Bandai Entertainment Withdrawing from Distribution
Bandai Entertainment has formally announced that as of today the 13 year-old distributor is laying off 3 of its 5 full-time employees and will cease licensing and distributing new anime and manga titles in America. Current anime series Star Driver, Tales of the Abyss, The Girl Who Leapt Through Space, and the Mobile Suit Gundam Complete Collection will be released in their entirity, but licenses Turn A Gundam, Nichijou, and Gosick will not be released domestically by Bandai Entertainment. The Ghost in the Shell TV series is distributed by Manga Entertainment, so its distribution will not be affected. Currently ongoing manga titles 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 not be completed by Bandai. Current Bandai releases will remain in-print and available until their current licenses expire.
The decision to end Bandai Entertainment’s domestic anime distribution was made last fall by the company’s Japanese parent office. Bandai Entertainment will remain active in America as a licensing contractor and merchandise right manager.
Source: Anime News Network
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Well, it’s not as if we didn’t see this coming… and back to the sub-licensing game we go.
My response —
I’m a bit shocked. Honestly.
On the other hand, Bandai has done an excellent for at least 3-5 years of NOT promoting its anime, not getting anime into mainstream stores, and basically being a web-only presence for the better part of at least 3 years…. Oh, and not to mention the fact that they really aren’t selling much that people care to buy now!
I like Gundam myself but I can see why it turns people off. They basically regurgitate the original 1979 series storyline over and over again and that gets really old… Plus, it never helped that Bandai introduced Westerners to Gundam by premiering Gundam Wing ahead of the original UC timeline series.
I’m seeing that Unicorn is already getting a bit harder to get (on Blu ray. To be fair, Unicorn is being licensed by Honneamise which is separate from “regular” Bandai.)… and we’re all supposed to believe Bandai will honor its video commitments and reprint currently licensed/released shows????
Fingers crossed they will finish the original Gundam series DVD release!
As for the rest, to hell with Bandai…
I still think they did the anime business in the US haphazardly and half-assed, too. They became known for poorly mastered screwed-up DVDs and releases of shows that nobody wanted to buy (in addition to the poorly-handled Gundam properties).
They blew a golden opportunity in the US by not understanding some basics of the consumer culture here and trying to sell to the US like Japan. Totally different markets.
Here’s hoping the licenses on the better Bandai properties stay low enough so that some other company can properly market these shows in the US!
Not so sure anybody will pick up Gundam from where Bandai left off… They screwed the pooch there and last I heard wanted too much money for anybody to license and properly market that show with a chance of actually making money on it in North America!
Darn shame… but then again, Bandai hasn’t seen fit to do anything about the Macross situation, either (they’re distributor in Japan, not license-holder, I know!), and flex some muscle to get through some of that mess.
Very, very disappointed. Worst meltdown since ADV Film’s a few years back.
At least most of us had some advance notice on that one! Shame this announcement has to be made so early this year… Lousy time for bad news!
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. People who know Bandai existed as an anime distributor knows they were never very good at it. Does anyone remember back before Love Hina hit the states? It was the biggest anime there was at the time, but somehow it fizzled. Not to say this was Bandai’s fault, but this was during the anime boom, so who’s to say?
Gundam is certainly what they were known for, but let’s not forget they had a major hit on there hands: K-ON! Fans were crazy for that show a couple of years back, and as far as I can tell, the DVD/Blu-Ray release didn’t generate any buzz. Part of the problem is Bandai insisted on releasing it in the out-modded single release format. Media Blasters and Viz both learned this lesson. This may have worked back in the day, and it creates the most profit for the distributor. Try getting a modern anime fan to pay this price. They don’t even want to pay for a complete series at at a fraction of the price.
Still, it’s sad to see another distributor pull out of the market.
Not sure how it fizzled when Bandai released all of it. And K-On! disappointed, ‘cus moe-heads should not be allowed to dictate the R1 market. Every damn time I see clips of that show, I feel friggin’ embarassed, ‘cus it’s like I’m watching the non-anthropomorphic anime equivalent of the Chipettes, FFS. What kind of straight casual anime male viewer would wanna own a show like that?!