Sitting in on the Go! Comi panel now: and they’re first telling us that 07 Ghost is actually read “seven ghost,” not “oh-seven ghost.” Just so we know. And now they’re doing one of their cute little manga trailers for the series, which, btw, they have a HUGE banner for in the convention center.

We’re talking over all of the current titles, like Crossroads, Tenshi Janai, After School Nightmare, Kamisama Kazoku, Ultimate Venus, etc.

New licensing announcements, yay! Only a few that they can talk about: one is Days of Cool Idols, a BL one-shot, due out this fall (I’ll get the author name at the end). Next year they’ll release You Higuri’s series Crown, based on the original work by Shinji Wada. It’s a shoujo manga, not BL. It’s ending in Japan this December, and they’ll start releasing it in January. She may also get back to Cantarella at the end of this year…maybe.

And finally…a new series by Mick Takeuchi (creator of Her Majesty’s Dog and Wise Man Sleeps), titled Shibariya Komachi. The series follows a 17-year-old girl who accidentally loses nine years of her life– i.e. she becomes an 8-year-old. (Another description says she becomes a 10-year-old, but Go! Comi says she loses nine years, so…you tell me!). I love Takeuchi’s other works so I’m sure I’ll love this one too. ♥

And we’re now getting a preview for o-play, Go! Comi’s new manga gaming initiative– inspired by the Japanese dating sim/renai visual novel type games. However, instead of stat-building like what appears in some games (Angelique) it’s all about story-building. It’ll be online-only, and episodic, kind of like an anime or a manga– so expect cliffhangers. And the price will be under $10…a hit. Hm. It sounds interesting…

The title of the demo game is Dragon Academy. It looks okay so far, although the music’s awful– but this is slug music, not the actual final music, so we’ll see how it goes. It looks very much like a standard visual novel kind of game. It’s all flash, and the art looks really nice.

Here’s a shitty photo of the game:

When you need to make a decision, instead of selecting a text response, you get a wheel of faces (the wheel of emotions, or “wheel of emo”) where you select the way your character responds internally. Interesting.

And now just a couple of minutes for questions: the game will be charged both on a per-chapter (”episode”) basis, and probably also a subscription service eventually, probably when more chapters are available. They’re currently making three games, and they definitely are investigating the possibility of taking Japanese manga and developing games based on their manga (there’s a reason they’ve shown this to You Higuri already)…IF the games do well.

Some asker just got corrected for using “shounen-ai” (which is NOT a term for BL in Japan). A Black Sun/Silver Moon question about whether they’ll pursue more titles by her, and the answer is yes. And a question about Masque of the Red Death, their OEL BL title from Wendy Pini, who is here sitting in the audience already. They had a panel about it last night, and they’re going to have a signing with Pini back in the dealer room after this panel, with posters. There’s also a mock-up of the print edition for people to flip through…if you’re 18+. Those who preorder the book will get it signed by Pini.

The end!

Kasia, Marco, and Lillian are presiding over the Tpop panel, and they’re starting off with upcoming titles, like the Ghostbusters OEL. Artists include Yamashita, Johnson, Delk, Lorenzo, Schelfer, Watson, and Steinbach. Coming out around the same time as the video game.

OH GOD DISNEY. Camp Rock, High School Musical, and Hannah Montana comics…

This has been announced but here’s the first real discussion of it: full-color manga from non-Japan, non-US countries. The first title is Orange by Hong Kong artist Benjamin, due out February 2009, and I have to tell you– the cover is HOT.

Then there’s Pixie, which is thematically more manga-like than Orange. It’s by Mariolle and Aurore, hailing from France. This one was originally a large trim-size book (think TinTin), but they’ve been working their butts off to make sure the art and everything comes out well in a smaler trim size– regular manga size, for the record.

Last up is Luuna, about a Native American girl. I can’t read the names of the artists on it.

Moving forward with other titles that have been announced, they say? Tsubasa: Those With Wings (aka Tsubasa wo Matsu Mono) by Fruits Basket creator Natsuki Takaya.

