Don writes:

Thank you Bandai, for simplifying my winter viewing. As a matter of policy, I don’t download series once they’re licensed. I don’t need to worry any more about Shigofumi or true tears. In fact, I probably will never see them at all, unless Bandai changes its insane pricing.

It's fashionable to bemoan Bandai for the insane prices, but the reality was different so far. When I bought my Haruhi, it was about $22 for a 3-episode voluime. Not the cheapest price, but not "insane" either. And it was not a thinpack, but an honest first-time release.

I understand that fans must stay ever vigilant against attempts to impose the R2 price model upon the R1 (and thus collapse the whole market by making it even more niche than it is now), but so far their insane rhethoric has not translated into insane prices.

UPDATE: DiGiKerot e-mailed to remind that Bandai stands for two companies: Bandai Entertainment (the old and sane one, they released Haruhi), and Bandai Visual (the crazy one). The true tears is licensed by the crazy one.

If you want to see really crazy prices, you should go look at some of Bandai Visuals US Blu-Ray releases, some of which come with completely redundant DVD copies of exactly the same feature!

Mercifully, most of Bandai Visuals TV series licenses have been awful thus far.

I knew about the two, but it completely slipped my mind when I wrote the above. And BD is going to be fun.

BTW, if I should've read the the announcement before blogging about it, because it leaves no doubt about the prices:

The first volume will ship with one episode on May 27 for US$29.99, and the next six volumes will ship with two episodes each for US$39.99."

UPDATE: Avatar comments with puzzlement.