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Company Index: Bandai

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About Bandai

Bandai's Website

Company info last updated 2006-09-15

Overview

Though long known for their Gozilla (and Ultraman) tie-in toys and the oft-reviled Power Rangers series, Bandai's animation division, Emotion, has been around for a long time--they were responsible for the old Voltron series, for example. It was a bit of a surprise when they suddenly appeared on the US anime scene around the beginning of 2000, but in an impressive departure from their other North American ventures, from day one they have released quality stuff. They have an online distribution branch, AnimeVillage.com, where you can buy DVDs directly as well as paid streams on demand or downloads.

Catalog

Bandai has pumped several series into the edited-for-TV market (such as Gundam Wing), as well as the not-so-edited-for-TV market (Ghost in the Shell: SAC and Cowboy Bebop, for example). Their catalog consists almost entirely of newer titles and mostly TV series, but includes a lot of top-quality fare in a wide variety of genres: Everything from the highly commercial (Gundam SEED) to more unusual series like Planetes.

Releases

Bandai started with DVDs from the very beginning, simultaneous with VHS releases when one even existed, and their discs have always been of uniformly high-quality: Uncut, bilingual, and often with all the extras fans could want. They've released dual-language discs of even their most commercial titles, and some of their early direct-to-video titles didn't even have a dubbed version (though most do now). Their subtitles are at times quite fan-friendly, with bits of Japanese filtering in and some properly explained puns. The dubs they do are among (if not the) best in the industry--well acted, well cast, and well written. In all, it's hard to go wrong with a Bandai DVD.

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