A, um, Battlestar Galactica manga. Huh. Apparently they’re in close contact with the writers of the recent TV series, so they’ve got some plotlines that were actually supposed to be in the TV show that they didn’t have time to actually do. So, for BSG fans, this could be cool. That’s due out in March ‘09, ish.

They’re coming out with a novel of Tarot Cafe, written by Chandra Rooney and illustrated by Sang-Sun Park, who did the original manhwa, of course.

The .hack//G.U. novel is going to come out next winter, and they’ve acquired Peacemaker Kurogane, the follow-up to the original Peacemaker manga.

I’ve totally lost track on what’s actually new and what’s not, but here’s Nanae Chrono’s Momo Tama, which actually kinda reminds me of Potemayo in style o_o The Japanese title is Senki Senki Momotama, and it looks ridiculous and awesome. And it also includes hot dudes and fighting and action and stuff. Sounds win!

Kare Kano creator Masami Tsuda’s Castle of Dreams, which is actually two of Tsuda’s anthologies combined into one book.

Aaaand NG Life, by Mizuho Kusanagi, of Mugen Spiral fame (but very different).

Oooh, Togainu no Chi manga, by Sugaro Chayamachi and Nitro+ CHIRAL. This is a manga adaptation of a violent, action-oriented BL game. Yes, you heard that right.

This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, based on the Gainax anime of the same name. And then Maid-sama! (also known as Kaichou wa Maid-sama!), by Hiro Fujiwara, about a feminist school president who secretly works in a maid cafe. Mwahaha. Looking forward to that one, which runs in Lala with Host Club and Vampire Knight in Japan.

Last but not least, Demon Sacred, from Jyu-oh-Sei creator Natsumi Itsuki, he rmost recent series. Apparently it involves demons and unicorns. What more do you need?

Q&A now…are they going to continue publishing the Gundam manga Ecole du Ciel, which was suspended– it’s among the titles that are being re-evaluated after the Tpop/Tpop Media split and layoffs. When might we hear about them? As soon as possible but no specific timeframe yet.

Any shot at the .hack//sign SD 4koma strips coming out? Not at the moment, and Tpop is a little wary of the gag strips because they’re hard to translate (AzuDai being an exception, Lillian notes).

How can someone who is an established manga artist in China approach Tpop to publish their works? Sounds like he’s talking about someone specific. In the case of Benjamin, he has an agency, but the person this guy’s talking about can just contact someone at Tpop directly.

A fan of the bind-ups wants to know what other series are going to be done that way. They’ve done Sgt. Frog, KareKano, ReBirth, Chronicles of the Cursed Sword, Battle Royale, and they’re doing an ultimate edition of DramaCon– a 624-page book, with a 15-page bonus story and some stuff. Due out in October. Also I Luv Halloween is getting a bind-up, and Ai Yori Aoshi, and they’re considering many other series. They’ve even talked about doing one for Loveless– it’s just a matter of permission. Oh, and a Demon Host of Ouran bind-up. And the question asker wants Tactics, but that’s not super-long or finished for now.

What’s up with the light novel line? Like the manga, some of them are being re-evaluated but they plan to continue some, like Twelve Kingdoms. But they’re still working it out with the rights holders in Japan.

Questions on Battlestar Galactica (for which there is apparently an exclusive toaster being sold at San Diego Comic Con, scary!). The new manga is set in season 3, and it has not been determined if it’ll be pre-New Caprica(sp?) or post, but it’ll be an anthology of shorts.

I can’t even describe this question. This guy wants to find the UK office, and he wants them to do manga versions of ancient Egyptian scrolls, or something?…Tokyopop is handling this waaay better than we are, I can’t stop chuckling.

How about the reaction on the Kodansha news, will it affect Tokyopop– especially titles like Beck. As far as they know there should be no effect; they haven’t gotten any news from Kodansha, so speculation on that front was apparently wrong. It’s mostly business as usual for Tpop, since they don’t get a lot from Kodansha these days anyway.

