How are you supposed to change the marketing on a 4 year old series? They tried the lazy approach and just use the package that Geneon had, and that was awful. Stuff didn't sell, so they changed the designs on the box set, which swung things a bit too far the other way (from too cute to too creepy - no one wants their cover artwork in just negative).
The finalized version of the box sets (which, by the way is the ONLY source of remastered video, and no one has posted this version online, so barely anyone knows what I'm talking about) has a great look to it:
Funimation did a fair job of trying to re-market a product that got hosed by Geneon, but they didn't do enough (hint: NEEDS BETTER FEATURES AND SUBS). Furthermore, it is HARD to market this kind of show to American audiences ("so...it's cute, but violent as all hell, but it has comedy and friendship....but they're killing each other...what?"). The price point could have dropped to $30-35, but Funimation expected that much PER VOLUME, and a MINIMUM of $50 for the box set...for a 4-year old series. Again, I think that Funimation made improvements, but the North American release was such a train wreck (Geneon N.A. folding in the middle of the release certainly didn't help) that there was simply to much to be done to be profitable from Funi's end (and let's be fair, there's A LOT to be done). That's why I think the we, the hardest of the hardcore fans, should buy the core release from Geneon and DEEN. Even redubbing the series would score a massive improvement (assuming you could get Mion's VA, which might not be too hard - that was her first VA role), and the better subtitles could be overlaid (I'm working with [WinD] on this). This alone gives a way better overall product, and the license should be dirt cheap for the original series (especially based on Geneon's abysmal international sales).
This is going on a huge tangent from the Kira topic, so I'll just leave it be here. I'll post my "results" of remuxing the finalized season 1 files in a couple months.