×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
NEWS: Bandai Entertainment to Stop Releasing New DVDs, BDs, Manga


Goto page Previous    Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
sepherest





PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:28 pm Reply with quote
Oh jeez, and I was so excited to be able to buy Turn A. Sad

But, I always had a slight feeling that the title might've been doomed. From the way employees discussed it with Gundam fans at conventions and such it seemed like Turn A was in trouble from the get-go.
Back to top
CG-LOVER



Joined: 22 Mar 2010
Posts: 355
Location: East Lansing, MI
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:30 pm Reply with quote
Sarkozy wrote:
I'm disgusted by some of the people's words here. You clearly have no idea how big an influence Bandai Ent has been over the last decade and anime in North America in general. You should be disgusted for cheering or supporting the death of this company. You never know who may be next. Sometimes the writing is on the wall, other times its not.


This.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website AIM Address Yahoo Messenger
Mr. sickVisionz



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 2171
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:33 pm Reply with quote
Mc-Taz wrote:
Mr. sickVisionz wrote:
I don't see that being the case at all. I kinda don't understand how it would be. Are you saying that so many people were buying $30+ per episode Japanese releases that Bandai couldn't compete at their significantly lower price points?


It's the exact opposite, rather. Since the market here is so much less expensive, the sharing of a region means the Japanese fear that reverse importation will cripple their [expensive] domestic market.

So in most cases Blu-ray releases here are often negotiated to be released with enough of a delay to not have that impact. Pushing back a release 6 months to a year here certainly hurts its sales compared to when it's fresh and new. Madoka's release is one of the examples of contract limitation, as it's not allowed to be shipped to Japan, however it's not all that cheap here either.


Because it effects every anime licensing company operating in the US, I don't think it can be pointed to as something that specifically hurt Bandai any more than any other company.

If the price difference between US and Japan and and delays between US and Japanese releases were a major issue, Funimation would be against the ropes right now.


Last edited by Mr. sickVisionz on Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:38 pm; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
CG-LOVER



Joined: 22 Mar 2010
Posts: 355
Location: East Lansing, MI
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:35 pm Reply with quote
Brainchild129 wrote:
Holy crap. This was not news I was expecting to see this morning. It's also kind of strange considering the recent ANNCast about Bandai - Jerry Chu said they made a profit this year, in part because of those (apparently dreaded) singles. Apparently they didn't make enough to appease the corporate overlords.


Yeah I really didn't believe him when he said that either. I just knew he was not that well informed about BANDAI's current status. Of course when I brought that up in the forum for that ANNCast no one seemed willing to listen. Well I guess you guys know what the truth is now dontcha?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website AIM Address Yahoo Messenger
BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 01 Jul 2010
Posts: 1219
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:47 pm Reply with quote
DmonHiro wrote:
I guess the R1 industry is slowly dying. The fact that the R2 has started slowly adding English subtitles to their releases probably had an impact. Oh well... Anime catgrin
It's been dying for quite some time, we saw the biggest drop in sales yet between 2009 and 2010, 35%.
animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-04-15/america-2009-anime-market-pegged-at-us$2.741-billion
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Sorrior



Joined: 02 Aug 2011
Posts: 79
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 4:47 pm Reply with quote
GracieLizzy wrote:
tempest wrote:
penguintruth wrote:

What will happen to Gundam Unicorn?


Gundam Unicorn isn't handled by Bandai Entertainment. That's Bandai Visual Japan that is releasing that.


Ah, so no 'possible sensible pricing' silver lining to come of this then (I was writing my previous post when yours appeared).

...boo.


More like we're paying closer to the japanese price.

And man this sucks. I mean i kinda thought this might happen but still. Oh well MAYBE JUST MAYBE this mean companies like Funi will give us Gundam Dubs again and others will print some other series in nice quality versions.

STill sucks though my first anime on DVD was either Outlaw Star gold box version or the Gundam Wing Boxset BOTH bandai titles. Bandai to me has released some of the better series out there and will ALWAYS be a major part of my childhood. I mean they almost single handedly provided anime for Toonami if you think about it as well as the early more anime friendly adult swim. So yes i will miss bandai dearly in fact i need to calla friend and write a euology somewhere.