Whose idea was it to publish tankobon instead of just single issues? Lillian says VIZ actually had been doing it for some time and Tpop (back when it was Mixxzine) did floppies, but eventually it was probably Stu who made the decision for Tpop, since he usually does. He also standardized the price and trim size.

Any update on the Return to Labyrinth and Dark Crystal manga in terms of releases? Labyrinth 3 is due out in December, and Crystal volume 2 should be sometime early next year, probably.

Same question but on Mamotte Shugogetten, which is still on the schedule. Volume 2 should be out soon. See, these questions I normally get annoyed by: “just check the website!” But it’s so hard to do that with TOKYOPOP. Lillian mentioned that they’d be updating the site soon, but they’ve been saying that for a while, so we’ll see.

Two final questions: next one, will you please stop releasing yaoi in the US? He’s wearing an Anime Pulse t-shirt…hmmmmm! I might sell him to Yaoi Press.

Last question: do they have an affiliation with Capcom? And will they please do the MegaMan manga? Lillian says it’s a good question, they have a relationship with Capcom, so it’s a possibility.

Well, I promised to have it up tonight, so here it is! The main points I gleaned from my interview with FUNimation CEO Gen Fukunaga:

Read more…

So I started in late thanks to AWESOME MEXICAN FOOD! and then I had FAIL INTERNETS! So I missed the licenses for Juné/801 except the last few, so you’ll have to wait for me to grab those. I DID catch Toko Kawai’s Cut, Clan of the Nakagamis 2, Lonely Egoist by Masara Minase, and a few other titles I didn’t get names for: Heavens Smile, Suggestive Eyes, Hey Sensei (by Yaya Sakuragi), Love Syndrome, and Love Potion. Full list as soon as I can get it!

They’re opening up Yaoi Club, and if you sign up early you MIGHT get some kind of coupon, which is awesome. On to the Q&A…

Ring Finger novel 4 just came out in Japan a year ago, and novels are harder to translate, but it’s in progress. 5 isn’t out yet in Japan. Our Kingdom 6 and Kuroshima-sensei’s Passion are delayed thanks to Biblos’ bankruptcy. Art of Loving 2 hasn’t been created yet.

Will there be a fourth book in the Finders series? They don’t know– it’s a CPM title! (If it’s anyone’s…)

They try to ignore scanlators, and don’t want to start sending C&Ds out, which is a stance they can only do as long as books sell! So buy ‘em if you read them online.

Someone just asked to interview the DMP staffers…heh. They’re crazy busy because they’re also manning their booth, which is seeing maaaad traffic.

Cold Sleep has two more volumes, both Biblos titles and therefore in limbo. There might be good news by the end of the year.

Mobile phone yaoi? Maybe. Are they looking at grabbing Drama Queen’s licenses? Not until DQ officially closes its doors, if that happens.

Here’s the license list:

Desire - Dangerous Feelings (Yabai Kimochi) by Shoko Takaku
Moonlit Promises (Yakusoku no Tsuki) by Souya Himawari
Double Trouble by Yukari Hashida
Where Has Love Gone (Ai wa Doko Itta) by Ryou Tsunoda
Then Comes Love (Soshite Ai ni Naru) by Riyu Yamakami
Pure Heart (Junjou) by Hyouta Fujiyama
The Way To Heaven (Tengoku ni Ikeba Ii) by Yamimaru Enjin
Clan of the Nakagamis 2 by Homerun Ken
Object of my Affections (Dare wa Sukina Hito) by Nanao Okuda
Love/Knot by Hiroko Ishimaru
Longest Time (Nagai Aida) by Tohko Tateno
Live for Love (Ai ni Ikitai Dake Nanosa) by Itsuki Sato and Jun Mayama
Eat or Be Eaten (Kuu ka Kuwareruka) by Yamimaru Enjin
Spiral of Sand (Suna no Rasen) by Yuna Aoi
Honey/Chocolate by Nanao Okuda
Manhattan Love Story by Momoko Tenzen
Planet of Earthquake (Kikai Jikake no Ousama) by Miou Takaya
The Lonely Egoist by Hikaru Masaki
Heaven’s Smile (Sora Kara Furumono) by Aki Senoo
Suggestive Eyes (Sono Ki ni Sasenaide) by Momoko Tenzen
Love Syndrome (Renai Shoukougun) by Yura Miyazawa
Love Potion (Biyaku na Honey) by Sakuya Fujii
Hey Sensei by Yaya Sakuragi
Cut by Toko Kawai

Oh thank god, I think that’s all of them…

So, back when MangaGamer was first announced, they mentioned a couple of big titles– Da Capo and Suika –which are both Circus titles.

