Bandai Entertainment is Dead!

fabricatedlunatic said:
Regarding the NISA LEs, I think the only ones to have sold out are Toradora set 1 and Wagnaria. Everything else seems to be readily available, which makes me wonder if they've over-produced. But they are continuing to license and release anime, so it would seem they're doing okay.
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I believe there were some news updates in December that some of the others had gone now too (Pandora Hearts IIRC, and I think Katanagatari was reported to be going that way too?). The quality of their licence choices is so high that they must be doing well, or so I keep telling myself...

R
 
Rui said:
My favourite quote in the ANN thread (before I stopped reading it and went to do something more productive with my life) was "Why can't Japan do things the correct American way? What do they think is going to happen?" (on the topic of Bandai collapsing due to charging too much). Some people still seem to believe that the solution to poor sales is to continue reducing the price indefinitely ^^;R
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Japan does things in ways that defy common sense, never-mind basic business practices (Whilst I'd probably pay a frankly silly amount for Tiger and Bunny on Blu Ray singles (£25-£35) it's not the insane amount Japan wants me to buy it being closer to £60 IIRC.

As for Bandai Ent, all I'm going to say is that they had an open goal with Manga US and Sci Fi and even then they screwed up.
Never-mind not giving Hayate The Combat Butler a dub (Even though it had a fairly good standing in Viz's numbers IIRC) and doing similar for Tales of the Abyss (ignoring the potential with the Upcoming US 3DS release of the game).

Also, chickening out on Gundam X and Turn A during the Toonami era was probably not a good idea.
 
ConanThe3rd said:
Japan does things in ways that defy common sense, never-mind basic business practices (Whilst I'd probably pay a frankly silly amount for Tiger and Bunny on Blu Ray singles (£25-£35) it's not the insane amount Japan wants me to buy it being closer to £60 IIRC.
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And yet Manga with their cheap releases wouldn't even dare dream of the sales Tiger and Bunny gets in Japan, at those prices (it's more like £50 at the moment for the non-LEs, even at the horrible exchange rate we have these days). There just aren't enough people here buying, and continuing to drop the price forever won't fix that.

R
 
Rui said:
ConanThe3rd said:
Japan does things in ways that defy common sense, never-mind basic business practices (Whilst I'd probably pay a frankly silly amount for Tiger and Bunny on Blu Ray singles (£25-£35) it's not the insane amount Japan wants me to buy it being closer to £60 IIRC.
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And yet Manga with their cheap releases wouldn't even dare dream of the sales Tiger and Bunny gets in Japan, at those prices (it's more like £50 at the moment for the non-LEs, even at the horrible exchange rate we have these days). There just aren't enough people here buying, and continuing to drop the price forever won't fix that.

R
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Nether is bumping the price up much. That happens, peopl'll just go and buy something else that isn't priced at that level like all of TV's boxsets.

Besides, what's the initial rrp of a cour these days? £30 some? That's perfectly reasonable in the UK market and is probably par with the same you'd get in season sets outside of anime section (Doctor Who Season 6 is £36 right now on Amazon so I'd imagine it'd be closer to £40 on the streets). That said, I'd probably blow a frankly silly amount of money on both cours of Tiger and Bunny regardless.

Also, Manga's slection of shows might have more to say towards their sales than anything else. If Bund's done horrible numbers, I'll say outright that price had nothin' to do with that.
 
You know I said I'd go and compose my thoughts before commenting any further on this? Well, when I saw this post:

Orgun said:
I knew Turn A would end up never getting an actual release :(
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I decided to throw caution to the wind.

I'd like to encourage EVERYBODY visiting this board - yes, even YOU, the ones who look at the posts here but don't register and join in, I know you're out there - to write to Beez and request this show gets licensed. If you have even the faintest shred of interest in it, that is.

Folks were really excited about this show being made available to own and keep on DVD. Hearing that ot had been licensed was a big deal to Gundam fans, it's an important show in the franchise, and liek a lot of the other unreleased shows, it is OVERDUE FOR A WESTERN RELEASE. There IS an audience for this stuff.

It should ABSOLUTELY get a release somehow. But knowing how these things work, it may be unlikely to happen unless we show the distributors that we want it.
 
ConanThe3rd said:
Just point me at the direction of where I should place my carefully selected words and it's done.
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I'd suggest a polite email or snail-mail to Beez, they being the UK distro for Bandai's bits.
 
How it works: Dub----->Sub----->Dead.

Pity though, I guess. In saying that, I didn't have too much fondness for BE as of late due to sub-only releases.
 
im sure this is good news for other companies...........

think about it-

even if bandai is out of the game it just means more business for other companies and other companies can release the titles bandai was going to release so dont worry
 
Rui said:
I would expect Gosick to be grabbed by someone else eventually. Nichijou however...
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I could easily see that, yeah. Nichijou was pretty disappointing in the end.

ilmaestro said:
Imagine how craaaaaaazy it would be if it turned out that anime was a niche product that needed to be sold at a decent price to survive? :s
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My favourite quote in the ANN thread (before I stopped reading it and went to do something more productive with my life) was "Why can't Japan do things the correct American way? What do they think is going to happen?" (on the topic of Bandai collapsing due to charging too much). Some people still seem to believe that the solution to poor sales is to continue reducing the price indefinitely ^^;
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Ahahahaha, I certainly can't support the idea of reading ANN comments threads, but that is gold.

