Bandai Entertainment’s sneaky marketing people are at it again– check out the Bandai Entertainment website, which promises a giant announcement in about 20 minutes and also has a little history of BE. The announcement is also being made at Kawaii-Con in Hawaii by BE president Ken Iyadomi. What will it be?

Actually I’ve already heard along the grapevine, and people, this is big. Keep reloading and I will let you know as soon as I can. Did I mention this is BIG? Yeah.

Meanwhile we’re doing a bit of a Q&A while waiting for technical difficulties to be resolved– the Geass manga is probably going to be released in August, around when they start releasing the DVDs of the anime. He doesn’t know what kind of editing Geass will get on Adult Swim, but probably nothing too dramatic. (Probably just the table-humping…)

Just asked about the Eureka Seven movie, which they actually co-produced, so while they haven’t set anything official they would most likely be involved in the movie’s release in North America.

Someone just asked if Bandai Visual USA’s bad rep with fans in the US causes any trouble for Bandai Entertainment, which Rob Napton (who’s hosting the panel, did I mention?) says isn’t really the case– though both companies get questions for the other.

We has Geass DVD specs! There will be limited edition version of each disc, the first of which includes a box, the soundtrack, and the first manga, plus a sound episode CD and the first two discs for $74.98 There is also a bundle pack which will come with the first two discs (9 episodes) and a box for $39.99, and the regular edition will also be $24.98 per five-ep disc. The rest of the first season will come out in two-disc, 9-episode chunks.

And we finally have sound, huzzah! Which means we move into trailers, eh. Geass first, then Lucky Star. You know how Lucky Star comes with a t-shirt with the uniforms? Yeah, the rest include the cheerleader outfit, male and female uniforms, school swimsuit, etc.

Moving on…Ghost Slayers Ayashi, which premiered at Sakura Con. It’s being released with a really fancy collector box, and they also have the manga of the series (new announcement!) starting September 2nd. The collector box will come with the manga and a 16-page guidebook and the first ten episodes. Similarly, there will be a bundle box release for $39.98 with the first ten, and then you can also buy the DVDs individually for $24.98 for five eps.

In the meantime, one of the announcements has already been leaked: it’s Gundam 00, which isn’t terribly surprising, but still spiffy to hear. They’re also working on a TV broadcast.

And the next big announcement is…Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. Sorry ADV! Yes, I’m serious, Bandai Entertainment has snatched away the Gurren Lagann license. They’ll start releasing it in July, August, and September, three months in a row. It will also be sub-only for that release; a dub version will be released in 2009. Here is a teaser site for TTGL, btw. And the actual, official site too. Don’t worry; I’ll get to questions about whether they’ll use the same cast/dub and what kind of release they’ll be doing.

Three 9-episode chunks for Gurren Lagann; no license for the movie just yet. For the dub they’re starting completely over, so you can scrap those ADV dub cast lists entirely. The sub version will probably be fairly bare-bones, with more special features and stuff available for the dub version. Nothing concrete for possible digital distro for the series.

Yarrrr! That’s pretty much it. I kinda spaced on most of the Q&A because it’s mostly not very new.

What would we do without Canned Dogs? Amongst other commentary, the site notes that Eureka Seven is going to have a movie. What’s it about? No clue. When’s it coming out? Nope. What’s it called? …yeah, no. I can’t read anything in that article. But I’m sure details will be revealed soon.

Guess I have a new question to ask Bandai Entertainment, since they had the TV series. ♥