Bandai Namco Holdings

Background

Bandai Namco Holdings (also known as Bandai Namco) is a Japanese entertainment company formed in 2005 as Namco Bandai Holdings, after the merger of Namco Limited and Bandai Co., Ltd. The merger was initiated with Bandai purchasing Namco in a share trade between the two parties. In 2015, the entire group began using the Bandai Namco name worldwide, officially retiring the Namco Bandai name for good. In 2021, as part of a transformation of the group, the company announced that it would retire the "fusion and evolution"-era identity and introduced a new brand identity and company motto, which took effect on April 1st of the following year. All Bandai Namco Group companies began carrying the new logo as a corporate logo by that year, including the toy divisions, which retained the Bandai name domestically, but were rebranded into the wider Bandai Namco name internationally, while continuing to use the Bandai name as a brand. The company has activities in the video game industry (via Bandai Namco Entertainment), toys (via Bandai), animation & home video (via Bandai Namco Filmworks), music (via Bandai Namco Music Live) and arcade games, entertainment centers & amusement parks (via Bandai Namco Amusement).

Logo (April 1, 2022-)

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Visuals: On a white background, multiple colored bubbles come together to form the main bubble, and the text there is a red speech bubble outline with "BANDAI NAMCO" in it appearing word-by-word.

Trivia: This logo utilizes red as a primary color, which makes sense since Namco and Bandai use it in their respective corporate logos. It also resembles a speech bubble (known as FUKIDASHI frame) used in Japanese manga, as the Bandai Namco group are also known for being involved in anime whether its producing/distributing, sponsoring it or publishing video games mostly those based on manga or toy lines manufactured and owned by Bandai.

Variants:

• In its initial reveal, the bubble was pink. This was changed to red on February 8, 2022, prior to its official launch.
• For Emotion's 40th anniversary commercials, the Emotion 40th anniversary logo is shown before the bubbles appear as the logo disappears.
• For the 10th anniversary of THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls, the iM@SCG 10th anniversary disappears to reveal the logo.
• On Bandai Europe commercials, the Bandai logo appears first, before disappearing to reveal the Bandai Namco logo.
• A cropped 21:9 version is found at the end of the full version of the Dance & Music version of Bandai Namco's purpose concept video.

Technique: 2D animation.

Audio: A five-note xylophone-synth tune.

Availability:

• The logo first appeared on Bandai Namco's website and social media accounts on October 1, 2021, but it didn't appear on its products, as the change did not take effect until Bandai Namco's 2023 financial year, beginning April 1, 2022.
• The logo appears at the end of trailers and commercials of all Bandai Namco products such as video games, toys, animated shows, home video releases and music products, besides a few trailers from Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, which appears at the start of the trailers. It also appears on a couple of video games: iDOLiSH7, right before the Bandai Namco Online text, and Park Beyond. The iM@SCG 10th anniversary version is shown at the end of the iM@SCG 10th anniversary celebration anime, "ETERNITY MEMORIES".

Legacy: This logo was widely lambasted when it was first announced for its minimalistic design by the community and outsiders alike, though it slowly gained popularity over time.