The worst part to me is what this means for Nichijou or translated Everyday Life. I loved this anime and Bandai bought the rights for American Distribution. Bandai says it's now cancelled, so that means another anime company needs to buy the rights or be the distributor while Bandai still holds the rights. It really means it could never be dubbed or come out stateside. I hope someone picks it up, but that probably won't happen until this summer at Anime Expo at the earliest.
I feel one of the main reasons might have been Bandai's strange model of keeping the 4 episode per DVD or Blu-ray habit instead of an entire season might helped it's downfall. Charging customers high rights for 4 episodes seemed unfair and other anime companies took note.
Other problems
-Website was hard to navigate, never updated
-Lack of support of Bandai Japan
-Lack of support of Bandai Namco, they just seemed to share the name. the two divisions seemed to know nothing about the other, which seems odd being both Bandai owned companies
From the press release:
The company will continue to sell catalog titles and shift its operation to licensing which will include
digital distribution, broadcast and merchandising.As a result of this change in strategy for the North American Market, Bandai Entertainment’sorganization will be restructured at the end of January 2012.The following previously announced anime titles have been cancelled:
TURN-A GUNDAM,
NICHIJOU and GOSICK.Similarly, the following manga titles have been cancelled:
KANNAGI 4-6, CODE GEASS:
RENYA, GURREN LAGANN VOL. 7, GUNDAM 00I, LUCKY STAR BOO BOO KAGABOO,
NICHIJOU MANGA, CODE GEASS R2 NOVELS,
and TALES OF THE ABYSS: JADE 1 and 2.
Additionally, Bandai Entertainment’s facebook and twitter will be shut down.
