Bandai Entertainment: No New BDs. DVDs, Manga after February

[cyth]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

This sucks. Not only North American licensors are now one company less, this means that R1 purchases of anime is becoming closer to becoming extinct.

This is really unfortunate.

This is the result of not treating anime on home media the same way the Japanese do.

[fertygo]

Originally Posted by Marcus H.

This sucks. Not only North American licensors are now one company less, this means that R1 purchases of anime is becoming closer to becoming extinct.

This is really unfortunate.

Bandai Ent. is sucks anyway. tbh its better for buyer if they closing down.

Sentai is the hottest player on the market now.

[Last Sinner]

Time for you guys to start ordering from Australia licenses for some harder to get titles, I guess. Siren Visual just picked up Higurashi Kai, plus they and Madman have numerous other Bandai titles. Or try and find copies on Rightstuf before the US versions disappear.

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by Last Sinner

Time for you guys to start ordering from Australia licenses for some harder to get titles, I guess. Siren Visual just picked up Higurashi Kai, plus they and Madman have numerous other Bandai titles. Or try and find copies on Rightstuf before the US versions disappear.

Except they aren't going anywhere soon according to the article:

Releases in Bandai Entertainment's current catalog will still be available after February, and Bandai Entertainment plans to produce new stock on these existing releases, if needed, until their respective licenses expire.

[demonix]

Originally Posted by AbZeroNow

I am very sad to hear that Gosick won't be released by them. I hope Sentai or Funimation license rescues that(although Funi getting it would mean that CR will lose another library title). I am sure that Nichijou being cancelled for a release will upset some.

I hope that Sentai picks up the second season of K-On so I can buy that(and maybe down the line be able to do a boxset of the first season with the right music in one scene and with the JP extras).

If you read the whole article you'd know that bandai will still be licensing series after February, but not dealing with distribution so those series that bandai have licensed, but not currently released will be sub-licensed to other companies for release.

[all_flying]

Originally Posted by cyth

This is the result of not treating anime on home media the same way the Japanese do.

Implying you're willing to pay more for a better quality BD/DVD with English sub?

[GDB]

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

Nah. There is Sentai, NISA, Section23 and I"m sure I'm forgetting others.

Sentai and Section23 are the same company. Just different names for the licensing and distributing departments, I believe.

Originally Posted by fertygo

Sentai is the hottest player on the market now.

Agreed. I don't like some of the wording choices they used in Angel Beats!, but it's far better than waiting 2+ years for a release like with FUNi.

[darkchibi07]

Hope you guys are to read this:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feat...domi_interview

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by fertygo

Bandai Ent. is sucks anyway. tbh its better for buyer if they closing down.

Sentai is the hottest player on the market now.

Soooooo, you're planning on finishing the Kannagi, TTGL, and Lucky Star manga franchises? Because that's the only way its "better for the buyer". We can hope Yen picks the titles up, I suppose.....

From the interview, these two points stuck out:

The manga division, unfortunately, will not be so lucky. Kannagi, Gurren Lagann, Code Geass: Renya of Darkness, Mobile Suit Gundam OOI, Lucky Star Boo Boo Kabagoo and Tales of the Abyss: Jade in My Memories will all see their releases cut short. Their fate had not yet been determined at press time. "All we can confirm for sure is that those series are not going to be finished by us," Iyadomi says.

Japanese publishers can now create Blu-rays with English subtitles, ready to import to English speakers worldwide. While those won't sell as many copies as American-produced discs, the higher price point and lack of middleman can still result in a decent amount of revenue with little additional cost. Bandai Visual Japan recently discovered this for themselves with their release of Gundam Unicorn. "They found the results pretty good, and that's how I think they would like to move forwards," Iyadomi says.

The Blu-ray regions mean that the Japan side can now produce product with english subtitles and directly market them to North America. They have seen results that make them happy (even with the higher price points). This is bad for "average teen consumer on a budget" who will have to resort to unauthorized rips rather than having the glorious packaging. But the key phrase is "makes them happy". The Bandai exec being interviewed made a point of how often what the licensor wanted was at direct odds with what the customer wanted.

[cyth]

Originally Posted by darkchibi07

Hope you guys are to read this:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feat...domi_interview

Thanks for that.

So Bandai Ent. USA blames either the evil retailers for their huge returns and/or their evil Japanese owners for shutting them down preemptively and/or evil North American fans who don't want to buy even cheap releases.

I personally blame the fans and the industry, who continuosly pressed for lower disc prices. The internet bubble has thought us that you can't make money if the market doesn't pay for your product. Instead, they could have been pushing for higher prices all along, which would create the impression that home video animation is actually a luxury product, which is what Japan has going for them now for decades. Japanese consumers, I'd argue, are in an even worse position to own home media, but lucky for Japan, they have numerous ways to sell anime.

The home video industry was also too reliant on the fact that in their beginnings they had less competitors in the entirety of the entertainment field. The result of ignoring this fact are now kids who'd rather watch fan-made Vocaloid videos on Youtube, for free, than support future anime productions with legit purchases.

