As always, there are industry panels that may or may not involve bringing some titles over to the United States for us to purchase. Or get excited about. That means I have to talk about them. Or just talk about what potential secrets they all provided. Or if it was any good. So let’s get to working on that. (+ and – are applicable here)
Kodansha USA
This is a panel…I decided not to go to. Yep, the only one I intentionally skipped over because at 2:45 that same day was the Light Novel to Anime/Manga Panel. The Kodansha Panel started at 3PM. However, I can at least comment on a few of the licenses they got, and of course it involves some ridiculously popular franchise that has Titans in it. However, out of all the Titan manga Kodansha picked up, Titan Junior High is high on my to want list, if only because it’s a parody of the franchise. Parodies are generally my weakness. Why else do you think I find the abridged stuff funny? Why I fell in love with FMP: Fumoffu? Overall, I love it when characters break the 4th wall, so I’m certain I’ll enjoy this parody. The other title that I know I’m going to pick up is Ken Akamatsu’s UQ Holder. I mean, I have all of Love Hina, I have all of Negima, so I might as well continue trying to get what might just be his last series. So it seems Kodansha did a fine job. But I won’t rate this (or the next few ones) since I didn’t attend them. Anyways, a listing of what they got (From CR News):
- Attack on Titan: Junior High by Saki Nakagawa, March 2014, Omnibus editions
- Attack on Titan: Before The Fall by Satoshi Shiki and Ryou Suzukaze, Print and Digital, March 2014
- The Seven Deadly Sins by Nakaba Suzuki (Nanatsu no Taizai), March 2014
- UQ Holder by Ken Akamatsu, Print and Digital, March 2014
- Attack on Titan: Inside & Outside Guidebook, nearly 400 pages, June 2014
- Attack on Titan: No Regrets by Hikaru Suruga and Gan Sunaaku, August 2014
- E-Books of Say I Love You, Sherlock Bones, Shugo Chara and Shugo Chara-Chan, Tokyo Mew Mew and Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode, My Little Monster, and Negima will come soon (though I’ll guess Say I Love You and My Little Monster will be available early in 2014).
Viz Media
This, on the other hand, was a panel I wanted to go to. But I should’ve known better, since the panel was going to happen 15 minutes after the Light Novel panel ended. So of course I didn’t make it in time, and was already told to go pack up for the day and go home (ok not really but yeah, couldn’t get in). But let’s take a few stabs at what they got, and immediately when I heard the news two jumped out at me. The first is Terra Formars, which has been described as such:
TerraFormars is hands down one of the most graphic/violent manga that'll graced the US market in quite some time.
— Conner (@to_aru_Oni) October 11, 2013
That and it has humans fighting bugs. As I have also been told by someone who’s been reading this and reads that big ol’ popular title Kodansha has involving Titans, expect comparisons between the two to pick up, if it hasn’t already. For Viz’s sake they hope it sells as well!
The other title that caught my interest was Ore Monogatari. I originally heard good things about it from Nishimura (who ended up writing a couple of posts about it on her site), and it’s even won an award if I’m not mistaken as well. I then read it, and it seems like it’s an ok shoujo manga. I didn’t actually think it’d get licensed, and yet, it did! So admit to actually being shocked at that news. Those for now were the only ones to catch my interest. Everything else we’ll wait on good word for that (Info from CR News).
- Terra Formars by Yuu Sasuga and Kenichi Tachibana, July 1, 2014
- My Love Story (Ore Monogatari!!) by Kazune Kawahara and Aruko, July 1, 2014
- Black Rose Alice by Setona Mizushiro, August 5, 2014
- Battle Royale: Angels’ Border (collection) by Koushun Takami, Mioko Ohnishi, and Oguma Youhie, August 8, 2014
- Time Killers by Kazue Kato, September 9, 2014
Yen Press
For the second straight year I had to punt on a Yen Press panel because of who they happened to be against in terms of maintaining my interest (Kodansha/Funimation). But generally they haven’t licensed a lot of stuff I would want though (or licensed anything manga related at all) so who knew what they’d mention this time. Well…at least they did announce some stuff. After taking a glance at a few they don’t look like they’re for me, but I would be willing to check them out, especially Demon from a Foreign Land, since that’s by veteran manga artist Kaori Yuki. Well, you can count me out of reading the Highschool DxD manga. I think I’ve suffered enough from the anime.
