Chat with Bandai regarding Distribution

By Chris Beveridge     September 22, 2003

With the announcement to retailers from Pioneer and through their weekly distribution let, it's come to light that as of January 1st, 2004, Pioneer will no longer be distributing Bandai Entertainment's product line. To find out what's in store for the new year, we talked with Jerry Chu, the Marketing Manager for Bandai Entertainment:



Q: First off, we should really ask if this is accurate in how it's being read. Pioneer will no longer distribute Bandai Entertainment's DVD offerings?



A: Yes, that is correct. Pioneer will no longer be soliciting Bandai Entertainment products after December 2003.



Q: Who will be handling distribution?



A: Bandai Entertainment will be handling the distribution of DVD products directly with major retail accounts and distributors.



Q: One of the consistent comments we hear from a variety of retailers and other distributors is the difficulty in dealing with Pioneers pricing system. How did this play in the decision to move away from there?



A: No. We're actually very happy with the pricing structure in place at Pioneer. The decision for Bandai to handle its own distribution stems from our need to firmly establish ourselves as the premier distributor of Japanese animation in North America and service retailers/distributors more intimately. Pioneer has done a phenomenal job for us for the past 5 years and we appreciate all the hard work done on our behalf during that period.



Q: With the change over slated for the first quarter of 2004, will that have any impact on the production schedules that had been done up prior to knowing about the change?



A: The change should not impact Bandai's 2004 release schedule too much. There are on-going discussions about delaying the Big O II v.1 release to January 04, but those delays have nothing to do with the Pioneer distribution change. (We'll have more info on this shortly)



Q: How does the distribution of the .hack soundtrack through AAA Anime figure into things? (this is presuming that AAA Anime isn't handling all the distribution based on the 2nd question)?



A: AAA Anime is currently soliciting the .hack//SIGN OST 1 as a distributor. There are plans to have two major retail accounts carry the line in the near future, but otherwise it'll be very likely that retail accounts purchasing from AAA will receive their shipments first.



Q: With only a few whispers of tentative time frames given for the first quarter of 2004 so far, is there anything coming in those first months you want to make fans aware of?



A: We have planned for release quite a number of great titles for 1st Qtr 2004 including the highly anticipated GONZO series, "YUKIKAZE" and the first installment of the popular Cartoon Network series, "Superior Defender Gundam Force", and Broccoli's "Galaxy Angel" season 1. We'll be working very closely with Broccoli and their upcoming manga release of "Galaxy Angel". Further details will be made shortly.