Japanese publishers can now create Blu-rays with English subtitles, ready to import to English speakers worldwide. While those won't sell as many copies as American-produced discs, the higher price point and lack of middleman can still result in a decent amount of revenue with little additional cost. Bandai Visual Japan recently discovered this for themselves with their release of Gundam Unicorn. "They found the results pretty good, and that's how I think they would like to move forwards," Iyadomi says.

So what was the point of having North American distribution in the first place? Well, local expertise managed to expand the fanbase. Having local distribution helped the globalization process, and I'm grateful for that, but the now broken industry can't exactly say it didn't have a window of opportunity to truly establish itself. What this means is that there will be less job and profit opportunities in the North American sphere in connection with anime (and manga soon).

All in all, I see this as a good development. Now Japan only needs to create anime that I'd like to own again!

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by cyth

Thanks for that.

So Bandai Ent. USA blames either the evil retailers for their huge returns and/or their evil Japanese owners for shutting them down preemptively and/or evil North American fans who don't want to buy even cheap releases.

Bandai doesn't blame the retailers. People don't buy stuff, it gets returned. (The problem is when it gets returned, it creates a massive accounting problem.) What causes the problem is fans create an artificial and imaginary demand through piracy and never create that demand in the actual market.

[0utf0xZer0]

Originally Posted by GDB

Agreed. I don't like some of the wording choices they used in Angel Beats!, but it's far better than waiting 2+ years for a release like with FUNi.

Sentai seems to be good at scoring properties I really like (EF and Ikoku Meiro no Croisee being recent examples). But personally, my favourite R1 licensing company is NIS America, becuase their Premium Edition box sets are gorgeous.

Going to miss Bandai though, the Bandai/Aniplex reps (as far as I can tell they were representing both) at Sakuracon 2011 managed to give NISA's rep a run for the money in terms of best cosplay by a company rep.

[OkamiNoKaze]

All I can say, is I hope someone else picks up Nichijou

[fertygo]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Soooooo, you're planning on finishing the Kannagi, TTGL, and Lucky Star manga franchises? Because that's the only way its "better for the buyer". We can hope Yen picks the titles up, I suppose.....

Considering how poor their release if compared to another company release, I stand with my opinion. This way another company can pick their title, consumer got better product, all happy.(I dunno about their manga release though, but their dvd is just yuck...)

[GDB]

Originally Posted by cyth

Instead, they could have been pushing for higher prices all along, which would create the impression that home video animation is actually a luxury product, which is what Japan has going for them now for decades.

That's how it started, and it nearly collapsed the industry before it even started going. I'll admit though, that once you start high and drop, it's almost impossible to turn back to the high point. They should've started low to bring in fans and then raise it, but what's done is done.

What this means is that there will be less job and profit opportunities in the North American sphere in connection with anime (and manga soon).

All in all, I see this as a good development. Now Japan only needs to create anime that I'd like to own again!

While there may be alternatives being made in Japan for anime, what's to become of manga if they all keep going this route? Obviously that isn't likely to happen, but it's not like they can include an alternate english set of subtitles for manga.

Originally Posted by 0utf0xZer0

Sentai seems to be good at scoring properties I really like (EF and Ikoku Meiro no Croisee being recent examples). But personally, my favourite R1 licensing company is NIS America, becuase their Premium Edition box sets are gorgeous.

They had two series I wanted (ToraDora and Pandora Hearts). They butchered the Pandora Hearts video, and if I recall the ToraDora video was messed up at first too (though they eventually fixed it). I don't trust them at all, regardless of how nice their premium sets are compared to everyone else.

[Lost Cause]

I will miss Bandai, they always released a better quality of anime than most of the other big houses of the time, and fir the most part had better dubs, but that's just my opinion.
I do hope somebody like Sentai or Funi pickup the older titles when their licenses expire though.

[0utf0xZer0]

Originally Posted by GDB

They had two series I wanted (ToraDora and Pandora Hearts). They butchered the Pandora Hearts video, and if I recall the ToraDora video was messed up at first too (though they eventually fixed it). I don't trust them at all, regardless of how nice their premium sets are compared to everyone else.

I bought the original pressing of Toradora with the deinterlacing issue - and I got replacement discs from a later pressing mailed to me for free under a well publicized program. Last I checked Sentai never even acknowledged the major subtitle timing issues people encountered in one episode on an early DVD pressing of Canaan, despite later discs apparently not having the issue, and subtitles being 2-3 lines out sounds a little more serious to me than the issue Toradora had..

[GundamFan]

Originally Posted by GDB

Sentai and Section23 are the same company. Just different names for the licensing and distributing departments, I believe.

Legally they aren't when ADV sold it's assets it was to 4 seperate companies 2 of whom were Sentai and Section23 in reality they all have same owner and pretty much function as a single company in practice.

[Aoie_Emesai]

Downsizing >.> A simple show that it's probably not profitable to simply produce those goods anymore.

[Zoel]

Anyone know where I can get a similar deal to Buy.com for Bandai products in Canada?