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krpalmerAn interesting guest, usually one involved in the anime industry, on the Anime News Network's podcast will get my attention, and an interview with Robert Napton, there for "the last days of Bandai Entertainment," seemed to qualify. Another podcast a few years ago now featuring Chad Kime from Geneon shook up the "received wisdom" I had about that particular now-defunct company once releasing anime on this side of the Pacific, and I knew I had "received wisdom" about Bandai Entertainment too...
Geneon had seemed to be the one company that never offended the other fans I knew, and I suppose I had the impression of other fans thinking it did its best to cater to the discerning fan, only for that to be a strategy too fine to last; the podcast instead gave me a sense it had tried its best to find "big hits" too only to overpay for what its properties could achieve and go broke by degrees until the plug was pulled. With Bandai Entertainment, on the other hand, I had the impression it always managed to stumble and disappoint with its best efforts, such that it wound up withering by degrees (several years before the end, it stopped releasing fancy boxes). Instead, Napton explained the company managed to trim its sails and at least stayed profitable, but that it was shut down from the other side of the Pacific, one small casualty of a general restructuring. Others have suggested this new strategy will involve more English-language subtitles being added to Blu-Rays in Japan to entice at least a few more people into importing them.
Throughout his interview, Napton kept seeming to dwell on the idea that he'd been around long enough to see the industry fade back to exactly where it was when he had started with it, with a handful of thoroughly dedicated people importing titles from overseas. I don't know if things are quite that bad yet, but just because someone might be feeling stung isn't a reason to try and deny his opinions. The titles I could personally imagine "money is no object" for (which just happen to be ones I've already experienced) haven't had subtitles added to them, anyway, but I suppose some complex mixture of lack of motivation, struggling to shake the sense a certain number of importers exude holier-than-thou attitudes, and the uneasy sense that "doing it myself" is somehow abandoning everyone else to their own devices (where once upon a time people were intent on finding a way to profit from making things more available for others) keeps me from totalling up the money I spend buying anime now and turning that over to importing untranslated discs.
Geneon had seemed to be the one company that never offended the other fans I knew, and I suppose I had the impression of other fans thinking it did its best to cater to the discerning fan, only for that to be a strategy too fine to last; the podcast instead gave me a sense it had tried its best to find "big hits" too only to overpay for what its properties could achieve and go broke by degrees until the plug was pulled. With Bandai Entertainment, on the other hand, I had the impression it always managed to stumble and disappoint with its best efforts, such that it wound up withering by degrees (several years before the end, it stopped releasing fancy boxes). Instead, Napton explained the company managed to trim its sails and at least stayed profitable, but that it was shut down from the other side of the Pacific, one small casualty of a general restructuring. Others have suggested this new strategy will involve more English-language subtitles being added to Blu-Rays in Japan to entice at least a few more people into importing them.
Throughout his interview, Napton kept seeming to dwell on the idea that he'd been around long enough to see the industry fade back to exactly where it was when he had started with it, with a handful of thoroughly dedicated people importing titles from overseas. I don't know if things are quite that bad yet, but just because someone might be feeling stung isn't a reason to try and deny his opinions. The titles I could personally imagine "money is no object" for (which just happen to be ones I've already experienced) haven't had subtitles added to them, anyway, but I suppose some complex mixture of lack of motivation, struggling to shake the sense a certain number of importers exude holier-than-thou attitudes, and the uneasy sense that "doing it myself" is somehow abandoning everyone else to their own devices (where once upon a time people were intent on finding a way to profit from making things more available for others) keeps me from totalling up the money I spend buying anime now and turning that over to importing untranslated discs.