Category Archives: Conventions

Anime Expo Round-up

Monday, July 7, 2008 – 6:09 pm

So, who scored big and who lost big (if that’s the best way to put it) at Anime Expo?

Well, it looks like the convention itself scored big once again with 43,000 paid attendees, which is up from 41,500 last year, a 3.6% increase.

Now, here is the licensing round-up from the convention:

ADV Films

While none of this technically took place at Anime Expo, obviously the big loser of the weekend was ADV Films who had Sojitz leaving their agreement with ADV, taking 32 anime licenses with them.  ADV said they had a new partner in Japan and were negotiating to get 23 new licenses, but nothing new was announced at AX.

Bandai Entertainment

Bandai Enterainment announced that they have licensed the Hayate the Combat Butler anime and the Girl Who Leapt Through Time manga.

Bandai also announced the dub cast for Gurren Lagann, as well as announced details regarding their new Honneamise label, which is where most of Bandai Visual’s titles are going.

Dark Horse

Dark Horse announced the license for the Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project manga by Osamu Takahashi.

Digital Manga

Digital Manga picked up more titles than God at AX, including:

  • Utahime - Princess Song by Aki
  • Overclock: Once in a Blue Moon by Riya Hozumi and Ryouko Seki
  • Ghost Hunt Scramble by Ototachibana
  • Tale of a White Night by Tooko Miyagi
  • 1 Sakura Hill by Fujiko Kosumi
  • Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS by Maki Tsuzuki and Kōji Hasegawa
  • RH Plus by Ayako Suwa
  • Time for Magic by Morehe Yoshida
  • Princess Princess+ By Mikiyo Tsuda
  • Happy Boys By Makoto Tateno
  • Wolf God by Ai Tenkawa
  • Otodama By Youka Nitta
  • Crimson Cross By Kyoko Negishi and Sakae Maeda
  • Millennium Prime Minister By Eiki Eiki
  • Hey Class President by Kaori Monchi
  • Dog x Cat by Yoshimi Amasaki
  • Desire-Dangerous Feelings by Shinobu Gotoh
  • Moonlit Promises by Souya Himawari
  • Tricky Prince by Yukari Hashida
  • Double Trouble by Takashi Kanzaki
  • Where has Love Gone? by Ryou Tsunoda
  • Then Comes Love by Riyu Yamakami
  • Pure Heart by Hyouta Fujiyama
  • The Way to Heaven by Yamimaru Enjin
  • Clan of the Nakagamis Volume 2 by Homerun Ken
  • The Object of my Affection by Nanao Okuda
  • Love/Knot by Hiroko Ishimaru
  • The Longest Time by Tohko Tateno
  • Live for Love by Jun Mayama and Itsuki Sato
  • Eat or Be Eaten by Jinko Fuyuno and Yamimaru Enjin
  • The Spiral of Sand by Yuna Aoi
  • Honey/Chocolate by Nanao Okuda
  • Manhatten Love Story by Monoko Tenzen
  • Planet of Earthquake by Miou Takaya
  • Cut by Toko Kawai
  • The Lonely Egoist by Hikaru Masaki and Masara Minase
  • When the Heavens Smile by Aki Senoo
  • Suggestive Eyes by Momoko Tenzen
  • Hey, Sensei by Yaya Sakuragi
  • Love Syndrome by Yura Miyazawa
  • Love Potion by Sakuya Fujii

Funimation

If ADV was the big loser this weekend, then Funimation was the big winner.  Again, while none of this technically was announced at Anime Expo itself, Funimation both picked up the right to distribute 18 Geneon titles, as well as picking up the rights to the 32 Sojitz titles that used to belong to ADV, giving then the rights to distribute 50 new anime titles, some of which hadn’t been complted or even started yet.

Out of the Sojitz announcement came the news that the OVA Murder Princess has been licensed.

Funimation also announced the dub cast for Ouran High School Host Club.

Go! Comi

Go! Comi licensed:

  • Angel’s Coffin By You Higuri
  • CROWN By You Higuri and Shinji Wada
  • Bound Beauty By Mick Takeuchi

CMX

CMX licensed The Name of the Flower by Ken Saito

Kadokawa Pictures USA

Kadokawa announced licenses for:

  • Coo ~ Our Guardian
  • H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~
  • Junjou Romantica
  • My Heartfelt Sympathy, Ninomiya-kun
  • Rental Magica
  • Spice and Wolf

Right Stuf/Nozomi

Right Stuf International announced new licenses for the Gakuen Alice anime series as well as DVD rights 1980 Toward the Terra movie (they had originally released it on VHS and Laserdisc).

