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NEWS: Bandai Entertainment to Discontinue Home Video, Manga, Novel Sales (Updated)

I'm glad there was some notice about this. Time to finally get around to grabbing up the last BE things I wanted.

Maybe I should run a company.

Guess I need to grab those Haruhi Suzumiya season sets while I still can...

RyanSaotome wrote:

The best way to support anime is to import, since the actual creators get the money, not just the middle man. You also have more say in what gets created since they see that money.

Honestly between Japan and the middle man...I;d rather give my support to the middle man. The international market is realistically never going to have much of a say in what gets made anyway so personally I'd rather support the market that at least kinda cares about us as opposed to the one who could for the most part keep strolling if the international market suddenly died tommorow.

Getting back on topic though...well anyway it's kind of a shame it's come to this. I;d say let's hope the void will get filled soon enough, but I kinda doubt'll happen...

Forced obsolescence.

There are better, more practical, and faster ways to deliver your product to the consumer.

I'll never understand anime companies reluctance to embrace technology instead of drag their feet around it. Many of the problems could have been easily solved back as early as the start of the 2000's.

An example is the Tiger & Bunny premiering same day on Hulu as it was airing in Japan, but with subs for western viewers. It got ratings, which gave advertising dollars.

I myself am a watcher of fansubs. Mostly shows that will never make it stateside.

But on the other hand...I'm not really the type who needs to rewatch shows a lot. I don't usually buy DVD's of tv shows, usually just merchandise.

A lot of people in Japan are just like me. They enjoyed watching a show on television well enough, but never really felt the urge to pick up a home copy.

This is because in Japan, you have to pay for cable like we do here, and anime is on tv with paid advertisements.

Anime fans over here also caught on. Sometimes we just want to watch a show with no commitments, or end up not liking a show and dropping it. US anime companies would want us to buy tapes and dvds, only to find out "after" that we didn't like a show well enough to buy it.

That is why people like fansubs and downloading shows. It lets us:

A: Stay on the pulse of the most modern shows, sometimes only hours after it airs in Japan.
B: Allows us the same luxury as Japanese fans, being able to watch a show fully without having to make a purchase, outside of giving our time up and commercial viewing.

I don't know exactly how to put this....but the anime industry in the US is unsustainable in it's current form. Heck, hardly anyone offers digital manga straight to your cell phone. I just don't get it.

Maybe I should run a company.

This is because in Japan, you have to pay for cable like we do here, and anime is on tv with paid advertisements.

I'm popularly sure there will be cheap complete unofficial anime dvds titles that bandai Licensed like in the future after they discontinue. I found some on google shop. Just google some bandai titles and you will find some. They are region free.

Yeah, that's... not how it works. The producers behind the anime itself buy the air time, the same way that Ronco and The NuWave Oven producers buy Infomercial time in the states. The broadcast of any "Late Nite" show is there to get people to pay for the inevitable Blu-ray and character merchandise, not actually earn a profit.

Obviously there are exceptions - popular family shows One Piece, Pokemon and Detective Conan are broadcast do make money with ad revenue - but the majority of titles produced in the last several years are spending money to be shown on TV, not actually making any.

Cyan Bloodbane wrote:

This is because in Japan, you have to pay for cable like we do here, and anime is on tv with paid advertisements.

Yeah, that's... not how it works. The producers behind the anime itself buy the air time, the same way that Ronco and The NuWave Oven producers buy Infomercial time in the states. The broadcast of any "Late Nite" show is there to get people to pay for the inevitable Blu-ray and character merchandise, not actually earn a profit.

Obviously there are exceptions - popular family shows One Piece, Pokemon and Detective Conan are broadcast do make money with ad revenue - but the majority of titles produced in the last several years are spending money to be shown on TV, not actually making any.

Goodbye, Bandai Entertainment. We'll miss you.

Yep, watching Conan you see adverts/sponsers for types of milk brands, snack foods, McDonalds, and stuff.

Then you watch the late-night stuff and the only real ads are the ones who make the home video releases (like Aniplex) and the companies that the singers of the OP/ED work for (Sony Music Japan) You don't see McDonalds or snack food brands being advertised on those shows usually.