Bandai Entertainment has gone all naughty with their website source code again! Here’s what it says in the splash page’s code (or skip to the end for the only potentially newsworthy bit):

!– Sir, sonar detects… strange… happy sounds eminating from an undisclosed location in space? –

!– Comm has no idea what to make of it sir. –

!– It scrolls in and out in waves. –

!– One of the ships is reporting contaminated food stores. Their chief intelligence officer is ill but is still able to perform his duties. –

!– Excellent! Keep his fever under check, have his duty shift end as soon as we are done with maneuvers for tonight. –

!– Aye aye, sir! –

!– Join me for one more voyage together… –

!– Toward the Terra. –

But wait, there’s more! Just a little bit more, on the catalog page:

!– Sir! Comm reports an alternate method of communications has been found! –

!– Excellent! We can talk here in privacy. –

There’s nothing on DVDs, Conventions, Gallery, Trailers, Privacy, or Contact (and I refuse to go through every product’s source code), but there’s some more on the blog, which are actually reactions to the words in the entry (the !– — marks the notes; anything not between those marks is part of the entry, included for context):

We also celebrate all wonderful women in general, for they are the strong, sparkling gems that support and brighten our days and are the priceless treasures who help run this world and enrich our lives and souls.!– fear not, he is not a script writer –

We’re currently hard at work on many things which we cannot talk about at this point in time. Wait, that would make for a really short blog entry. !– and career –

Something I can talk about (I hope?), and somewhat related to Mothers, is Toward the Terra!!– are we allowed to talk about that yet? –

My bosses have come up with a release strategy which will also hopefully satisfy your cravings for good anime entertainment at a proper price and schedules. !– you will see a lot more of this particular pattern –

Aaaand a little more on the Toshifumi Yoshida news release (also in reaction to the news):

He will be the localizing producer for numerous upcoming Bandai Entertainment releases. !– Gurren Lagann — !– ??? — !– ??? –

Whew. I think I got all of it. So it looks like new Bandai Entertainment addition Yoshida will be producer on Gurren Lagann? Or does that not count because they’re all question-mark-y? I’m so confused!

So I think a couple of folks on Japanator’s IRC channel were talking about Double K earlier, and I wasn’t paying attention…until I saw it again on the Gurren Lagann livejournal community.

Apparently DeviantArtist captainosaka took part in a 4ch conversation in which they said that a Kamina/Kittan buddy-cop show would be the greatest thing ever, and the artist in question decided to make it happen.

He’s got a comic of his creation Double K (one panel of which is posted above, with apologies to captainosaka), but make sure you check out all his other stuff– he’s got a lot of really fantastic art for the concept. I’m incredibly fond of his original design for Yoko (and slightly less fond of his follow-up design), and I’m bowled over by the Gurrenrod.

This might be my favorite fanart all year. (Ignoring that a good chunk of it started being posted in’ 07.) ♥

A Google alert nudged me over to this forum post, where someone is offering up a downloadable add-on to the ol’ SNK vs Capcom fighting game– a playable Yoko from Gurren Lagann. I was never particularly into any of these games, but now I’m kinda jonesin’ for a little start-up-down-left-right-left-up-A, if you know what I mean.

Just got the Gurren Lagann sub-only release info. It’ll be released on three sets (individual discs or pairs, I’m not sure) of 9 episodes at $29.98 (which, by the way, comes out to about $3.33 an episode). It’ll be available first at Anime Expo, then hit stores a little later in July.

The 2009 release will be *early* 2009, by the way.

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.

I shit you not. This is possibly the most random OP crossover I’ve seen, but it may also be the most impressively done.

…I mean…damn. (Woulda been better with Yoko as Haruhi, Kamina as Tamaki, and then having young!Simon as Hunny, instead of having two Simons…but still. That’s nitpicking.)

CollectionDX brings word of upcoming releases from Kaiyodo’s Revoltech action figure line, with the biggest name (as far as I’m concerned) being their Gurren-Lagann figure. At the affordable price of ¥1995 (about $19.50 USD), I’m looking forward to getting one of these. And I’m totally going to try and sit it in the meditating position they show in the above pic, too.

So I came across this video on the Gurren Lagann LJ community; it’s of the various voice actors acting out scenes from the show, except that they shuffle around the characters. So the first scene is the one where Yoko cuts Nia’s hair…except that Simon cuts Kamina’s instead. And they giggle. It’s fantastic. Oh, and Viral’s seiyuu Nobuyuki Hiyama is fantastic as Simon, especial with Nia seiyuu Yukari Fukui’s Guam (the turtle dude).

Good stuff all around ♥

I did pop by the FUNimation booth and talked to Adam Sheehan, who said he hadn’t heard anything about One Piece not continuing on Cartoon Network, but told me to check in tomorrow with someone else at FUNi, which I will do. I couldn’t find anyone for BVU around, though, so I wasn’t able to ask them anything. (Maybe they’ll be at NYCC?)

That was pretty much the rest of the con as far as work went, so I hung around the Kumori Con booth and pimped out my tail for a while, then helped with the teardown. That was kinda fun. (I love riding on the carts!) Hey, did you know that the dealers basically get to leave their garbage behind? Here’s a video of the aftermath:

And with that, I’ll leave you with a final, epic cosplay image.

Hope you enjoyed Sakura Con ‘08! For those of you who are curious about my next con coverage, it’ll be New York Comic Con next month.