News
Bandai Visual to Offer Freedom on BD Worldwide in Fall
posted on by Egan Loo
Nikkei's IT Plus news site reports on Sunday that Bandai Visual will release Freedom and other anime titles on Blu-ray Disc simultaneously throughout the world this fall. The same packaged disc with subtitles in Japanese, English, French, and other languages will be sold in the different countries for about the same price. Bandai Visual USA has already released the first five of the seven Freedom volumes in the United States on a HD DVD/DVD twin format.
In his final blog entries as the president of Bandai Visual USA, Tatsunori Konno had explained that the overall Bandai Visual Company will be moving towards "simultaneous broadcast & digital distribution in both" Japan and the United States. IT Plus goes further to say that this strategic shift will also affect Bandai Visual's offerings in European and Asian countries. IT Plus notes that it is difficult to maintain the viewing restrictions and differences in prices and release dates between the various regions with current DVDs. While Bandai Visual USA is changing strategies, it delayed the releases of the Shigofumi - Letters from the Departed, True Tears, and sola anime last month.
Director Shuhei Morita (Kakurenbo) and Namco Bandai's anime studio Sunrise have been animating the Freedom anime series with the design work of Katsuhiro Ōtomo (Akira, Steamboy) and the sponsorship of Nissin Cup Noodles. Dai Satō (Cowboy Bebop, Eureka Seven, Ergo Proxy) and Katsuhiko Chiba (E’s Otherwise, Rune Soldier, Turn A Gundam) created this story about a teenager on a lunar city who uncovers secrets that deal with the origin of Earth itself.
Image © 2006 FREEDOM COMMITTEE
