Sola Vol. #1
© Bandai Entertainment
Honneamise Loses Licenses, Bandai Entertainment Nabs
By: Chris BeveridgeDate: Friday, September 26, 2008
At the Bandai Entertainment panel today at the New York Anime Festival, a bit of a "duel" occured between representatives Loy Fruel and Robert Napton. At the start of the panel. it was announced that Honneamise was un-announcing a pair of licenses they picked up at the start of 2008 with Sola and True Tears. The reason for the unannouncement was due to licensing issues. These two titles were acquired alongside Shigofumi. Later in the panel, Robert Napton announced he "had won" and indicated that Bandai Entertainament had picked up the licenses for these two titles with plans to put them out as Anime Legends editions. No details have yet been disclosed for these two releases which will likely have a 2009 release nor was anything stated specifically about Shigofumi.
Update:
Each show now has a placeholder site up on the Bandai Entertainment site with basic details:
http://www.bandai-ent.com/sola/ - ALL 13 Episodes + 2 OVAs, JPN Audio/ENG Subs ENTIRE SERIES COLLECTION: $44.98 MSRP
http://www.bandai-ent.com/truetears/ - JPN Audio/ENG Subs ENTIRE SERIES COLLECTION: $39.98 MSRP
I'm being serious here. I've been at BVUSA's "blog" before it went down. I've been pointing at what Funimation had been doing. "OVER THERE, GUYS! OVER THERE!!" But apparently; I was the one treated like I was on drugs.
Now: Guess who's richer. I was at a local club where T-shirts read "Anime. Drugs are cheaper." And with the popularity of "late night anime," it's starting to look more like "This is your brain on drugs."
[Thank] you, formerly Bandai Visual USA. For not listening to your potential customers, and then talking out of the side of your mouth whilst treating their views like [crap]. [Thank] you oh so very much.