I'm sad to see one of the major anime companies in North America going. Anime Expo in LA will never be the same. Anime Los Angeles might be a little bit sadder this weekend, not just because of bad cosplay. You couldn't tell anything was going bad for Bandai last Summer as they showed The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya multiple times and gave away free posters at their booth at AX . Ah- there booth won't be there this year.
It's tragic, I can say I enjoyed K-On!, Haruhi, Code Geass and the triumph that was Gurren Lagann. Even though they didn't create them, they got them here and on major networks. Even though Sci-Fi channel ruined Gurren with constant ads during the show. That mattered little when the box set came out from them.
I remember just a few years back Bandi being more active online and their site showing what DVD's boxes would look like. I wish that format and community and out reach to fans continued. I don't know why it stopped and it puzzles me. There website and store should have been updated a long time ago with more info and the abiltity to watch episodes or have a community.
I also remember a special Haruhi launch at Anime Jungle here in LA going down. With some other events like the Tekken Blood Vengeance showing and some sneaks of the Haruhi movie.
I think the gent directing the people in is my Banda press contact.
Looking for what went wrong, I've already stated I didn't get the 4 episode per DVD system which screwed fans out of money, especially when special editions came out where you could buy all the episodes together.
Secondly, it seems Bandai Japan screwed over Bandai Entertainment America by making them buy shows the already owned, which makes little sense being the same company. It reminds me of how Bandai Namco games here was destroyed a few years back for not doing well and I think all games are now made in Japan, none here. To be honest a lot of those games weren't great and retreads, but Bandai could have taken the time to making a good one , sitting down and trying harder.
I only assume, but it seems there was very little support from Bandai Japan just to make a connection to the company here, helping it in some way. I don't know why you want to strangle your market out here, but it seemed like the view England had with it's colonies.
What about Nichijou you ask , well it's rights go back up like in a month, and as I said Funimation likes holding news until the Summer, if they pick it up at all.
I'm sad to see another anime company go, there really only five now in North America. That means smaller distributors might pick up anime or they might not get picked up at all.
It's going to be a different AX this year.
Goodbye Bandai Entertaiment,
And shame on you Bandai Japan for your mismanagement and poor business practices internationally.
