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Bandai Entertainment is an American subsidiary of Bandai America, itself a company specializing in translations/dubs of Japanese media for the United States. Based in Cypress, California, they work a lot with Bang Zoom Entertainment and Studiopolis with dubbing and translating popular manga and anime, usually from Bandai and its sister company Sunrise. They also ran one of the earliest experiments with selling anime online, "AnimeVillage.com". They localized most of Key Visual and Kyoto Animation's titles.
On January 3, 2012, their future projects past February, as well as the opportunities for their associates and entertainment from the fans, were all dropped in one fell swoop by the president's announcement that they will no longer release any new anime or manga titles for DVD and Blu-ray after 13 years of being among the major American anime distributors! They will no longer produce dubs. They laid off most of their remaining employees. They will still provide and restock their remaining titles for sale until the licenses expire, at which point the shows will be bid for other licensors. They are currently restructuring to become a licensor of media toward other companies. Some blame this move on the fansubbers releasing anime illegally online, but some also blame Bandai's failure to have a business model that works in The New Tens, as well as the Japanese companies' ignorance of the fact that Americans can't afford to buy a few episodes on one DVD for a huge price.
Mostly unrelated to, and not to be confused with, Bandai Visual (their biggest licensor) or Namco Bandai (the parent company).
Anime and manga released by Bandai Entertainment[]
- Angel Links
- Argento Soma
- Betterman
- Blue Submarine No. 6
- Brain Powerd
- Code Geass
- Cowboy Bebop
- Crest of the Stars
- Eureka Seven
- Five Centimeters Per Second
- The Girl Who Leapt Through Space
- The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
- GhostSlayersAyashi
- Gurren Lagann
- Hayate the Combat Butler
- Jubei Chan
- K-On! (first season)
- Kurokami
- Love Hina (later reissued by FUNimation)
- Lucky Star
- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: The anime, the two spin-offs and the movie.
- Mobile Suit Gundam
- Mobile Suit Gundam 00
- Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
- My-HiME
- My-Otome and its two OVAs
- Outlaw Star
- Ronin Warriors
- Saber Marionette J
- Scrapped Princess (anime)
- Tekken: Blood Vengeance
Anime and manga released by Bandai Visual USA under the "Honneamise" label before being acquired by Bandai Entertainment[]
- Akira
- Freedom
- Gunbuster
- Die Buster (as Gunbuster 2)
- Patlabor (first and second movies)
- Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise