Ask John: Will America Continue to Get Bandai Anime?
Question:
With Bandai America no longer dubbing and distributing anime, who will take on the work? What if a new Gundam comes out, and Brad Swaile and other company would do great dubbing the show? I was looking forward for Turn A Gundam to come out, but since Bandai closed up shop, it may not ever be out dubbed over here in America. Also, what about video games made by Bandai/Namco?
Answer:
Regrettably, to a certain degree, Americans may simply be out of luck. Over the past several years the majority of anime produced by Bandai Namco owned studio Sunrise has either been localized for American release by Bandai Entertainment – including Girl Who Leapt Through Space, Kurokami, Code Geass, Freedom, and My Otome – or it simply hasn’t reached America at all, including King of Thorn, Colorful, Idolmaster Xenoglossia, and Battle Spirits. However, a handful of recent anime produced by Bandai Namco, through Sunrise, have reached America through alternate distributors, including Viz distributing Inuyasha Kanketsuhen and Tiger & Bunny, FUNimation distributing Keroro Gunso, and Kodai Ouji Kyoryu King coming to America courtesy of 4Kids Entertainment. While the retreat of Bandai Entertainment from American licensing and distribution will certainly compromise the number of Bandai produced anime reaching America, other distributors have proven to step in where possible to acquire and distribute select titles.
The future availability of the Gundam franchise in America, though, looks quite grim. Considering that the Japanese Gundam Unicorn, AGE, and Seed Blu-rays include selectable English subtitles, Bandai Namco clearly seems to have determined that formally distributing Gundam anime in America is not financially worthwhile. So in order to accommodate the very small American hardcore market of Gundam consumers, Bandai Namco is simply making the Japanese Blu-rays slightly more accessible to American importers. Bandai has never allowed American home video distribution of any Gundam anime by non Bandai-owned distributor. That policy doesn’t appear susceptible to change in the foreseeable future. The American anime fan community had many years and plenty of warning to support the domestic anime distribution industry but largely chose to instead encourage unlicensed distribution and online streaming. In a case of reaping what we’ve sown, we can partially hold ourselves responsible for failing to encourage and support the continued DVD and Blu-ray release of Gundam and other Bandai-Namco produced anime in America.
Distributors like Bandai-Namco are not obligated to release their anime for American consumers. Americans don’t have a right to expect subtitled or dubbed releases of Gundam or any other anime. As many contemporary anime now reach America simultaneous with their Japanese release, we seem to have forgotten that anime is made primarily for Japanese viewers and consumers, and it’s only distributed in America as a supplemental market. Japanese studios and producers do not create anime expecting to recoup their production costs from the international market. America will only continue to get anime as long as we convince the Japanese production & distribution industry that America is a profitable, fertile market. Americans failed to convince Bandai-Namco to continue American distribution, thus we no longer get anime directly from Bandai-Namco. On the gaming front, at least, Bandai-Namco produced titles do still sell in America, so games continue to get localized and released.
Judging by available evidence, we had our chance to support Gundam anime in America, and not enough of us did. Bandai-Namco has proven amenable to allowing some of its anime titles to be acquired and distributed by domestic distributors, but the chances of seeing titles like Turn A Gundam, Gundam ZZ, and Gundam X on American DVD or Blu-ray now seem very remote. Evidently henceforward, Americans that want Gundam anime will have to import Japanese release.
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“Bandai has never allowed American home video distribution of any Gundam anime by non Bandai-owned distributor.”
Yeah, but I can easily imagine a falling out between Bandai and Sunrise in the near future. I can even see Sunrise going to court over it. People *are* buying those Gundam 0079 sets, *and* watching whatever’s legally streamed. So the idea that they can’t sell any more of the franchise, because of some monopolistic, micromanaging gatekeeper, and in Japan’s shitty economy, is going to really rub them the wrong way. You think they’re going to appreciate the idea that they *could* have made money on older and newer Gundam properties, but Bandai Visual would rather have ’em being pirated and/or torrented, than agree with the American pricing model? Sure, Gundam does not make the same bread in the U.S. that it did in the early 2000s, but it does still have a significant audience buying the DVDs. And that’s only because older fans did their damnedest to get newer fans interested in the older stuff. And now that Gundam is finally escaping from discount bin hell, and returning to marketable commodity, BV wants to end that trend, and kill sales for Gundam in general? Forget that! I’m not a lawyer, but if I were Sunrise, I’d sue ’em for mismanagement.
