In the first part of a ICv2 interview that was posted today, Bandai Visual USA president Tatsunori Konno said that there are not “more than 200,000 core fans” and estimated its size in dollars to be $350 million. Konno also clarified the difference between Bandai Visual and Bandai Entertainment and the company’s relationship with Sunrise. There was mention of the Wings of Honneamise being released in DVD/Blu-ray and DVD/HD-DVD packs at an MSRP of $79.99, which is double Freedom’s $39.99 MSRP. That is likely because Honneamise has a “quite long” running time (120 minutes vs. Freedom’s 25 minutes) and thus requires two separate discs (1 regular DVD & 1 hi-def DVD) instead of a single twin-format disc with HD and standard-def on the same side.

Konno said in part two that the company wants to let fans to know they are producing high quality products and that if people notice and buy it, prices could reduce gradually. Even with that justification, RightStuf, AnimeNation, RACS, and Amazon each have their pre-order prices at or below $59.99. Wings of Honneamise comes out in high-definition for both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray on September 11th, a little something nice to distract us Americans from the “anniversary” coverage the news media is bound to do on that particular Tuesday.

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Anime, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.