Everyone knows the publishing world is unpredictable, right? Yet, we all get burned once in a while with a product that slips off the map faster than we anticipated, only to show up on Ebay or Amazon at a high-enough price point to feed half of Africa. We're starting our holiday list-a-thon with a list of highly desirable anime which are out of print and, unfortunately, highly desired.

Maison Ikkoku: You'll never finish it.

The limited availability of this title has a simple, one-word explanation: Viz. The company is admirable for trying to push more shoujo and romance onto the market, but the market's not buying. Maison Ikkoku is a classic romantic comedy from manga legend Rumiko Takahashi. Unlike many rom-coms, the show offers a good amount of humor to balance the sappy stuff. The first box of 12 episodes is fairly easy to obtain, but you might want to check the price of the last few boxes before you get hooked. They were severely limited releases exclusively sold by Right Stuf. But hey, at least they released the whole series, unlike Full Moon.

(Don't tell anyone who might steal the discs, but you can rent the show from Netflix!)

FLCL + DiGi Charat = What?

Nothing about FLCL makes any sense, so obviously everyone wants it. Problem is, the publisher (Synch Point, a defunct arm of Broccoli) is gone, and nobody else picked up the show. The good news is that you can get some of the soundtrack CDs in the states, still, but who knows where this hilarious little 6-episode OVA disappeared to. It's about ...I forgot.

Another Broccoli title that disappeared with the company's US operations is the Di Gi Charat TV series, nyo! It probably didn't make any money anyway, nyo! But tell that to the people trying to sell it, nyo! (I hope you're not one of the ones trying to find it, nyo.)

Record of Lodoss War and R.O.D. the TV: You might still have a chance!

Central Park Media is gone, but it's still possible to get yourself a piece of classic fantasy anime: the thirteen episode Record of Lodoss War OVA. It's a fantastic tale of swords and sorcery, but the important thing is: it has two elf chicks. It's a show you'll watch and think wow, it really is vital to have all those character classes! OK, so high fantasy isn't big on organic storytelling, but Lodoss does danger and distressed damsels and epic battle and victory of light against dark against all odds (except for that nagging detail of the witch Karla, who antagonizes both good and evil). The point is: you want this show, and if you act now, I'll throw in assurances that you might be able to get it if you try!

When the US Arm of Geneon went down in flames, the inferno must have chewed up the Read or Die materials, because the TV series and its paper sisters appear to be orphans, and probably naked. (Their outfits are made of paper, you know.) As hot as this property was, it's hard to believe that it'll sit in license limbo for long; nonetheless, volumes of the show aren't too difficult to find yet! If you want the limited-edition box set of the series, that's another story. This tale — of strange and wondrous abilities with paper, and of an author's not-so-quiet fight against the tyranny of long dead men trying to grow green tentacles — is worth experiencing, though, so get on it.