I offered to cover anime panels at the New York Anime Festival for PopCultureShock, but then I was recruited to do some coverage for Publishers Weekly. I’ve recently started reviewing some shojo and yaoi for PW online, so I’m not sure how much time I’ll be devoting to PCS this year.

It took a long time to post my NYAF ICv2 coverage over the winter break, so I’m behind on PCS reviews, and this report was also terribly delayed by the holidays.

There were only three new anime licensees announced at NYAF: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was picked up by Bandai Entertainment (note: Bandai Entertainment is NOT Bandai Visual!), Buso Renkin (by the author of Rurouni Kenshin) was announced by Viz, and Media Blasters confirmed that they have the rights to Genshiken 2, which is the second season of Genshiken, not to be confused with the Genshiken OVAs on the Kujibiki DVDs.

Of the upcoming titles discussed at the con (but announced previously) I am most excited about Ouran High School Host Club and Lucky Star. I was impressed by the trailer for the Straight Jacket OAV co-production, the live-action film Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea, and Aquarion looks cool, it’s a post-apocolyptic giant robot show with music by Yoko Kanno.

Below is a list of highlights from anime industry panels at NYAF, by company:

ADV Films

• 5cm per Second will air at the New York International Children’s Film Festival (getting tickets for this can be fierce!)
• Thinpack of Jing, King of Bandits available January 1st (Trailers here).
• First volume of Gurren Lagann available February 26th, first three episodes streaming online at theanimenetwork.com subbed, under the “Giant Robots” category.

Bandai Entertainment

• The Girl Who Leapt Through Time will be screened theatrically in NYC and LA (I saw it last year at the New York Children’s Film Festival).
• Lucky Star voice cast was announced (with Wendee Lee as my favorite Konata), but release dates are unscheduled as of yet.
• During the Q&A I learned that Gundam is more popular in Canada because it airs on TV (possibly Y-TV?)

Central Park Media:

• No new licenses, as they are still in “recovery phase”.
• There might be a lawsuit in the works over the Libre/Biblos issue.
• CPM gave away a bunch of stuff after their panel, as well as on Sunday at the end of the convention.

Code Geass Panel

• Code Geass will air on Adult Swim this spring.
• Starring Johnny Yong Bosch in the dub
• Bandai is selling the three manga series and one light novel series.
• There are also big merchandising deals in the works.
• The official website: code-geass.bandai-ent.com, includes trailer.

Funimation

• Funimation has put a bunch of titles up for download on iTunes and Xbox like Burst Angel. Burst Angel is $38.99 for 24 episodes, or $1.99 per show.
• Their new “Viridian Collection” label will reprice series into thinpacks: Basilisk, Gunslinger Girl, Kiddy Grade, Spiral, and Trinity Blood.
• Funimation announced some movies to air in theaters under their “Foreign Exchange” label. Check out the website for trailers and showtimes:
• Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea, an epic live-action film with no CG horses!
• One Piece, the 8th movie: The Desert Princess and the Pirates (on DVD Feb. 19th)
• Vexille, an all-CG film from the director of Ping Pong and the producer of the CG Appleseed movie.
• February DVD Releases:
• Black Blood Brothers (Feb. 12th), 13 episodes on 3 DVD volumes.
• Shuffle! Vol. 1 (Feb. 12th)
• CLAMP Double Feature Tsubasa and xxxHOLiC movies (Feb. 19th) - a great day for CLAMP fans. I’ve see the xxxHOLiC movie, it’s pretty good.
• Aquarion comes out on March 11th, and all 26 episodes will be on two DVD volumes, in an attempt to try out a new episode count/pricing structure. It’s a post-apocolyptic giant robot show with a Yoko Kanno soundtrack.
• Ouran High School Host Club has not been cast yet, but might come out this summer.

