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Bandai goes Blu-ray with Ghost in the Shell 2 as anime industry climate cools

by Richard Lawler posted Jul 10th 2008 at 11:48PM


First announced back at Kawaii Kon, former HD DVD pioneer Bandai is making Ghost in the Shell: Innocence its first Blu-ray release. Bandai took the high road in finishing out its HD DVD/DVD Twin release schedule of Freedom even after the format's demise, and we look forward to some next gen features on the company's Blu-ray discs. There's certainly enough incentive, Home Media Magazine notes from last weekend's Anime Expo that output for the whole industry is down and is look for Blu-ray and downloads to help out the bottom line.

Major anime studios split on HD DVD / Blu-ray decision

by Darren Murph posted Jul 18th 2007 at 3:49AM


For the anime lovers out there, there's no question that even cartoons have a very different feel in HD, so we're sure there's quite a few of you out there clamoring for more HD renditions of your favorite shows. Unfortunately, there seems to be quite a bit of discord when it comes to settling on a format of choice. According to a report at IGN, Bandai looks to be squarely in the HD DVD camp (despite conflicting reports), while FUNimation seemed to prefer Blu-ray and Geneon remained undecided. Generally speaking, none of the firms seemed to think that branching out to other high-definition film formats was out of the realm of possibility, but if the major producers do indeed choose opposing sides, the hardcore anime fans may want to check out a hybrid player to prevent future heartaches.

First HD DVD/DVD Twin disc hits U.S. in June, along with new HDi features

by Richard Lawler posted Mar 20th 2007 at 3:24PM

Add one more dual format disc type to the pile, as Bandai Visual will bring the HD DVD/DVD Twin disc to the U.S. June 26, with the release of its bestselling OVA Freedom, and will also be one of the first releases to include HDi network capabilities. As opposed to the combo releases so far that have HD DVD on one side, and DVD on the other, the Twin disc allows up to three layers of either HD DVD or DVD content on the same side of the disc, no flipping necessary. Your old-school DVD player might have trouble with the disc, so its been limited to Japan-only releases so far. Bandai's been working with Microsoft and Memory-Tech to tweak the VC-1 codec for Japanese anime, and the company says after this they will start releasing other HD DVD and Blu-ray titles in Japan and overseas. The SRP for Freedom Vol.1 (of 6) is $39.99 and while we don't know much about the series beyond its mix of CGI and 2D animation, it does heavily represent that most holiest of foods, ramen.




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