Bandai Entertainment Ceases Distribution To North America In 2012
 

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2...merica-in-2012

This kind of sucks.

Here's an article written about it:
http://kotaku.com/5873128/from-fanta...ent-mainstream

Not sure if I agree with everything in the article (as far as the "why's" go), but it's an interesting read.

Very interesting read.

For me, the only time I get fansubbed anime is when it hasn't been released here, or won't be released here. Macross 7, Macross Zero, and Macross Frontier, are perfect examples of this. If it has been released here, I'll buy the DVD/Blu-Ray.

Also I remember the days when Project A-Ko came out. That's back when I was in college (dating myself here). The dubbing was HORRIBLE! The horrible dubbing of that, and other shows made me a subtitle person only. If it's dubbed, I won't watch it.

It sucks that they went under, but I can't say I'm surprised. Their business model just didn't work for the US market, especially during this down economy. Even though I love a lot of their stuff, I have no interest in paying $20-30 for 4 episodes. Give me reasonably priced, say $40-50 full seasons, or ad-supported streams. We are at a crossroads in the media industry in general, it's just hit anime first. If I remember correctly, I think I read that Bandai Japan was actually charging Bandai US to license their stuff. Really, the way that company is run seems so backwards.

Sorry to all those who lost their jobs. Also, sorry to all the fans of the stuff that's no longer going to make it out here. Personally, I'm really sad that we still aren't going to see Turn A in the US. Hope everything works itself out.

I do download anime sometimes, but usually it's because it has no planned release here, or it's DVDs I don't have money for, like yami4ct mentioned, I don't want to have to pay $30 for a few episodes either, but series such as Transformers Headmasters which just got released here, I'll buy that, it's a decent price, and I was also planning on buying Turn A Gundam's DVDs. I also watch anime on Hulu alot.

With Macross you have no choice, it's either buy the discs from Japan, which aren't subtitled, or watch a fansub. Are most people going to buy something which doesn't even have a translation into a language they understand? No and it's unreasonable for companies to expect them to. If they had subtitles I would import them.

The article mentions that the creators are struggling to make ends meet in Japan. This is true, but it is not due to online piracy. The anime and manga industries there are run by companies who will only give a series a chance IF it has potential to make a lot of profit, most of which does not come back to reinburse the creators, it goes to the parent corporation of the studios iirc. Iirc the average manga creator only makes the ¥ equivalent of $13,000 annually and that's if their successful. Even so they have to divy that up with their assistants.

So you have dedicated creators who want to make good series but are held back by corporate greenlight. You have folks who are passionate but may not make much financial gains back from their work. Online piracy is not the root cause. Most folks already know the best quality thus far is on blu ray discs. If you're a collector you're probably going to buy the disc. A lot of people stream or download as a "try before you buy" kind of thing. If they like it, they buy the physical disc(s).

Fansubbing gauges demand. Most of these companies won't acknowledge that this is true because it then makes them look hypocritical when they blame fansubbing for being detrimental to the anime industry. Yet how are they to gauge the potential popularity of the various series that might be popular in the US when brought over? The US and Japanese markets are very different. The popularity of fansubbed anime/manga can be a determining factor for potential success in the US. Without guaging demand via the popularity of fansubbed media, now it's a gamble.

The US companies are very behind too. Turn A Gundam? AWESOME, but what Bandai planned for a US release THIS year? Gundam rose in popularity here with Gundam Wing in 2000. For a few years, Gundam was a hot property then died down a lot during Seed. Turn A Gundam wrapped up before Gundam Wing was even brought stateside...

So Bandai completely missed the ball with Turn A and Gundam in general. The fansubbers had them beat on Turn A for over a DECADE, and yet how did Bandai know there was demand for Turn A in the states? Most likely due to fansubbers and the reception of the series when it was fansubbed.

Japan's creators struggle to make ends meet not due to fansubbing but due to the way the anime/manga/game industries in Japan are run. They aren't paid much to begin with and only have projects greenlighted if there is potential seen for substantial profit. Fansubbed anime has a wide reach, companies can use the popularity of it to guage demand, but if they're slow to act, what's the use?

I have to disagree with you. Most people that get fansubs do it for one reason and one reason only, to get free stuff. They don't care about anything but getting it for free. If they are given the choice between getting it free with fansubs(even crappy fansubs), and a legit R1 dvd release with subs... They will always pick getting it free.

I also could have sworn all of Macross got an official dvd release in the US.

Nope, Macross, Macross II and Macross Plus only. 7 Zero and Frontier never made it here.

That's disappointing. I would buy Frontier in a heartbeat if they released them here.

I'd say that a lot do, though I won't go so far to say most.

And believe me, if Frontier, 7 or Zero got a blu-ray/DVD release here in the States, I'd get it in a heartbeat. Same with the live action Space Battleship Yamato movie.