Manga Entertainment

• Noein and Tokko boxsets are coming in February
• The Straight Jacket OVA is co-production to be released late summer/early fall, it airs in Japan in January.
• Tokyo Zombie is a “Japanese Shaun of the Dead” live action film to be released in July of 2008.
• Eon Kid, currently airing on Kids WB, will have a DVD mid-2008, as well as toys.
• The documentary “Anime: Drawing a Revolution” aired on Staz on December 17th.
• ME also rebuilt their website, manga.com

Media Blasters:

• Confirmed Genshiken 2
• Tweeny Witches is currently in production.
• Kite: Liberator in also production.
• A Samurai Deeper Kyo game for the Game Boy Advance is coming soon.
• Gurumin for the PC and PSP is also coming soon.
• Phoenix was delayed because WNET, channel 13 in NYC was going to air it - they didn’t, but now it’s available on iTunes.

Viz Media

• Naruto box sets:
• #6 February 2nd
• #7 April 15th
• #8 June 10th
• Busou Renkin box set of eps. 1-13 are coming out on April 29th
• …and it’s only available in a $49.95 box, not in separate volumes.
• Eyeshield 21 is on Toonami Jetstream (which I can’t watch on my Mac).

My coverage of the ICv2 conference held at New York Anime Festival continues with this final ICv2 panel on technology. You can listen to the un-edited audio I recorded of the panel here. I hope to clean up the levels later for my podcast.

ICv2: Technology and the Otaku

Panelists included:

Peter Heumiller, VP of Content Development at Comcast
Daniel Marks, VP of Strategy and Business Development at Viz
John Nee, Senior VP of Business Development at DC Comics (CMX)
Jeremy Ross, Director of New Product Development, Tokyopop

Out of all the ICv2 panels at NYAF, this one is of the most interest to internet fans of anime and manga. Some of us live online, denizens of cyberspace, crawling the web for new content and the latest technology. You know who you are!

Each of the companies represented on the panel; Viz, CMX, Tokypop, and Comcast, are doing their best to find the next market model to deliver anime to you, the consumer, in a legal fashion not involving DVDs. It’s just like how the iTunes store provided a legal alternative to music piracy and destroyed Tower Records in its wake. Just like that!

Moderator Milton Griepp opened by asking the panelists what each of their companies is doing, exactly.

Viz is offering a lot of free content (to the U.S. only) on Toonami Jetstream. Although Daniel Marks did not say so on the panel, I have heard from Cartoon Network that the reason the Toonami block is no longer on television is because Cartoon Network started pouring money into web content a couple of years ago. I went to go check out Toonami Jetstream just now, but apparently Mac users are not supported. Damnit! I wanted to watch Eyeshield 21 in a legal fashion, but I guess I’m forced into piracy… It’s not even on DVD!

Viz also began digital downloads with the Death Note anime. Although they haven’t started yet, they hope to do something with digital manga in the near future. Comcast is offering a lot of free content as well as user submitted content. John Nee from DC is bypassing magazines and offering things on the web.

Jeremy Ross of Tokyopop spoke like a technological evangelist. Tokyopop is offering a ton of web content and services. He emphasized that the free online samples for OEL helped promote Dramacon among skeptical fans. Tokyopop is even offering cell phone manga for $5 a month.

Griepp asked the panelists how anime and manga consumers are different from other consumers. Ross answered that Tokyopop’s customers are tech-saavy 13-20 year olds. Nee claimed that books won’t go away in the near future. Peter Heumiller of Comcast said video on demand is perfect for anime, since it’s an electronic “sell through”. Heumiller also runs Exercise TV, which is the only other VOD station I have used. Heumiller could not reveal the demographic statistics of his VOD customers.

Griepp asked the panelist how they can compete with the free content of the internet. Daniel Marks from Viz had this to say:

“The problem rests in how animation is made in Japan. Animation is - the day before it is aired - the final scripts are done - they deliver* literally hours before it’s aired. So we can’t get the materials in the United States in time to combat illegal downloads. And so until the Japanese system changes it’s going to be very hard to fight against someone who downloads it, has it subtitled and up ready for download worldwide within a day. There is no way to combat that.”