TokyoPop

TokyoPop announced the following new licenses, among other things:

  • Phantom Dream By Natsuki Takaya
  • Tsubasa: Those with Wings By Natsuki Takaya
  • .hack//G.U. (novel) By Tatsuya Hamasaki
  • Peacemaker Kurogane (formerly released by ADV Manga) By Nanae Chrono
  • Momo Tama By Nanae Chrono
  • Castle of Dreams By Masami Tsuda
  • NG Life by Mizuho Kusanagi
  • This Ugly Yet Beautiful World By Ashita Morimi
  • Maid-sama! by Hiro Fujiwara
  • Demon Sacred by Natsumi Itsuki

Viz

Viz announced new licenses for:

  • Honey Hunt by Miki Aihara
  • Gestalt by Yun Kouga
  • Magic Touch by Izumi Tsubaki
  • Otomen by Aya Kanno
By Josh | Posted in Anime Expo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Internet at Otakon: options

Monday, July 7, 2008 – 12:48 pm

I’ve once again started to look into my options (or lack thereof) for internet while at Otakon.  The biggest problem appears to be that there is no easy solution.  My choices appear to be:

1) Use Twitter + text messaging to update immeidately, update blog on the web at the hotel at night.  Cost: Free. Convenience: Very Low

2) Take a break every now and then and try to search out free wi-fi spots.  I tried connecting to the harbor free wi-fi last year a couple times, but never had much luck, and I’m not sure whether the Sheraton next door has free wi-fi that I could just pop in and use either.  For instant updates, one is still looking at the twitter option.  Cost: Free. Convenience: Low.

3) See if there are any pay wi-fi services in the area.  I may have more luck connecting, but I’d probably be looking at $20 per day week, and it still doesn’t do me much good unless I actually get a signal in the BCC.  Cost: Probably something like $60 $20 or so total. Convenience: High if I can get a good signal in the BCC.  Low if I can’t.

4) Sign up for a wireless access card rental, such as through here.  I can probably cut off a day of rental by having it delivered to my hotel on Thursday (if the hotel is up for that), but since the rental doesn’t end until “UPS scans [the return packaging],” I’m going to have to wait until Monday to end the rental when I can swing by the UPS store.  This also assumes that I can get it to work.  If not, that would be an expensive $90 wasted.  Cost: $80 to $90.  Convenience: Very High if it works

Someone else can let me know if there is another option, but this just about looks like it to me.

By Josh | Posted in Otakon | Comments (4)

Kadokawa Pictures USA licenses H2O, Ninomiya-kun, Rental Magica, others

Saturday, July 5, 2008 – 8:54 pm

I’m following at gia’s and japanator’s.

Kadokawa has licensed the 12 episode H2O: Footprints in the sand, Good Luck! Ninomiya-kun (aka Goshūshō-sama Ninomiya-kun) which is also 12 episodes, and Rental Magica, which is 24 episodes.

No word on who is doing the producing or distributing yet.

Update: They picked up Coo ~Our Guardian~ (aka Wagaya no Oinarisama) too (also 24 eps).

Update 2: Wow. On a spree.  They got Junjou Romantica as well (releasing it as Romantica ~Pure Love~) which is a 12 episode boy’s love series which just finished airing.

Update 3: To round it out they pick up Spice and Wolf too!  Good grief they’re going crazy! Who do they think they are? Funimation?

Update 4: Apparently we won’t get any word who producers and distributors are tonight, but should "very soon"

By Josh | Posted in Anime Expo | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (3)

Bandai Entertainment licenses Hayate anime

Friday, July 4, 2008 – 7:50 pm

This just in.  I’ll try to fill in details when and if any are made available.

Update:

Japanator says first season of Hayate the Combat Bulter (52 episodes) with more details to be announced later.

By Josh | Posted in Anime Expo | Tagged , | Comments (0)

A little update on Funimation, Geneon, and ADV

Friday, July 4, 2008 – 1:41 pm

I apologize to gia, but I think it will just be easier to quote from her post:

Fukunaga is now talking about FUNi’s major coup d’etats: the 10+ Geneon titles and the 32 ADV titles (Gen says 34– are there more to hear about? Hm).

Moving into questions…Will you go with box sets for the new titles? Yes if they can, but with Geneon most of the titles are part-in, so they want to start releasing the rest of the series. Also with Geneon, that’s a partnership and Geneon is continuing to dub and will finish all of their shows– it’s their productions still. So no dub changes! With ADV, they’re in talks to have ADV finish up the series, again to avoid dub disruption, but nothing’s set in stone yet.

First thought: The 34 could have been a misspeak, or it could mean they’re also grabbing 2 out of 5 of Best Student Council, Ghost Train, Innocent Venus, Kurau: Phantom Memory, and Synethesia and just haven’t announced it yet (I would have to imagine that ADV would fight to the death to keep 5 Centimeters Per Second).

Second, at least ADV may be able to make a little money to still being in charge of production of the series that were taken from them (Shattered Angels, NHK, Kanon, Tokyo Majin, and possibly Murder Princess, if any dubbing has taken place on it.  I’m not sure what else is still outstanding).  Same thing for Geneon, though Geneon has completed the dubs on a good portion of their shows anyway, so I’m not sure how much there is left to do.

