Phew! I’m a little behind on my AX reports, as you can tell. It was such a crazy-busy weekend for me that it couldn’t be helped and now I’m sick as a dog. (I’m sure it’s the Fourth of July’s fault, not the con’s. Stupid America day. Haha.)
I started the day off with the TOKYOPOP panel, run by my mentors Lillian Diaz-Przybyl and Cindy Suzuki, as well as an intern. They had a few announcements such as the new Zinio online catalog, TP on OverDrive for library systems, the first two volumes of Demon Sacred being priced at $5.99 each. New license announcements included: Kirameki Gingacho Shotengai (The Stellar Six of Gingacho) by Yuuki Fujimoto, Eensy Weensy Monster by Masami Tsuda (the creator of Kare Kano), Sorairo Kaigen by Nanpei Yamada, Gakuen Heaven Endo ~Calling You~ and Gakuen Heaven Shichijo ~SWEET SWEET DARLING!~ by You Higuri, Stray Cat by Halco, Cabin in the Woods: Land of the Rising Terror written by TP editor Troy Lewter, Warau Kanako-sama (The Secrets of Lady Kanako) by Ririko Tsujita and Lives by Masayuki Taguchi.
Lillian also revealed while answering a fan’s question that she knows who has the license to the former TOKYOPOP title Sailor Moon, but cannot reveal who it is or any more details. Good news for anyone who’s a fan of Sailor Moon, I’m sure.
While walking around the dealer’s room with Cindy after the panel and gawking at tons of cute things, I bought myself this adorable Hetalia t-shirt. (The caption says I’m the Hetalia editor, but I’d just like to say that information’s incorrect. Oops!)
The Right Stuf/Nozomi Entertainment panel was next and fans were excited to hear that the company was releasing El Hazard: The Wanderers, Gravitation, The Dirty Pair TV series, Antique Bakery, Sora no Woto, and The Revolutionary Girl Utena TV series (and it was accidentally revealed in another panel on Saturday that they have the Utena movie as well.) Whoo! A lot of the re-releases were either had video or audio remastering done for the new releases, so if you want crisper pictures and clearer audio, check them out!
The Anime News Network panel revealed that the news site is planning on streaming over 150 episodes of anime starting this week. Since anime and manga fans seem to like free goodies, I would suggest checking them out so that they’ll bring even more streaming anime to the site.
The FUNimation panel started off with a bit of interesting information: Dubs were more popular than subtitles for them and the largest group online were 13-17 year olds, putting anime fandom squarely in an age group that most likely doesn’t have solid sources of income yet. FUNi went on to announce the licensing of Master of the Martial Hearts (Looks very funny and fan service-y, like a funnier version of Ikkitousen), rescues of pretty much every Tenchi Muyo series ever made, Darker Than Black season two, Shakugan no Shana season two, Black Lagoon season three, Hellsing Ultimate and Trigun: Badlands Rumble. Simulcasts of the Moyashimon live action TV series, Shiki, Black Butler season two and Sekirei season two.
After the panel, a bunch of anime and manga bloggers and I headed over to L.A. Live for dinner, schmoozing and some beautiful atmosphere, which was a great way to end the busy day.
If time (and my cold) permits, I’ll try to get my day 3 & 4 review up tomorrow. ^_^
I am excited for every single one of the shoujo titles Tokyopop announced. Especially Kanoko-sama, which I’m in love with based on the covers alone. (it stars a glasses-girl! I’m in!) And that is slightly-shallow, shoujo-loving me. Yay!!
Exciting hints about Sailormoon, too 😀
I hope you start feeling better soon!
I am too. I want to see more really awesome shojo out from Tokyopop. ^_^ They have some great stuff already, but I always love to see more.
The Sailor Moon comment was pretty interesting. I cannot wait til they reveal that news.
Thank you for the well wishes!
How does FUNi know that their dubs were more popular than their subs? A survey? Because people who prefer the subs aren’t likely to go to FUNi’s website and answer a survey.
I’m just curious how they decided that, since they don’t sell two versions of every DVD they release, and there’s no way to tell which version someone is watching on their DVD.
If they told us how they got that info, I don’t remember. I imagine it was an online survey or something, which means only their most enthusiastic fans or the fans with the most to grumble about responded. So I feel it’s an interesting pool. Perhaps they also did something with their streaming site. 😛
It was great meeting you at the anime bloggers’ meet-up on Day 2! I’ve got my post up about AX at my blog if you want to take a look…
Sorry to hear about the Hetalia editor thing… but at least, you’ll have some involvement with it, so that will be fun. 🙂
It was great to meet you too! I can’t wait to check out your blog.
Don’t worry about the Hetalia thing. I still get to work on it and that makes me pretty happy. ^_^