If it's the case that most of the fansub market does it to get something free rather than out of "necessity"(given that a subtitled version is not available in their country), than the industry needs to adapt to that. Streaming anime is fairly cheap to produce and has been a roaring success in a lot of cases. I'd wager that with a lot of anime's, most fans aren't looking for a dub anyway. Steaming is a looking like a great way for companies to go.

I'll say with anime that I say with every other media, piracy isn't a problem it's a call to adapt. You aren't going to beat it by trying to keep your old business alive. You won't beat it by trying to appeal to the moral/legal obligations of people, most pirates don't care. The only way to beat it is by creating a better product.

Well said. I usually stream as it's easier, plus hulu and netflix show anime so that's always a plus.

Most people who obtain fansubs do it because sometimes a US company may either not opt to get the license for it, or take forever in doing so. For example, Gokaiger, do any of us say "hey I'm going to wait eons for Bandai or whomever to release a subtitled version, before I ever watch it?". Same goes for previous toku/anime shows.

I would say most people have fansubbed anime because it's free, bust most watch it because it's their(and sometimes only) chance at watching it translated into their own respective language.

In recent months I watched the 2nd Macross Frontier movie.after watching it, I realized there is no way in hell I would've known what was really going down in the story without the subs.

If something is fansubbed and not yet localized for US release, if I'm interested, I'll watch it. Why? Because it's translated. If I like it and it gets localized I'll buy it.

It isn't all about getting things for free, people love free stuff, but as for myself, I have no use for raws if they are in a language I don't understand, free or not.

There are companies that stream for free. Several anime companies have free streams of subs on their web sites. Funimation has subs and dubs for free on their you tube channel(please keep funi sucks comments out of this).

People that get fansubs know this. They don't care. All I hear around the net is crap like "fansubs are BETTER than official subs". Crunchy is also only 6.95 a month. That money helps get more anime here for them to stream. I have a CR account, and I enjoy the heck out of it.

The anime companies have adapted. The fansubbers STILL fansub licensed materials. Fansub downloaders STILL download from them.

For every one of you or I that buy what we like, there are thousands that just want it for free.

For some people it's about love of the shows. But for the majority, from my experiences, it's about getting free stuff.

Then you have those that CAN get it legally for free as I have described above, yet STILL get the fansubs.

And the companies that stream for free are doing very well. The cost of subs and bandwidth are relatively low and the ad revenue from those viewers, while still not quite the level it needs to be at, is enough to make a nice profit on most reasonably popular shows. Tiger and Bunny was a huge success on Hulu. You can't tell me that hasn't taken a major chunk out of fan subs. Companies shouldn't even worry about the people who only use fan subs, as they are such a minor group and you won't bring them in anyway.

The major problem steaming has right now is A)Lack of great broadband in a lot of more rural parts of the US and other nations and B)Stupid world lockouts that stop people from, say, England or Australia to watch Hulu.

I'm still saying piracy is not the problem it's perceived to be. It's not what's "killing" the anime market, or in this case Bandai Entertainment. It's lack of good, quick, availability and the insistence on trying to sell $30 DVDs with only 4 episodes. Give a well priced, super easy way to access your product, and the majority of people will forgo piracy to go for it. Don't even worry about the rest who insist on breaking the law.

I'll point everyone to an arstechnica article on the broader subject that crystalizes my view on piracy. I don't think I can put my thoughts better into words than they have. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...bittorrent.ars

I'd love to see someone do a similar, more in-depth, data study on anime. Take shows that have always been streamed, like Tiger & Bunny, and compare the streams with the US BitTorrent downloads of that show. Let's see how often One Piece is pirated now that it's streamed day and date vs when it was just released on DVD. Great article idea for someone like ANN.

Whomever got the license for Tiger and Bunny and handles it here did the brilliant job of making sure the newest episode in Japan is available subbed, not too far after on Hulu. That's a progressive company that's with the times.

If companies follow that model of not being slow to act, the appeal of watching the official releases by stream increases. Now whomever handles the Tiger and Bunny license here, surprised me, because I did not expect streams for new episodes THAT soon. Pretty cool that they did that.

A reason why some fans prefer fansubs over official subs is also because of accuracy. There have been numerous times(off the top of my head, most recently with the Transformers Japanese Collection by Shout! Factory), that the fansubs were actually more accurate. Sometimes the localization has slight inaccuracies, meanwhile some have glaring ones.

It's Viz that has the T&B license, which surprised me. Given the fact that Viz, to put it nicely, doesn't have the best reputation I'm shocked how well T&B was handled.

As for accuracy, that's just part of the "making a better product" argument. If the license holders in Japan bring streams over themselves, there's little excuse for rushed translations. They could have the scripts handed to the translators well ahead of time. Also, you're never going to please everyone. People who are angry about minor inaccuracies are likely a very, very insignificant audience. Glaring ones are still a problem, but I've been seeing them less and less.

This is the real way to fight fan subs/piracy. It's really quite simple and is going to be very lucrative to those who get it right.