Having worked in television, I can tell you that when Marks refers to the “delivery” of an episode, he means the completed digibeta tapes (or whathaveyou) are delivered ready-to-air to the television network who commissioned the show. The American cartoon show I worked on completed final delivery typically four to six months before an episode’s air date. Cartoon Network needed the shows well ahead of time to develop promotional material and distribute the episodes to its partners worldwide. I was surprised to learn how close anime companies cut their schedules to the air date!

Heumiller agreed that Japan needs to change their delivery techniques to a digital system. Instead of a production coordinator driving videotapes to the TV studio the day before the show airs (like in Paranoia Agent) the Japanese could FTP shows to the broadcasters.

Griepp asked the panel about trends in stopping electronic piracy.

The panelists agreed that although movies, television, and music are one experience, reading a book is fundamentally different experience. Scanslations and free online samples help sell physical books. Once you’ve seen an episode of anime, you’ve had the full experience. Thus, anime is in trouble while manga booms.

Marks responded, “Cease and desist letters are effective for about five minutes.” Part of the problem, according to Marks, is that bittorrent sites are frequently not based in the U.S. The laws are different in the Netherlands and China, for example. A legal alternative to piracy is the best way to fight it - and it must be at a price people are willing to pay.

Ross claimed pirate sites want to work with the industry, but the industry sees this as fraternizing with the enemy.

“You can’t say it’s like hire the hackers,” Ross elaborated. “But I think there’s going to be creative solutions other than playing a game of whack-a-mole that we’re gonna see spin out over the next couple of years… We don’t just need more and better cops.”

Ross brought up the example of Radiohead’s pay-what-you-wish album. Ross believes in direct distribution with no middle men, although it seems that might put him out of work as an manga middle-man himself.

Griepp asked the panel their opinion on pricing structures.

Both Heumiller and Marks agreed that no one market model has been proven to work yet, so everyone is trying a little of this and a little of that. Heumiller commented that money is moving away from linear advertisements and towards broadband and VOD. Advertisers want fewer 30-second spots and more graphic overlays.

Ross, still in full-on visionary mode, praised Google AdSense. He believes service-based advertising is a good way to reach niche audiences as opposed to how something like Coca Cola advertises. Ross hinted earlier in the panel that Tokyopop might move towards a system like livejournal, wherein content is ad-supported, but users can pay to make the ads go away.

Griepp asked about the pace of conversion to digital delivery - particularly on handheld devices and cell phones.

Tokyopop is already aggressively pursuing these options. Ross mentioned the Amazon upgrades program and said that Tokyopop is currently making high resolution copies of their books so they are ready to go into whatever digital realm Tokyopop needs them in. Tokyopop is even producing screen-resolution copies of all their titles, so if you buy a book you could potentially own a complete digital copy of that book as well. The moire problems in manga screentones are a serious hurdle, however.

Tokyopop has been working with uClick to adopt manga to cell phones and break it down into a frame-by-frame experience. This comment really creeped me out. The manga creators intend for you to look at a certain page spread, and altering their work in this way changes the reading experience. It’s one thing if the work was created to be experienced digitally in the first place, like NetComics’ title The Great Catsby.

Comcast happens to own a very large ISP. According to Heumiller, mobile content will really take off in two years, and there will be cross-platform, cross-promotional content.

Marks pointed out that regrettably Viz does not own an ISP (I kind of wish they did… that’d be sort of cool). Japanese publishers, Marks says, still love paper. As the paper market decreases the Japanese are looking more into cell phone manga. The U.S. is still still behind in cell phone technology.

Nee is currently working with Flex Comics to make more mobile manga.

Ed Chavez of the Mangacast asked why, or rather if there is resistance from Japanese publishers towards making manga available digitally. I think he was referring to the proliferation of Netcomics’ Korean titles online, or how Tokyopop’s online titles are largely OEL.

Marks said that all the major Japanese publishers have their own ideas and agendas. There are certain rights issues, but it’s also a matter of timing. Many Japanese publishers are not happy with the cell phone technology available in the U.S.

