Bandai getting out of new releases in North America

Bandai Entertainment announced that they were going to get out of new DVD releases in North America. Sucks 'cause I was really excited about Turn A Gundam as well as Nichijou

Sorry, but I already brought it up on the Chatterbox.

Guess this is why Bandai region locked Gundam AGE streams so north America couldn't see it...

Very sad day for Gundam fans in NA. And another sign anime is slowly slipping away, it's barely on life support now.

edited 2nd Jan '12 9:45:28 AM by Raso

DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT

Is it at all possible that they will license future Gundam releases to other companies in NA?

And what does this mean for Gundam Unicorn 5 and 6?

At least we're getting the Gundam 00 season boxed sets before they go belly up. I haven't had to buy individual DVD releases for Gundam since Mobile Suit Gundam, and I don't intend to start now.

The DVD releases are released by BEI, so they're dead — but the Blu-Rays are by Bandai Visual, so they're still kicking.

Didn't Bandai Visual get absorbed by Bandai Entertainment several years back? In which case... that doesn't change anything.

Bandai Visual USA did, but not Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. Unicorn blurays are being released with both Japanese and English language audio and subtitles, and Japan is the same region as North America for bluray region coding, so the parent (Japanese) company is handling the release since there's basically no localization to be done anyway.

i bet 4chan's /m/ exploded on this announcement

Tried adding this news to the BANDAI page.... only to find that BANDAI Entertainment proper doesn't even have a page here to begin with! Only Bandai Namco, which produces games!

Wow.

Then it's time to set sail, buccaneers!

Man the low orbit ion cannons & Long boats/ cats

Piracy is out answer!

This does suck, I was looking forward to Nichijou's official English release.

At least I can still watch it on Crunchyroll.

edited 3rd Jan '12 3:04:11 PM by AikoHeiwa

Apparently the Nichijou manga release has also been axed.

Well if they're ending new releases of anime and manga, I'd expect the Nichijou manga to be canned, too.

But they never said anime and manga. They merely said no more "home video" releases.

EDIT: Oh, the story in the link said manga. >____>

edited 3rd Jan '12 6:04:19 PM by burnpsy

I actually didn't read the link, I read it on Facebook.

I didn't even know they had the rights to the Nichijou manga, to be honest.

Funimation's gonna snap up the Bebop license. Other than that, I'm at least happy to see Ghost In The Shell remain with Starz.

Actually, the race is probably already on to grab Wolfs Rain — as I said in the Chatterbox, that seems to have gone out of print first if Rightstuf is any indication.

I thought it was "New Releases" only? Old works would still be in production.

Aw darn it! This is unforgivable! So that means that there won't be any new stuffs to be released in the future? NO WAY!

Incidentally, I'm rather enraged that it's Bandai stopping releases instead of, say, Aniplex USA. I'd actually cheer if Aniplex USA backed out.

edited 4th Jan '12 1:18:01 PM by burnpsy

Its never easy to see a company fall, especially in such a small market.

Btw I'm out of the loop on this one, what's wrong with aniplex USA

They do experiments like a fast Fate/zero sub-only release that costs $500, and release some titles like Oreimo as Limited Edition only.

Basically, an anime being licensed by them means a short print, high prices, or both.

edited 4th Jan '12 2:07:39 PM by burnpsy

Wow okay, I'm all caught up.

As for the current situation, is it clear when most of the older acquisitions will go out of print? i got some catching up to do

Aniplex is actually getting MORE titles than years before!