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More like, Ban-died. Get it? |
I really don't have an answer for that. I am looking at the price of Bleach DVDs and they seem to be $50 for 10 episodes. Squid Girl is 6 episodes for $25. Madoka Magica is $40 for 4 episodes. *grumble* Hayate the Combat Butler is $40 for 7 episodes. So pricing, while it is a gripe, probably isn't the problem.
Releases weren't too bad. Par for the course, really. Roughly released volumes every other month, just like everyone else. True, sometimes titles may have been delayed, but we've all been there. Media Blasters actually has a worse track record than Bandai, in my opinion.
The only real difference I can see is dubbing, but heaven forbid that I should even insinuate that this attributed to Bandai's problems. (hint hint: I think it didn't help things)
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And yes, still so, so bitter about this. |
Honestly, you can't really pinpoint one exact problem that caused this to happen. However, here is a short list, perhaps I can elaborate on it later, on what I think caused this:
1) Started subbing more series
2) Delayed series box sets way longer than they should
3) Pricing model was pretty bad
4) Virtually no digital presence (iTunes, Amazon, hulu, proprietary video site)
5) Slacking off on advertising
6) Japanese parent company can make Bandai seem redundant.
7) Few television deals
8) And I can't stress this enough. PIRACY.
So one big problem was presence. The more presence you have with an audience, the more they remember you. Look at Funimation. How many times have you seen banners for their series on any given website compared to Bandai? A lot more. More advertisements, more presence, give customers more reasons to not illegally watch series. Funimation several times puts out an episode or two of a series online, for free, to show people a series. This has caused me to buy series like Eden of the East and Baccano. If you don't offer some form of streaming in this day and age, you are really shooting yourself in the foot.
Also, anyone who even casually pays attention to the American anime industry should have seen this coming long ago. When Bandai started to push more subbed-only releases out the door, when Bang-Zoom employees started to work more with Funimation, when the Bandai online store closed its doors, when they screwed up Hayate, when fewer series was being licensed, when the Lucky Star OVA was subbed, when they decided to license Boo Boo Kaga Boo manga series...this wad inevitable. Bandai was showing distress signs for years and now it has come to a head.
Now putting the analyst away in me, I will offer this. This sucks. There are no two ways about it. Even though Bandai was my favorite punching bag, I have to admit that I am saddened by one less licensor out there. Now it will be up to the other companies if we ever want to see more Gundam, or K-ON, (or Hayate to get a box set, HINT HINT). Also, this is going to affect a lot of people and jobs. I'm not just talking the people that work at Bandai Entertainment, but also for the companies that helped with distribution. Bang Zoom was a major Bandai supporter so losing that anime chunk will mean less work for voice actors and producers. Also, Bandai was involved with some manga series which...well, I personally won't miss, but I know others will. Now we won't get the gag series of Lucky Star's Kagami turning into a chibi pig which...is sort of a relief (seriously, aside from die-hard fans, who would buy that? I'm a pretty big Lucky Star fan and even I think that premise is too ridiculous to check out.) Also Gosick which I looked at a few days ago and really wanted to see. Now my only hope is someone rescuing it.
In the end, I will miss Bandai, and this sucks for people in the American anime industry and fans alike. I also have to switch from picking on Bandai to picking on Media Blasters because...well, they aren't much better and if I were to put money on another American distributor biting the dust, it would be them, not that I wish that at all.
While you are just fading away and not outright leaving the industry, I still feel like I can end this post with a cliche trope:
R.I.P. Bandai
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