Famitsu has awesomeness, like the above. And by awesomeness, I mean life-size versions of the planes we’ll be seeing in Sky Crawlers, Mamoru Oshii’s upcoming pilot drama.

I’d ooh and ahh a bit more, but alas, I have to get to the airport and go home…finally!

Hokay, Production I.G is getting started now, but the group’s a little smaller– because of the Shokotan concert, no doubt –the panel’s being hosted by Maki Terashima. She’s adorable, by the way.

Anyway, she’s talking about I.G’s upcoming Mamoru Oshii flick, Sky Crawlers, which is hitting Japan on August 2nd. There’s no U.S. distro yet, but they’re looking. They’re also working on World Destruction starting July 7th, which you can read more about at my summer preview.

Announcements that couldn’t be made last year but are interesting for this year, although she can’t say much on them: Clone Wars, they apparently did an episode of the new Star Wars cartoon. And second: the Anibatrix, Batman: Gothic Knight, which I couldn’t see the screening for (sad pandas). It’s due out Tuesday.

Cue the trailer reel, with shots from past I.G series from Blood: The Last Vampire to Tokyo Marble Chocolate to xxxHOLiC to Ghost in the Shell to…well, you get the idea. Then there are subbed trailers of Sky Crawlers– we’re told Oshii didn’t right it, so it’s easier to understand. Heh. Apparently Oshii is also a major fan of basset hounds, and his just passed away. (We’re seeing pictures from the sound recording of Sky Crawlers at Skywalker Ranch.)

They also played mahjongg– with actual gambling –and went to the Napa Valley wineries. Work, drinking, and gambling: a true California experience!

Moving on to a trailer for Real Drive, which I never got around to watching but which looks kinda neat…

Now a show called Phone Braver 7, which is actually a live-action TV series, a first for I.G. Takashi Miike is directing the series, and Mamoru Oshii directed one episode of it too. Maki is chastising people for leaving the room– why ARE they leaving right before a Miike reel? They’ll also be showing a preview of the replaced CG scenes for the upcoming remastered version of Ghost in the Shell too.

I only caught snippets of Phone Braver 7 since I was posting about the Honneamise stuff, but what I did see looked fun. Next up is the Ghost in the Shell 2.0 remix. Manga Entertainment will be releasing it, and they’ll have details on that release at New York Comic Con.

In the Q&A: anything in the future for Dead Leaves? No plans yet, apparently it didn’t do very well in Japan or the US, but the desire will be relayed. No plans for bringing Tachiguishi-Retsuden yet either.

In response to a question Maki says that the European anime audience is much stronger than the North American audience right now in terms of sales, so we need to compete! (Mind, our economy is also doing worse compared to Europe’s, I think…)

Any shot at Ghost in the Shell 2.0 in theaters in North America? Maki says she thinks it’s high-quality enough but it’s out of their control, it’ll depend on Manga Entertainment…but the theatrical market is really bad in the U.S. right now and not just for anime, so who can say?

Are there any plans for a Seirei no Moribito sequel? Not at this time, but she’ll tell us as soon as she can. How about a Blu-Ray release for Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex Second Gig? Maybe…

Might they do more animated sequences in American movies like Kill Bill? Yes. Apparently there are always a couple of announcements that she can’t do at every Expo (like this year she mentioned Clone Wars and Batman), so next year she can answer that question for us. Of course, we’ll already have the answer online next year, but that’s okay.

How did they come to work with Skywalker Studios? Back when Mamoru Oshii did the live-action film Avalon he liked working with them so much that he insists on going to them, which is why his films are so high-budgeted. But they MIGHT be willing to work for him on a discount for a lower-budget film Oshii wants to work on, she says, but nothing official going on there yet.

Before asking a question, this guy told Maki that her panel is the best one at Expo. Maki says she wasn’t even going to have a panel this year except her trip to Japan was postponed. But hopefully next year she’ll have a better timeslot (i.e. NOT at the same time as a major concert event).

On to the guy’s question…he asks if it’s kinda like Battle Royale since it involves kids killing each other? At risk of spoiling, that’s not the main theme of the film, so no, not really related…but there’s a lot of action and killing, but that’s not the most important part of it.

