And now, from the “Better Late Than Never” Department, it’s Erin’s notes on New York Anime Festival 2008! I took many as-yet-unpublished notes at New York Anime Festival, much more than could be used elsewhere. It has taken weeks to clean them up, but I finally have something to show for it. See below for my coverage of Bandai, Funimation, Del Rey, Media Blasters, Kitty Media, and the closing ceremonies.
Line to get in just before the doors opened on Friday.
Even though Bandai held the first panel of the convention at 1:30 PM on Friday, the room was full of excited fans.
Bandai were the winners of New York Anime Festival, with Gurren Lagann gracing the cover of the schedule, front booth placement, and many happy cosplayers dressed as Gurren Lagann and Code Geass characters.
Gurren Lagann, the latest from otaku-favorite Studio Gainax, is currently airing on Sci Fi channel in their AniMondays block. Bandai rescued the Gurren Lagann license from ADV when ADV’s deal with Sojitz fell through. Bandai held a Gurren Lagann cosplay contest on Friday and a held a panel with the complete English voice cast on Saturday. Currently the Gurren Lagann DVDs are being released sub-only, but a deluxe box set featuring the dub and an LED drill toy is to follow.
Bandai announced their acquisition of the Gurren Lagann manga. There are two tankoban of the series in Japan. There is no American release date yet, just “early 2009″. (The manga is based on the anime.)
Bandai representatives clarified that they are only interested in manga that ties in to their anime properties. They do not produce OEL manga with the exception of Witchblade.
Bandai’s other hit property, Code Geass, is a mech series featuring character designs by CLAMP and is currently airing on Adult Swim. Fans at the Bandai panel were upset that Geass has been pre-empted in the Adult Swim schedule after episode 12. Bandai explained to fans that they have no control over Cartoon Network’s programming schedule. Geass had also recently been shifted to a 5 AM timeslot.
Akira is coming to Blu Ray in February 2009, with 192 kHz audio (normal CD quality stereo is 44.1 kHz) and retails at $49.98. The disc will be released simultaneously in Japan. One fan sitting nest to me said happily, “I own three different releases of [Akira] and I’m still totally buying that.”
During the Q&A one fan asked how Bandai had lost the Haruhi Suzumiya license to Yen Press. “Kurt’s a good guy,” Robert Napton said, “And he beat me with a light saber.”
I talked to Senior Events Manager Adam Sheehan of Funimation on Saturday. The only new Funimation announcement at the show was the aquisition of the Mushishi live action film, a 2007 movie directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, famous for Akira. The film will “probably” get a limited theatrical release, possibly through Fathom Events, which Funimation has used recently. Mushishi will definitely screen in L.A., and “almost certainly” in New York City.
Funimation announced that they would add Ouran High School Host Club to the Funimation Channel. The Funimation Channel is constantly expanding, and has been available in New York City since last year on Verizon FiOS.
The death of Toonami impacts Funimation, as One Piece will be pulled from the line up. Fortunately, Full Metal Alchemist has recently been added back into the Adult Swim line-up after a long absence. Of One Piece, Sheehan said, “We want to get it back on TV.” He cited problems “on the Japanese side.”
One interesting bit from the Funimation panel: Dragon Ball Z GT season one did better in America than in Japan.
My full coverage of the Del Rey panel is here.
The big news for blogger’s row was Moyashimon, which April Flores says, “Kodansha has approved the romanization of the title as Moyasimon instead of Moyashimon.” Acquisitions Director Mutsumi Miyazaki says the Fall 2009 release will probably not use soybean-derived ink like the Japanese release, but limited edition volumes with extras are not out of the realm of possibility if the series is successful enough.
I asked during the Q&A why Del Rey is releasing both American comics and manga editions of Bakugan. Is it because there’s not a cross-over audience or because it’s maximizing the audience or what?
Ali said that, “Foreign as it may seem to the people in this room… some kids don’t identify themselves as manga readers. He adds: “They’re young but they’ll learn.” Acquisitions Director Mutsumi adds that the color comics are more like film comics of the stories from the TV show, whereas the manga will be original stories based on those universes.
Q: Who’s reading the Dean Koontz manga?
A: “Everybody’s reading that book. Everybody who has a command of the English language has read that book.” (According to Ali.) Dean’s fans, Queenie’s fans, cross-over…
Q: (I asked) Toonami ended and now you have a TV deal, is that a coincidence?
A: Yes. Ali says, “What Cartoon Network does with their scheduling is so far from what Del Rey does… there’s no correlation or causation there.”
My full coverage of the Media Blasters panel is here.
I spoke with Chet Brier, “Rareflix Manager” from Media Blasters.
With Voltron on Cartoon Network at 5 AM and Moribito on at 5:30 AM, I asked Chet if he thought it helped sales at all. “It’s better than nothing,” Chet said, echoing the attitude of Robert Napton of Bandai Entertainment.
Bandai will soon have a block on ImaginAsia TV, which will air Ghost Slayers Ayashi, Rocket Girls, and other titles. ImaginAsia TV previously had a Geneon block. ImaginAsia is not available in many areas, but according to Napton, “Any exposure is better than none. It expands the audience.”
The panelist is Frank, who used to work at CPM. Frank is the editor, and recommends acquisitions. He works with the translator and letterers.
A concerned audience member asks about the fate of yaoi. “It’s not going away any time soon,” Frank says. He promises one book per month next year.
