In my continuing series of how much confidence I have in the North American series, let us look at the past few years of the Gundam-centric Bandai Entertainment USA. I will say right off the bat that I have no confidence anymore in them as a company. They have, in the past several years, let down both loyal and new fans. I was a diehard Bandai Entertainment supporter since their founding, but I cannot say that right now in the year 2011. I had faith that they would get their act together in 2010 but it seems I misplaced my faith in them.
In 2010, they had nothing but delays but I accepted these delays in exchange for working discs and work they did. However, as time went on, I began to tire of the constant delays. I knew better, saying and reminding myself that everything will be okay. They were fairly quiet for much of 2010 until the summer conventions of San Diego Comic-Con, AnimeExpo and Otakon followed by New York Comic-Con/Anime Fest later that year. I was sure 2011 was going to be a great year!
How could I have been so foolish and so naive? They have gotten worse, their output is much less than it used to be, they do not communicate well with the fandom and let's face it their online store is one big disaster. They failed to communicate that K-ON! would have lossy, non-HD audio. I am convinced they don't know what they are doing. Haruhi Second Series and the Haruhi-chan/Churuya-san discs were Japanese mono. That's inexcusable. Thankfully, they have apparently fixed the issue but it took them months to respond.
I fear for Bandai Entertainment's future, with Star Driver, Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, Turn-A Gundam and the bilingual original Gundam coming down the pipe, I can only cower in fear as to how badly crapped up these releases will be. They manage to screw up television series when it comes blu-rays, but not movies so maybe the biggest release of the year, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, will have a top tier presentation.
They could be doing much worse, but they are getting down to the bottom of the barrel. At this time, I give Bandai Entertainment a vote of no confidence. I don't see that changing anytime soon either, I may add. I am very disappointed in the company who got me more involved into anime than anyone else. I take that back, I am not disappointed - I am saddened and stricken with grief.
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