That video is from the Meet Gainax event, just to give you a sense of how many Gainax employees there were…I counted 44 total, but there may have been a few missing. (That close-up towards the end was on Carl Horn, of Dark Horse.) After each and every one of the Gainax employees got up on a chair and introduced themselves, we all got to mingle. Tim and I had to scoot off to eat before podcasting so we didn’t stick around very long, but it was a pretty cool event.

It was a little difficult, I think, because about 50 attendees were trying to speak to almost as many Japanese people and there were only like, 4-5 translators in the room. I did my best with a couple of people but man, it was tough!

Gurren Lagann Assistant Director Masahiko Otsuka was there but didn’t get to stick around– several of the higher-ranked Gainax people left for an interview before the event was over. But he DID leave a video camera behind with some employees and they went around asking people to send messages to TTGL director Hiroyuki Imaishi and character designer Atsushi Nishigori, neither of whom was able to go on the trip.

I said something like 私はグレンダンの一番大ファンですよ！えと。。。「グレンラガン」はありがとうございました！ which is, by the way, terrible grammar. (I was going for “I’m the Gurren-dan’s biggest fan, and thanks for Gurren Lagann!” which I think they managed to figure out, but yeah, terrible, terrible grammar. Oh, nerves!)

Hit the jump for a random smattering of cosplay photos as well as pics from Japantown (including taiyaki!). Read more…

Unfortunately, I will NOT be able to make the “Unlocking Gurren Lagann” panel tonight (though I will be at Meet Gainax). I know a lot of people expressed hope that I’d make it and write it up, but I already had committed to doing a podcast for Japanator tonight, and I don’t want to back out on them.

SO! If ANY of you are going to the panel, which is at 9pm tonight, and want to write up some of the Q&A and/or your thoughts and e-mail them to me, I would love to post them– or if you write it up on your own blog, I’ll happily link to it.

So, sorry to those who wanted me to cover it, and a preemptive thanks to anyone who does do it!

With apologies to GZR.

Some people ask me how I manage to run amuck at so many cons and remain sane. I just wanted to lay to rest any rumors of the sanity of anyone who does these things. Seriously.

Case 1: ANN. I met a freelancer working for ANN who was going low-tech at the Broccoli panel and was trying to score himself a pen. I know, right? So I loaned him one. He, like several of us, had to flee the Broccoli panel before it was done to get to Dark Horse on time, so I didn’t get it back then. Then he left Dark Horse early, and I realized afterwards…ANN stole my pen! I was gonna do a lulzpost on that, but then after Bandai Entertainment I spotted him and got it back. (Hey, it’s a good pen.)

Case 2: Me. Seriously, I get lost in my own hometown (in my defense, it’s not like I actually have a mental map of every one of the 3,291 cities that make up the bay area), and then this morning I fail to find my key to my mother’s car. I tear apart the house looking for it, but no dice. 30 minutes later, we take a spare. We get back this evening and I wonder about it, and tell my companion (Japanator’s Tim) that I’ve looked everywhere but the fridge. And I jokingly go to the fridge and check.

And there it is. Sitting on top of the leftovers box from lunch yesterday. I left my key in the fridge.

And so, my friends, I am going to try to put a new word into circulation: consane / consanity. Definition: the particular brand of nutso people go when running around a convention. The travel, trying to get your badges, getting to the panels you want, rushing through the dealer room deciding how to spend your money, navigating the territory…it takes its toll on all of us!

…Doesn’t it?

…Right?

…Just me, then?

So, anyway. If you have some stories to tell about your own bouts of consanity, feel free to share (anonymously or otherwise!). And yes, this is a plot to make me feel better. ♥

Highlights: more talk about new Gainax projects, including a movie based on an unnamed shoujo manga, and another TV project that’s really deep and heavy, and a third that’s more light-hearted. No dub cast yet though! The full writeup is after the jump. Read more…

I got a little lost on the way to Dark Horse’s panel but luckily for me it seems like they’re starting late. Whew! I even managed to get a power outlet. The other press folks are in the opposite corner from me; that must be why.

Well, anyway, legendary editor Carl Horn is now setting up. And the first thing he tells us is that this very month is Dark Horse’s 20th anniversary of publishing translated manga. Woohoo! They have a special painting by Yoshitaka Amano which is the 20th anniversary logo for Dark Horse Manga, which they’ll have available as a limited edition print.

He’s handing around some previews of upcoming releases including Clover, which they’re doing not just an omnibus but a “digital remaster” with newly re-scanned artwork. Sweet!

The usual spiel about how downloading isn’t bad, not buying is bad; if you can’t find Dark Horse in your store make sure you order it or ask for it; etc. More previews including volume three of Blood+ and Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service 7, Ghost Talker’s Daydream, and the new volume of Gantz.

Now for the list of 2008 releases, including announcements about things that they’re going to announce. For example, still no news about mangettes and the joint CLAMP/Dark Horse project…but Horn thinks they’ll be able to talk about it at San Diego.

