Bandai Responds to Bang Zoom Podcast Comments

[Chris Beveridge]

Anime News Network recently had a podcast (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/anncast/2010-05-06) in which they had on Eric Sherman of Bang Zoom who made some waves with his "Anime - R.I.P." editorial on their company site...

More... (http://www.mania.com/bandai-responds-to-bang-zoom-podcast-comments_article_122450.html)

[Buckeye]

It was pretty much what I expected Bandai to come out and say, though it is good to hear that they are still doing well.

[insaneben]

Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if this were the end of the road for Bandai Entertainment USA.

Bandai had a good year in 2009? Seriously? The same year they chose to go the sub-only route and watch as Funimation ate their lunch (not to mention the newly-reformed "neo-ADV" swiping their dessert)? I find it funny that Ken Iyadomi (sp?) is only now speaking out about this AFTER Eric Sherman brought such speculation to light. If they wanted to prevent their Jenga tower from toppling over, they wouldn't have bet the farm on Haruhi Suzumiya three years ago (and, to a lesser extent, Lucky Star two years ago). Sadly, that, coupled with their numerous delays, questionable management and poor decisions (not to mention the whole Bandai Visual fiasco), has lead them to their current state. At this stage in the game, they can make all the press releases and "hot air" statements they want to- without a major upcoming blockbuster title on hand (let's not even pretend Haruhi: Endless Eight, the movie and the Haruhi-chan spin-offs are going to do well; if it didn't set the U.S. anime market on fire three years ago, odds are it's going to do as well, if not worse than, it did sales-wise back in '07), they're going to fizzle and pop like Geneon.

But will this mean the end of Bandai bringing anime to America? No. If anything, they'll probably do what they did with the "Gundam Unicorn" Blu-Rays and release stuff exclusively to amazon.com (among other places), thereby cutting out the middleman. I may be wrong about this (in fact, I hope I'm wrong), but I predict Bandai USA's days are numbered, yet they'll either reform a la Sentai Filmworks (think Aniplex USA), farm out their older titles to other distributors, or go it alone and handle everything (except for dubbing) in Japan. It will be interesting to see where things end up by September. (Remember, as of that month, it will have been three years since Geneon USA closed shop.)

Stars shine brightest before they burn out. Only time will tell if they're burning off excess fuel or burning bridges.

Rant over.

[FUNiOP]

Considering how bad Bandai has been doing, I'm calling it a bluff until I see proof.