:anime: -:Speculation Corner:- ~Bandai Ent. Special Edition~

For the past few weeks since last mentioning Bandai Ent.'s grandiose (and mysterious) "Nebula Project" and the number of surprises that came along in the first salvo, the company has been escalating the stakes, promising a "new era" and "something that has never happened before in the history of anime in North America". With a myriad of counters on its homepage and cryptic source code messages galore, now appears to be a better time than any for another round in the Speculation Corner!

--> Fifteen licenses/announcements? As there are fifteen mini-counters, could that mean there will be fifteen new licenses or announcements to be made soon? Possibly, or it could just be a joke, as the counters have increased in number over the past two days. It sounds a little too good to be true and I can't think of that many titles worth hyping over or even seven. Unless...

-->Geneon license rescue? News of Geneon license rescuing has been making the rounds, with information from one online anime retailer pointing to a major non-anime distributor looking into getting some of its top titles from around the time of its closure last year. Could Bandai Ent. be trying to get the other licenses to Geneon's major shows from the past (i.e. Last Exile, Trigun, Gankutsuou, Samurai Champloo, among many others), or is the retailer previously mentioned in on the fix and participating with them in a campaign of disinformation to throw off the fans? Very possible, but their recent trip down memory lane and their mentioning of becoming incorporated in 1995 might be pointing over to something even bigger...

-->Merger?! Bandai Ent. could very well be taking over one of the troubled distributors in the U.S. ADV has been very silent since its troubles with its Japanese investor Sojitz and the loss of Gurren Lagann to a certain company, Geneon isn't quite dead, but certainly not active, either, and there's always Central Park Media, which has quitely begun to come back to life. Even Bandai Visual USA could come under their sister corp.'s wing, though Geneon seems the more likely of the bunch, followed by either BVU or ADV. But since HardDoor covers free anime and the like, why not speculate on something that many others have been both wondering and salivating over...

-->BandaiChannel for North America/AnimeVillage re-relaunch with expanded coverage, both on the Web and on major cable/satellite providers? AV has been in its "transition period" for a good while, whereas BandaiChannel would be a major service for North American fans, (sort of) reopening the doorway to its truly mammoth library of titles (BC once allowed international to view its free content, but closed access off a while after). It's not completely "revolutionary", but it would be big news and a welcome one, at that. It might even work in conjunction with any mergered company or license rescue done.

In all, it remains to be seen what really will occur. It's been a very fun ride thus far with Bandai Ent., and I'm leaning more towards a merger and/or some sort of Geneon license rescue (if not working a deal to be their new distributor a la dropped ADV deal last November). Of course, it should be mentioned that Speculation Corner's record of success is...rather lacking.... >>;;

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UPDATE 1: Bandai Ent. will be absorbing Bandai Visual USA in July, as the latter will liquidated in September [Link 1] [Link 2] [Link 3]. This is both great news and to be expected, as BVU's demise was wholly brought on by its own hard-headed business model and squandering of a product line with great potential. Hopefully, Bandai Ent. will give those titles the right push they need. Despite its flaws, it's sorry to see a company that had great potential itself go...

UPDATE 2 [05/31/08]: Bandai Ent., one week after its announcement of the recent BONES movie Sword of the Stranger, raised the stakes a bit as it began to hype its newest acquisition Thursday into Friday. There was an announcement that was to be made for another property on Saturday, but a sudden convention panel shift to the day before forced them to rescind on their plans and instead go with their just-cleared license. Hints of a film being a hit in Japan and being seen by nearly a million people pointed eagerly to the new Evangelion remake that came out last year. When the trailer towards the end showed, it revealed...that they had just gotten the recent Tamagotchi movie! Apparently, the reaction must have been a sight to behold. However, I must say that the film, which came out in December 2007 and was co-produced by the company, actually looks pretty interesting to see...