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Bandai Visual USA President Responds to 'Open Letter'
posted on by Egan Loo
Bandai Visual USA President Tatsunori Konno has posted a blog entry on his company's dot-anime.us site which addresses the issues raised in "An Open Letter to the Industry," the editorial by ANN New Media Director Justin Sevakis. Konno has been discussing other anime industry issues in his previous blog posts. In his December 6 blog entry titled "The Industry Needs to Change," Konno says that Bandai Visual USA has been "considering what kind of revolution the market needs" for some time, and has been discussing the same points raised in the "Open Letter" editorial in conventions and interviews.
Those issue include the differing expectations of product quality and pricing, the distribution of anime as a niche market, and the lead-time between Japanese releases and American releases. Konno describes the company's reasoning for its high-quality, high-priced approach to anime releases and its decision to distribute mostly through direct sales on its retail website. He also notes that "Bandai Visual Japan and Bandai Visual USA are seriously considering on releasing some of the new shows simultaneously with Japan" to solve the lead-time issue. He adds, "Next spring, you may be able to see some of the brand new shows on dot-anime."
