Ask John: Why is Bandai’s Kurokami BD Dubbed Only?

Question:
Perhaps you can explain Bandai’s decision to kneecap their Blue Ray release of Kurokami. Blue Rays are supposed to be better than the DVD release. Bandai’s explanation leaves much to be desired.

Answer:
Since the initial revelation that Bandai Entertainment’s domestic Blu-ray release of the Kurokami anime series will be English dubbed only, American fan and potential consumer reaction has been swift and almost entirely consistently shocked, dismayed, and outraged. There’s an old adage in the American fan community. “No one screws up anime like the Japanese.” The phrase specifically refers to Japanese distributors undermining their own attempts to sell anime in America. The planned American Blu-ray release of Kurokami is merely the latest proof of the principle.

America’s Bandai Entertainment has explained, “The license for the Japanese audio was not granted for our Blu-Ray release of Kurokami.” Since the Japanese Blu-ray release includes Japanese, English, and Korean audio tracks, the only logical explanation for the absence of alternate language tracks on the American release is a Japanese fear of reverse importation. Japanese Blu-ray volumes of Kurokami retail at a staggering 9,240 yen ($102 USD) each while the American BD volumes, which are compatible with Japanese BD players, will retail at only $24.98 each. The Japanese release is manufactured and distributed by Bandai, so this is clearly a case of the Japanese parent company hobbling its smaller American subsidiary with unreasonable demands. An American BD release similar to the Japanese release at an equivalent price is simply untenable. Bandai’s previous efforts to release Blu-ray media in America have already proven that applying a Japanese pricing scheme to American releases isn’t sustainable in America. So Bandai of Japan obviously sees two possibilities: don’t release a Blu-ray edition in America at all – thereby sacrificing any potential revenue a BD release might generate – or release a BD edition that won’t compromise Japanese sales and will generate some revenue from American consumers. Unfortunately, neither option is preferential to American consumers, and while Bandai Japan has clearly chosen the later route that promises some marginal income, Bandai seems to have entirely overlooked and unanticipated the costly negativism generated by such a short-sighted decision. American consumer confidence in Bandai Entertainment is already diminishing as a result of broken promises for the domestic Hayate the Combat Butler DVD release, consistently delayed releases, canceled releases, notoriety for flawed releases, and a marked decline in title acquisitions. The decision to antagonize American consumers with an obviously inferior Blu-ray release of Kurokami will do little to improve Bandai Entertainment’s domestic market position. And unfortunately, California based Bandai Entertainment isn’t to blame. As to why the domestic Blu-ray release includes fewer episodes per disc than the DVD release, despite Blu-ray media having far more capacity, I don’t know and can’t responsibly guess.

There’s sadly no way to put a particularly positive spin on this situation. The only way to partially mitigate this frustration is to contextualize it with the realization that it’s not actually as unusual as may be thought. In another, similar contemporary instance of Japan screwing up a domestic release, Kodansha USA’s fresh English language re-publication of Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell manga is censored despite the fact that the immediately prior, less expensive publication from Dark Horse was unexpurgated. On the domestic side, and particularly relevant, a number of Blu-ray releases haven’t been ideally living up to their technical potential. Manga Entertainment’s domestic Blu-ray release of Ghost in the Shell 2.0 does not include the original audio commentary track it promises, does include a 1080i encode of the 1995 edit that’s inferior to the Japanese Blu-ray edition’s 1080p encode, and carelessly translated subtitles that inaccurately fail to acknowledge changes in the re-recorded Japanese dialogue. Manga Entertainment’s domestic Blu-ray release of the Blood: The Last Vampire anime feature has forced English subtitles for spoken Japanese dialogue. Likewise, FUNimation’s domestic Blu-ray edition of the Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shambala motion picture displays forced English subtitles during Japanese audio playback. So it may be of little consolation, but Bandai’s upcoming domestic Kurokami Blu-ray release isn’t the American Blu-ray release that doesn’t live up to expectations.