Ross pointed out that creators have a lot of control over their titles in Japan. Editors and business-people are very hesitant to ask manga creators for permission to do something without good reason. However, in the last year the cell phone manga market has tripled. Ross is sure the rights will become more available in the next two years. He really likes comics on the iPhone because of the gestural interface.

Ross also brought up the excellent point that Americans commute by driving and have PCs everywhere, whereas the Japanese commute primarily by train, own fewer PCs, and are always using their cell phones to access the internet. Koreans, Ross continued, have more access to streaming video on their cell phones than anywhere else in the world - but it turns out Koreans prefer to quietly read manga on their hyper-advanced phones instead.

At one point Ross used the word “widget” as a verb, as in, “widgetizing,” which was somewhat alarming.

Much of what was said on this panel came up at panels during the rest of the convention.

My coverage of the ICv2 conference held at New York Anime Festival continues with this panel of marketing to girls. I haven’t seen much coverage of this panel posted anywhere - including Anime News Network - so this information hasn’t been beaten to death in the blogosphere yet.

You can listen to the un-edited audio I recorded of the panel here. I hope to clean up the levels later for my podcast.

ICv2: Girls - The Other Half of the Otaku Generation

Moderator:Larissa Faw, Editor of Youth Markets Alert
Panelists: Lillian Diaz-Przybyl, Senior Editor of Global Manga at Tokyopop
Elizabeth Kawasaki, Editorial Director of Viz
Nola Thacker, Young Adult Services Librarian and Author
Kurt Hassler, Co-Publisher at Yen Press
Dallas Middaugh, Associate Publisher of Del Rey Manga
Jill Snider, Senior Brand Manager, Funimation

There were three really interesting highlights of this panel:

• Content is king. Yen Press and Viz are of the opinion that good content will sell, no matter what the demographic or direction of the text.
• Tokyopop is backing off from their three-book deals with domestic creators
• Broadcasters refuse to air anime aimed at girls.

The panel kicked off with a manga focus. The manga boom is largely due to Tokyopop placing Sailor Moon graphic novels in Borders and Barnes and Noble in 2000, as Ms. Diaz-Przybyl pointed out. By the late 1990’s American comic book stores were notoriously unfriendly to females, and TP had to reach into bookstores to capture the Sailor Moon demographic. Eight years later the manga section is booming.

Ms. Thacker observed that in her library in Suffolk County girls read manga for boys, and manga brings in the junior high kids who are notorious for not reading any books at all. Ms. Thacker is probably unaware of this, but if you ask Ed Chavez, girls don’t just read Shonen Jump magazine here and in Japan, girls ruined Shonen Jump, which now attempts to appeal to the female audience with thinly veiled uke/seme pairings.

Ms. Faw, the moderator (who could’ve used the microphone more often, by the way), asked the panelist why girls like manga more than guys. Ms. Snider posited that manga is easier to obtain. Mr. Hassler pointed out that Japanese comics have been more diverse historically compared to the boy’s club that is American comics. Ms. Kawasaki theorized that manga storylines are similar to girl-oriented television.

Ms. Snider observed that American comics are trying to capture the girl market most recently with Anita Blake titles and Buffy comics. Ms. Diaz-Przybyl said that women want to see strong female protagonists - we do not, in fact, want to read comics about Spiderman’s girlfriend.

The topic turned to merchandising. Ms. Snider theorized that girls buy a lot of merch. They even buy stuff from amazon.jp when they can’t find it domestically. “Guys are lazy,” she said, “Girls are loyal fans.”

“It’s less of a collector mentality,” Ms. Kawasaki suggested. Ms. Snider backed up this point, saying girls are more shoppers than collectors. We don’t want signed busts of our favorite characters - we want character goods - and lots of them! I agreed completely.

