PerryD

Just read the post in the coupon and bargains section, and was surprised to see several UMDs were a part of the 50% off anime sale, all are only $9.98, free shipping for orders over $25, don't know if there are any current coupons. For $10 each, I picked them all up (they are all considered some of the best of anime), although I was disappointed that some were not a part of the sale (like Steamboy):
Akira
Appleseed
Blood the Last Vampire
Cowboy Bebop the Movie
Ghost in the Shell
Ninja Scroll

Also, some TV episodes (which I believe are shown in their original 16:9 ratio) are available for only $7.48:
Gungrave Ep 1 & 2
Samurai Champloo Ep 1 & 2
Samurai Champloo Ep 3 & 4

Ken Chui

PerryD

I used them for many many years when they were Ken Crane's Laserdisc, and for the last several years I've ordered from them many times to pick up the occasional Criterion DVD since they have the best price on those discs. No problems so far, although it's been nearly two years since my last order.

As far as today's order, only two of the six movies ended up being in stock (Blood and Ninja Scroll), the rest are backordered. I don't think they have real time inventory as far as I can tell. I suppose my satisfaction with this order will rely on whether I get these UMDs and how long it takes to get them.

9/20 Update: Blood and Ninja Scroll shipped today, one day after my order. The email shipping notice looks identical to a Deep Discount DVD shipping email.

9/23 Update: Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed shipped today.

PerryD

Recieved Blood and Ninja Scroll today.

Ninja Scroll contains only the widescreen English dub (the movie was originally filmed 4x3 and of course in Japanese language). I expected the widescreen presentation (it was listed that way and recently offered in widescreen in the 10th anniversary edition), but I still had hoped for a Japanese language track. It has been a few years since I've seen this movie, and wow, just as violent as I remember, buckets of blood spilled through many dismemberments within the first few minutes.

Blood: the Last Vampire was a bigger disappointment. Although the DVD is 16:9 anamorphic, the UMD is presented letterboxed within a centered 4x3 frame, so the image needs to be zoomed (i.e. degraded) to fill the PSP screen. I have no idea why/how this would have happened during the encoding process, perhaps a defective pressing?

Both discs were distributed by Anchor Bay and Manga Entertainment.