Now, this panel includes Random House, Del Rey (normal), AND Del Rey Manga, so it won’t be as much manga asis often the case, and I’ll only post relevent stuff, natch.

And now, after 15 minutes of…some dude talking about people in the US comics industry/DC/Superman…the panel will begin! From Del Rey Manga I see Dallas Middaugh, Tricia Narwani, and Mutsumi Miyazaki…plus Chris Schluep and Betsy Mitchell from RHPG and Del Rey, respectively. The manga is tucked in the middle and it sounds like we’ll be rushing through, sooo…I’ll do my best.

Okay, not manga, but they’re actually publishing a book of “Garfield Minus Garfield” (i.e. Garfield strips where Garfield has been removed). Whoa.

OK, here goes the manga stuff. Fly, fingers, fly! No italics for now, htnl is so tricksy on a phone:

- CLAMP in America, a cmpletely original retrospective of clamp’s role in the us manga world. By clamp, natch, and Shaenon Garrity, with interviews, history, and 300 full color drawings– 2009 release.

- Negima Neo, by someone who is not Ken Akmatsu.

- Orange Planet, by Instant Teen’s Haruka Fukushima.

- Yokai Doctor, can’t read the creator’s name.

- Soryuden novel (illustrated by Clamp version)

That’s it for manga-related news. Now, some q&a, again only including the manga-related, starting with the Yukikaze novels– acquisitions manager is writing the title down, so they’ll consider it.

And the usual Kodansha question…Dallas more or less waves the question off and hopes that Kodansha does well, meanwhile Del Rey continues to license stuff from ‘em.

Yes, they have considered Vinland Saga, but no announcement for now.

Are they considering a manga anthology magazine? Hachette, Yen’s owner, is a magazine distributor- but Random House is books, so they’re hesitant, but it’s not impossible, especially if Yen+ does really well.

Clamp to the US? nothing planned. They’re working through details on the clamp retro, it will probably be softcover to make it more affordable but they are going as premium as they think fans can afford.

Now Del Rey (normal) stuff…

…Best incorporation of chinchilla death into a panel ever. No, you get no further explanation.

Dallas got his hat at a store called d Bejeweled in New York. It is not his first hat. I do not know why this matters, but Dallas should know better than to suggest questions.

I think that’s the end here. Whew. I’m getting much faster at blogging by phone!

More phone liveblogging, so sorry it’s not my usual massively detailed type of writeup– hopefully I’ll have better luck tomorrow.

Anyway! Rob Napton presiding as usual, along with Ken Iyadomi and…someone whose name I didn’t catch. And then there’s the usual presentation…now, Bandai’s “LordRichard” said they’d have a new announcement, but Napton makes it sound like they might not. We shall see!

Decidedly more male-dominated applause for Gundam 00 than for Gurren Lagann, interestingly.

Also the promised new announcement may be on Bandai’s website instead of the panel. Curses, that’ll be tougher for me.

That guy who I didn’t catch the name of earlier is Lloyd…still no last name though. Noveber 4th for the Girl Who Leapt Through Time dvd, can’t remember if that date is new.

I have been corrected! It’s Loy Fruel. Thanks, Richard!

Sword of the Stranger dvd/blu-ray, probably at the end of 1q 09. Special ed of both dvd and blu-ray will come out too.

Loks like Badai is announcing a new manga here, but it’s already up on the site– Lucky Star! Finally! Thank god! Yaaaaaay!

Now heading to Random House/Del Rey, which will include manga stuff.

Liveblogging via phone. we’ve got Samuel L. Jackson and Afro Samurai creator Takashi Okazaki here (the RZA is running late, in traffic) and we’re gonna see trailers and stuff for the new anime sequel, the game, and the manga!

“Buck wild” is how Jackson describes the sequel, which is about a repentent Afro whose father is resurrected by a group who want to make a zombie army. Cue trailer.

Looks pretty badass. Remember, Spike TV in January. Some self-imposed q&a…hardest part of the sequel? Getting it all written by Okazaki in a timely fashion. Samuel L. Jackson uses Skype, fyi.

Okazaki says that people’s expectations are high for sequels so the hardest part was meeting those expectations…and Sam’s. Jackson denies that he has a temper and says he doesn’t throw a tantrum…much. (His words, not mine!) Jackson says he comes at it as a fan.

Jackson has been watching Asian cinema for a long time– since college, especially samurai flicks, so Afro Samurai with its story, lead, and music, was a perfect marriage of his interests.

The RZA just joined in and smooched Okazaki’s translator, too.

Okazaki has been a fan of hip hop and soul in college, where he started doodling Afro on tissue boxes. When he heard Samuel L. Jackson and GDH were interested in the property, he thought it was a joke being played on him.

RZA says he’s sorry he was late but 5 is jammed out. He was approached by GDH for the show but he’d come upon it before, and he was also a fan of Ninja Scroll. The new Afro’s music is different from the first; the music is more about the women and female fury, whereas the first was more about Afro’s feelings.

