Another thing that happened during this con: the announcement of the SPJA Industry Award winners, straight from the Anime Expo newsletter:

Best Voice Actor (JP): Tomokazu Sugita for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’s Kyon
Best Voice Actor (EN): Alessandro Juliani for Death Note’s L
Best Voice Actress (JP): Aya Hirano for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya’s Haruhi
Best Voice Actress (EN): Laura Bailey for Shin-chan’s Shin-chan
Best Casting Director: Kaeko Sakamoto for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Best Character Design: Shoko Ikeda for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Best Mechanical Design: Eureka Seven (staff includes Shoji Kawamori)
Best Male Character: Ichigo Kurosaki, Bleach
Best Female Character: Haruhi Suzumiya, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Best Mascot Character: Mokona, Tsubasa
Best Background Desing: Gundam 00
Best Original Video: Hellsing Ultimate
Best Feature Film: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Best Television Series: Death Note
Best Original Score: Toshio Masuda & Musashi Project for Naruto
Best Original Song: “Hare Hare Yukai” from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Best Director: Mary Elizabeth Glynn for Naruto
Best Manga - Action: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle
Best Manga - Comedy: Negima!
Best Manga -Drama: Eureka Seven
Best Publication: Newtype

…Whew. Haruhi much? But really, “Hare Hare Yukai” for best song? It’s fun and catchy, but not all that impressive– I don’t remember which I voted for but I would easily have taken Black Lagoon’s OP “Fraction” (by Mell) or Darker than Black’s first ED “Tsukiakari” (by Rie Fu), or even Naruto Shippuuden’s “Nagareboshi ~Shooting Star~” by Homemade Kazoku over HHY in terms of what’s actually a “good” song. But maybe that’s just me.

AX has shipped out two different press releases today relating to this year’s con. The first announced the 3rd annual SPJA Industry Conference key notes and panels, which include reps from the SPJA, FUNimation, the Japan External Trade Organization, and CrunchyRoll. (Welcome to the big leagues?)

There are also a number of panels, including “Anime in the US: Fansubs - The Death of Anime?,” “Manga in the U.S.: Ultimate Publisher Showdown 2008″ (O_o), “Technology, Entertainment, and Licensing,” and “The Future of Anime in Movies, Television, Video Games, Online, and Cable.” The keynote speakers are: Trulee Karahashi (SPJA CEO), Shigeru Kimura (JETO Chief Director), Gen Fukunaga (FUNi CEO), Vu Nguyen (Crunchy Roll VP of BizDev).

On a more mainstream note, AX has also announced that they’ll be offering “Sneak Peek” videos at their website, which somehow manages to feature an early look at the Masquerade, among other things.

And finally, FUNimation has announced some of their plans for AX: they’re working together with the American Cosplay Paradise group to provide a few of Ouran High School Host Club’s hosts, who will *cough* service con attendees. If the concept sounds a bit familiar, it’s probably because Bandai Entertainment is also working with ACP on Lucky Star and Gurren Lagann stuff at AX.

…But then, anyone who has noticed that girls are more happy to watch “shounen” series than guys are to watch “shoujo” stuff already knew that. Or those of us who have noticed all the yaoi (and near-yaoi) titles doing so well. Or anyone who has ever had the thought “geez, why is there slash of lke EVERYTHING EVER on the Internet?” And people who– well, you get the idea.

Still, the Daily Yomiuri had a talk with Trulee Karahashi, the new CEO of the SPJA (the group that runs Anime Expo). She notes that in the U.S. particularly, the aforementioned “shounen” series like Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece have more female fans than male.

I’d just like to note that it seems to me that women are more involved in fandom than men in the U.S. Not that the guys aren’t there, but when it comes to creating fanfiction and fanart and the like are more female-dominated. And those are fandom subsets that I think play a huge role in getting and keeping people interested in a series– hell, sometimes a series’ fanfic world becomes more popular than the series itself. (Again, not that there aren’t plenty of male fanartists and fanfic writers; I just tend to see more vagina-havers doing it.)