Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. (ãƒãƒ³ãƒ€ã‚¤ãƒ"ã‚¸ãƒ¥ã‚¢ãƒ«æ ªå¼ä¼šç¤¾, Bandai Bijuaru Kabushiki Gaisha), is a Japanese anime, film production and distribution enterprise, established by Bandai Company, Limited and a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings, Inc., which is based in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Since the reorganisation of Bandai Namco Holdings in 2006, Bandai Visual now heads the group's Visual and Music Content Strategic Business Unit. Its subsidiaries include the Emotion Music Company, Limited, (whose logos also include the Moai from Easter Island), and Lantis Company, Limited music publishing labels.
It is involved in the production and distribution of several anime titles, including those it has directly produced itself and anime series produced by the anime studio Sunrise, a subsidiary of Bandai.
History
Bandai Visual is currently a fully owned subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. Bandai Namco announced on November 8, 2007 that it would buy the voting shares it did not own between that date and December 10, 2007 and turn the company into a wholly owned subsidiary. On December 18, 2007, Bandai Namco announced that it owned 93.63% of Bandai Visual's shares since the end of November. The remaining shares were delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on February 15, 2008 after Bandai Namco acquired the remaining 10% of the shares.
Subsidiaries
Bandai Entertainment
Bandai Entertainment was a North American based subsidiary of Bandai America, founded in 1998. Despite its name it was not directly established by Bandai Visual. Originally separate from Bandai Visual USA, Namco Holdings announced that Bandai Entertainment would absorb Bandai Visual USA in 2008. Headquartered in Cypress, California, it licensed anime properties from various Japanese companies for North American distribution; most of those licenses coming from Bandai and its sister company Sunrise. The company also licensed manga series for release with English translation, and published American-made graphic novels. As with many North American anime distributors, Bandai Entertainment offers a 'fan support' program to facilitate public screenings of licensed content at anime clubs and anime conventions. The company confirmed on January 2, 2012 that they would stop offering new DVD, Blu-ray disc and manga releases by February, but would continue to produce their current library of content. Bandai Entertainment was restructured to focus on licensing anime to other companies. On August 30, 2012, Bandai Entertainment announced that it will discontinue distributing their home video and print catalog on March 1, 2013. They made their final shipment to retailers on November 30, 2012. Many former Bandai Entertainment titles have been re-licensed by companies like Funimation, Sentai Filmworks, Discotek Media, and Manga Entertainment
Bandai Visual USA
Bandai Visual USA was established in 2005 to distribute and market Bandai Visual's productions in North America. Bandai Visual USA's anime products were distributed in North America initially by Image Entertainment and later, Geneon Entertainment USA and in Europe by Beez Entertainment. On May 23, 2008, Bandai Namco Holdings announced that Bandai Visual USA would be merged into Bandai Entertainment. Bandai Visual USA was dissolved on July 1, 2008 and absorbed by Bandai Entertainment.
Beez Entertainment
Beez Entertainment was the European branch for Bandai Visual that also distributed anime and music and were also owned by Bandai Namco Holdings. The name is an acronym for Bandai Entertainment European Zone. Following the discontinuation of Bandai Entertainment, Beez has also stopped releasing anime in the European market.
Music
In August 2009, Bandai Visual had their first music release on US iTunes with Lantis Sounds. In September 2009, Banda Visual teamed up with NAMCO for their periodic release of game sounds (classic and new) to iTunes USA.
Headquarters
Bandai Visual's headquarters are in the Shiodome Sumitomo Building in Shiodome, Minato, Tokyo. When Bandai Visual began in August 1983, its headquarters was in KÅjimachi, Chiyoda, Tokyo. In December of that year the headquarters moved to Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo. In June 1984 the headquarters moved to another building in Roppongi. In May 1985 the headquarters moved to Shibuya, Tokyo. In March 1990 the headquarters moved to Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo. In August 1991 the headquarters moved to TaitÅ, Tokyo. In March 1994 the headquarters moved to another location in TaitÅ. In September 2004 the headquarters moved to its current location in Minato.
References
External links
- Bandai Visual website (Japanese)
- Bandai Visual at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
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