Bandai Entertainment has announced their release schedule for February 2010, for it's worth that is. Since this is Bandai we're talking about, NOTHING by them ever gets released on time anymore. The latest delays include Toward the Terra, My-Otome, Code Geass R2, Gundam 00, & Hayate the Combat Butler- all of which delayed by at least two weeks if not longer.

The perfect allegory for Bandai's ineptitude comes in the form of their latest news regarding Kurokami. Part 1 of the series was originally supposed to come out this past June in order to time well with the release of the Japanese version, just as they had been doing with their same-day broadcast on TV. But with delay after delay, the first part of the series is now do out on February 9. They also changed the episode count from 8 eps to 6, but at least they lowered the price by $10 to $29.98. But Bandai also confirmed that a Blu-ray version of the series will be coming out the same day. Again, that sounds like a good thing. However, the Blu-ray will only have 4 episodes on it, though will retail for $24.98. But wait, here's the real kicker. The Blu-ray version will be DUB-ONLY.

Bandai has responded to immense outcry by fans upon hearing this news, saying "The license for the Japanese audio was not granted for our Blu-Ray release of Kurokami." If you think about it, Japan's reasoning is somewhat justified. They're obviously afraid of reverse importation. That is to say, anime DVDs from America being imported & bought in Japan. DVDs & Blu-Rays in Japan have always been much more expensive in Japan than in America, & they usually hold less episodes too. The typical American anime DVD has twice the amount of episodes at half the cost of the Japanese ones. & of course, the American ones contain the Japanese version in addition to the English dub. This wasn't quite a big deal for DVDs, since Japan & the US had different region codes. But with Blu-ray, Japan & America share the same region code, meaning our BDs can be played on their players easily.

With this in mind, it's easy to see Japan was worried that if our Blu-ray release of Kurokami had the Japanese version, otaku in Japan would just order our version at a much cheaper price. After all, the Japanese BD version of Kurokami retails for 9240 yen (~$100) for three episodes! But here's the thing- the series has been doing horribly in Japan, it's one of the worst selling series of the year! Another thing is that their Blu-ray version actually includes three different dubbed languages- Japanese, Korean, & our English dub! Basically, this whole situation is screwed up royal. While their is some logic to Japan forcing this, the stupidity far outweighs the logic. I know Bandai had no choice with this, but wouldn't it have been better not to release a Blu-ray version at all?

While we're on the subject of Bandai's February releases, their Blu-ray releases, & how they screw things up, there's another topic that meets all these requirement. They'll also be releasing the Eureka Seven movie on both DVD & Blu-ray in February. The only thing is, only the Blu-ray version will contain the special behind-the-scenes & bloopers featurette that was shown in theaters. As a someone who doesn't own a Blu-ray player, I'm very saddened to not get that bonus material on the DVD. The behind-the-scenes was quite informative, & the bloopers were extraordinarily funny. Just glad I was lucky enough to catch it at the show at least.

Source: http://www.mania.com/bandai-announces-february-titles_article_118788.html