@GATS: Pardon my skepticism, but where are the numbers that prove your claims?
I will not deny or defend Bandai for possible “mismanagement” (something you can claim almost any business has done in hindsight at some point in time), but I’m pretty sure this was an entirely numbers oriented decision which according to them, was not in their favor.
There are three ways to generate a profit: through large profit margins, through volume, or a compromise between the two. I’m pretty confident we can strike off #2, and I’m highly skeptical about #1, so that only leaves #3, and at this point, I feel that the majority of the “profit” that western distributors realize on anime is through reducing and keeping costs/expenses low rather than through net sales or their operating income.
The way anime is priced in Japan reflects either profit through profit margin, or a more realistic portrayal of costs involved (perhaps a hybrid of both). Unfortunately, the American market doesn’t support pricing of anime at that range, so that only leaves profit through volume…which has obviously failed, and is what John is saying.
Sigh…so after all that money I spent on those single priced DVD’s and Blu-Ray’s to support the industry this is my reward. Well this sucks, cause there were so many other titles I wanted to buy from Bandai.
Siefer: “but I’m pretty sure this was an entirely numbers oriented decision which according to them, was not in their favor. ”
Well, Justin said, at one point, Zeta was one of ANN’s most viewed streamed shows. And if you check Amazon’s sales ranks, Gundam 0079’s pretty damned good. So I don’t buy for a second that B-E was doing horribly, either, because they were good for at least two more years. It’s just that Bandai Visual decided to punish American fans who didn’t wanna buy overpriced UC blu-rays and K-On singles. So they dismantled their American subsidiary.
“The way anime is priced in Japan reflects either profit through profit margin, or a more realistic portrayal of costs involved (perhaps a hybrid of both). ”
That’s bullshit. If it had anything to do with costs, then animation studios would see some of that Garden of Sinners money trickle down to them, rather then force staff to work for minimum wage. https://www.animenation.net/blog/2012/02/23/ask-john-would-an-industry-crash-actually-help-japanese-animators/
TsukuyomiMagi99: Good for you, supporting Bandai like that! Wish there were more like you! Since I started vending at cons, I’ve noticed fewer and fewer DVD vendors, yet I do just fine selling them. There are still folks out there who want to support actual anime, not just random character goods.
That said, Bandai America just didn’t adapt and it cost them. They have every right to sell their product for whatever they want, but consumers do have every right to refuse. It’s hard to argue trying out K-On for $100 when you can grab another complete series for less than half of that.
Bandai just never promoted themselves that well anymore. K-On should have been a hit, yet I was surprised to discover it was even released. They never bothered to keep Gundam boxsets going, they just let them go out of print and watched the aftermarket price go through the roof.
Hopefully we still get their great releases, including Gundam.
Pockybox: Bandai Entertainment had no choice. Bandai Visual was pulling their strings. And as I noted before, they *were* financially solvent, in spite of selling K-On! as singles. Bandai Visual’s corporate thugs just engaged in scorched earth tactics as revenge for all their leftover stock of Honneamise and Galaxy Angel Rune discs they had to mark down.
Bandai-America has always had a very stingy marketing/manufacturing attitude in the US… not just towards anime but also their toy products.
If you don’t get stuff the first time around, it’s very hard to find it without paying huge after-market mark-up prices.
They never seem to manufacture much for the US, period…
On the other hand, when they WERE seriously marketing Gundam, they had big problems selling Gundam AFTER Gundam W aired on Cartoon Network. For a while, it was very easy to find the toys based on the UC Gundam shows and this stuff just did not seem to sell that well. Contrast that with Gundam W which seemed to be very popular and those toys and model kitds DID sell.
I don’t think it helps Gundam’s case, either, when the series in general is basically one big remake after another of the original 1979 series, either!
There’s just not a lot beyond UC series that builds upon the original and could be considered legitimate sequels.
The alter-reality shows sure don’t help the franchise as far as the West goes and talking to other people/reading online, many many people can’t get their heads around hard-nosed science fiction and alternate realities.
Don’t want to say Gundam is too brainy for the general audience but have you looked at what passes for entertainment in the English-speaking world now????
Another thing to consider is that anime tends to unveil at a slower pace than most modern Western entertainment does now… You’d have to go back a few decades — 3 or 4 really — to get to Western films that have the same pace! It’s a night and day difference in pacing and many people do not have the patience to sit through such a signficantly slower pace…