Any plans on reworking or continuing the Kerberos Saga films? No plans to date. Why do they call them “tachikoma” in the anime instead of “fuchikoma” like in the manga. They’re actually slightly different machines, according to Wikipedia, but the best guess of the I.G rep off to the side is because the personality is a bit different.

“What was with Blood+?” This guy thinks it was horrible. (It was just DIFFERENT from Blood: The Last Vampire.) She says she doesn’t know how to answer that but she’ll pass on the message. And she even let him still take home a little giveaway item. Aww! I wouldn’t have let him. But then, that guy who asked Tpop to stop publishing yaoi won one of their giveaways too. (Lillian handed him the pinkest, girliest prize.)

Tachikoma are really popular; has anyone considered doing a project just with tachikoma? Like a side movie? (Maybe a 4koma? IS there a tachikoma 4koma?) Apparently there already is a “Days of Tachikoma” short video at the end of the DVDs, so…yeah. The guy’s trying to defend himself for not having seen it, blaming it on the fact that he watches the anime at his club. He’ll try to go back and watch.

We’re about out of time, although there’s nothing in here for a while so maybe they can continue?…we’ll see what she does.

How did I.G get involved in live-action, and why an attack cell phone show? Maki’s not entirely sure, but she thinks the director (Takashi Miike) wanted to do it with I.G and Oshii in particular. And let’s face it, who says no to Takashi Miike?

Next fan has a suggestion for subtitles on all the trailers in the US from now on? Maki says yeah, but she only had a week to prepare since she was originally going to be going to Japan around this time.

And now, jan-ken-pon to pass out the rest of the giveaway items. And I get a break until FUNimation! I think I’ll spend my last dollars at the dealer room. ♥

ANN reports that an “enhanced” version of the original Ghost in the Shell film is going to hit theaters in Japan on July 12th. They’ve even regathered most of the cast to rerecord a number of scenes, in addition to a new soundtrack and a new voice actor for the Puppet Master, Yoshiko Sakakibara.

It’ll hit theaters a month before director Mamoru Oshii’s newest opus, the more family-friendly Sky Crawlers. Personally, I’d aim for a double-feature– how awesome would that be?

Heavens to betsy, lookit all that news!

TV Anime:
- ANN has confirmed that Bandai Visual (that’s the Japanese one) is going to be releasing some of its titles globally on Blu-Ray, i.e. with subtitles in English and other languages.
- Meanwhile, Slayers REVOLUTION just looks better and better: Megumi Hayashibara has announced on her official site that she’ll be singing both the OP and ED themes.

Manga:
- ICv2 has released its Anime/Manga Guide, and Naruto remained the top property while anime sales continue to decline (although box sets seem to be doing well).
- An absolute must-read: Christopher Butcher goes way in-depth with VIZ’s original content line.
- God help us all, the 48-person girl group AKB48 is getting its own manga.
- A mysteriously unnamed set of “anime artists” (I can only assume they actually draw manga?) took part in a breast cancer fundraiser.

Movies/OVAs:
- An official trailer for Mamoru Oshii’s Sky Crawlers is up at the official website. Score!

Music:
- Anime on DVD has a press release from Jpop group Budo Grape, with two Texas appearances (including A-kon) and one in New York City.

Toys/Swag:
- Kotobukiya is a Japanese company, and Batman is getting made into an anime, so I can call this anime-ish news, right? ‘Cause it’s absolutely badass.
- In other toy news, Japan is working on a line of eco-friendly toys.

Misc:
- I finally have a good reason to hunt down a copy of Otaku USA– Japanator’s Zac Bentz is in the new issue.
- If my preview of Manga Cafe Mika wasn’t enough for you, here’s Deb Aoki’s coverage of the grand opening over at manga.about.com.

Weehaw!

Twitch has word of a few of the cast members for Mamoru Oshii’s newest film Sky Crawlers, all of whom are actually potentially known to a regular Hollywood audience: Rinko Kikuchi (of Babel, who also did a voice for Genius Party in ‘07), Ryo Kase (of Letters from Iwo Jima, and also Mayama in the live-action Honey and Clover movie), and Chiaki Kuriyama (Kill Bill, Battle Royale; also acted in my favorite jdrama’s movie Kisarazu Cat’s Eye: World Series as Ayako and Mizuho in Ju-On: The Curse, aka The Grudge).

Aaaand trailer, courtesy of Twitch: