Gundam Unicorn BD to be Amazon Exclusive
Japan’s Bandai Visual has announced that the first bilingual Blu-ray volume of the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn OVA series will be available exclusively through online retailer Amazon for its first two months of release. The Blu-ray release includes original Japanese dialogue plus selectable English dubbing and optional Japanese, English, French, Spanish, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese subtitles. The 59 minute long first Blu-ray volume will retail at a $49.98 SRP beginning March 12.
It’s certainly surprising that Bandai Visual will be distributing this through Amazon instead of its own Bandai Entertainment American subsidiary.
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Well, I guess I better save up for it!
I hope Amazon gives some kind of discount but it might not happen.
$50 for 60 minutes! Ouch…
Almost as bad as laserdisc days but NOT quite.
Yeah, you’d pay that for two volumes of Tenchi Muyo back in the day but even then it was still half of what the Japanese paid for their LDs and they didn’t have subtitles and selectable languages like the US LDs. The US LD release of the first two Tenchi OVA series were also CAV unlike the CLV Japanese releases. Just overall superior to the Japanese releases… no question there!
Too bad the BD’s aren’t a bit more reasonably priced but I guess this is to be expected. BD is picking up the slack in Japan a bit for the low DVD sales but isn’t quite compensating for lower overall video sales across the board, period. US releases for Gundam haven’t been very good for years now. G 00 I’ve noticed doesn’t seem to be empty on any store shelves when I’ve looked for them. Can’t say the economy and empty pockets of a bunch of us help matters, either!
I’m enough of a Gundam fan that I’ll probably still pick this new BD up…
I wish we had the option to get Macross F in bilingual BD (at least throw import fans decent subs, Bandai!), too, but that’s not happening if ever in the States! At least Gundam Uni has subs and a dub to go with it in BD. I’m NOT paying for a BD that doesn’t have subs or a dub unless it’s the original Macross movie!
So I can’t buy it in Animenation? =(
This will be available from specialty retailers like AnimeNation beginning in May.
This may simply be Bandai’s next strategy attempt at maximizing their Gundam profits since the Gundam franchise hasn’t generated the constant flow of dollars that it did when Gundam Wing first appeared on Cartoon Network. However, the Japanese obviously still don’t have a firm grasp on the psyche of the American buying public in general and the American Gundamaniac in particular. With all the political wrangling we have been exposed to in recent months, I categorically refuse to be forced to buy Gundam Unicorn from one certain retailer when I know other retailers will have it in 2 months, and probably at a better price since there will be some good old American price competition for my hard earned American dollars. We should all thank our lucky stars that Amazon won’t ultimately be the only source for Gundam Unicorn.