Bandai Visual Japan is giving Amazon.com a two-month exclusive window on the Blu-ray disc of the first episode of the new Gundam anime, Mobile Suit Gundam UC (Unicorn).  Based on a popular series of light novels by Harutoshi Fukui (over 2 million copies sold in Japan), the Gundam Unicorn anime takes place in the standard Gundam Universal Century timeline just three years after the events in the film Char’s Counterattack. The Gundam Unicorn series will consist of six 50-minute episodes.  The first episode of the Gundam Unicorn anime, which will include an English language track as well as the Japanese track with English subtitles, will be released simultaneously in Japan and the U.S. on March 12th.

Bandai Visual, which failed in its attempt to establish a U.S. subsidiary selling anime DVDs with the high price points that are common in Japan, has hit upon a new strategy for the Gundam Unicorn series.  It remains to be seen whether granting Amazon a two-month window will lead to a different outcome than that experienced by Bandai Visual U.S., given a pricing policy that flies in the face of the downward trends in the receding U.S. anime market.  Even in the Blu-ray format, Bandai Visual’s SRP of $49.98 for the first 50-minute episode of Gundam Unicorn is quite high, in spite of Amazon’s 30% discount, which lowers the price to $34.99. 

To gin up interest in the new Gundam series Bandai is allowing free streaming in North America and Europe of six previous Gundam series including Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Z Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny, and Mobile Suit Gundam 00 for a limited time on Anime News Network, Crunchyroll, and YouTube.

Bandai Visual’s unlikely combination of expensive new Gundam BD releases supported by free streaming of the Gundam backlist is more evidence that the anime market in North America remains in flux with no clear path to profitability, at least not for an entity like Bandai Visual that is striving to become the “Criterion” of anime-on-DVD producers.  Amazon.com has increasingly become the exclusive home for certain niche DVD titles, some of which are produced on demand via the online giant’s CreateSpace DVD-on demand-program.  Is Gundam Unicorn a niche title on the order of an obscure MTV animated show like The Head?  Time will tell.