Okay, have to scoot out early for Bandai Entertainment…hope you enjoyed what little I got. (OhgodI’mtenfeetfromsamuelljackson!)

I’m actually avoiding spending my tiny tiny swag budget killing time waiting for my first panel (which is the Afro Samurai event at 4:15) here at Comic Con, and thought I’d get started on my postings. The first, coincidentally enough, is FUNimation’s slew, including their acquisition of (dun da-dunnn!) Afro Samurai: Resurrection!

The sequel is due to hit Spike TV– which will feature the voice talents of Lucy Liu and Mark Hamill as well as Samuel L. Jackson –in January 2009.

There has been a LOT of talk about the future of manga in the United States. Here are a few of the latest entrants:

• Ed Chavez at MangaCast
• Kai-Ming Cha at GenuineArticle
• Erica Friedman at Okazu
• Various manga publishers at expo, at manga.about.com
• Newsarama parts one and two

And if you’re tired of that talk, here are a few other items:

• ICv2 talks with VIZ about their new original comics.
• AltJapan has word from the Otaking, who is unhappy with his current subjects.
• Aaand Omonomono offers up Satoshi Kon on a silver platter.
• 4chan makes the Wall Street Journal. Seriously.
• The finale, for the lulz: guy who’s never read yaoi wonders if it’s the future of gay comics. The answer, as anyone who knows the first thing about yaoi understands, is a resounding NO.

I expect a report comparing and contrasting any two of the above on my desk by 3pm Friday!

So, one flight from LAX to PDX, one cab ride, two freelance articles, a nap, and an hour of dealing with a random selection of corrupted files later (O_o;), I come home to find…several new anime announcements! Always my favorite thing to talk about ♥

First up: Konnichiwa Anne: Before Green Gables will be anime-ified. The book is, of course a prequel to the events of Anne of Green Gables, which was adapted into an anime in 1979.

Then there’s the adaptation of the manga Kuro Shitsuji (”Black Butler”), Yana Toboso’s 2007 manga about a particularly skillful butler (I think his poster actually appears in ads for butler cafes or something, too– the cover looks very familiar to me).

Moving right along…Mouryou no Hako (”Spirit Box”), a mystery/horror novel by Natsuhiko Kyougoku, is also being adapted– and CLAMP is providing the character designs. Score!

And finally, ANN’s many-membered staff picked up this announcement I missed at Anime Expo: Akemi Takada, character designer of Kimagure Orange Road, Patlabor, and Maison Ikkoku, has a new CG anime in the works (unpictured).

Plenty has continued happening outside of Anime Expo, so let’s talk about some of it, shall we? There’s not quite enough to categorize it this time though:

- Sankaku Complex reports on the status of the fight against censorship of loli hentai manga, which Artefact refers to as “delicious cake.”

- Word is that the rematch between Japanese professional food-eater Takeru Kobayashi and American eater Joey Chestnut has finally happened, and Kobayashi was not able to regain his title, according to Japanator. He should know better than to challenge Americans at eating…it’s what we do best.

- And finally, a report from the Mainichi notes that one of the three anime pirates who were arrested in Japan back in May has had his sentence requestd to be a year and a half in prison. Ouch.

Hokay, sitting in Aurora publishing, where we’ll celebrate the company’s first birthday: they announced their creation at Anime Expo last year. I’ll be scooting out of this one early to get to the Ouran panel, but here I am in the meantime! I came in early so I didn’t get a raffle ticket this time. Sad pandas. The grand prize is a Wii, too…awww!

Moving right along, they’re going to talk about the company, which is the US branch of Ohzora Shuppan, the #1 (they say) publisher of women’s comics in Japan. They particularly pioneered josei comics, hence their US josei line LuvLuv, as well as yaoi, hence the Deux line.

Man…it’s a shame they started late, because I’m going to have to scoot out right now. I’ll count on Deb from manga.about.com to catch any new announcements– sorry guys! I’m off to get the Ouran voice cast!

Fail internets are fail! I think the network is overloaded.

Anyway, I’m sitting in the LuvLuv panel. LuvLuv is Aurora’s josei line which exists because the only other adult options were previously yaoi and hentai- not a very diverse range!

We’re in the q&a right now. Someone asked if the titles will be in Borders, which it is already, as well as books-a-million though no Barnes and Noble

Someone asked about Mayu Shinjou’s short stories, which is possible. Asked why this genre is different from hentai, it’s because hentai is male-oriented and hosei is female-oriented. (Josei isn’t all sex-related, by the way, but they’re kinda playing it off as if that’s the case.)

Moving right along…How are they going to pursue the market? There’s a challenge with the material being 18+ only, but they have a myspace and are approaching romance novel sites, as well as more tradiional otaku outlets like animeTV.

That seems to be mostly the end here- I kind of expected some new announcements, but I have been foiled!