'Don't just go putting things in your mouth!' by Kara
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 at 10:06 AM

Stupid Virginia drivers. Use turn signals, people. People are less likely to get hurt. (No, no one did get hurt in this case, I'm just saying.)

So Bandai is really shooting itself in the foot. Again. It's not that all their releases are overpriced and underdeveloped and Just Plain Bad. It's that some aren't and that's not what they're being noticed for.

Okay, basically you have two branches: Honneamise (aka Bandai Visual) and Bandai Entertainment. And they are very, very different.

Observe.

Take two shows: Code Geass and Super Robot Wars. Geass is being released by Bandai Entertainment, and SRW is being released by Honneamise/Bandai Visual. Now, according to RightStuf, here is the pricing.

Code Geass (which is on pre-order) has your basic edition, your bundle of the first two DVDs, and your bundle of the first two DVDs with bells and whistles and dancing girls. The best value for my money, were I to decide suddenly I want to buy this, would be the second: nine episodes for $40 list price (you will get it cheaper on Amazon and even RightStuf). That's pretty good. And incidentally, this is subbed and dubbed. Not that the dub is that important to me; again, this is for comparison.

Now, the other -- Super Robot Wars. You can also get the first part for $40 list price. Well, except that the first part is one DVD, two episodes total. Sub-only. Again, I'm not lamenting the loss of the dub, but look at this. One branch of Bandai is offering nine episodes bilingual for the same price as the other branch is selling two episodes bare-bones.

Ah, but don't worry. The next disc of SRW has three episodes ... for $45! So that makes it okay. Clearly.

What gives, please.

Now, a show I have not yet seen and am very interested in, Hayate the Combat Butler, just got licensed by Bandai.

I don't know WHICH Bandai.

Hayate is 52 episodes long ... one of the reasons I haven't started it, because I'm finishing up so many things that even starting a 13-episode show now would be a bit of a commitment. Where's my calculator.

Okay. Now, then. If Bandai Entertainment releases it, you can probably buy the whole series for about $250. That's not as awesome as getting 26 episodes of Cyber Formula for $20ish, but seriously, what is.

Now, if Bandai Visual releases it ... you can expect to pay ... let's see ... almost $800. The upshot? Any time I hear that Bandai has released a show I want to see, I start to cry. There is every chance that it'll get a nice reasonable release. There really is. There is also every chance that it's going to make me want to kill things.

And really, honestly, this is Bandai's own fault. How many other people have started thinking that way? Well, okay, I know I'm not the only one. And the thing is, because all the stuff that's interested me so far has gone to Bandai Visual/Honneamise, I am automatically pissed when I hear Bandai's name even remotely near something I like.

Fix please.

If you have been, don't tell!