Talk about kick to stomach to start the new year. UGH! :,( This sucks as I was looking forward to finally being able to see Turn A Gundam. 
[quote=Tonka]
While it’s sad to see another R1 bite the dust(so to speak), can’t say I’m surprised by this. We all got a little prophetic inkling on it when Eric Sherman was on ANN and said something along the lines of this, regarding Haruhi. You can say he was being Chicken Little and crying…
“The sky is falling…the sky is falling…!”
But I liked to think he had a little inside source about it since BZ has done a good chunk of dubs for Bandai that he’d would have made close friends with some of the Bandai staff.
I guess this time the sky did fall…[/quote]
Good to know I’m not the only person that remembered that. It turns out he was 100% correct. I think K-On! relatively flopping in the US may have been the final nail in the production division’s coffin.
With Sunrise licensing so many of their major properties in recent seasons to other companies, in particular Sentai, it was really only a matter of time. In fact, I see Sentai continuing to pick up a lot of Sunrise titles. Who knows, they may even nab Gundam.
I wish I could say I am surprised but it looks like the Japanese parent company sold Gundam Unicorn well here and thought they can do that with every release, Bandai Visual may be making a comeback…
F*** Japanese companies, they just don’t get it.
They won’t be able to repeat their success they had with Gundam Unicorn. I hope the R1 community just gives them the finger.
If they do a variety of pricing like Aniplex USA they could work. Though if all of the pricing is flat out Japanese pricing then it’s Bandai Visual USA all over again. If I ask do the Japanese learn from their mistakes? My answer would be a loud NO!. A problem in this all is we are now in the same Region when it comes to Blu-ray. Bandai Ent and several others have had to gimp several releases in some way because of Japanese fear of reverse importation. Be it the simple locking of subs on , less extra’s , lower quality audio , or dub only Blu-ray’s.
I understand because of the way it is in Japan they can’t really lower cost but they really need to realize this is not Japan or the late 90’s or early 2000’s. Also that they are just as much to blame for what happened here as anyone.
Looks like some of the titles are just going to go out of print. The first two volumes of The Girl Who Leapt Through Space have counters over at Rightstuf and the first volume at the moment is sold out.
this is the worst news R1 Land has had since Geneon left the market. It’s a shame really. While Bandai was far from my favorite company, they put out a competent DVD (usually…lol), had some great series, and helped make anime more popular in the US. Remember they got Cowboy Bebop on tv…that alone makes them incredibly important in the history of it all. How many people got into anime, or STAYED with anime because of that series? I really will miss this company. Not as much as Geneon and CPM, but I will. And their vacant space will be felt by all fans I’m afraid. Who will fill the void now?
Here’s a song to remember them…bang
So looks like most of the Bandai Visual Japan releases are getting English Subtitles. So the evil plan to make us pay Japanese prices , customs , and shipping comes out. 
That’s fine with me. I have no problem using the nuclear option on them.
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 thank 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 releases 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.
Well this is the time to get anything from Bandai Entertainment you might want. No telling what will be rescued. I’m going to say if it’s Gundam I’d get it now especially .
I’d like to replace my zeta disc for the fixed subtitles ,but just don’t have the cash to do it. Though the originals really did not bother me much.
[quote=“psychopuppet”]
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 thank 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 releases 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.[/quote]
bump
Just put in an order at RightStuf. I’ve been picking up Bandai titles whenever I had any spare $.
Sad to see the other shoe drop.
Mark Gosdin
Really sad to hear this. I guess Lucky Star vol 9 will never get a english release
Like many others I too will place a “last chance” order for Bandai titles that I want. Judging by the press release, I guess the best time would be before October since Bandai won’t accept any more orders from suppliers past November.
I don’t know, does the “buy everything now while you can” semi-state-of-panic justified ? I’m sure the older / obscure titles that already are OOP will go out of stock first but will best-selling titles like Eureka Seven, Escaflowne, Gurren Lagann, etc. (basically all the titles under the “Anime Legends” label) follow the same route ? I mean, there are still complete boxsets of old ADV releases still available after 2-3 years. Did all Geneon boxsets went out of stock right away after they went under ?
Just something I noticed:
Tonight on Adult Swim they had an add for the Anime Legends version of Gundam Wing.
About this T.O.M. said “Pick up the DVD’s wherever you can find them… TODAY”
Really sad
[quote=“Sensei_Terry_Silver”]Like many others I too will place a “last chance” order for Bandai titles that I want. Judging by the press release, I guess the best time would be before October since Bandai won’t accept any more orders from suppliers past November.
I don’t know, does the “buy everything now while you can” semi-state-of-panic justified ? I’m sure the older / obscure titles that already are OOP will go out of stock first but will best-selling titles like Eureka Seven, Escaflowne, Gurren Lagann, etc. (basically all the titles under the “Anime Legends” label) follow the same route ? I mean, there are still complete boxsets of old ADV releases still available after 2-3 years. Did all Geneon boxsets went out of stock right away after they went under ?[/quote]
Problem is most of Bandai’s releases have been print as the demand for sometime now. A few sets have gone in and out of stock for three to six month periods. Guess it really depends when they do final stock how much they have left. Also the other issue with Bandai was a lot of bad disc were and still happen. So getting something now and testing it while you can still exchange it is also a good idea. ADV and Geneon over-printed more times then not thus leading to all of that stuff floating around for years. Geneon it took a while ,but most of it is gone. I honest think with Bandai a panic buying while you can cheap might not be a bad idea. Look at the Girl who Lept through Time Blu-ray it’s gone from all stores now. Will it restock before November it’s hard to say.
I honestly hope at least a few of their titles get picked back up by someone else. I just wonder how long and which ones that will be.
I took the bait and have bought a few Bandai sets from Right Stuf’s back-to-school sale. I’ll probably place another order in October/November to get the sets I chose to skip this time.
I had no idea about the faulty discs issue. I’ll be sure to check them out to see if everything is all right.
I just can’t think of any Bandai titles that I want to buy that are still available. It is brutal as I agree that this might be the last and best time to buy.
Compounding the brutality is that Funimation is releasing a slew of awesome stuff in October-December so I have to plan accordingly, which makes old Bandai stuff harder to pick up.
They had a great panel at Otakon, I’m sad to see them go. I still wonder if they knew that 2011 would be their last year and that was why they went above and beyond at Otakon 2011, or if it was just a coincidence. The Gurren Lagaan bags seen en mass at Otakon are the official (and convenient) symbol of mourning for Bandai fans everywhere