The Bandai Situation is heating up. Capsule Computer's Luke Halliday explores the damage and it's cause in this in depth analysis from an industry insider.
They simply cannot believe that most consumers will purchase 2 or 3 episodes of a series for $30 a pack. That equals practically $150 for a whole mini episode set. Instead they feel like charging an insane amount of money for a few episodes when most companies like FUNimation can sell an entire anime package, with all 26 episodes in some cases, for only $49 on sale.
Seems like the death of Bandai's anime division was due to out of touch Japanese business men who have no idea how the North American market is nowadays.
Those sort of crazy price scams only work in JAPAN where the Japanese will buy anything. Funimation and MADMAN are doing it right. I'd pay $50 for a full series thats normal.
A little bit negative there... there are many other companies that would be able to provide an English dub as the license will revert back to the original publishers.
Who knows.... there was technically no guarantee that there was even going to be an English dub in the first place of Nichijou.
I hope another company can secure the rights to all of these Bandai anime, and hopefully they'll handle them right on all aspects. I'd rather not see the rise of another 4Kids kind of company.
I think the anime industry in North America is past the time where 4Kids can legitimately lay claim to anything. Sure they still own the rights to a number of series but I don't think they'll be picking up any long running or even interesting series anymore.
Chances are we'll see at least one of the shows picked up by an American company. Sentai Filmworks licensed Un-Go and Heaven's Memo Pad so there is a good chance they will also pick up GOSICK now. Nichijou may not see any localization now, but NIS America may be interested in it.
I hope so, all of this news just makes me want to start my own localization/distribution company just so I'll be sure that anime will continue to flow westward. I'm not exactly sure how I would go about it or how much money I'd have to have to even start something like that though.
Looks like funination may be increasing their library. There are series I loved like k on, I was hoping for a reasonable box set price, especially after the great movie release.
I personally only buy complete anime series, or by season, buying 7 volumes with 2 or 3 episodes for around $25 each is not an option for me.
So the "head honchos" at Bandai are complete idiots? It sounds like these guy drove themselves out of their own market. How stupid do you have to be to not understand basic economics?
Is Funimation the only company that knows how to sell anime to Americans?
Firstly(and this is all based on stuff that was released and talked about by Bandai USA pres Ken Iyadomi)
The mention of the shows Manga UK and Madman entertainment perhaps getting lost as a result is not true at all. All the shows bandai has they will continue to have until the already exsisting licenses for those shows expire. Thus if Manga UK and Madman did sub license any content from Bandai USA they won't lose said content until bandai themselves would which as I mentioned is not happening until the bandai licenses expire as they would had this happened or not.
The why did it happen part is also pretty off. Bandai never priced the things they released at Japanese prices(Bandai Visual did but that was a different part of bandai that went under long ago) The issue was they way they released the shows they had. Singles.(and trust me these singles WERE NOT priced at Japanese pricing despite what they article has said. Bandai sold their singles for a MSRP of 29.99 and could be found online for about 20 bucks flat whereas Japanese pricing on singles with less eps per disc is about 50-80 bucks depending on the show) that said even lower priced singles still end up costing more then the defacto in the US and that is Funimation where you can get a full 26 episode series often for less then 50 bucks.
Also despite the articles shows that should have been a hit line many of the shows bandai had were never gonna be a hit. Gundam despite it's massive fan base has never performed to expectations in the US and K-ON!(despite being a show I like quite a bit) is a niche within a niche within a niche(it's a slice of life show... A moe slice of life show.... A moe slice of life show about music... see what I am getting at here)
Bandai quite frankly had not released a main stream product in years and the shows they were releasing were never gonna sell enough to make any profit on singles(and probably not in collections either unless sub only)
Bottom line is there is alot more to what is going on here then blame the Japanese side of Bandai. Bottom line is Bandai USA kept doing something that was killing them and didn't fight back at all. Funimation and Sentai filmworks along with Mediablasters all got out of doing singles and there is no reason this should not have been the same for Bandai yet they stuck with a broken business model and didn't fight back and say "Hey this won't work and we are gonna keep losing money unless we change things up" All the above mentioned companies had to fight with the Japanese side of things to say "Hey box sets and complete sets is where it's at" and by and large they have won. Bandai should not have been a exception to this. In fact at one point it looked like they changed as they released the second season of Haruhi only in a collection. One could argue this was only because of the Endless Eight arc that was in that season but I digress. The needed to change and they needed to fight to get that change to happen and by everything we have seen they didn't and this was the result. It's sad as they were one of my favorite publishers and they released some of my favorite shows over the years(Like Lucky Star despite the MASSIVE bomb that it was in the US) I was looking forward to Nichijou but there is no way any other company will touch it.
