Bandai Explains Kannagi Release
Bandai Entertainment President Ken Iyadomi has explained the rationale behind the sudden and unanticipated American commercial release of the Kannagi TV series. “North American anime companies have suffered unexpected heavy returns from general market retailers in recent years but if we can sell moderate quantities exclusively online where no sales returns exist, I believe we can acquire more anime for the US market to be released in this pattern,†he said. The first domestic DVD volume of Kannagi is available directly from Bandai, and one online retailer.
Source: ICv2
Related Posts
About The Author
john
4 Comments
Add a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Most anime fans stopped buying anime a long time ago, when they could steal it all.
This is probably Bandai’s last-gasp attempt to remain in R1. Sub-only, immediate home-video release with some streaming…
Kind of ironic that they’re going back to where they started. But this is better than flooding the market with shows which might flop.
Le sigh.
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.
In my own personal opinion, the medium itself (and the very concept of sale of anime) has been killed by a conceited and criminal fandom.
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.