In fact i'm off to do so now.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
CG-LOVER



Joined: 22 Mar 2010
Posts: 355
Location: East Lansing, MI
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:00 pm Reply with quote
I've read through all of the comments now...

I am INCREDIBLY disappointed (but not surprised) at those of you who state that this news is actually a good thing for the industry. Losing a company merely means that we are only losing potential anime releases over here in North America; there is absolutely no gain in this. As I said before, you just cannot expect a company like FUNimation to rescue all of the titles that BANDAI had or would have had if they'd stayed in business. I mean sure, maybe they'll pick up a couple, but as we have all seen as of late, FUNi already has way too much on their plate as it is. And as of now they still have not managed to get all of Geneon's old titles out the door, so do you really think that they'll be willing to commit to even more license rescues that may only bog them down even further?

And besides FUNimation, I doubt that we can expect much from other distributors like Viz and Sentai. Sentai is still getting started here, so I doubt that they could handle many more titles than they already have. And Viz is....well, they're Viz, so yeah. I hate to say this, but as a result of this news, the anime industry here in North America is only going to shrink that much more than it already has.

Edit: I've just had another thought in regards to Gundam Unicorn as well. I am really not so sure if this title is safe from being cancelled. And as evidence I cite the Gundam Unicorn Blu-ray listings at RightStuf. Recently, all 4 of the volumes released so far have gone OOP and have had counters put on them, and one of the volumes has already sold out. If Gundam Unicorn vol. 4 has gone OOP so soon after its release, how can we be so sure about the likelihood of future volumes being release over here at all?


Last edited by CG-LOVER on Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:12 pm; edited 3 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website AIM Address Yahoo Messenger
Dumnerd



Joined: 28 Apr 2009
Posts: 152
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:10 pm Reply with quote
Dumnerd wrote:
Oh well, nothing to fret about I suppose.

It's not like it's the first phase of Namco Bandai shutting down Bandai Entertainment or anything.

Hmm, maybe Bandai will open a new "store" at Rightstuf.com. Smile
Oh, my... Embarassed
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 2091
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:13 pm Reply with quote
Aura Ichadora wrote:
Every country is different - no one is going to do things the same way. In Japan, singles work out amazingly well because the fans there WILL pay the prices to collect their favorite series. However, in the US, fans have a different mentality and prefer to get everything all at once and at a decent price for that collection.


Why?

No, seriously. Why the big difference? Is it demographics? Percentage of population living with parental units? There's this big divergence in how fandom's evolved in the US and Japan -- what's behind it? (And are the results in either nation sustainable?)

Maybe it has to do with competition from other "geek" stuff in American fandom. Amazon's selling the complete Blu-ray collection of Battlestar Galactica, 75 44-minute episodes, for $160. $0.048/minute. Even Avatar Book 1 only comes out to $0.065/minute. Sekirei 2, inexplicably topping the anime charts, is going for $40 for 350 minutes. $0.114/minute. (Dragon Ball Z Season 6 goes as low as $0.036, but that's DBZ.) Aniplex USA's Durarara!! Part 1 release, looking at Right Stuf, goes as high as $0.188/minute.

This, of course, is much less than Japan's prices -- the first Madoka Blu-ray is going for 97.1 yen/minute on Amazon.co.jp, or about $1.261 at today's rate. (That's another thing to wonder about -- the dollar topped 120 yen for a while in 2007, and now it's around 78 yen. How's that affected things?) Fate/Zero BD box set? 81.4 yen/minute. No wonder Aniplex USA sells at the prices they do -- from Japan, $0.40/minute for Madoka must look like a bargain.

So anime in the US goes way below its Japanese prices just to come close to competing with the enormous domestic media market.

It also seems to go in reverse. Supernatural season 6 is going for 16.3 yen/minute (DVD) on Amazon.co.jp vs. $0.035/minute in the States, and Supernatural's pretty popular in Japan. Glee season 2? 13.7 y/m vs. $0.033/m.