Media Blasters has a “Fujoshi buyer.” (My friend who works there totally says so, too.)
Frank mentions they have acquired the rights to Fujoshi Rumi volume 3 – which makes me wonder – don’t they don’t have the rights to the whole series? I ask about it and learn that they get the option for the next volume, one volume at a time. Volume 4 is out in Japan. I’m glad to hear it. I love Fujoshi Rumi! There’s also a live action film which I’m sure Media Blasters is unofficially looking to pick up.
Media Blasters has Doujin Work but – the manga or the anime? No one is sure, I even asked at the booth… I think it’s the anime, based on Anime News Network’s database.
Incubus volume 3 just came out, and the creator was at YaoiCon. The book has a very personal author’s note about angst. Frank wishes she would just do an entire autobiographical comic.
Media Blasters hasn’t done any light novels yet. It’s just Frank working there, so he can’t handle the volume of novels.
Maka Maka is yuri, coming soon, with a full color dust jacket, metalic ink, and belly band (called an obi in Japan) – everything’s the same as the Japanese release. Removing the belly band removes the character’s clothes on the cover art. Under the dust jacket the characters are making out. The book includes a tri-colored poster. It’s Kitty’s first yuri book. The $20 price point means it will be difficult to get into some stores.
One fan asks why color pages are not included in Kitty manga. Frank says he adds color pages, “bells and whistles” if he thinks it’s going to sell well enough. “You’ve got to be able to justify [the cost] of that kind of thing”. Putting color pages at the beginning or end is easy, putting them in the middle is “hella expensive”.
Skyscrapers of Oz is a bigger seller than Record of the Lodoss Wars, Alien 9, Pilgrim Jager, and any other titles Frank has worked on. “Double [the sales of] Lodoss Wars,” according to Frank. I find this interesting, since Lodoss was a popular anime series and has been around forever. The anime used to air on Sci-Fi channel regularly, introducing a generation of fans to anime. But Skyscrapers of Oz, a totally random yaoi, sells twice as well as the Lodoss manga?!
When it comes to adult stores: “They’re used to the price point of anime. But they’re not used to selling manga…” Frank quotes John O’Donnel’s panel at last year’s NYAF: “Sometimes you have to educate the buyer.”
A fan asks if Media Blasters is going after the Antique Bakery anime. “If I’m in negotiation, I can’t talk about it. If we’re considering it, I can’t talk about it… I can’t talk about it,” Frank says winking-ly at the audience.
“We’ve been looking into doing some yaoi games. We have a couple of adult games on the horizon that I can’t talk about. Dating sims are heavily text intensive and takes a long time to finish. We can’t announce it until we’re almost done and it takes a long time.”
Incubus is their original English language manga.
I ask about the cat girl logo on the spine of Kitty Media releases – it’s confusing to see a sexy cat girl on the spine of a yaoi title. Frank says he suggested doing a Kitty Boy for the yaoi book spines but the idea was voted down within the company. “I know some good artists…” Frank says suggestively, encouraging the crowd to write the company and request a cat boy logo. (I’m considering a blog storm… let’s go! Write to Kitty Media and demand a cat boy logo!)
Kitty Media started with Fake. Level C was next, and it did well enough. After that yaoi exploded.
The fan interest in yuri has bubbled up more slowly than the yaoi interest.
The target audience in America for yaoi is a little bit broader than in Japan. Frank gets “every gender, every age category” reading Kitty titles but mostly women in their early 20’s to early 40’s. Also – he hears from moms buying yaoi for teenagers who are not technically allowed to buy the stuff.
Frank has no plans to import bara anytime soon. (Unfortunately…)
Frank is a huge fan of Rose of Versailles and would license the manga at the drop of a hat. He claims that the Japanese publishers say that the Versailles artist is a “handful” to deal with.
Director of programming Peter Tatara led closing ceremonies, which was more of a circus than a con gripe session. Fans gathered at the stage in the hallway to collect cosplay prizes, not to give creative feedback. “What do you want to see next year?” Tatara asked the enthusiastic crowd. “A Sasuke shrine!” one girl squealed, getting a favorable reaction from the audience with her Naruto reference. (”Spoilers?” I wondered.)
“Don’t glomp me, please,” Tatara continued, announcing the cosplay winners. Among the top costumes were a Gurren Lagann group (”I love you Kamina!” squealed one girl in the audience), a Ryuk from Death Note (”I love you Ryuk!” screamed a rather hoarse-sounding young man), and a girl dressed as Nunnally from Code Geass, complete with a futuristic pimped-out wheelchair – one of at least two Nunnallys at the convention.
Gurren Lagann (Sci Fi Channel), Code Geass, and Death Note (both on Adult Swim) were some of the most popular costumes at the convention besides Gothic Lolita outfits (more than usual due the guests from the Baby the Stars Shine Bright label) and Soul Eater cosplay. Soul Eater is currently running in Yen Plus magazine, but the popular anime title has yet to be licensed.
Among the winners at the cosplay contest were some non-anime costumes; a group dressed as Avatar the Last Air Bender (Nickelodeon) characters won a special judge’s award, and a couple dressed as Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovitt (based on the recent Johnny Depp film) won an award.
A detailed hand-painted Gankutsuo costume took first prize.
Read the rest of Erin’s New York Anime Festival 2008 coverage:
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