AX08: Bandai Entertainment
Opening up the Bandai Entertainment panel in this giiiiiant room! They’re starting with the former Bandai Visual USA title Freedom, which will hit Blu-Ray in November 2008 and regular DVD in early 2009. Box set, all of it for $139.98. (In Japan, $200.) The usual spiel and trailers for Code Geass, Lucky Star, Ghost Slayers Ayashi, Toward the Terra (the remake, not the same one Right Stuf just announced, My-Otome Zwei, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Gundam Seed Destiny, Aika R-16, Rocket Girls, Gundam 00, Gurren Lagann, Sword of the Stranger.
I just got a twitter announcement from Bandai staffer LordRichard saying “this manga leaps,” which makes me think they’ve acquired the manga adaptation of the film (not related to the manga version of the original novel that CMX licensed)? We’ll see!
Update on that: “This manga leaps while 00 goes scifi.” Gundam 00 on the Sci-Fi channel? No way!
We watched a dub trailer of Gundam 00, by the way, and it’ll be on Sci Fi on November 17th. ♥ Woot woot! The official site will go live on July 7th, and now we’ll move on to Gurren Lagann.
Shokotan is going to be at the BEI booth at 11:30am on Sunday, woohoo, but only for the first 100 people in line, who will get handstamped. They’re VERY serious about the 100 people. The English voice cast is also having an autograph session at 2pm on Sunday.
New manga announcement, and is it…is it…it is! The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, as I mentioned before, the one based on the film, and it’s by Ranmaru Kotone.
Another new anime announcement: Combat Butler Hayate! That’s a surprise, expected VIZ. But that’s SO AWESOME.
In the Q&A: a question about 00. Which voice actor studio did they use? Answer: Ocean. But we didn’t get a cast list, did we? Hmm. Oh, there he goes– it’ll be on the website on Monday. How about the 00 DVD release, and what other series might appear on sci-fi? For releases, no announcement, and no new series on sci-fi yet.
Any chance at licensing any new Macross, or is it too expensive with the music? It’s a difficult situation because of a legal dispute between Harmony Gold and the US and the Japanese companies over the name of Macross, so…yeah. Tough.
On BVU’s moe stuff, they had a panel earlier that I never heard diddly about where they talked about that. Lame! I’ll corner Rob about it later and get the scoop.
Someone just asked about Suzaku of the Counter-Attack and Nightmare of Nunally, and yes, Bandai Entertainment DOES have all of them, along with the light novels as well.
What about older Gundam series? There’s a Gundam committee in Japan that makes those decisions, so it’s not really up to Bandai Entertainment, though they’re aware of the demand. Another question about whether Gundam 08th MS Team complete collection will be released again? It sounds like it’s still active so they can hopefully work something out.
Apparently Kadokawa Japan officially supports shoujo-ai pairings for Lucky Star, is there a stance for the American branch? No one really understands the question. Well, I understand the question but there is no answer. Rob Napton promises to figure it out for her after the panel though.
Some guy wants to know about whether Mary Elizabeth Glynn will play Major Kusanagi on Ghost in the Shell. The answer: yes. Woot, easy! Are they interested in picking up the next season of Hayate? They’re in talks for it.
Are they going to do more with Adult Swim in the future? They hope to, of course, but no announcements at this time. Any news on the Z Gundam movies? In negotiations with Sunrise.
Will there be more Gundam series after these (after 00)? Uh…classified! THey’re giving away free stuff to people who ask questions, btw, if that explains everything.
Girl who Leapt Through Time on Blu-Ray? Yes, probably, in a while. When is Lucky Star 3 coming out? September. US anime industry is suffering, is that really true or just rumors? It’s true, says Iyadomi, and I lost track of the rest of the stuff he said. Is there any hope for it getting better? Bandai Entertainment is trying to keep pushing it into healthiness with their licenses. So hopefully we can support it.
How many episodes of Gundam 00 are there? 25 to date, and on Sci-Fi they’ll show TWO episodes a week, spanning 13 weeks.
Already running out of time, looks like five more questions. When will they release the full box set of Gurren Lagann? No plans yet. Combat Butler Hayate: lots of pop culture references. In the original it was censored a lot for copyright stuff. Will they keep that stuff in, or what? They just got the deal so they haven’t really decided yet.
Looks like that’s the end! One quick clarification from Napton: Sword of the Stranger is hitting theaters July 18th, with DVD information TBD. (There was incorrect info on the screen by mistake.)
Running to DMP now!
Tags: ax08, Bandai-Entertainment, liveblogging
July 4th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
[...] This just in. I’ll try to fill in details when and if any are made available. This entry was written by Josh, posted on at 7:50 pm, filed under Anime Expo and tagged Bandai Entertainment, Combat Butler Hayate. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. « A little update on Funimation, Geneon, and ADV [...]
July 4th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
I second that woot (or third it since you said it twice)! Now if only Sci-Fi would get rid of the ECW, then I’ll be happy.
July 4th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
[...] nabs Combat Butler Hayate Gia reports that Bandai Entertainment has snagged the rights to the Combat Butler Hayate anime. Most had [...]
July 4th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
He tricked me @_@ They never discussed true tears, sola, or Shigofumi at the earlier panel.
July 7th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
[...] Bandai Entertainment [...]