see companies reveal that they’ll be picking up some of these shows that were once thought to be lost forever.
While there are many that will groan and argue that these releases are just attempts to bleed customers twice-over (and, let’s face it… some of them are), they serve another purpose as well. Call them secondary releases, “double dips”, or whatever, but these titles tend to keep those staples of the medium in print, and able to be obtained at prices that don’t equate to an arm and a leg (or at the least a pint of blood!). While not every show will be re-licensed, it’s still nice to know that, for every Robot Carnival or Zillion, that will likely never see release again, there are shows like Chobits, FLCL, or Narue that can at least have a little more time to shine on the market, and give newcomers, as well as those that did missed out on the first run a second chance.