So I figured since Circus is having a panel at Expo, and it’s right after the Juné/801 Media panel and in the same room, I’d sit in on it and see if they had anything interesting to say. So, here I am! We’ll see what happens in a room that appears to be me and…well, at least two other females; another journalist plus Shizuki from Broccoli (translating, not doing anything for BroBooks) and a whole bunch of dudes. (Actually I’m lying, there are a handful of women spread about…but I think there were more dudes in the yaoi panel previously than there are girls in this panel so far, interestingly).

So the panelist iiiiis: Tororo, the “Steve Jobs” of the eroge industry. Circus is a company that creates moe games like D.C. Da Capo, Suika, and even a My-HiME game. To those of us who didn’t attend the panel last year, not only do they do video games for Japan but they’re also looking at doing different things in the U.S. and worldwide.

Here’s news: they’re going to start making otome games (games for women featuring bishounen). Sweet!

Next panelist: Kayurayuka, manga artist and illustrator, who was in charge of the art of Da Capo 2. She’s also super cute. Currently she’s drawing a Suika manga as well.

Oh god, Miru– of Cy-Rim rev. –is adooooorable! She does music along with MASA, the guitarist of Cy-Rim rev., for the games. MASA is also pretty badass looking. (Miru does vocals/lyric-writing, MASA does guitar/composing). They’re really enjoying their glowsticks…blue! Apparently in Japan, glowsticks are “cy-rim,” hence the name. And everyone knows that meaning, and apparently they’re very popular at live events in Akihabara, not unlike concerts here. You can get more on them at their website, btw, right here.

MASA is from Ueno, Tokyo, and he says he met Miru when he was walking down the street with bread in his mouth, at a crosswalk where Miru was running, and they bumped into each other and he dropped is bread. MASA is so moe! At that same moment, Tororo walked by and picked up the bread and asked: “is it the golden bread, silver bread, or regular bread that you dropped?” And that’s how Cy-Rim rev. was created. Yeah, I have noooo clue.

How many of us have bought Cy-Rim rev.’s CD? Blank response, but Miru says their first album was released on May 30th and it’s available here at Anime Expo…but they didn’t say what booth! I don’t know if Circus has one, I’ll have to check. They had a mini-stage concert and they’re selling VCDs at the Broccoli booth, and they’re having another mini-stage concert on…I think she said Sunday. Looks like a few people here were at the mini-stage earlier.

And the last guest is Aina Kase, also adorable, and also a singer. She speaks a little bit of English (so CUTE!) And then runs back into Japanese. She’s like a kouhai (underclassman) of Cy-Rim rev. She came to the U.S. because of the video game being released on July 25th, and she sings the theme song for the game. Trying to find the title now, it’s long…anyway, Kase arrived on July 1st and she’s been to Hollywood, Santa Monica, and also a strip club yesterday. Cue the applause.

She’s got a mini-concert on Sunday and she wants to learn as much as she can about America while she’s here. Awwww! Before her debut she attended the Dwango school under the seiyuu/talento division. A bit about the game, Soramitsu, which is by Lacryma, a collaborative brand between Broccoli and Circus (oh, I stand corrected about Shizuki’s involvement). The genre for this game is “love flight adventure.” I’m in. It’s about spending your school life with a girl…and figuring out how to fly. Or something.

Here’s the “big news”: two Circus games are now available in English, and these are the MangaGamer ones I talked about earlier– MangaGamer is actually based in Europe and they’ve already released D.C. Da Capo in English. Americans translated it, and it’s fully downloadable. Suika is also a pending release for the site.