ConanThe3rd said:
Japan wants me to buy it being closer to £60 IIRC.
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Japan is not interested in any amount of "£", so direct conversions are rather irrelevant.
 
ConanThe3rd said:
Nether is bumping the price up much. That happens, peopl'll just go and buy something else that isn't priced at that level like all of TV's boxsets.

Besides, what's the initial rrp of a cour these days? £30 some? That's perfectly reasonable in the UK market and is probably par with the same you'd get in season sets outside of anime section (Doctor Who Season 6 is £36 right now on Amazon so I'd imagine it'd be closer to £40 on the streets). That said, I'd probably blow a frankly silly amount of money on both cours of Tiger and Bunny regardless.
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But...it doesn't make any sense to price a niche product even lower than something with massive mainstream appeal. Doctor Who is going to sell more than 10x what Tiger & Bunny ever will here, and it's already been paid for by the licence fee and cross-promotions and so on, which its weighty creators can arrange easily. Whereas for the niche, import series, the licensor has paid out to get it for us, and can never profit from it other than by sales.

I don't know if I'm just a freak or something, but when I go to Amazon or HMV to buy some specific anime series, I don't gawp at the price and immediately go and pick up a Sex In The City box set instead to save money. That might be the case with stuff like Naruto which attracts a much more casual level of purchaser who has seen it on TV and has a store voucher to burn, but I don't think overall it's a significant problem with the more obscure titles.

R
 
animefreak17 said:
im sure this is good news for other companies...........

think about it-

even if bandai is out of the game it just means more business for other companies and other companies can release the titles bandai was going to release so dont worry
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...or less competition and less choice all round.
Yep, that's really good... not
 
tombstonee.jpg
 
Rui said:
I would expect Gosick to be grabbed by someone else eventually. Nichijou however...
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Given that Nichijou did not sell that well even in Japan, I doubt we will see it released over here.
 
Rui said:
ConanThe3rd said:
Nether is bumping the price up much. That happens, peopl'll just go and buy something else that isn't priced at that level like all of TV's boxsets.

Besides, what's the initial rrp of a cour these days? £30 some? That's perfectly reasonable in the UK market and is probably par with the same you'd get in season sets outside of anime section (Doctor Who Season 6 is £36 right now on Amazon so I'd imagine it'd be closer to £40 on the streets). That said, I'd probably blow a frankly silly amount of money on both cours of Tiger and Bunny regardless.
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But...it doesn't make any sense to price a niche product even lower than something with massive mainstream appeal. Doctor Who is going to sell more than 10x what Tiger & Bunny ever will here, and it's already been paid for by the licence fee and cross-promotions and so on, which its weighty creators can arrange easily. Whereas for the niche, import series, the licensor has paid out to get it for us, and can never profit from it other than by sales.

I don't know if I'm just a freak or something, but when I go to Amazon or HMV to buy some specific anime series, I don't gawp at the price and immediately go and pick up a Sex In The City box set instead to save money. That might be the case with stuff like Naruto which attracts a much more casual level of purchaser who has seen it on TV and has a store voucher to burn, but I don't think overall it's a significant problem with the more obscure titles.

R
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Well sorry but welcome to the 21st century, the market has decided that anime has to get with the times and sell itself in the manor that all TV has sold itself in the last 10 years in season/Half season box-sets which are priced at about the price a five'ish episode volume cost five years ago, which in of itself was insane.

Unfortunately for both you and me (I don't think I'll get to pay quite what I think Tiger and Bunny and Persona 4 is worth to me to say nothing of the fact that, technicaly speaking, I'll never get to pay what I thoguht Seto No Hanayome was worth to me (I did buy it import but as Manga is all to quick to point out, that apparently does't count) ) that is what the market has decreed and it would be monumentality stupid of any company to suddenly go "Right, you know what was awesome? 5 episodes for £20!" and still expecting to exist this time this year (as is now the case with Bandai)

That's the reality of the market of 2012; Euro imploding, Youth Rioting, Quatzequatel's impending kicking of our collective arses and all.

Edit: And on the Something Awful thread about this subject, apprently my point was proven exactly right
(Bandai Ent.) kept using the singles format when companies had shifted to "cour" sets (12-13 episodes per set) so you would get more for the price. Worst case of this was Hayate the Combat Butler where they released 7 sub-only singles at about $40 a pop MSRP (lower on Rightstuf/Amazon) despite companies like Funimation and Sentai using 2-cour sets for series with 26 or so episodes. media Blasters did use singles too but they shifted to cours when they realized it wasn't profitable. Bandai had it right with Star Driver, but it's too late now.
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In the case of Beez I'd imagine them having lost all of their stock in the Enfield riots would have been a far bigger blow, and since they're not restocking series which have run their course it's probably a good idea to get up to date even now. Thankfully with Bandai I had literally every release from them I wanted (preorders and lost in transit Star Driver sets aside!) so I'm safe from unexpected shopping sprees!

R
 
Got everything I want from Beez just replacing the singles in my anime collection with boxsets to save shelf space! Also doing it with all the Mvm collection as well!
 
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