About the studio
Bandai Visual started life on August 23, 1983 under the wonderfully corporate name AE Planning Co., Account Executive Planning, established by toy giant Bandai. It grew into the label responsible for distributing anime on home video, everything from the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise to Cowboy Bebop, originally with a strong focus on licensing titles for North America. *From acronym soup to anime shelf staple.* In 2017, Bandai Visual acquired the animation studio Actas, and in April 2018 it merged with music label Lantis to form Bandai Namco Arts, with Bandai Visual continuing on as a brand rather than a standalone company. Based in Tokyo, it spent decades as the label serious collectors watched for, the name on the Blu-ray case that meant a release was handled with care. Even folded into a bigger corporate structure now, that reputation for home video quality is basically Bandai Visual's whole legacy.