They don’t have any new announcements; right now Horn is just going through the upcoming Dark Horse releases for 2008 and talking about certain favorites of his. One of those releases is the Domo-kun, whose “Polar White” version is due out May 11th, along with “Royal Blue.”

Horn just mentioned that Kikushi and the translator of the Vampire Hunter D novels will be guests at New York Anime Fest, and he hopes to get Amano out there too, it sounds like.

October 22nd is the official release date for Hellsing 9, and Horn suspects that there just may be some slaughter. Mwahaha.

They’re also going to release some mini-Domo-kuns in October, they’ll be 5½” tall.

Moving into the Q&A…they are releasing Translucent 4 and 5, even though they weren’t on his list. Horn isn’t sure why they’re not on the schedule and says it’s been popular. I missed the next question, unfortunately.

Someone asked if they’re ever going to reprint Dirty Pair and they’ve been giving it strong consideration. He’s not sure how long CLAMP’s mangettes story is going to be, besides it being at least three volumes.

A lot of talk about flopping now, which Horn has covered several times in previous panels I’ve covered, so I’ll just link to some of those.

Interestingly, someone just asked about Shadow Star– aka Narutaru by the creator of Bokurano, which was published by Dark Horse as a childrens’ title and which developed into a decidedly un-childrens’ title. But Horn says it’s really more about the sales.

That’s it! I’ll see you at Bandai Entertainment’s Gurren Lagann-specific panel at 5!

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.

Right, so I’m really really irritated right now– counter to what I was told by people at the info booth, Bandai Entertainment DID have their panel yesterday, at 5pm, which is the same time as the Gurren Lagann panel. So, I’m sorry guys– I totally missed it. I’ll go up to their booth and pass on the questions, but here’s the news, via Anime on DVD.

Most of it’s just release dates, but there was one announcement: BONES’ recent flick Sword of the Stanger (or Mukoh Hadan) was announced, and they’ll be releasing it on Blu-Ray as well as regular DVD. ANN says they’re also planning on a theatrical release.

Hit the jump for the most recent secret messages on Bandai’s splash page.

!– Sir, our cabin mates appear to be asleep –
!– Shh. Don’t wake them. –
!– Secondary target onscreen. We still have not calculated a final date or hour yet, still awaiting confirmation –
!– Let us countdown anways if we know we will fire the Primary Cannon again –
!– Let us sneak into the cyber network system while everyone is asleep –
!– Sir! Sun is rising! –
!– Close the shutters! Emergency sleep! –
!– Goodnight –
!– Good morning? –
!– something like that –
!– Why aren’t the citizens picking up our coded messages, sir? –
!– :`( — emo tear –
!– we must try harder to be understandable –

Warning: the following Gainax panel write-up is 3,500 words long, or 8 pages single-spaced. Here are the highlights:

Read more…

Toshifumi Yoshida has posted in Bandai Entertainment’s new blog to let us know that the deal in which Gurren Lagann will air on the Sci-Fi Channel isn’t actually finalized yet.

But there’s some more info: they ARE trying to get the dub ready in time for this July airing schedule, which means if you have any friends working at either company, they probably won’t be talking to you for a while.

Bang Zoom! is doing the dub, with Aniplex America’s Hiroe Tsukamoto and Yoshida supervising. And they’re working their asses off to get the dub done in time, so they’re really hoping the deal goes through.

Aaaand the dub cast is being announced at Fanime this weekend, where Gurren Lagann will also premiere in the video rooms (subbed). (And to someone, I forget who now, who told me that they thought BE’s panel was cancelled– that was Bandai Visual USA’s.)

On a tangentially related note, Fanime now has a twitter account for updates and announcements, which is kinda badass.

So, Fanime– which will be hosting a significant and unnamed chunk of GAINAX, in spite of the lack of major announcement on that fact…apparently because GAINAX didn’t want it publicized; see here –is this weekend!

So here’s the list of companies I’ll be attending panels for or seeing, and this time I’m also including the list of guests in case anyone has questions for them, too. Just leave them as comments on this post or, if for some reason you want some anonymity, e-mail them to me.

Friday:
- Bandai Entertainment

Saturday:
- Broccoli International USA
- Dark Horse

Sunday:
- Gainax (ticketed event, not sure if it’ll be panel format)

Companies who will be there but have no panels:
- Dr.Master
- MediaBlasters

Aaand guests announced so far:
- An Cafe
- Ryan Gavigan
- Carl Gustav Horn
- Hidenobu Kiuchi
- Reuben Langdon
- Ric Myers
- Maika Netsu
- Jonathan Osborne
- Gilles Poitras
- Dan Southworth
- Richard Waugh

Interestingly, relatively local company VIZ isn’t having a panel or a booth, although there are a couple of showings prevented by them (Death Note anime, for example).

So, anyway! Your questions. Let me see them. ♥