So I am now in the hot and humid realm of the greater Dallas, TX area, and hey look! A-Kon starts tomorrow. They just got their schedule up, and I can’t help but notice that it’s entirely bereft of near next door neighbor FUNimation– I’ve got an e-mail out to events manager Adam Sheehan to see if it’s just a scheduling snafu or if they’re really not having a panel– I’ll update if I need to add them to the list.

That said, here are the panels I’m planning on (or could) attend….

- “Industry Panel” featuring Nabeshin, Jake Tarbox, and Steven and Megumi Cummings.
- The above panel is unfortunately at the same time as Radio Comix, but if you had questions for Radio I could try and track down the reps afterwards.
- Bandai Entertainment industry panel (hey, soon I won’t have to specify, I can just say “Bandai.” Or at least “Bandai USA.” Hmm!
- ImaginAsian TV
- Antarctic Press

There’s a whole series of panels that seem to revolve around trying to get laid at a con: “How to Talk to Girls” (which is 18+), “Girls at Cons,” “Boys at Cons,” and then the finale, “Sex at Cons.” I have a feeling that the Jtor guys and I may crash that last one if our schedule permits…

I’ll also be attending the video game cosplay record-breaking attempt (or at least most of it…it runs 1-4pm, and I have a panel from 1-2pm and then 4-5pm, it looks like…but I think I only have to be there 15 minutes for it to count, so it should be a good time). I also hope to cover the maid events and stuff.

Ganbarimasu~ And as always, feel free to leave questions for companies and/or guests– A-kon’s list is here, and I figure at least a handful of you will be interested in asking Nabeshin a few things, right? –in the comments here and I’ll do my best to hunt people down and get you answers!

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 more…

ANN reports that Cartoon Network is not planning on showing any more One Piece episodes, which is interesting because one item I didn’t bother mentioning in my FUNi liveblog that Sheehan noted was that he thought that One Piece WAS supposed to come back (but he wasn’t sure).

I’d still bet on Cartoon Network knowing what they’re talking about, but I’ll check back with Sheehan after the Antarctic Press and Dark Horse panels just in case. Also, looks like Antarctic joins VIZ in the no-show category.