Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - Best of Bandai
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Polycell
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Big Hed
 Posts: 1607 Location: Melbourne, Australia |
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That would be great! And let's do TTGL, while we're at it...! ... Eh. Maybe in my dreams. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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Whenever I think of a bad dub I generally dont think of Gurren Lagann, I felt like it was a great dub. |
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Mesonoxian Eve
Posts: 1858 |
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A very nice read, Mike. Unfortunately, I see the mistake in the words many people are making, and that's where I have an issue, personally.
People have a hard time separating the series from the product. I can never dismiss Bandai's influence in bringing us some very great titles, and I'll always be thankful for that, but their products were just terrible, making it very difficult to warrant a purchase. A couple of years ago, TRSI held one of its infamous "Distributor sales" for Bandai and I took advantage of (blind) buying several titles, including my much beloved Lucky Star. To this day, I found an issue with every one of them, product wise. Compressed video which looks choppy and ugly, piss-poor subtitling, dubs which raised eyebrows, and the accursed stack pack packaging, just to name a few. Now granted, I understand the some of these issues were out of Bandai's hands, but as the sole responsible distributor, I felt they let quality control slip by, akin to the current Sentai products where someone who reads English can let such issues get released. I spend a good deal of my disposable income on anime, whether it be figures, merchandise, or DVDs, but in the case of Bandai, their DVDs are nothing I would buy in the future. Even with this news their stock will eventually go out-of-print, I can only watch the frenzy of those buying for fears of never being able to see the series ever again. I can't blame them, but it makes me wonder if people are buying for the sake of the series or the product. I know many people care little about the product, shaving a few issues for the opportunity to own, but as prices continue to increase, it's money I'm more than likely to hold back on a purchase because, frankly, the product just makes it difficult to enjoy the series. As much as it pains me to say this, as I'm sure it is for others to read this, Bandai's departure is not a bad thing for me considering they've put their own proverbial nail into their own coffin considering I wouldn't buy from them again. I am not afraid of future titles not being picked up, even if they're delayed a few years. Between Sentai (who recently announced a large licensing list), FUNimation, a few from Nozomi and Media Blasters, and the wonderfully expensive Anixplex releases, I believe we're set. I've never been a big fan of too many companies in R1 anyway, and this just helps the remaining companies do a little better with the loss of a competitor. As with anything, progress and change can be difficult to accept for some, but a relished opportunity for others. Bandai's departure will be seen as a nostalgic reminder of the "good times" of today's anime fans, just as Geneon and others were for those of use who were around 10 years ago. But the real question is: does anyone really miss Geneon? I doubt it, honestly. Only because we've seen R1 pick up where Geneon left us hanging. It's taken a while, but we're finally getting the remaining seasons of Shakugan no Shana, albeit with some changes. Better late than never, and in the anime world, the customer can always afford this luxury because companies like Bandai Entertainment can not, especially when there's an executive branch above them breathing down their necks to be more profitable because "good enough" will never be good enough. I always considered Bandai Entertainment to be between a rock and a hard place, and it's exceptionally telling when the only way anime fans will buy their products is when they've realized they will be gone forever. What's that say, really. |
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nightjuan
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As someone who has also bought quite a few Bandai titles from TRSI and other sources, which I expect to continue doing in the near-future, this sounds like a questionable generalization to me. For example, none of the Bandai releases I currently own have been stack packs. Maybe there are some elsewhere in their library, I imagine, but it's certainly far from being the rule. I definitely wouldn't rank them below, say, ADV/Sentai in that area, who seem to use stack packs in their packaging a bit more frequently, at least as far as I can tell. The only objective problems I've personally experienced with Bandai titles as products have been a couple of disc glitches, partially matching some of the infamous reports others have made about them before, though still not irreparably nor often enough for me to consider that a widespread issue across their entire inventory. Most of my purchases have played just fine, but I suppose there's a chance I've been lucky or my specific choice of equipment simply handles them well. I don't recall having come across any real subtitle issues and video quality usually seems pretty decent or outright good, particularly in terms of their newer titles. Perhaps their older series tend to have inferior masters and greater compression, when compared to current industry standards, but in my experience they're still watchable and noticeably better than the worst-looking anime DVD footage I've ever seen (that honor belongs to certain Manga Entertainment releases). Granted, I do not consider myself an "expert" in this field, so those with stricter criteria might disagree. I rarely watch dubs, generally speaking, so that's one area where I can't say much. But leaving all that aside, what I probably liked the most about Bandai was that for a long time they tried to include a fair amount of on-disc extras, such as audio commentaries and picture dramas or interviews and documentaries plus other similar features, even in their regular discs and not just in the limited/special editions (which, outside of a couple of disappointing cases, have been rather nice as well). In short, I feel it did add value to the products. These days it seems that such things tend to mostly come at a premium, if at all, and several newer titles are put on the market without anything other than a clean OP/ED, though even those can't always be taken for granted either. It doesn't really stop me from buying something I truly want, but does alter my purchasing priorities from time to time. |
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Hoofbites
 Posts: 49 Location: under your porch |
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I have to give a shout out to Infinite Ryvius, one of my favorite Bandai "sleeper" releases. Plus, with its huge cast of characters, it's interesting to see what Hisashi Hirai's character designs were like before he started getting really lazy.
