Holy crap, Internets! Why wasn’t Gainax in here? (Okay, okay, the room is too small.)

Anyway, I’m now sitting in the panel room watching the end of a workshop on cosplay posing, but in this room in just a little while will be (dun-da-dunnnn!) Broccoli’s panel. I’m not sure if Shizuki will be here to run the panel or not– her sister is acting as a translator for Gainax and told me that she might. So we’ll see!

And the panel is getting going, with Jonathan Kung presiding. He opens up talking about their current line up, starting with Koi Cupid (due in stores in a couple of weeks), World of Disgaea 2 in the second week of June, Cosmode USA in mid-July (some may be available at Anime Expo), sola volume 1 which will be released at Anime Expo as well– and it’s only two volumes. That title is in a bit of confusion thanks to Bandai Visual USA, who they were originally going to try to do a simultaneous anime/manga release with.

Next up is the three-volume Nui!, which he’s explaining some of the physical improbabilities of (plushies that talk and turn into bishounen? That CAN’T happen in reality!?), due out in August-ish. Honoka Level Up is also due in August, although it’s been stopped in Japan; it’s about a girl who gets drafted by her uncle to make character designs for games.

We’ve got no new announcements for 2009…yet…but maybe at Anime Expo they can say something.

Moving into Q&A: Ed from MangaCast asks when they’re going to work on Pandora’s Hearts, but they don’t really have a release date or anything yet.

On their Boys Love line…Cigarette Kisses should be out in mid-July, the translation’s done and just needs approval. Sex Friend was due back in October, but they’ve been getting it printed now, so it should be released any time now.

Next question: Galaxy Angel Party 3. It’s on an indefinite hiatus for now. Ditto for Leave It To Piyoko!.

They’re not entirely sure what’s going to happen to dot anime, which Broccoli has been maintaining but the rights are owned by Bandai Visual USA, which of course is being folded into Bandai Entertainment. They’re still looking at what’s going to happen with that.

The AnimeGamers retail store has closed and the website is all supposed to be gone even though they’ve ceased paying for it, so…yeah. Now it’s like a dead memorial. Most of their stock from AnimeGamers has gone to AnimeJungle.

And now we’ve moved into the second Q&A– where Jon asks *us* questions. Mostly it just ends up being the audience and Jon babbling about the state of the industry; currently we’re discussing digidistro for manga and stuff.

Apparently Broccoli’s president used to collect Shounen Jump (JP)– every issue since like 1973, I think he said. I’m not sure if it’s weekly or monthly, but apparently he collected so many that it actually broke through the floor.

That title doesn’t really mean anything, by the way, it’s just a tie-in with a manga title.

Anyway, MangaBlog spotted an unannounced license of Broccoli Books USA: Honoka Lv. Up!, and they even got an editorial blurb about it:

Honoka, a lonely young student, loves to doodle and draw. But her casual love of art is transformed when her uncle hires her to work as a character developer at his new video gaming company. Honoka has no idea how to negotiate the complex corporate world, and as she begins to learn the basics of the video game industry, she finds herself getting caught up in the confusing politics, crushing responsibilities, and difficult developmental aspects of her newfound calling. Overwhelmed by the challenges, Honoka realizes that she’ll have to give it her all if she wants to succeed.

Dot Anime just announced that it will be hosting five new blogs from various people within the anime industry:

• Bandai Visual USA pres Tatsunori Konno (so those of you who wanna bitch about BVU prices, here you go)
• “Zaku Bear,” a store manager for dot anime
• An Industry Babble blog written by Shizuki, a Broccoli Books employee who also writes the Broccoli Books Blog
• “Veteran Anime Fan” Loy’s observations on fandom
• And, uh…well, the blog is called Anime Is My Girlfriend, and it’s written by Johnathan Kung, the marketing coordinator for Broccoli

…Should be interesting, no?

First off, I guest-starred on Japanator’s podcast again this week, mostly talking about San Diego Comic-Con announcements, cowbells, and other goofiness. You can check it out here. I really need to learn to speak a little slower.

I actually spent most of the day cleaning (!), but there was a bit of news here and there:

Only one real new announcement from Broccoli (see liveblog thread) this time around: Nui!, whose author was not mentioned and which I can’t seem to find online (I’m guessing it has a different title in Japanese, grr). But the series is about a girl who likes plushies more than boys. And she likes them so much that some of her stuffed animals start turning INTO boys. And so suddenly she’s living with three bishounen. Oookay.

Other than that it was mostly a sum-up of everything else we’d already heard: Cosmode, Disgaea, etc.

Wrote this between Dark Horse and Broccoli, so here you go:

Where “V” stands for “very full.” Today starts off with TOKYOPOP, which I’m going to liveblog right here, right now, followed by Dark Horse (though I honestly don’t expect much from them on the manga front so if you don’t see a DH post, that’s why), then Broccoli, Seven Seas, and Yen Press. (There IS a small break in there, during which I will acquire lunch. Huzzah.)

So keep an eye here and on the forums for all the news that’s fit to blog.

Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday, folks, but I am now in San Diego for Comic Con. There’ll be panels for TOKYOPOP - whose booth is HUGE, I swear to god they’re housing their staff in that thing - VIZ, FUNimation, ADV, Seven Seas, Broccoli, Del Rey Manga, and Dark Horse (though I expect they’ll be focusing more on their non-manga offerings). Yen Press will also be giving a launch panel, which should be fun even though it overlaps with the Kevin Smith panel slightly.

As of just now when I re-checked the schedule, the only big panel today is VIZ (though a TOKYOPOP rep will be at the GoComics mobile phone comics panel so I may pop in there too).

Tomorrow’s the big day, though: TOKYOPOP, Dark Horse, Broccoli, Seven Seas, and Yen Press and Kevin Smith. Saturday’ll be FUNimation, Del Rey Manga, and ADV, and Sunday is poor l’il CMX, all alone. It *looks* like I’ll be able to make it to all of these panels, so expect full coverage! Depending on how the Internets are at the convention center, I may also live-blog them on the forums.

I’ll get to the news as fast as I can, after a few more thoughts/predictions… Read more…