Phew, I’m feeling a little bit better than yesterday, but more importantly, I have more time to write this post than I thought I did! Always a good thing!
Saturday:
Viz’s industry panel started off the morning by telling shonen fans everywhere that Shonen Jump‘s subscription price has dropped to $26.95 and, in case you are a Los Angeles anime fan, Stan Lee is having an Ultimo-only signing at the Grove Barnes & Noble on July 16th. (I think I’ll skip that one.)
New licenses included Mistress Fortune and Sakura Hime Kaden by Arina Tanemura, Oresama Teacher by Izumi Tsubaki and Ai Ore by Mayu Shinju.
Viz also announced the simulcast of Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan starting this week on their website. You can already watch the first episode.
The Production I.G. panel was switched from Sunday to Saturday, allowing Production I.G. a better time slot, albeit fewer attendees. They announced the license of Loups=Garous, Broken Blade and (mistakenly announced) that Nozomi Entertainment had the license to the Revolutionary Girl Utena movie.
I attended the live recording of the ANN Cast, which you can listen to here. I didn’t have any good questions to ask, but you can hear me yell at the guy gunning for Princess Knight anime and manga releases that he may have been confusing the popularity of the Tezuka manga with the international fame of Riyoko Ikeda’s The Rose of Versailles. Guy hadn’t even heard of Vertical Inc. and their spectacular Tezuka line-up. What a shame.
Then the day was over, I had bought too much manga, and wound up attending an industry party that was a lot of fun. But I did manage to snap some cute pictures of cosplayers from the first two series I edited: Zone-00 and Sgt Frog! (Here’s another one.) New volumes of both those manga are due out this month, in case you are interested in my work.
Sunday:
Sunday was much more laid back. No big industry panels, still lots of people in the dealer’s hall because it was a weekend and my last round of manga buying. I was rather sad that I left without From Eroica With Love volumes 12 and 13, which I had sworn I’d seen on sale somewhere the day before, but I managed to buy volumes 14 & 15 instead.
It was a fantastic con for me, although I kept hearing whispers of low dealer registration for next year’s con and grumbles from the dealers themselves. I wonder how future Anime Expos are going to turn out if dealers do not want to return, but I hope the SPJA can do something to bring them back before that even happens.
