Bandai Visual USA Inc. and Geneon Entertainment have announced a two-year agreement under which Geneon will distribute all of Bandai Visual USA's DVD releases in the U.S. and Canada.  While announcing the new distribution agreement, Bandai Visual also released the names of two new anime properties that it will be releasing here: the six-episode science fiction OAV Freedom and the 13-episode TV anime Galaxy Angel Rune, which is related to the Galaxy Angel II manga series published in North America by Broccoli Books.  Both Freedom and Galaxy Angel Rune are recent anime productions (2006 vintage), and represent something of a departure from Bandai Visual USA's previous strategy to release high quality, extra-laden, 'criterion quality' DVDs of anime classics like Gunbuster and Patlabor (see 'Bandai Visual's Deluxe DVDs').

Geneon Entertainment is no stranger to distributing anime DVDs from other companies.  When it was known as Pioneer Entertainment, the company distributed releases from Bandai Entertainment and Viz Media as well as its own anime product.  As of March 1st, Geneon is now the distributor of record for Bandai Visual USA.  Prior to this agreement with Geneon, Bandai Visual USA's releases were released through Image Entertainment (see 'Bandai Visual Teams With Image Entertainment').