Move over, OS-tans, it’s time for US-tan– and company! Danish author darkbeat has a set of -tans of countries around the world, starting with Afganisu-tan. (Mwahaha.) Check ‘em all out here.

US-tan is actually called “Meriken” and she’s adorable, and kind of dumb. It’s awesome. Make sure you check out this comic.

Oddly, there’s no Japan-tan. Yet?

Hey, just so y’all know– while I was at Sakura Con I was approached to be interviewed by Kevin Tain, a youth entertainment reporter for DigitalReporter, a reader blog on SeattlePI that was also covering the con. It was a lot of fun, and I know you guys love hearing my voice (or so it would seem, given the number that seem to listen to Japanator’s Podtoid-san O.o), so there you go.

I did pop by the FUNimation booth and talked to Adam Sheehan, who said he hadn’t heard anything about One Piece not continuing on Cartoon Network, but told me to check in tomorrow with someone else at FUNi, which I will do. I couldn’t find anyone for BVU around, though, so I wasn’t able to ask them anything. (Maybe they’ll be at NYCC?)

That was pretty much the rest of the con as far as work went, so I hung around the Kumori Con booth and pimped out my tail for a while, then helped with the teardown. That was kinda fun. (I love riding on the carts!) Hey, did you know that the dealers basically get to leave their garbage behind? Here’s a video of the aftermath:

And with that, I’ll leave you with a final, epic cosplay image.

Hope you enjoyed Sakura Con ‘08! For those of you who are curious about my next con coverage, it’ll be New York Comic Con next month.

I got an e-mail back from VIZ today explaining that they were never in fact confirmed to be hosting a panel at Sakura Con, and the panel’s appearance in the program was an error on the convention’s part– VIZ did send an editor to talk about the manga Haruka -Beyond the Streams of Time- but was not supposed to be having a full-on industry panel. The same thing happened to Antarctic Press, who was showing in the exhibitor’s hall but who didn’t know they’d been scheduled to have a panel until it was about ten minutes from being over.

So! In other words, VIZ did everything they had planned to do at Sakura Con, and we don’t have to be worried that something’s up anymore. Yay!

John Sirabella of Media Blasters has declared on the AoD forums that Seirei no Moribito will still air on Cartoon Network as it was originally planned prior to Geneon’s demise. Sirabella also notes that he has two more un-announced titles from Geneon, and that the company isn’t interested in partially-released series, so don’t go thinking that Media Blasters is going to save everything. (Wahhh!)

No, no, not the Fullmetal Alchemist ED theme– visual novel developer Key’s newest game is, according to Canned Dogs, going to be titled Rewrite– assuming that this isn’t a prank. (CD isn’t quite sure, because the scenario writing staff is phenomenal (plus it’s April Fool’s Day in Japan): Higurashi writer Ryuukishi07 in particular is noteworthy). It’s unclear if the game will be ero or not.

I’m mostly letting you know because odds are good KyoAni will develop it into an anime eventually, and then I’ll sit here complaining about how everyone looks and sounds like a ten-year-old. You know, the usual.

Kidding– there’s no competition there. But Otakon has scored a very sweet deal: ANN reports that their opening ceremonies video will be animated by Madhouse. Daaang.

So it turns out that tomorrow’s Bandai Visual USA panel has been cancelled, which means I have no panels to cover, which means I’ll probably spend most of the day hanging around in the dealer’s room, acting as a booth babe for KumoriCon.

In the meantime, here are the primary highlights from the panels I covered:

• TOKYOPOP has put Kino no Tabi on hold indefinitely and they blame themselves, but didn’t detail the reasons.
• TOKYOPOP.com v2.5 is due in the next few weeks.
• Bandai Entertainment DOES have the rights to season 2 of Code Geass (not surprising, but nice to know). The DVDs of season 1 will also feature many of the bonus stuff that came with the Japanese discs, including sketch booklets and stuff.
• This was sorta already known, but TWO versions of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time/Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo are going to be sent to theaters: a digital dubbed version to theaters that can handle those, and a subbed 35mm version. So what appears in your city (if anything) will vary depending on what your theater takes. The dub will premiere at NYCC in April.
• Dark Horse’s CLAMP project may be a candidate for a movie, although it’s still unclear whether that’s a possibility for one of the seven movies that Universal makes on its own or whether they might try to self-finance, but it’s still an exciting possibility, to use Carl Horn’s words.
• DH’s Domo-kun doll is also coming available soon, including exclusive colors at San Diego Comic Con (yellow) and for Newberry (green).
• FUNimation is still pushing Operation Anime, their anime club connection program.
• Info on Ouran High School Host Club should hit this summer and will be released uncut.
• Koge Donbo is too busy working on Kamichama Karin Chu! to do a second volume of Broccoli’s Kon Kon Kokon. Sad charats!
• VIZ Media and Antarctic Press both mysteriously no-showed. (I have an e-mail out to VIZ asking what’s up and who I might ask some questions.)