- Void’s Enigmatic Mansion (Manhwa) by JiEun Ha and HeeEun Kim, starts serialization in Yen Plus this month
- Ani-Imo by Haruko Kurumatani, release in 2014
- He’s My Only Vampire by Aya Shouoto, release in 2014
- Demon from a Foreign Land by Kaori Yuki, hardcover edition, release in 2014
- High School DxD by Ichiei Ishibumi and Hiroji Mishima, release in 2014
- Alice in the Country of Diamonds ~Wonderful Wonder World~ Official Visual Fan Book, release in 2014
I took 3 pictures of the Watamote banner. This was apparently the not so crappy version of it
P.S: One thing I will give Yen Press is that they’re REALLY pushing Watamote. If the picture above doesn’t show you. I’ve been to NYCC for years, and I don’t recall ever seeing this type of advertisement for a manga. So huge kudos to YP for that. Now whether it’ll do well…
(+) and (-) Vertical
Yes, a panel that I got into…late I should add. That’s what I get for relying on the bus. Anyways, the typical Vertical panel (hosted by Ed Chavez) usually consists of current releases, then upcoming releases, then finally some new announcements before the Q & A. I gave Vertical a + because of what they announced: more Moyoco Anno, and the Titan LN. Wait what!?? Exactly. Score another potential purchase of Titan, as I’m definitely interested in that, and also mostly considering the LN market here is mostly nil, that also has more appeal to me. The other big thing that gives it a + is knowing that since Ed let people know Vertical Inc had operated in the red (think sometime early this year), he let us know they’ve been financially stable for a good while now, thanks to Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Tropic of the Seas, and Flowers of Evil, among other titles. That’s great to know. Now, I bet you’re still wondering what’s with the – grade I also gave Vertical? Well, they had some errors in their titles. As in, a few were listed in 2104. Yeah, jokes aside, kind of unacceptable to see at an industry panel…but only made worse when this error wasn’t fixed the first time, as this popped up at Anime Weekend Atlanta. You mean there was no time since September to correct something in Powerpoint? YEAH NO, so there goes your -. Overall though, it’s the usual Vertical Panel.
- In Clothes Named Fat by Moyoco Anno, Summer 2014
- Attack on Titan: Before the Fall (LN) by Ryou Suzukaze, Summer 2014
P.S: One license that I was interested in knowing about was Prophecy, which was a manga published by Shueisha. Normally though Vertical and Shueisha don’t see eye to eye, and also in every survey Vertical does they tell people not to ask them of any Shueisha titles. So how did Prophecy manage to get into their hands? Welp, Tetsuya Tsutsui actually got into contact with Vertical about licensing it. How? Apparently Tsutsui got a bit of information about them from a media convention in France (can’t remember what it’s called), liked how they treated their titles, and decided to negotiate with Vertical to license it. Needless to say, it’ll be very interesting to see how Vertical handles it, since they will be getting materials from Shueisha. If things go well enough, this may not be the last license from Shueisha for Vertical.
(-) Sunrise
It was a general information panel, is what I’d like to term it. No new announcements, did have the managing director of Sunrise there in Shin Sasaki, and basically showcased a trailer of stuff they have and what’s upcoming. They did do trailers of the shows they have. It was, as always, interesting to see how people reacted. I loved the reaction when everyone was watching the Daily Lives of High School Boys (Nichibros) trailer. It was a laugh fest. When they talked about Gundam and played the trailer, it was interesting what they reacted to, and what they didn’t react to (Poor Gundam AGE). But they showed the World of Gundam trailer last year. Did we really need to see it again? And not even updated with Build Fighters? Speaking of Build Fighters, if it wasn’t for someone asking how many episodes it would be (25), basically it was a nothing panel. I didn’t leave with any information I didn’t already know about, nor gained much new information. So we’ll call that a punt Sunrise. But I do thank you for that Nichibros trailer. That was great.
P.S: On another note, if you live in the US, congratulations, it’s streaming on Hulu now. GO WATCH IT.