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OldCharlieStoletheHandle
 Posts: 1288 Location: Mastic Beach, NY |
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I was just looking at a count I did a while back to see which publisher I had the most titles by. Bandai comes in 6th, but the really scary thing is that four of the top six are gone (though one has, shall we say, rebranded itself) and one is on the ropes. The top eight are:
ADV: 114 titles (not including Sentai Filmworks titles) FUNimation: 104 titles Geneon: 82 titles CPM: 62 titles Media Blasters: 50 titles Bandai: 49 titles Manga: 31 titles Sentai Filmworks: 30 titles |
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Glory Questor
 Posts: 456 |
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I'd have to agree with the .hack fans (as I am one myself) that there should have at least been some mention of the excellent SIGN, On top of that anime is certainly the 4 original PS2 game titles (which had the 4-disc Liminality OVA series, btw) and the 3 G.U. games -- all of those were very memorable experiences. I can see why there wasn't much mention, though, since Legend of the Twilight was a bad adaptation of the much better manga, and Roots was unfortunately slow-paced and rather boring compared to it's sequel. Also, don't get me started on G.U. Trilogy. Another bad interpretation of a great game series.
A few of the BANDAI-published titles I see on my shelf that I personally like: Please Teacher!, Yukikaze, Witch Hunter Robin, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. On that note, who here remembers that they saved Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence from failure in the United States when DreamWorks screwed up with the initial release? We have BANDAI to thank for its redemption.  )
Finally, two things of note from the article: - There was a sort-of sequel to Outlaw Star ... well more of a spinoff side-story, Angel Links. It had an interesting story all its own, and I still watch the whole series once in a while, especially after watching Outlaw Star. Not the most notable, but still one that avid fans of Outlaw Star should hunt for. - I do remember Saber Marionette J. I'm staring at the complete collection right now, ready to give it another watch. (I agree with Mike on J-to-X, though ... it could've been so much better, but they really dropped the ball on it.) |
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3984 |
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Well said, I'm so glad I was able to manage to get that re-released US Blu-ray with the SAC dub cast! Also totally agree on SIGN and those PS2 games, I really enjoyed both of those. |
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GDMaid Man
Posts: 71 |
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I was fortunately able to see Innocence in the theater, so when I got the screwed up dvd I just put it on the shelf and never fully watched it. When I found out you could get a replacement, it was to late. But by then the Blue ray was out so I just got that. I was going to blame Bandai, but I see it was Pioneer that screwed up Moldiver on DVD, the subs are for the English dub, which is quite different from the Japanese script. Their response was too bad, we lost the subtitle file so there was nothing we could do. How about watch the VHS and take down the subs? |
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FigNewton
Posts: 63 |
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I mentioned in my previous post that I likely have glitched discs still on my shelf that I never watched and discovered when they came in.
So I've been filling in some Gundam holes since those are most likely to not return to an R1 company. I never bought Seed Destiny, since it was only sorta ok (never thought it was as terrible as some did). Got the singles in yesterday and on a whim did a search for problems those discs had and checked my copies. But surely, at this point, anything left around would have been corrected copies, right? Nope. Seed Destiny Volume 6, Episode 25 locks on the ending. *sigh* and of course getting Bandai to replace it at this point isn't gonna happen, so I guess I'll just have to deal. Oh well, it's not like the whole disc is bad, it's just the ED one episode. Loath as I am to buy bricks maybe I shoulda just gone with those! |
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luffypirate
 Posts: 3187 |
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I've rearranged my shelves to display a big picture of my Bandai discs:
These are the ones that have stuck with me through the years. Best wishes to Iyadomi-san and his crew. I hope the future of our anime industry has a place in it for all of them. |
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staab99
 Posts: 123 |
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Man I wish I got those Jin Roh and Wings of Honneamise blu ray!
I just received my order for Toward the Terra complete collection, and the Haruhi Chan dvd's today, I got all what I needed from Bandai! |
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luffypirate
Posts: 3187 |
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Hey staab I think you can still get Honneamise for rather cheap online. Probably new for $40 or so. I started hunting Jin-Roh in late '09 and had to buy two copies before I found a polybag with obi :< The gap on the top shelf is for Galaxy Angel Rune and the Honneamise HD-DVD/DVD combo. The only ones I'm missing are the FREEDOM HD-DVDs because I keep getting outbid on full sets lol. |
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staab99
Posts: 123 |
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Hey Luffy thank you for telling me that. I just looked it up, it's at a decent price. I swear it was at 70 bucks at one time. Now I am ordering it.
Thanks!
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