Sunday, May 19, 2013

Are we entering the “Rival Destinies Gap”?

This article is a follow-up to the “Arceus Gap” video I posted last year. Like in that video, I am not attempting to blame or vilify anyone for this apparent delay.

Last Tuesday, volume four of Pokémon Black and White was released on DVD. Unlike previous seasons, which had been released over the course of a year, these four volumes were released in a seven-month span. I theorized that they were trying to make up for the “Arceus Gap” and get closer to the pre-Galactic Battles trend of releasing the first set of a season toward the end of that season’s run. Following this pattern, volume one of Rival Destinies should be slated for release in July, however a search of Amazon, Viz.com, and WBShop.com shows nothing on the horizon.

What happened? Well, there are a number of possibilities, but the theory I have goes back to February of this year, when it was announced that Mewtwo would be showing up in movie sixteen. This may have prompted Warner Bros. to attempt to get the first movie back on the market (as you may recall, the first three movies have been out of print in North America for several years), which may be responsible for the delay in getting Rival Destinies out. All of this is supposition, but it seems like a reasonable explanation to me. Of course, it’s also possible that this is just a planned momentary pause between seasons and DVDs will resume later this summer-only time will tell.

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