ANN now has up the report from the Bandai Visual panel.
BV mostly discussed the upcoming Gunbuster vs. Diebuster movie as several titles that they are going to be releasing in HD. As far as licensing, again I’m not sure this is 100% for certain new, but they did announced that they had acquired the Super Robot Wars OVA and TV series. They also licensed Gundam MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079.
ANN has their page up for the Viz and Seven Seas panels today at Anime Expo.
Viz’s panel basically went over what they plan to release over the rest of the year, with anything new being re-releases or titles that had already been announced. I didn’t see any new titles that were just being announced at the panel in the report.
For the Seven Seas panel, it was partly an informational session just telling people who they were and some of the titles they are going to be releasing. As for new licenses, there were two titles which I haven’t found evidence of having previously been announced: First Love Sisters and Voiceful.
Bandai Visual and Broccoli still have panel reports to come today.
Being that I’m not actually attending Anime Expo, the only panels that I’ll even be aware of are the industry panels, since that’s where new licenses are going to be announced. Here are a list of when they are:
Viz (anime & manga) – 12:00 pm Pacfic / 9:00 am Eastern
Seven Seas (manga) – 1:00 pm Pacific / 10:00 am Eastern
Bandai Visual (anime) – 2:00 pm Pacific / 11:00 am Eastern
Broccoli (manga) -4:30 pm Pacific / 1:30 pm Eastern
Geneon (anime) – 10:00 am Pacific / 7:00 am Eastern
ADV (anime & manga) – 11:00 am Pacific / 8:00 am Eastern
Digital Manga (manga) – 11:00 am Pacific / 8:00 am Eastern
Go! Comi (manga) – 12:00 pm Pacific / 9:00 am Eastern
CMX (manga) – 1:30 pm Pacific / 10:30 am Eastern
Right Stuf International (anime) – 2:00 pm Pacific / 11:00 am Eastern
A-1 Pictures (anime) – 3:00 pm Pacific / 12:00 pm Eastern
DrMaster (manga) – 11:00 am Pacific / 8:00 am Eastern
Funimation (Anime) – 12:00 pm Pacific / 9:00 am Eastern
Dark Horse (manga) – 1:00 pm Pacific / 10:00 am Eastern
Bandai Entertainment (Anime & manga) – 1:30 pm Pacific / 10:30 am Eastern
Manga Entertainment (anime) – 10:00 am Pacific / 7:00 am Eastern
TokyoPop (manga) – 10:00 am Pacific / 7:00 am Eastern
Media Blasters (anime) – 2:00 pm Pacific / 11:00 am Eastern
While I’m not attending Anime Expo in Long Beach, it does start 1 week from today, and I’ll be paying attention to what things get licensed and the like there.
Of course, having just finished watching Kanon and with the news not too long ago that ADV Films registered the domain kanontv.com (for 3 years no less) has fueled speculation that they may announce a Kanon license at either Anime Expo or Otakon (I am, of course, hoping for Otakon since I’ll be there).
ADV has said in the past that they were going to wait to see how well Air did before they made a decision on Kanon, but given how well Kanon has been received in the US, maybe they decided that they didn’t need to wait. Or maybe they’re still waiting to see how Air does, but grabbed the domain while they still could. Air doesn’t even start it’s release until mid-August, meaning that if ADV does wait, any announcement on Kanon would have to be made after the summer convention season is already over.
And speaking of conventions and ADV licenses, why couldn’t they have waited a week to announce this: ADV Acquires 5cm Per Second.