So lately, Bandai Visual has been on the bad side of fandom (not to mention some retailers). It amazes me how BV became such an hated company in such a short time, when they started out as a company that many fans loved for the care they gave their products. First they scorned the Gunbuster fans by removing a song that they feared would infringe on some other copyrights. Now they’ve begun this wave of high priced releases. Yet I think that there is a certain strategy behind their madness.
Their releases of “old-school” movies at first, such as the first two Patlabor movies, were expensive, but worth it to most fans for the quality of these older movies. However, when BV announced the plans for Gunbuster 2 (along with two other OVA series) to be a three disc release two episodes each for $40, many fans became outraged at this, but others saw that they were still getting a better deal than the Japanese fans (admittedly, it’s not that much better).
Then BV announced their “Same day” plan as I will call it. As I understand it to be, the plan is to release shows on DVD on the same day in both Japan and NA. The release will be the same in Japan and NA. Basically, they are releasing R2 grade disc, with English subtitles in both NA and Japan on the same day.
Sounds great, right? That’s were pricing comes in. The releases, being the same thing in both regions, on the same day, will be priced the same as an Japanese style release. That means $20 for a one episode volume (Galaxy Angel Rune), and volumes with two-three episodes each for (I’m assuming based on the prices I’ve seen for past R2 discs) $40-70 each.
There haven’t been too many TV series announced to be released by BV. The only ones that come to mind are Galaxy Angle Rune and Engage Planet Kiss-Dum. Think about these two for a minute. They aren’t very popular shows. The reception was cold on both sides of the Pacific.
People worry that their favorite series may get released by BV over here in NA. But all BV has picked up so far are unpopular shows that will be hard to sell. These are shows that the American companies probably passed on. In some sort of twisted Japanese Executive logic, they may think that they can just cut cost and release it themselves sub-only in NA, and maybe make some small profit over here.
What I’m getting at, is that BV might not go for the heavy hitters like Gundam, Code Geass, etc. They will license those out to Bandai Entertainment, or any of the other big distributors. They may think they could make a little more that way. The only thing they will (theoretically) release over here are the so-called “bombs” and “duds” that nobody else wants.
I don’t know. I really don’t, as BV seems to be a very “special” company. We’ll just have to wait a year and see if my theory holds true.
In bloging news, Impz has renounced his hatred of Mech and Shonen anime. He reported that he has already amassed a collection of Gundam models worth $2000, and has Naruto’s portrait plastered around his house.
