Bandai out of the North American DVD market

Courtesy of ANN, you can read here:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/bandai_downsizing_ken_iyadomi_interview

This is a very sad way to start the new year.

See, this is why Funimation has become king, because the other companies just don't understand the NA market anymore and refuse to change. That seems to be a common theme with Japan in general. What do you guys think about this?

It's wack. It's also lame that their upcoming releases have been cancelled. Are other licensing companies now able to pick them up? Or is it up to Bandai to give up the rights to them first?

Can't say it's shocking. Look at this shit:


On the other hand Manga and Funimation manage to keep their RRPs low enough that their products keep ending up on my shelves; I'm looking at six BDs right now.

That's why I rarely bought bandai stuff new anymore. 40 bucks for 1 episode of unicorn?

I can buy 13-26 sets from funimation for the same price!! Funimation changed their business model, Bandai did not. Funimation is still kicking, bandai is not.

This isn't brain surgery, its arrogance.

WolfWood37 wrote:This isn't brain surgery, its arrogance.

True dat. I got four BD movies for the price of one of the more expensive Unicorn BDs. Bandai deserved this.

They're also shit at selling games but that's another story.

Yeah, but this sucks on a couple of levels.

1. No more Gundam UC dvd's which means for episodes 5 and 6 we are screwed. I rather liked the dub.

2. This means that some of my favorite voice actors will have even less work. That shit really sucks.

Some of their dvd prices were reasonable, $40-45 for some of the gundam series sets. Granted they were split up into two sets, but each set had around 25 episodes. The problem comes from selling OVA's, $60 for basically 1 episode? That is what killed Bandai, their refusal to lower their outrageous prices.

This is not the dark ages of $200 box sets anymore, and Bandai refused to realize this. I feel bad for people in Japan who have to shell out that kind of cash for this stuff.

Thing is, even if Bandai can't into DVD/BD/game marketing they're perfectly capable at doing it for merchandise. Like, seriously good. I just don't see where the retarded pricing for the other stuff came from when they can produce and sell related paraphernalia without issue.

When I was at Best Buy last year and looked around the anime shelf for good prices, the best deal by far was 28 episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho(DVD) for $30. There's a reason Funimation gets my money.

WolfWood37 wrote:Yeah, but this sucks on a couple of levels.

1. No more Gundam UC dvd's which means for episodes 5 and 6 we are screwed. I rather liked the dub.

Apparently Unicorn will be fine. Bandai Visual are just doing it themselves instead of having it go through Bandai entertainment.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/bandai_downsizing_ken_iyadomi_interview

Japanese publishers can now create Blu-rays with English subtitles, ready to import to English speakers worldwide. While those won't sell as many copies as American-produced discs, the higher price point and lack of middleman can still result in a decent amount of revenue with little additional cost. Bandai Visual Japan recently discovered this for themselves with their release of Gundam Unicorn

Gosick, Turn A Gundam and Nichijo are the only anime cancellations. Don't forget that Sunrise are the animators too and will have their say in getting their material sold.

True it's still no good for Bandai Entertainment, but it will just get its stuff localised through other companies like Funi who aren't asshats.

Turn A Gundam is about the only disappointment for me.

Though I really would have been pissed if they decided not to release the Gundam 0079 2nd collection.

jeez 40 euro for 1 episode whutthehellman :/ and thats in euro mind you

MikuHatsune wrote:jeez 40 euro for 1 episode whutthehellman :/ and thats in euro mind you

£ = GBP (Great British Pounds) not Euros.

So it's even more.

kinda looked like a euro since the picture was small......but sweet geezuz....

*sigh*
where to begin...

1.) Bandai was distributing more than their licensed products, those are now free to look for other distributors (Bandai basically has only Gundam). They will still sell their products they just closed the US anime distributing institutions, games, merch etc. goes through a network of subsidiaries like it always has. The animes will still be sold as they bring them out on multilingual discs anyway but at jap prices most likely.

2.) The pricing was this problematic because when they lowered prices those sneaky japanese imported, so they could deviate from their jap prices which is why sales where rather minor in us/europe.

FightingFurball wrote:*sigh*
where to begin...

1.) Bandai was distributing more than their licensed products, those are now free to look for other distributors (Bandai basically has only Gundam). They will still sell their products they just closed the US anime distributing institutions, games, merch etc. goes through a network of subsidiaries like it always has. The animes will still be sold as they bring them out on multilingual discs anyway but at jap prices most likely.

2.) The pricing was this problematic because when they lowered prices those sneaky japanese imported, so they could deviate from their jap prices which is why sales where rather minor in us/europe.

They could make a new Region Code for Japan :P