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The logo for Bandai Visual.
Bandai Visual Co., Ltd (Bandai Bijuaru Kabushiki Gaisha), is a Japanese anime, film production and distribution enterprise, established by Bandai Co., Ltd. and a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings, Inc., which is based in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Since the reorganisation of Namco Bandai Holdings in 2006, Bandai Visual now heads the group's Visual and Music ContentStrategic Business Unit. Its subsidiaries include the Emotion Music Co. Ltd, (whose logos also include the Moai from Easter Island), and Lantis Co., Ltd 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 Namco Bandai Holdings. Namco Bandai 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 Namco Bandai acquired the remaining 10% of the shares.
Subsidiaries[]
Bandai Entertainment[]
Bandai Entertainment is a North American based subsidiary of Bandai America, founded in 1998. Despite its name it is 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 licenses anime properties from various Japanese companies for North American distribution; most of those licenses come from Bandai and its sister company Sunrise. The company also licenses manga series for release with English translation, and publishes 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.
Bandai Visual USA[]
Bandai Visual USA was established in 2005 to distribute and market Bandai Visual's productions in North America. Bandai Visual's anime and manga productions are also distributed in North America by Bandai Entertainment and in Europe by Beez Entertainment. On May 23, 2008, Namco Bandai 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.
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 in the Shiodome Sumitomo Building in Shiodome, Minato, Tokyo. When Bandai Visual began in August 1983, its headquarters was in Kōjimachi, 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 Taitō, Tokyo. In March 1994 the headquarters moved to another location in Taitō. In September 2004 the headquarters moved to its current location in Minato.