When I first got REALLY into anime back in the so-called glory days of Toonami (DBZ, Gundam Wing, Outlaw Star, etc.), I had two places from which I bought my anime: Best Buy and Robert's Anime Corner Store (RACS) online. I loved RACS. It was one of the first anime specialty online stores I ever found. I could find any US released anime I heard of and I could even buy anime porn! I bought my first hentai DVDs a year early, being only 17, either using my sister's or dad's credit card and paying them back with cash from my part-time job. And their packaging for shipments was great and usually got to me very quickly. I even swore my allegiance with RACS at one point when I didn't have a very good experience with the Anime Nation online store.

But eventually I defected. I found Right Stuf with their great deals and comparable customer service. They've been my go-to store for anime for over 8 years now. I've stayed on the RACS newsletter and would buy things from them every now and then if they had a good deal, but that got more and more rare.

Now I think it is time to say goodbye to RACS for good. Is it because of a bad customer experience? No. Robert himself has just really been rubbing me the wrong way. Although I don't usually shop with them, I've still continued to read the RACS newsletter. And more and more, Robert has just been coming off as something of a douche. For a while, he would write things in the newsletter which basically amounts to smack talk targeted at Right Stuf. He would refer to them as Brand X when they licensed new anime. He would whine when Right Stuf had exclusive distribution deals with companies like Aniplex USA. And he would just make various other snide little passive aggressive comments. At first I didn't really pay it that much mind. They're business rivals. Whatever. I actually felt a little bad at first because Right Stuf stole my business away from him.

Then I would read Robert's statements aimed at specific anime companies like Aniplex USA and NISA, criticizing their business strategies. And the comment that really got me pissed and finally made me decide to stop shopping at RACS for good and unsubscribe their newsletter came recently about Aniplex USA's new Durarara!! Blu-ray release. I already deleted the email and can't find a web version of it, but Robert said something along the lines of, "Since we still have Fate/Zero sets we can't get rid of, we'll probably only be ordering enough Durarara!! Blu-ray sets to cover pre-orders, maybe a little more. I really wish someone else licensed Bakemonogatari."

Really? I'm sorry, but there is a WORLD of difference between $700 for what is essentially a translated import release of Fate/Zero and $150 for a special edition set of Durarara!! made for the North American market. And it's only a little more than $20 over the cost of the DVD sets. And why be worried about the Bakemonogatari release? Aniplex has said that they are going to release it as a sub-only Blu-ray complete set of 15 episodes. Comparing it to Durarara!!, Bakemonogatari is an older series, has 11 less episodes and is sub-only versus having Japanese and English audio. I will be surprised if Bakemonogatari ends up being more than $80, and I would be perfectly fine with that.

Anyway, I've just been finding Robert's comments to be more and more rude, unprofessional and unnecessary. It's one thing to smack talk your competition, but why do the same against the people who make the products you sell? Sure, I might not have been that big of a customer of RACS up to this point, but I can only imagine that they have other more frequent customers who may feel the same way. And that's really all I have to say.