Bandai Entertainment will stop shipping anime to retailers in November

Vash1306

CAGiversary!
To all anime fans who haven't bought all that they want from Bandai, get on it now before its to late!

Credit to WTK
Bandai Will Stop Shipping Anime to Retailers In November
Ken Iyodomi, who is the president of Bandai Entertainment, sent us over a letter this morning to give us a heads up on what we've known has been coming and just never had a date for.

He writes:
"I am writing to inform you that Bandai Entertainment Inc in discontinuing its home video publishing and distribution business effective March 1, 2013.

As we methodically wind down the business, the last day that Bandai will be accepting any purchase orders is November 15, 2012, with our last shipments occurring on November 30th, 2012.

On Behalf of Bandai Entertainment Inc, I want to express our gratitude for the opportunity we've had to do business with your company, and I think you in advance for your understanding and assistance during this period."
Well, we all knew this was coming up. While Bandai's remaining catalog of Anime release will 'officially' go out of print in November, I just want to remind everyone that quite a few of their SKU's have already stocked out and others will probably sell out prior to the Nov cutoff, so if you need to pull the trigger on any of their stuff, don't wait too much longer.

This also means that current backorders for existing products are less likely to be filled, but we will do whatever we can to bring in as much Bandai stock as we can afford to between now and November.
via RACS
Several people have written in a little confused about Bandai's announcement last week that they will stop shipping to retailers in November. Most people want to know "what's going to happen to all their titles"? We'll here's the deal - effective Nov of this year everything in Bandai's DVD and BD catalog will officially go out of print (as will their entire selection of manga in October). Bandai has said they intend to shop some of these licenses out, but that process is likely to be slow and their back-catalog is just way to big to be absorbed into the market by the rest of the industry as it stands, so while it's likely that a few of the premium licenses will eventually end up getting re-released by someone else (hey Sentai, please pick up K-On season 1, OK?), I imagine most of their catalog will simply go dark. Now that doesn't mean that all their releases will just vaporize in November - retailers like us are currently scrapping together as much money as we can find to do big final buy-ins on Bandai's remaining stock, and at least for us, we're hoping to stock some of their titles pretty deep assuming we can get them. Over the next 6-12 months I would expect prices to rise for OOP Bandai titles that end up getting bought up quickly and become a little harder to find. This will, of course, result in the same bitching and moaning characterizing any price increases as greed and averice from the usual suspects who couldn't be bothered to pull the trigger on these titles for the many years they were available at the regular prices. Oh joy, I can't wait to read those people comments! :) But I also expect prices to decrease for a time on the titles that retailers choose poorly on and end up bringing in too much stock.

And before you ask, I have no idea what will become of Gundam - that series is an awfully big bite for another studio to try to take on. I fear the chances now that we'll ever see ZZ, Victory, or Turn a Gundam released in R1 are now pretty slim. ~sigh~

Anyway, we're going to go through the site during for the next couple of weeks and mark all Bandai releases as 'discontinued - limited to stock on hand' and also we'll be publishing a list shortly of all in stock Bandai titles so that you can see if there is anything you need before the lights go out in November.
 
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[quote name='UltimateIdiot911']Will this mean no more future Gundam Unicorn titles?[/QUOTE]I believe that is handled directly by Bandai Visual itself (Bandai Japan). So I expect continued released since Vol. 5 was released after Bandai Entertainments (Bandai USA) announced of ceasing to release to titles.
 
Anyone know if there's a comprehensive list of titles published by Bandai that will be affected by this somewhere? I don't know of anything that I want that I don't already have right off, but that doesn't mean that there aren't things I don't even realize are published by them...
 
[quote name='Vash1306']I believe that is handled directly by Bandai Visual itself (Bandai Japan). So I expect continued released since Vol. 5 was released after Bandai Entertainments (Bandai USA) announced of ceasing to release to titles.[/QUOTE]

Well, that explains the price. Thanks.
 
I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for things that people wouldn't want to miss out on.

I'm going to pick up the complete collections of Mobile Suit Gundam 0079. I have the old english dubbed releases, but it'd be nice to have it with the Japanese audio track before they all disappear.

I came back to say that if you want to pick up the first season of K-On on Blu-ray, those were released by Bandai.
 
[quote name='roger watersmelon']I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for things that people wouldn't want to miss out on.

I'm going to pick up the complete collections of Mobile Suit Gundam 0079. I have the old english dubbed releases, but it'd be nice to have it with the Japanese audio track before they all disappear.[/QUOTE]
Cowboy Bebop, if you don't already have it. :D

Guess it's time to final grab Big O and add it to the collection.
 