I’ll be dropping by the dot anime booth to see if any BVU folks are around to chat with for a bit, since they didn’t have a panel, so I’ll let you know if I glean anything interesting from that– and I’ll check in with Sheehan regarding One Piece on Cartoon Network. Now, the swagpost…

Closeups (but not of the doujinshi ♥) and a couple of cosplay shots (including another L-in-disguise) after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »

Okie-dokie, I’m done being a booth babe for KumoriCon, so I guess it’s time for the Bandai Entertainment panel! Rob Napton presides, and he also told me that there’ll be no BIG announcements, which seems to be the theme this weekend (last year they had a *couple* of licenses…there are really just too many cons these days, I think).

Anyway. On we go! We’re gonna be checkin’ out Lucky Star, Code Geass, Ghost Slayers Ayashi (aka Ayakashi Ayashi), and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time first…or at least those are the ones I see on the list so far.

Nothing new about the Lucky Star release, but someone asked about Blu-Ray which we’ll hear a bit about later, although not necessarily pertaining to Lucky Star.

Next is Geass so I’m hoping we’ll hear more about the DVD releases for it…okay, I have to admit, I kinda like the Lelouch voice, and it’s Bosch, which kills me a little inside. Nice trailer for it, though it doesn’t quite offer some of the over-the-top-ness. Blah blah blah, broadcast on Adult Swim on April 26th, running on Adult Swim Fix starting April 25th, CLAMP designs, etc. DVD and manga will start running in July/August, more specific dates soon, and I’ll ask if there are plans for a premium edition and whatnot later.

Now we’re on the Ayakashi Ayashi trailer. I actually caught a rough cut of the first episode dubbed earlier (a friend was interested) and it still looks very pretty. So-so on the dubbing, I think, but so I often think, so don’t worry about it too much. the 30-ep anime will also start being released in July/August.

And now, Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, aka The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, yum yum yum! Same trailer as when it was announced at…was it NYAF or NYCC? I forget, but it’s still awesome. Theatrical release will begin in June, but they’re trying to get more booked before they announce everything– it’ll be at least 10 screens (please god let one of them be in Portland!). The DVD is scheduled for fall.

The next set will be Terra E, My-Otome Zwei, Gundam SEED Destiny, and the newly-announced Rocket Girl.

I never did watch Terra E when it ran; I guess it just slipped through the cracks. It looks fantastically gorgeous, though, not that the trailer says anything really about the plot besides “pretty stuff! In space!” and some mechs. (Don’t worry, we got a description after.) Maybe I’ll get to it eventually. The theme, Takuya’s “Jet Boy,” is pretty nice. The 24-episode series will begin its release in August.

My-Otome Zwei, which I have to say I’ve never really been all that interested in (or Mai-HiME either), whose trailer is still raw, no dubs or subs. Huh. Zwei will see an October release of the OVAs.

Maybe the lack of announcements is partially because of Tokyo Anime Fair being this weekend? Hmm.

Next up, Gundam SEED Destiny “TV movies” (oh, is that what it was?). Nice trailer, ’bout what I’d expect for Gundam from Bandai-E. Okay, they’re 4 “special editions” that were released, which is why BE is calling them “TV movies.” They re-tell the tale of Gundam SEED Destiny with some of the old animation and some new, and a lot of fans in Japan allegedly preferred this version over the orginal TV version. Hmm. First one will probably be in June.

Last up is Rocket Girls, but they apparently had some trouble with the source material, so the video is pixelated. Boo! The 12-episode comedy/adventure/sci-fi series doesn’t have a release date, but nothing solid just yet.

Time for Q&A. I’m going to ask about is Crunchy Roll and Adult Swim Fix…someone asked if they have ADR info for Rocket Girls, nothing yet.