Now moving into Q&A…and if Tororo likes his question you get a promo card for Da Capo, very rare even in Japan. Sweet. I got nothin’ to ask really…

How do they feel about finally breaking the wall and getting a moe title out in the US (as opposed to just eroge– Da Capo isn’t hardcore, IIRC)? When Tororo came three years ago not many people understood the concept of “moe,” but now if you say “moe” more people actually know what it means and really understand it. To say what moe is about is to feel very “kyun-kyun.” (I think that’s like lovey-dovey and protective but I’m not sure.)

Now that Da Capo is localized, how about DC2 or the 16 different versions of the series already out in Japan? They probably won’t be doing ALL of the different versions, but probably the next one will be D.C.P.C. or Da Capo 2. It’d be nice if they could release both the JP and English versions simultaneously someday, Tororo says.

We get one more question…that trailer was LONG! Why did they chose to do a download service for a localization, considering that most of the people familiar with Circus games probably became so via downloading illicitly? Why not offer special bonuses to give people a reason to buy rather than download? Tough question to end on!

It’s very difficult to create packaged merchandise and ship it out (implied: especially to another country!). And even if we make packaged products, there’ll still be downloads, and then they have leftover inventory, and everything comes back to the company and stockpiles in the office. Then it becomes harder to make new games. So they wanted to do a download service to see how many people would actually buy it, and then they might create packaged products for certain regions.

They’re very open to suggestions, so let Circus know what you want: packaged products, dakimakura, etc.

Looks like that’s the end. I’m going to get up the Fukunaga interview sometime tonight, and that’ll be the end of my Friday. Whew!

I walk in a few minutes late and Rachel’s already streaming through the licenses so I’m going to steal them off of Deb’s computer, since she’s right in front of me…here are the ones we could get:

Utahime by Aki
Overclock Once in a Blue Moon by Riya Hozumi and Ryouko Seki
Ghost Hunt Scramble by Ohotachibana
Tale of a White Night by Tooko Miyagi
1 Sakura Hill by Fujiko Kosumi
Lyrical Nanoha Strikers by Maki Tsuzuki and Kouji Hasegawa (surprise!)
RH+ by Ayako Suwa
Time for Magic by Morehe Yoshida
Princess Princess+ by Mikiyo Tsuda
Happy Boys by Makoto Tateno
Millenium Prime Minister by Eiki Eiki
Wolf God by Ai Tenkawa
Otodama by Youka Nitta (not yaoi).
Crimson Cross by Kyoko Negishi

On the Pop Japan Travel front, they’ve added a bunch more guests and stuff…I’m going to flesh out this information like crazy when the panel is over @_@; If you want to ge the good price for Pop Japan Travel, mention having heard about it at Anime Expo, ’cause otherwise the price is probably going to go up. I think the tour he (Ben) was talking about was the Mind over Manga tour, which you can get info for here. (It includes a trip to Comitia, a doujinshi event kinda like Comiket but smaller).

They just got back from a tour with Japan LA, where they got a lot of Gloomy Bear merchandise and stuff. And now we’re moving into the technical difficulties phase of the panel…

Moving into a video of “A Day With Pop Japan Travel,” the Cold Steel tour, featuring Mosburger as a rest stop. Sweet. Oh, and Hideyuki Kikuchi– an Expo guest, who I DID score an interview with on Sunday, and creator of Vampire Hunter D –met up with them for dinner that day too. Score!

Now that Windows Movie Maker time is done…they are now offering an extension of the trip to go to other cities like Osaka and Kyoto after the main tour, which is kinda cool. October’s the Tokyo Game Show tour, the Asian Design Festa is in November, and next year will be Sapporo’s Snow Festival and more yaoi, lolita, and j-fashion tours. They’ll also be doing tours of Gonzo, which is kinda cool. They’ve gone to I.G, Madhouse, and Pierrot in the past, too. So when they say that there’s a studio tour and don’t say which one, don’t worry, it’ll be good.