There is so much wrong with you comment I don't know where to begin. This article was written with Bandai, Madman and Manga UK having given them this information.
How would you know what sold well? You do not know so do not act like you do. Gundam is one of the best selling franchises globally. It is one of Madman's biggest franchises and was easily Bandai's biggest.
You are stupid if you think that this is anyones fault but the Japanese.
Just a heads up, if you aren't on the inside of the industry like the guy who wrote this article, dont act like you know anything, you just end up making yourself look like an idiot.
As I stated in teh start of my comment all my info came from a Interview with Ken Iyadomi the pres of Bandai USA and he himself said that all current licenses will not be dropped and only those for Turn A Gundamn, GOSICK, and Nichijou reverted back to the original rights holders in Japan. This is the man in charge of the company this is happening mind you so I trust his word over this site quite frankly.
And while you are right that I don't have sales numbers I do know that the writers over on ANN do know sales numbers and anyone who has read a article or listened to the ANNcast over there know that they have talked many times about what sells well and what doesn't and despite a massive fan base a show is not guaranteed to sell. Gundamn has a very large and very vocal fan base and this much is true but that noise online never has translated into massive sales in the US. The number one show bandai ever had was Cowboy Bebop in terms of sales. Based on it's popularity Gundam should have been their number one but it wasen't The US and Japan is not the same hence why what sells there doesn't sell here and what may not do very well will do well here(FLCL for example was not very popular when it first came out in Japan and was a MASSIVE hit in the US)
However I feel as if I'm wasting my time replying here at all. I said I thought here was some false info and laid out a lengthy well written and thought out response only to get called a idiot and stupid. I didn't sit here and insult the person who wrote this article I just pointed out things I disagree with(it's fact that bandai didn't sell at Japanese prices it's fact that Japanese prices are in the range I listed. I know I have paid those prices for some shows. Hell I payed the 500 bucks for the Kara No Kyoukai Blu-ray set so trust me I know what prices are like in both the US and Japan)
But again I digress. It's people like you who have no real imput aside from insults that have made me less and less active here as there is rarely any real discussion and more often people like you quick to insult a fellow fan.
Reiboii, you are just imbecile who just came to bash an article because it doesn't say what you wanna hear.
The fact of the matter is this: You only came here with intentions of trolling a well written article that finally clarifies the situation with information provided from the source.
If you have no other intentions but to just promote negativity then please leave, a lot of us here want to deal with the reality of this situation, where as you prefer to just cause an arguement for the fun of it. Which honestly leaves me surprised I'm even giving you the time of day.
I guess it just bugs me when someone like you has to derail a perfectly good discussion people had going. I even made an account here just to respond to you because you are so off base in your attack that i had to put you in your place.
I suggest you leave this article, because your kind are not wanted here.
I urge anyone reading this to ignore this trolls comments as he is just spouting what ultimately is just lies that he has thought up to discredit this article which is based in fact.
THanks again for this article guys, dont let this idiot discourage you.
This was a great informative article, to the idiots who say any different. Stop acting like you know about the industry when you aren't involved with it in the slightest. Thanks for this article guys, can always trust you for a good read.
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This article really clarified a lot of the confusion for me, everyone should read this. The anime industry is not gonna die you idiots lol
They simply cannot believe that most consumers will purchase 2 or 3 episodes of a series for $30 a pack. That equals practically $150 for a whole mini episode set. Instead they feel like charging an insane amount of money for a few episodes when most companies like FUNimation can sell an entire anime package, with all 26 episodes in some cases, for only $49 on sale.
Sad to see.
I hope another company can secure the rights to all of these Bandai anime, and hopefully they'll handle them right on all aspects. I'd rather not see the rise of another 4Kids kind of company.
Looks like funination may be increasing their library. There are series I loved like k on, I was hoping for a reasonable box set price, especially after the great movie release.
I personally only buy complete anime series, or by season, buying 7 volumes with 2 or 3 episodes for around $25 each is not an option for me.