Part of it, of course, could also be due to the fact that I’m sure Funimation may not want to see ADV go away, even though they are competitors.  Right now, Funimation is the undisputed King of anime, but it’s rarely good for an industry to have only one major player in the market (Yeah, I know Bandai Entertainment is still out there, but can anyone argue that they’re as big as Funi is now?).

By Josh | Posted in Anime Expo | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

ADV Update: It ain’t lookin good for Kanon, NHK, et. al.

Thursday, July 3, 2008 – 6:18 pm

It’s hard to tell how much trouble ADV is in, but apparently ADV has had a falling out with their licensing parter Sojitz which, from the sound of it, effectively makes the four titles announced yesterday technically unlicensed for the time being.

The fact that the ADV rep at their Sneak Peak panel talked about how he hoped whomever ended up distributing those titles used the same voice cast was especially foreboding, since it seemed clear that the “whomever” may or may not be ADV Films.

They said they were still working on 23 different licenses, so it doesn’t sound like the company is necessarily in as dire straights as some people have feared, but as I said earlier, this definitely can’t help them.

By Josh | Posted in Anime Expo | Tagged | Comments (0)

Anime Expo Industry Panel Schedule

Thursday, July 3, 2008 – 4:45 pm

OK, I know AX has already started, and I’m not there in LA (whaaa! It’s my goal in life to, at least once in my life, make the cross-country trip to AX), but in any case, here is the schedule for the industry panels there:

July 4th

11:00am - 12:00pm: Aurora Publishing
12:00 - 1:00pm: Viz Media
12:00 - 1:00pm: Honneamise (aka Bandai Visual)
1:00 - 2:30pm: Dark Horse
3:00 - 4:00pm: Nozomi/Right Stuf International
4:00 - 5:00pm: Bandai Entertainment
4:00 - 5:00pm: ADV Films
5:00 - 6:00pm: Digital Manga

July 5th

10:00 - 11:00am: TokyoPop
11:00am - 12:00pm: Go! Comi
3:30 - 4:30pm: Funimation
3:30 - 4:30pm: Broccoli International
5:00 - 6:00pm: ImaginAsian
5:30 - 6:30pm: Kadokawa USA
5:30 - 6:30pm: CMX

And there are other industry sponsored panels (though not necessarily Q&A panels about the companies themselves) at other times - especially on July 3rd.

And, of course, I apologize if I missed any industry panels.

P.S.:

Uh, oh yeah, those times are almost certainly Pacific Time, so add 3 hours to the time if you’re on the east coast like me.

By Josh | Posted in Anime Expo | Comments (0)

Well, I guess I’m officially going to Otakon now

Wednesday, January 9, 2008 – 10:12 am

I was fully intending to go since last year, but I just did my hotel arrangements (staying in the BWI area again. Cheaper and the only real negative is that the light rail stops running around midnight), so I guess you can call it “official” now. Now that I have more time to plan what I’ll do with my podcast at Otakon, maybe I’ll do more stuff with it.

I could probably get away with applying for a press pass at Otakon (no guarantee that I could get it. I only have half the unique visitors as they had in their 2007 guidelines, but they also said that it was only guidelines and not a requirement. Now if I was “web based press” and not a blog, I’d meet the guidelines…) but then I’d feel obligated to do things like interview people, which I’ve never done before and I’m not sure how good of an interviewer I’d be. At least I could get front row seats at panels lol. I may try to expand how much I write up what I saw over last year, though.

I still wish that the BCC itself had wireless internet that I could just hop on, and then I could really live blog the convention, but oh well. I’m guessing people will have to wait until I get back to the hotel.

By Josh | Posted in Otakon | Comments (8)

Otakon 2008 - 1 Year

Wednesday, August 8, 2007 – 10:13 am

One year may last a lot longer or shorter than it would seem, depending on who you are, but one year from today, Otakon 2008 opens in Baltimore. Hopefully by now I’ll be watching some show or in some interesting panel to start things off. This past year, the first thing I did was watch Metropolis.

There probably won’t be much else to write about Otakon for the next several months now, though. There will be the announcements about hotels, but after that, we probably won’t know many guests until we get well into next year, but have fun counting down the days anyway.

By Josh | Posted in Otakon | Comments (0)

Otakon continues streak of increasing attendence

Monday, August 6, 2007 – 9:29 pm

Despite having the number of pre-registrations drop for the 2nd straight year (there were almost 3000 fewer pre-registrations in 2007 than 2005), Otakon 2007 once again continued the streak of every convention breaking the previous convention’s attendance record.

This year’s attendance, based on number of memberships to Otakorp, was once again a record at 22,852, an increase of 550 or roughly 2.5% over last year, which also reverses the trend of the percentage increase in attendance getting smaller each year, passing Otakon 2006’s growth rate of 1.4%

By Josh | Posted in Otakon | Comments (0)