Moving into Q&As…how much do those tours generally run for, and do they offer discounts at every con? The manga tour is $2,198 plus a fuel surcharge from the airlines which is another $235. The reason why there’s a con discount this time is because the prices are going up in the very near future, so that’s just for this con. The Kyoto and Osaka extension is $898, including the shinkansen fare, hotel, and charter bus tours of each city. And Hiroshima is $100. So cheap! The land-only price is aso available, but he didn’t mention the price. They can also help you get into additional events. And they can help you book a vacation. Hmmm!…

Any more artbooks? They’re working on Flamboyant (Ugetsu Hakua’s), and everyone should go buy the Lain artbook. Are they going to have the doujinshi tour next year? Nothing for sure because they have to coordinate with Comitia, but if it goes well this year then it’s entirely possible.

The tour actually includes printing and translation of the event-goers’ doujinshi…but the deadline’s already passed for that! Deb’s in on it, but her manga is late…oops. ;) That’s an optional part of the tour.

With Yoshitaka Amano coming to New York Anime Fest this fall…are there any plans for that event? But that’s not part of DMP, and they won’t be at NYAF thanks to Yaoi Con being the same weekend. Amano is an event of the con itself, so check their website.

Back on tours…do they go to the Nintendo museum? Haven’t done that yet but they’d be willing to add it. They used to do the Bandai Museum but when that closed and reopened as a more oldschool thing they dropped it.

“Random” question: how many sorts of translator jobs are there at DMP? Ben says to pass on the ol’ business card and he’ll give it to the right person. They publish novels and manga and that’s pretty much all the work.

Rumor that next year’s yaoi tour might include the Saiyuki mangaka Kazuya Minekura, which is the first Ben’s heard of it, but he’ll think about it. Is there a Yuri Con? Yes. It’s in New Jersey. But they don’t do it every year.

Any of Makoto Tateno’s earlier works coming out? Maybe– but Presentments (aka Omens) is already licensed by Drama Queen. How about Taishi Zaou (Mikiyo Tsuda’s pen name for hardcore works), and they announced a bunch of it here at Yaoi Jamboree, so just check there.

OK, confirming all those titles and then they’re just gonna do the raffle, soooo here we go!

So my buddies Kuro and Tim are both at the ADV panel, and Kuro reports that ADV has found a replacement for Sojitz, and will therefore live on. No word on what that replacement is, of course, but if they do say he’ll text me, so…yeah. Double-fisted blogging, kids. Gotta love it.

Update: they can’t say who it is yet, but they may have licenses for series that aren’t out yet in Japan. Hmm!

Update II: They hope to be able to announce the partnership at Otakon, so as always, stay tuned to me for your updates. ♥ There was also some talk of simultaneous US/JP releases with subs.

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!

While I was interviewing Gen Fukunaga– writeup is coming tonight –Kuro texted me the news from Right Stuf/Nozomi Entertainment: they’ve got the original Toward the Terra anime and Gakuen Alice. Jtor has a full writeup of the panel.

Yes, that was very, very short, but I’m going to try and transcribe as much of this interview as possible ASAP! If you have questions about either item for Right Stuf (or anything else for them), let me know since I’m interviewing a rep tomorrow morning!

Carl Horn just rescued the panel attendees from VIZ who wanted to stick around for Dark Horse– they were going to have to clear out and wait in line again. Awww! We shoulda given him a group hug. (Well, the press was allowed to stay, natch.)

Right then, panelists include Carl Horn, Michael Gombos, Samantha Robertson, and Jeremy Atkiss. Upcoming releases are first up, and I’m going to not type that one up all the way because it’s long and it’s all available on their website anyway. Here are some titles, though: Blood+, Style School…

Interestingly, there’s a Vampire Hunter D PVC set due out sometime in the not-too-distant futue (August, sounds like). I’m sure I heard about it and just forgot, but just in case, here it is.

MPD Psycho, Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service (woot and wootwoot, respectively)– the new Kurosagi volume is going to feature “robot zombie otaku” or something. Awesome! Carl Horn says Dark Horse has “the only Tezuka title that Japanese people actually read” (joking, of course), Astro Boy.

