Media Blasters may be known in the anime market primarily for the savvy approach that has enabled the company to keep its market share at a time when many medium-size companies were losing ground, so it may be surprising to learn that, thanks to an enormous expansion in sales of its live-action releases, anime now represents only slightly more than 20% of the Media Blasters' business.  While Media Blasters' anime releases have continued to do well, it is the company's martial arts releases such as Versus, and in particular its Tokyo Shock live-action horror films that have provided the biggest boost in sales.

For 2007 Media Blasters is planning a number of new live action releases including a Versus Special Edition (MSRP $39.95) in March and a special new DVD edition of Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer, which will come packaged with a blood bag when it hits store shelves in July.  While some might find that bit of innovative packaging extreme, it certainly makes sense for an uber-violent splatter film like Ichi the Killer, and it certainly should appeal to the Fangoria audience (Fangoria being the magazine of choice for a broad swath of the North American audience for this new wave of Asian shock cinema).

Takashi Miike is the most innovative and interesting director working in the category and Media Blasters has a number of Miike releases set for 2007 including One Missed Call (Chakushin Ari), which Tokyo Shock plans to release along with a sequel in February.  One Missed Call has been remade in an American version starring Edward Burns that is due out in 2007 and should help stir interest in the Japanese original.

But Tokyo Shock's major release of 2007 is likely to be another Miike helmed film, Zebraman, the story of a timid elementary school teacher who is belittled by his students and deceived by his wife. This poor put-upon pedagogue finds his only solace is wearing the uniform of Zebraman, a superhero whose TV series lasted for just seven episodes some 34 years ago.