A Few Plans for Anime Expo
AX has shipped out two different press releases today relating to this year’s con. The first announced the 3rd annual SPJA Industry Conference key notes and panels, which include reps from the SPJA, FUNimation, the Japan External Trade Organization, and CrunchyRoll. (Welcome to the big leagues?)
There are also a number of panels, including “Anime in the US: Fansubs - The Death of Anime?,” “Manga in the U.S.: Ultimate Publisher Showdown 2008″ (O_o), “Technology, Entertainment, and Licensing,” and “The Future of Anime in Movies, Television, Video Games, Online, and Cable.” The keynote speakers are: Trulee Karahashi (SPJA CEO), Shigeru Kimura (JETO Chief Director), Gen Fukunaga (FUNi CEO), Vu Nguyen (Crunchy Roll VP of BizDev).
On a more mainstream note, AX has also announced that they’ll be offering “Sneak Peek” videos at their website, which somehow manages to feature an early look at the Masquerade, among other things.
And finally, FUNimation has announced some of their plans for AX: they’re working together with the American Cosplay Paradise group to provide a few of Ouran High School Host Club’s hosts, who will *cough* service con attendees. If the concept sounds a bit familiar, it’s probably because Bandai Entertainment is also working with ACP on Lucky Star and Gurren Lagann stuff at AX.
Tags: anime expo, ax08, cosplay, FUNimation, ouran-high-school-host-club, spja
June 17th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I hope some of the industry panels/keynotes are filmed or audio recorded since I don’t qualify as press. If Gen Fukunaga and Vu Nguyen are on the same panel, I wonder if they would get into an argument over CR’s impact on the industry.
June 17th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
I hope they have girl hosts; I don’t want guys servicing me =P
I’m somewhat excited, and I’ll definitely go to most of the panels to see if anything’s worthwhile. It’ll be my first “real” con attendance.