Apparently Adam Warren’s latest Dark Horse title involves a group of wannabe superheroes who, among other things, have a fandom that creates doujinshi about them. That’d be Empowered, whose fourth vlume is due out in September.

Hellsing volume 9 on October 22nd, “and there will be blood.” We knew that already but it bears repeating.

Announcement time! A new manga release, the Evangelion “Ikari Shinji Raising Project” manga, because the regular manga just comes out too slow and Carl got bored. Don’t worry, even though the rest of the manga is more about the Eva pilots’ potential real lives, Gendo is still Gendo, Horn assures. He hopes to make this a very fan-friendly series, and they’re encouraging people to send in Eva fanart so that we can all have fun with the series. It should start in late spring or early summer of 2009.

And apparently Michael Gombos is engaged! Congratulations!

Now onto Q&A: I opened up with a question about the CLAMP mangettes, of course. No title, no genre, but there should be some art available to the public in the near future, but more details probably won’t be out until sometime after Comic Con.

Someone’s asking about Kodansha, and will it affect Dark Horse? It will affect certain titles, but they won’t say anything about which ones yet, even if there are names (*cough Akira*) being passed around. There will be more specifics soon.

The usual question about why Hellsing is slow (i.e. Kouta Hirano is slow and they’ve already caught up with the entire series). I was busy plugging my computer in but I think I just heard Gombos say that Hellsing was going to be 10 volumes? He talked about the spinoffs which I think they can’t put out until Hellsing finishes (weird since they’re simultaneous in Japan, as it were). But I’m not entirely sure I caught that right, so don’t take it as gospel.

There are no new plans for light novels although they hope to do more someday in the future. A question about the Star Wars comics that I can’t really pick up because I know squat about those comics…a Trigun fan wants Trigun Maximum’s last two volumes; like Hellsing, they’re already up to date.

These internets are starting to fail again…someone just asked how soon they’ll be caught up on Berserk and if they’ll pick up the pace; they’re not planning to speed up but they might consider it. The same guy wants to ask about the Buffy comics (he’s whining about Buffy sleeping with a chick, oddly). And he wants to know “how they do a season,” and they talk about how awesome Joss Whedon is.

Why do they sometimes have problems with deadlines, like the Shirow Masamune stuff that was supposed to come out last year. Issues with print runs and other mechanical production problems, and they were really trying to make sure that the quality on the Shirow stuff was perfect.

Deb Aoki is asking about the Astro Boy omnibus, and they’re just putting together volumes 1 and 2 for now but they want to see how it goes before they move further. It’s going to be the same trim size as normal manga, just fatter. No color pages, though– it never had any, it sounds like.

They say they’re about done; I wonder if they realize they’re scheduled to continue through 2:30pm? Not that I’d mind a bit of a break.

And yes, I missed a few of the questions because I got distracted, oops! Dale has some of them.

If they could license any manga at all, what would they do? They’re working on getting those, I guess. No plans for 3×3 Eyes, which was very popular in Japan but couldn’t find an audience in the US.

Took a question fresh from you guys: the Blade of the Immortal novel and artbook. Those are Kodansha, so there’s no telling exactly what’ll happen, but they’re trying to get ‘em.

They’re recollecting the previews and Japanese manga that were passed around earlier, so I assume they’re closing up shop. Funny, an hour panel sometimes seems like not enough time, but an hour and a half feels soooo long! Even with the legendary Carl Horn presiding.

Someone asked about a western creator just now but I didn’t catch the name, and Robertson says that there are a lot of creators they’d love to work with but it’s hard to put together logistically. Carl Horn has just noted that there are, in fact, doujinshi of Hellboy– apparently Mike Mignola has a big following in Japan among mangaka.

Looks like we’re closing down. I won’t be at Right Stuf (or if I am, I’ll be late), so hit up Dale and Tim over at Japanator for that news, where you should also go for the ADV panel– since I’ll be at Bandai Entertainment’s during ADV (poor scheduling for the lose!). I’ll get back to you with whatever info I get from Gen ASAP, and I’ll also be covering the DMP panel after Bandai.