Geneon USA is doing something, I'm sure of that much

[40cakes]

Geneon USA will no longer be doing...something. I don't quite understand WHAT, though. They're stopping distribution and production, and will only honor orders of stuff that will be released before November 6. Guess I'm glad I never got into Hellsing Ultimate. Here's a copy of the letter that made some rounds somewhere. Here's a list of titles that fall under Geneon.

I guess I should pick up the rest of the Lupin III TV series, huh? I don't want another episode of "But I can't FIND any DVD copies of Sailor Moon dubbed, and now I kinda want them!"

Thanks to sache for alerting the media, or at least just me.

Comments

[utenatai.livejournal.com]

Word on the street is Bandai is next.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

Does this mean the anime bubble has burst? I blame the internets. Oh, and these companies repeatedly dicking us over by overcharging us for DVDs then drastically slashing prices when they release a thinpak boxed set (I'm looking at you, ADV).

[pyrobovaphiliac.livejournal.com]

The internets might be both the problem, and the solution. Like alcoholism. Still, I agree with you about the pricing. Anime has been brutally priced for too long. I paid 400 fucking dollars (lets get'em!) for Evangelion on VHS, and I threw it out three weeks ago. Can't even sell it. Some anime companies get it. Excel Saga was always sold affordably, and had enough fun easter eggs and extras to warrant buying the DVD. Heck, that's one of the few series that I watched fansubbed and still bought on DVD.

Conclusion: suck it Geneon!

[bzial.livejournal.com]

Bandai's situation is a bit a different.

Geneon was Bandai USA's distributor. They are selling primarily through their website until they can find new retail distribution arrangements.

Due to that relationship, it is hard to say if it represents anything more than just having picked the wrong people to distribute their product a while back.

[sache.livejournal.com]

Well, there's two Bandai's. Bandai Entertainment (Haruhi, Escaflowne, Every Gundam Ever) and Bandai Visual (Gunbuster, Patlabor). You're discussing Bandai Visual. (Which has the oddest marketing scheme I've ever heard of.) Whereas, I'm not sure which Bandai utenatai is discussing. Though I suspect Bandai Entertainment, as Bandai Visual just got into the game and seem to be in the middle of learning some hard lessons about the American anime industry.

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

Aha. Thanks!

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

...THAT'S CRAZY. Are they under the same "Bandai" umbrella, and Bandai was trying to divide and conquer? Anime business people are weird.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure the word 'business' actually applies.

[sache.livejournal.com]

From what I understand, and I admit to being a little hazy on this, Bandai Visual came first. They started as a Japanese ONLY distributor of video and DVD about 30 years ago as one of the first distributors in home video ever.

Meanwhile, over in anime land, there's this little company called "Bandai-NAMCO" which focuses on producing games and toys and is also was a primary investor in Sunrise. So, Bandai-Namco starts an American anime company so that they can sell their toys and games internationally, and that became Bandai Entertainment (which is a separate and independent company) and since Bandai has an "in" with Sunrise, poof, they have rights of first refusal for all Sunrise titles. (And yes, Bandai Entertainment does have to pay Sunrise even though they're under the same umbrella.) Which is why Bandai-Entertainment ended up with Gundams and Escaflowne and Cowboy Bebop as well as being connected to a lot of shows from Studio Bones (Scrapped Princess, Eureka 7, Wolf's Rain) as Bones was founded by Sunrise's former creative team.

Meanwhile, Bandai-Namco decides it wants to control Japanese video, too. So about four years ago, they just buy Bandai Visual. And Bandai Visual looks at the business Bandai-Ent is doing and the upcoming HD market and realizes that when Blu-Ray and HD DVD finish their war and take over the world, the US and Japan will have the exact same region coding. Bandai Visual decides they want to release their Japanese titles to the states. They then license rescue a lot of fan favorite otaku classics, physically produces a whole bunch of High Def and standard DVDs in Japan and attempts to sell them to US consumers without a dub, at Japanese prices and episode counts. (One volume of Gunbuster 2 will get you two episodes with no extras, sub only, for $40 plus tax.)

And thus Bandai Visual and Bandai Entertainment are two separate companies under one umbrella selling anime in the US, but one of which is doing so very stupidly.

[jaina.livejournal.com]

And despite all that, I still prefer BV simply because their PR person actually answers her fucking e-mail in a timely manner.

Their price plan is fucking stupid though.