Asked my question, they had a limited experiment with Amazon Unbox in ‘07 and they’re looking at their options. Apparently until recently in Japan digital distro wasn’t really encouraged by Japanese companies, and digital distro rights were hard to acquire even for shows they had DVD rights to, meaning the companies have their hands tied a bit in terms of releasing them online to English fans.

Geass question: the DVD releases! The other question I was going to ask about Geass DVDs and boxes; it’ll start being released probably August, which Robert doesn’t think of as “late.” Nothing’s official yet but they are looking at different distribution patterns, so we don’t know about a box or anything like that, but it’s a special show so they want to do something really spiffy. They ARE officially committed to the sequel season, R2, by the way. Win!

No plans for a Canadian broadcast just yet, but they have a good relationship with Canadian broadcasters (probably since Canada still actually likes most Gundam shows– hey, I should ask about Gundam 00). Someone asked about Geass pronunciations, like whether the rankings will be pronounced correctly per British pronunciations, and it looks like they’re being careful to stick with the original creators’ intentions.

There are some coffin-shaped goodies up on the table but I’m not sure what they are O_o. Someone just asked of the Pizza Hut ads will be retained in Geass; apparently it gets asked a lot. The answer is: Sunrise cleared the use of Pizza Hut for Japan, not international use, so anyone who uses the show outside of Japan will have to deal with Pizza Hut. Eep. There are discussions going on between BE and Pizza Hut, nothing definite just yet.

Someone just asked a Bandai Visual USA question, oops! Someone just informed me that BVU has cancelled their panel, by the way. Will have to pop on by dot-anime to see what that’s all about! (I also just got introduced to a BVU marketing person; maybe I can ask her.)

On the Blu-Ray front, now that Blu-Ray has won the hi-def war, BE is looking at doing it in the near future, but nothing definite yet. He’s not sure why Zwei was put on multiple discs (or the SEED Destiny movies either). As for the new My-Otome OVAs, but they’ll probably try for it if they aren’t already.

Bandai Entertainment will be releasing the booklets and character sketch booklets and mini-comics that come with the Japanese Code Geass releases, which is awesome. He’s not sure about other Geass merchandising (but I did get that awesome notebook from their booth!). It could go to Bandai America, the toy division, so we’ll see what happens there.

The company’s official stance on the state of the anime industry: “it’s in transition/flux, a lot’s happened, a lot’s changed; our business continues to be pretty much the same…looking at what’s going on, looking at options, moving forward in terms of different types of distribution. We’re very aware of what’s going on but it hasn’t had a tremendous impact on us yet.” (I.e. We put out Haruhi awesomely so the fans love us right now. Heh.)

Bandai Entertainment has NOT considered putting together a channel a la FUNimation or ADV, by the way. Aaand the Geneon titles that may or may not be up for grabs: hasn’t been told anything, so doesn’t know anything. Aww.

TokiKake: English dubs AND subs will be screened, but within the same city? It’ll be either or. Dang. I reeeeally hope Portland goes with subs, if they get it at all. T_T The dub version is a digital recording, whereas the subs are 35mm, so actually the sub may be more common. Interesting. It’ll be kinda random. No for-sures on IMAX but hey, it’s actually a possibility, sweet.

The first Zwei DVD will have a box but the contents for the series haven’t been completely decided (or told, at least), but there will be some stuff, maybe “a t-shirt and some other stuff” but that’s not official.

Sounds like Seattle might be on the list of cities getting the movie, but not for sure. I can’t quite tell if that’s a hint or if he’s just sucking up to Seattle since, y’know, that’s where this con is. Curse you, Napton! (I curse with love.) As soon as they have a schedule there’ll be a press release and stuff on the site.

Somone just asked if there’ll be a screening– the dub of TokiKake will premiere in April at New York Comic Con (can’t remember if it’s been announced, but hey, neither does he!). Guess I’ll have to check it out!

Haruhi sales (particularly special edition): very successful. Like there’s any surprise? (Well, it WAS kinda expensive. I know; I bought them all.)

Alright, that’s pretty much it. Time to go spread my business card. ♥ OH WAIT THERE’S MORE! Lucky Star will include liner notes with ALL of the references to other anime and games in the series, they even brought someone on specific to go through and pick up as close to EVERYthing as they possibly could.

I can’t get EVERY cool outfit here, but here are a handful of awesome outfits– under the jump, for the bandwidth Read the rest of this entry »