[quote name='arcane93']Anyone know if there's a comprehensive list of titles published by Bandai that will be affected by this somewhere? I don't know of anything that I want that I don't already have right off, but that doesn't mean that there aren't things I don't even realize are published by them...[/QUOTE]All bandai titles except Gundam Unicorn, which is being handled by Bandai Visual (Japan).
 
[quote name='Vash1306']All bandai titles except Gundam Unicorn, which is being handled by Bandai Visual (Japan).[/QUOTE]

Right. What I was asking was whether anyone knows of a comprehensive list of Bandai Entertainment titles. The list on their website is obviously nowhere near complete -- Cowboy Bebop isn't even on it!
 
[quote name='arcane93']Right. What I was asking was whether anyone knows of a comprehensive list of Bandai Entertainment titles. The list on their website is obviously nowhere near complete -- Cowboy Bebop isn't even on it![/QUOTE]Not sure if that's all of it but here is a list on Amazon: http://astore.amazon.com/bandaientert-20
 
Here is a small list from
Bandai Amazon Storefront
There are probably some more that aren't on the list.

.hack
5 Centimeters per Second
AKIRA
Aika
Big O
Blue Submarine No. 6
Clockwork Fighters: Hiwou's War
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
Cowboy Bebop
Cutie Honey
Escaflowne
Eureka Seven
Fantastic Children
FLAG
Freedom
Galaxy Angel S
Galaxy Angel X
Ghost Slayers Ayashi
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
The Girl Who Leapt Through Space
Gunbuster
Gundam 00
Gundam 0080: War in the pocket
Gundam 0083: Stardust Memories
Gundam 08th MS Team
Gundam: Char's Counterattack
Gundam F91
Gundam: Mobile Suit Gundam
Gundam SEED
Gundam SEED Destiny
Gundam Wing
Gundam Unicorn
Gundam: Zeta Gundam
Gurren Lagann
Haruka
Hayate the Combat Butler
IGPX
KANNAGI
K-ON!
Kurokami
Lucky Star
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
My-HiME
My-OTOME
Rocket Girls
Silent Mobius
sola
SOS Tokyo Metro Explorers
Super Robot Wars
Stardriver
Sword of the Stranger
Tales of the Abyss
TEKKEN: Blood Vengeance
Tideline Blue
Toward the Terra
Wolf's Rain
Zegapain
 
[quote name='chicagocubsfan']I've always wanted G Gundam[/QUOTE]

Go get it. NOW. G-Gundam is the manliest show ever conceived.

On that note, I guess I'll think about picking up Cowboy Bebop and the Eureka Seven movie before they become OOP
 
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[quote name='Clak']Hmm, wonder if this means prices for some of this stuff going through the roof.[/QUOTE]

Probably. What I'll be curious to see will be whether someone else will pick up at least the more popular series like Cowboy Bebop and Gundam. With the Cowboy Bebop blu-ray set due out in Japan in December, this is an inopportune time for the series to be going totally out of print here...
 
I guess this means once Bandai's licenses are up for some of these shows, it means Funimation and Sentai can grab whatever they want. I can see Funi taking Bebop and whatever else they think they can profit from. Sentai will probably grab K-ON! S1 since they already have S2. That leaves other big titles such as Haruhi, Gurren Lagann, the entire Gundam catalog they dubbed, Lucky Star, along with old school classics such as Big O and Outlaw Star up for grabs.

And yes, the prices for all these will without a doubt skyrocket until someone else re-releases these titles. Until then, decide what's worth getting, and wait for whatever you aren't too interested in. :cool:
 
Stupid Bandai. Had to buy Code Geass and Gurren Lagann because of this announcement. Hopefully Funi picks up everything, since their boxsets are so cheap! Screw Sentai and their ridiculous prices.
 
Prices are already going up. Cheapest Girl Who Leapt Through Time Blu-ray on Amazon is now $90.
 
[quote name='JoePianist']Go get it. NOW. G-Gundam is the manliest show ever conceived.

On that note, I guess I'll think about picking up Cowboy Bebop and the Eureka Seven movie before they become OOP[/QUOTE]
Oh yeah I love G Gundam, my favorite Gundam series by far.
 
Crap All I really want is gundam seed and seed destiny, Haruhi season 2 and the moive. Im on the fence about Lucky star and star driver as I haven't watched them yet.
 
[quote name='Rogueleader17']Crap All I really want is gundam seed and seed destiny, Haruhi season 2 and the moive. Im on the fence about Lucky star and star driver as I haven't watched them yet.[/QUOTE]

Although the visuals are stunning, I just couldn't get into "Star Driver" after watching the first 13 episodes. Which is disappointing, because I really REALLY wanted to enjoy the series.

