Bandai Entertainment

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Founded as "Anime Village" in 1999, Bandai is one of the leading North American anime companies. Bandai Entertainment Inc. (BEI), a subsidiary of Bandai America Incorporated, is the North America anime licensing and distribution arm of the world's third largest toy company, Bandai Co., Ltd.

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Although Bandai Co., Ltd is involved through its subsidiaries in the production of many anime titles, BEI does not limit itself to the distribution of Bandai only titles. They have introduced to North America many titles that their parent company was completely uninvolved with. On November 23, 2011, Bandai Entertainment announced it would be closing its online store on December 29th. Later, on January 3, 2012, it was announced that Bandai Entertainment would stop releasing new Blu-rays, DVDs, and manga, with multiple releases cancelled. Their final new releases released on February 7, 2012. On August 31, 2012, it was announced that Bandai Entertainment would stop shipping products to retailers, with the last date for retailers to order being November 15th. This was in preparation for Bandai to shut down their publishing and distribution business on March 1, 2013. Originally, the company was not affiliated with Bandai Visual USA, but on May 23, 2008, Bandai Namco Holdings announced the merger of both companies on July 1, with Bandai Visual USA's assets to be liquidated by September.