I’m actually very surprised any companies are still left, but it’s becoming more and more clear that Bandai’s got at least one foot out the R1 door.

This is hard for me to swallow. Anyone whom has written about the anime business and their east-west relations should have seen the retail crunch deepening over the past three years (maybe longer)…. but if you ask me the solution to the challenge doesn’t include withdrawing from brick-and-mortar entirely — effectively abandoning the medium’s fandom altogether. Yes, there’s been a drop off in disc purchasing with the prevalence of illegal streaming, but companies can’t expect to build up their business by lopping off a massive channel of distribution such as in-store retail. (If anything, they could at least do what ADV is doing… print extraordinarily limited quantities of in-demand titles.)

Some distribution patterns you just can’t help — Diamond Comics, for example, is most certainly not a friend of small business as the current market stands. But Bandai’s notion that tossing “DVDs” to its fans without even promoting the content is a bit selfish… Sure times are tough, but I’d prefer a company stay in the game by respecting the medium and positioning itself in a way that sends the wrong message to future retail partners and future fans alike.

This is probably Bandai’s last-gasp attempt to remain in R1. Sub-only, immediate home-video release with some streaming…