...Yeah, I don't have much to contribute but brute-force data collection. Sorry.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Sailor S





PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:18 pm Reply with quote
I'd have to say I'm more disappointed in this than surprised. It sucks that Gosick and Nichijou aren't going to be released here, at least I have to assume that unless someone else picks them up, but at least they hadn't started releasing them only to cancel them midway through. What I am more disappointed in is the Kannagi manga being canceled. I already have a bunch of titles via Tokyopop that will never see completion, I didn't want to add another.

I suppose if I had really stopped and looked, I'd have seen the writing on the wall. I just checked my wish list over on DVDAF and I noticed that I don't have a single Bandai title on it. Well, over the years I did my part to support them with a lot of stuff from them not named Gundam, so I guess all I can do is shrug, say it sucks, and go about my business as usual until the day when I can no longer purchase DVD/BDs here in the US.
Back to top
Eivion



Joined: 26 Dec 2008
Posts: 569
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:19 pm Reply with quote
This is disappointing news though not entirely surprising. Hopefully the canclelled releases will be picked up sooner than later.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Cecilthedarkknight_234



Joined: 02 Apr 2011
Posts: 3819
Location: Louisville, KY
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:21 pm Reply with quote
CG-LOVER wrote:
Sarkozy wrote:
I'm disgusted by some of the people's words here. You clearly have no idea how big an influence Bandai Ent has been over the last decade and anime in North America in general. You should be disgusted for cheering or supporting the death of this company. You never know who may be next. Sometimes the writing is on the wall, other times its not.


This.


sorry if i offended you or anyone else, I don't want bandai to go out of business or fall to the wayside they just need to re-structre like sentai/section23 did.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4462
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:22 pm Reply with quote
FaytLein wrote:
Awww man, I was steadily getting my hopes up for a Turn A boxset being released this year, but it seems to have been all for nought. I'm not really a big fan of digital releases (I like holding my collectables darnit!) and I hope at some point a resolution for physical media collectors like myself becomes available. So sad!


You got that right. I wish Bandai Entertainment well on their future endeavors but those future endeavors had better include sublicensing their new licenses to physical media distributors because I have zero interest in digital distribution.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2228
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:31 pm Reply with quote
EmperorBrandon wrote:
RyanSaotome wrote:
Would they still keep DVD rights for the stuff they cancelled, like Nichijou and Gosick? Or do they forfeit them?


Yeah, I'm really curious on this. If those rights haven't reverted back to Kadokawa and Bandai won't/can't sublicense them, are we just without a North American video release for seven years or however long? That would be pretty frustrating. I guess it would make no difference if other R1 companies aren't interested in those titles anyway, though.


From my experience licensing contracts usually have MG paid in 3 parts: 1/3 up front, 1/3 on receipt of masters, and 1/3 when the DVDs go on sale.

Chances are bandai's already paid 1/3-2/3 of the MG.

Then, depending on the contract, Bandai usually has a certain time frame to put out DVDs or they have to pay the last 1/3 anyway.

In any case, bandai has probably already paid for the license for whatever timeframe (usually 5-7 years), and they aren't going to give that up unless they are paid for it.

Furthermore, I do not think that Gundam (any gundam) will be easily sublicensed to anyone because of sunrise's tight control over the property.

Nichijou and Gosick are both B level titles and not worth paying extra for: the rights are still held with bandai in all probability, so any 3rd party would have to work out a deal between bandai and kadokawa both, making the licensing more complicated than usual (and therefore, more expensive).

So yeah, I think it's quite possible that both titles are in limbo for 5-7 years, unless kadokawa decides to give bandai back its money in exchange for the rights back to the shows (which is incredibly unlikely).
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
shiroihikari



Joined: 08 Oct 2008
Posts: 4
PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:33 pm Reply with quote
I am so disappointed right now. I was going to buy Turn A Gundam! :<

I still can't figure out why Japan's DVD prices are so ridiculous, though. I mean, I like the idea of simultaneous releases and all, but do you want to know why I haven't bought Gundam Unicorn yet? Because I don't want to pay $50 for each episode! I love Unicorn but that pricing is just not realistic for the US market. Personally, I'm holding out for a boxset or something. I hope they don't leave me hanging.

Also, digital distribution has its advantages but I don't think it should be the sole means of obtaining something. What if something happens to your hard drive? Bye bye media collection! Forget that crap. I want physical copies. :I
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous    Next
Page 13 of 24

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group