"Lucky Star" is one of my favorites---especially recommended if you enjoy "comic strip"-paced humor (Peanuts, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, etc), with otaku-related subjects.
 
This is quite shit news. To be fair, though, Bandai has a lot of classics. Like, A LOT of classics. There is no way these are going to just slip into obscurity. We can probably expect to see Funi sets of a lot of these within the next 1-2 years. They will also be much cheaper because Bandai prices have always been shit. There could be a big ol' silver lining to this.
 
[quote name='SanjiX']
And yes, the prices for all these will without a doubt skyrocket until someone else re-releases these titles. Until then, decide what's worth getting, and wait for whatever you aren't too interested in. :cool:[/QUOTE]

Yeah Anime and classic 80's animation stuff that goes OOP gets speculated pretty hard (Transformers the move and the GI Joe sets were insanely high until Shout Factory re-released them) and just look at the ADV catalog, Sailor Moon and Gatchaman (I believe) are still stupidly priced for complete runs. As is a majority of the stuff Viz licensed back in the day as well.

Yeah buying anime has always been a touchy thing to me, I own quite a few shows and have a dedicated cd binder for it (that's full) but the prices are way insane for collecting everything you want, then if something goes OOP, well your fucked, simple as that. No wonder profits are down and all these companies closing operations especially with piracy being so rampant with anime...anyway.

I'm glad to hear Funimation grabbing Akira, if they do a Blu-ray, they better include the Streamline dub, if so I'll pick it up, I can't literally stand the awful Pioneer dub, it makes my ears bleed. (I own the vhs, the pioneer release, then sought out the Manga region 2 LQ full screen streamline DVD, then finally got Madman ent.'s superb Region 4 release with widescreen and streamline dub, but would like a BR release like that as well. Awesome film, a classic.
 
I'm glad I picked up some of the bandai blus before this announcement. I was thinking about picking up hayate the combat butler, but I see that people want 500+ for the last part on amazon. Screw that.
 
[quote name='XxFuRy2Xx']I'm glad I picked up some of the bandai blus before this announcement. I was thinking about picking up hayate the combat butler, but I see that people want 500+ for the last part on amazon. Screw that.[/QUOTE]

Damn thing was only available for like pre-order. I checked a week after release and it was already sold out. So now I'm sitting on 1-7 like a douche.
 
[quote name='Sk']This is no surprise to me anime has been a dead media for some time now.[/QUOTE]

Cool story, bro.
 
thankfully cowboy bebop is the only one I care about. Haven't watched Akira I hear it's good and it's surely better then Chronicle was from all I know about it.

I guess i'm just waiting for the American version of it and Old Boy as well.
 
[quote name='Fire2box']thankfully cowboy bebop is the only one I care about. Haven't watched Akira I hear it's good and it's surely better then Chronicle was from all I know about it.

I guess i'm just waiting for the American version of it and Old Boy as well.[/QUOTE]


I dunno if you're familiar with it, but Ghost In The Shell is easily one of the best anime I've ever seen, and a monolith of cyberpunk!
 
[quote name='uncle5555']I'm glad to hear Funimation grabbing Akira, if they do a Blu-ray, they better include the Streamline dub, if so I'll pick it up, I can't literally stand the awful Pioneer dub, it makes my ears bleed.[/QUOTE]

Why watch the dub anyway? Ugh. I will say this for the Bandai blu-ray -- the sound on the Japanese language track is one of the most impressive and striking audio tracks that I've heard on blu-ray. If you have a reasonably decent surround sound system, it's well worth grabbing it (while you still can) for the audio upgrade alone. Hopefully they'll keep the same Japanese audio track on the Funimation version, but there's no guarantee.
 
[quote name='Sk']This is no surprise to me anime has been a dead media for some time now.[/QUOTE]

I'm going to go paint on my anime.
 
My check was delayed for the first time ever at my job (due to the hurricane). I think I might just grab all of Eureka Seven on DVD once they decide to pay me. Is the movie worth it as well?
 
Dunno if I should thank you or curse you OP. :p Just bought Gurren Lagann - I had watched about a third of that on Netflix a while back & really enjoyed it, and have been wanting to watch the rest.
 
Well Just grabbed $250 worth of anime and now Im pretty set. I bet bandai's sales go off the chart the next couple months. It would be hilarious if they decided to change their mind about stopping.
 
Well heres hoping I can get some anime titles like G Gundam, Code Geass, Gundam Wing, and Eureka Seven before they go to OOP status.
 
bread's done
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