(+) Kodansha/Funimation
Overall maybe I should have given this panel a negative. When I first heard Kodansha/Funi would be doing a joint panel, initial thoughts from everyone was they must be announcing something big. My initial thoughts was they’d just be talking about stuff they each manage to co-own. And boy, did they do that. I mean, they even talked about old titles (Love Hina and XXXholic), but mostly because Kodansha has reprinted and updated them (in XXXholic’s case an omnibus is coming next year). Otherwise, the real interest came during the Q & A (aside from the usual fans asking questions that they’re not supposed to ask. I mean, Powerpoint’s right there. Come on.). For starters, Justin Rojas explained that when they generally try and simulcast a title, they put in bids quickly for an anime. As in, they do so without even knowing if they’re any good. It’s pretty dangerous to always rely on that, but you can only hope for the best since you need titles/you hope no else picks them up. I wanted to ask a question about Crunchyroll without trying to sound silly, but someone did that job for me, and Justin ended up explaining that if it makes sense, they will work with Crunchyroll on an anime title. But it will probably be a while before we see an Attack on Titan like situation, so chances are fairly slim I’d say.
I did get my one question in: what titles have done well for them (aside from the big hitters) and any surprises that they weren’t so sure about. So stuff like Fairy Tail and Negima did what was expected for Kodansha, and for Funimation, Soul Eater did pretty well. Their biggest surprises was that Kenichi (Funimation) sold well, and No.6 (Kodansha) also has done well too. (BTW, I’m not surprised No.6 is doing well. For dubious reasons). Digitally though, I Am Here (Kodansha) has sold well too. So overall, I’d say I got some info that’s not generally out there and didn’t know myself, so kudos is all I can say.
(-) Aniplex
Well, if you really treated Magi S1 coming over to the US and the announcement of Madoka Magica The Movie Part 3 coming out in theaters as news, then this might have been a good panel for you. But for me, it’s stuff I could have guessed would have happened, and…I haven’t seen the other two movies (I should probably get down to doing that at some point shouldn’t I), so that was nothing. Otherwise, it was your typical Aniplex panel, with a huge crowd (one of the very few companies with a large room), trailers of anime (from new stuff like Samurai Flamenco, Kill la Kill, Valvrave S2, to old stuff like Gyo, Blast of Tempest, and Sword Art Online) except Oreimo (I actually couldn’t believe it), and giveaways. Not much else to get excited about.
P.S: There was one thing that might have saved the panel, as someone tried to ask the question about their model. Well, the way it was phrased wasn’t so good, so it only allowed E.J to answer in the correct manner. But at this point, worrying about the model is pointless, since it hasn’t exactly been proven it’s failing.
(+) Viz Anime
This was all an advertisement about Neon Alley…for the most part. They did announce Tiger & Bunny: The Rising movie, and some of their streaming titles (Blood Lad, Coppelion) was coming to the US next year. But they basically talked about two things: Neon Alley and Ranma 1/2. They were really trying to sell Ranma 1/2 at the con, so it only made sense to talk about it again…but this time in way more detail. It was actually surprising at how different the upscaled version of Ranma 1/2 was compared to the original. Yeah, I should have expected it, but the changes are pretty cool. Definitely will check that out in the near future. Overall, I have to give this panel a + for two reasons: the speaker (Charlene and Kevin were pretty good), and the Tiger & Bunny fandom (well, it was a group, can’t remember what the full name was) that apparently had a ton of mail hoping for T&B to come over to the US and gave it to Charlene. I’ve been going to cons since 2006, and that was definitely the first time I had ever seen that. That was pretty awesome. And that you can only give kudos for.
(-) Daisuki
I think the only thing of note that came out of the panel for me was that Cowboy Bebop will be streaming on the site in the near future, although I think I’ve heard about that a few months ago. Still, it was mostly them advertising the site, the Daisuki App, what they currently have streaming, Daisuki TV, then they went into a Q & A. The questions I do admit were not too bad, and for the most part the answers were reasonable (Android App is in development, titles currently up will be taken down after a certain period has passed, may add Apple TV, Xbox apps in the near future). I was slightly taken aback by my question of region locking on Daisuki. It was explained that certain titles are already licensed in certain countries, so they want to respect everyone else who has the rights in their country. So…what this basically means is that certain titles that you can’t watch on Daisuki you can probably get in some manner legally (online or via store) in your country. I…can’t verify if any of this is true (since I don’t know what’s been region locked). So I’ll have to rely on you guys for the answers for that. Aside from that, didn’t announce any new stuff they’re going to stream, so in this case, the panel wasn’t all that cool. Well, unless playing Jankenpon sounds like a cool game to play. (It can be, but not exactly what I expected in order to win a prize).
So I guess those are my thoughts about some things. Last post regarding the con is the other things I managed to do at NYCC. Because I know you want to know what kind of trouble I got in the dealer’s room over con weekend. I just know you do!
