Goodbye Bandai

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  • My god how the anime scene is just getting destroyed in the retail market. Pretty much every anime company is now out of business since Bandai Visual just announced they are cancelling their anime distribution. If it wasn't for Sentai Works releasing ADV's lineup the only active company right now would be Funimation. Once upon a time there was a decent 6 companies. Now currently 2. Hopefully someone picks up Bandai's titles or likely just Funimation will buy them up once the licences expire.

    Damn you anime bootleggers/piraters!!!!

  • I'm so sad about Bandai, some of my favorite pieces of my collection (and actually most of it in general now that I think about it) came from Bandai ... where am I going to get more collectables now? DX

  • [QUOTE=Otaking97;4256029]My god how the anime scene is just getting destroyed in the retail market. Pretty much every anime company is now out of business since Bandai Visual just announced they are cancelling their anime distribution. If it wasn't for Sentai Works releasing ADV's lineup the only active company right now would be Funimation. Once upon a time there was a decent 6 companies. Now currently 2. Hopefully someone picks up Bandai's titles or likely just Funimation will buy them up once the licences expire.

    Damn you anime bootleggers/piraters!!!![/QUOTE]

    I can't blame bootleggers and pirates on this one. Everyone else still in the game is focusing on simulcasts and streaming access. Bandai was the only one still dragging their heels through the dirt, trying to release multidisc box sets of shows for ludicrous amounts of money. Their translations were still inferior to most fansubs being released right now and their release schedule was abysmal. Companies like Funimation and Sunrise are at least trying to evolve with the times to make fansubs no longer necessary. Bandai was doing everything it could to pretend that it was still 1995, and if you do that, you get killed. DVD's and Blu-Rays of imported material aren't profitable anymore. Funimation is making the lionshare of their distribution money working with Hulu and Netflix right now.

    Bandai's still around though, just not doing video distribution in the states. They'll still be trying to get licensed anime on television and it sounds like they're going to start working with other people to start streaming solutions and perhaps even simulcasts as early as next season. You gotta evolve though. Hollywood is saying that pirates are the reason Hollywood loses millions of dollars every year, when it has more to do with people dropping their cable subcriptions and not going to the movie theaters as they don't want to take the gamble that what they're watching MIGHT be good. There are such things as good anime and bad anime, and now more than ever, the gamble to tell what's going to be good this season versus what's going to be bad is a high stakes effort, especially when the only way to tell is to go out and throw down 30 to 40 bucks on part 1 of season 1 of some show.

    I'll tell you right now man, if I had put down money to buy Darker Than Black season 2, I would have been PISSED. Thank god Hulu+ and CrunchyRoll gave me an alternative. If Netflix would get off their asses and ad japanese audio tracks to their pretty beefy lineup of anime, I'd seriously question if I needed to even bother with fansubs ever again.

  • I think Media Blasters is still around. So it is not just Funimation.

  • This is really too bad actually I liked bandai but I also knew it was coming when I saw that they were shutting down their site. I still prefer to buy things on DVD because it feels more official and like I'm actually contributing but that said I am watching lucky star on crunchyroll. I hope we get some future seasons of haruhi though.

  • [QUOTE=scandia;4256100]I think Media Blasters is still around. So it is not just Funimation.[/QUOTE]


    I think your right. Forgot about them. Guess rightstuf still releases a bit too.

    I can't stand streaming anime. I don't even like watching it on Netflix. Find the quality is weak, plus dub only. If it goes all digital one day I'll cry. Hell I even miss single dvd releases. But i understand that boxsets make it cheaper and easier.

  • Anyone know if they are still releasing K-ON complete first season on DVD on feburary 7th?

  • ^Bandai is halting releases after February 2012, so I think K-On! is still safe. however, there is a list going around of cancelled titles, so double check that to make sure K-On! isn't on it.

    --

    I'm not really surprised to see Bandai stop distribution. I don't know if anyone remembers, but Bandai started to do some wonky things around the time they announced the license for Durarara!!.

    Right after Durarara!!, Bandai then announced the release for K-On!, before DRRR!! could even hit the shelves. In the beginning of K-On!'s first promos, Bandai announced that they had attained the license for Star Driver, and so on. They were seriously cramming in licenses, even before they had a chance to promote the ones they had just announced, and for series that were already starting to wane in popularity because they had finished airing. I don't even know if Star Driver made it to DVD, because Bandai didn't release any information about it past that announcement while they were busy promoting newer works.

    At least Bandai will still be around to try their hand at streaming.

  • Welp, Funimation is suing Sentai Films $8 Million dollars. I cant remember why. But this is really going to hurt their distribution to anime....

    Funimation is wanting to be the only distributor at this point I find =_=

  • [QUOTE=HareyuNanami;4260258]Welp, Funimation is suing Sentai Films $8 Million dollars. I cant remember why. But this is really going to hurt their distribution to anime....

    Funimation is wanting to be the only distributor at this point I find =_=[/QUOTE]

    If FUNi is to believed, it's because ADV STILL owes them a ton of money from years back, and hasn't paid them yet. ADV's death was brought about by shady business tactics, and it seems they haven't learn their lesson yet.

    While FUNi is certainly the biggest game in town, there are still a number of smaller companies around (MANGA/Anchor Bay just released "Redline" which you all should by immediately), and there's companies like Aniplex who just release their stuff in the US w/o having to deal with FUNi or Sentai.

  • I still cannot believe Manga is still around. They have been on again off again that I forget they exist. But I just saw redline at WalMart.

  • So I was talking about this subject and the issue of the haruhi movie came up, bandai owning that. It took them nearly 16 months from the release date of the movie in japan to get that thing out in the states. and people wonder why Bandai went under.

    Meanwhile, that movie is 35 dollars. THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS! FOR A MOVIE! Get fucked! I'm not paying that much for a movie!

    Meanwhile, Redline is 18 on blu-ray. And now it's in my amazon shopping cart for free shipping.

    There's a reason why Bandai's dvd distribution went under...

  • It's sad that something like this has happened to them, but not much we can do now. Guess I better stock up on their Anime. I am sad that they're gone now since they were putting out Tales of the Abyss manga and I was planning on getting the Jade ones.

  • On a related note, Aniplex announced their pricing for Madoka today.

    [url]http://www.rightstuf.com/cgi-bin/catalogmgr/OxFiB6X=1Fk034henZ/browse/item/93312/4/0/0[/url]

    A 12 episode show will be split across 3 discs sold at 30/40 dollars a pop (respective to bluray or dvd).

    It's like they are asking us to pirate this shit. In what world is that acceptable?

  • [QUOTE=Mesoian;4263059]On a related note, Aniplex announced their pricing for Madoka today.

    [url]http://www.rightstuf.com/cgi-bin/catalogmgr/OxFiB6X=1Fk034henZ/browse/item/93312/4/0/0[/url]

    A 12 episode show will be split across 3 discs sold at 30/40 dollars a pop (respective to bluray or dvd).

    It's like they are asking us to pirate this shit. In what world is that acceptable?[/QUOTE]
    Aniplex also released Kara no Kyoukai on BluRay for $400, IIRC. It doesn't surprise me that they're releasing Madoka at such a high price.