Ms. Faw asked the panelist where manga is going in five years. What followed was the rather strange commentary from Ms. Diaz-Przybyl that the foreignness of reading right-to-left is cutting out a large potential audience. It’s bizarre to hear this from someone at Tokyopop, since they lead the revolution of unflopped manga. Mr. Hassler jumped in to point out the apparent contradiction, but also said that Viz published some non-flipped editions before Tokyopop did.

Mr. Hassler emphasized the importance of content over reading direction. With the Light, the manga about raising an autistic child, has been a run-away hit for Yen Press and is selling better than they ever expected. It is selling very well to non-manga-readers, and none of them are complaining about the text direction.

Ms. Kawasaki also believes that the right-to-left barrier will eventually drop. Ms. Thacker said the readers in her library are accustomed to reading books in both directions.

A member of the audience questioned if Ms. Thacker’s library patrons represented an accurate cross section of America. She said she’s certain it does. Mr. Hassler said that manga sells equally as well in rural and urban areas. Some of the highest volume of manga sales come out of stores in rural Texas, for example. Books A Million is a southern bookstore chain catering to the Bible Belt, but manga sells quite well there. There is even a rumor (not mentioned on the panel) that yaoi sells better at Books A Million than it does elsewhere in the country.

The topic of josei manga came up. According to Mr. Hassler, the josei demographic in the U.S. has not grown up reading manga (except I guess myself, and Ms. Dacey-Tsuei, and perhaps Ms. Diaz-Przybyl). Mr. Hassler pointed out that With the Light is both josei and successful. He said we could wait until teenagers reading shojo grow into the josei demographic, but it is more expedient to find new ways to reach the josei audience.

Calvin Reid from Publisher’s Weekly asked about the success of Tokyopop’s OEL program with girls. Much like what Tokypop’s Jeremy Ross would say on the next panel, Ms. Diaz-Przybyl opened by saying how successful Tokyopop’s OEL titles are, and then explaining Tokyopop’s decision to back away from the program:

“Certainly some of our most successful properties have captured that female readership… particularly Dramacon… The line as a whole, I think, is still struggling, but that’s something we’re working on as we speak… The model that we initially started in terms of three volume series, license it right from the get-go, and we get locked into a contract for three years - that has not necessary proved to be very effective because we’re working with a lot of young artist, who - some are extremely talented, but this is a growing process. They’re learning their craft, as we’re learning how to be better editors. I think that shows in some of the early books. But I mean that’s something you see in Japan as well, but the market is designed to absorb that… I’m looking forward to the next round of books from some of these creators.”

She went on to say Tokyopop is looking at ways to test new artists on a smaller scale. Mr. Ross hinted about this at the following panel as well.

Finally at the very end of the panel, a member of the audience brought up anime. Jill Snider is my new personal hero, since she has pitched anime titles for girls to Lifetime and WE. She’s even talked to the Adult Swim people. Mr. Middaugh brought up his talks with Cartoon Network years ago. Cartoon Network stopped showing Sailor Moon because the reruns did not get good ratings compared to new episodes. While boys watched the same episodes of Dragon Ball Z over and over again, apparently girls did not watch reruns.

Mr. Middaugh also re-iterated something which I have personally heard from Cartoon Network representatives several times: Girls will watch shows intended for boys, but boys avoid girl-oriented shows like the plague. Cartoon Network’s core audience is boys age six to twelve.

Mr. Hassler thinks that broadcasters are of the opinion animation is for boys. Ms. Diaz-Przybyl claimed that proportionally, fewer girl-oriented anime series are produced in Japan.

Ms. Snider said that boys’ shows come with big advertising dollars and toy sales, which make them more attractive. Tween girls barely watch television, and are instead glued to their cell phones. Mr. Hassler hoped some girl-animation would make it onto Sci-Fi channel when their new anime block started, but there was no such luck.

The panelist somehow managed to avoid talking about yaoi.

My coverage of the ICv2 conference held at New York Anime Festival continues with the marketing panel. You can listen to the un-edited audio I recorded of the panel here. I hope to clean up the levels later for my podcast.

ICv2: Marketing to the Otaku Generation

Panelists included:
Liza Coppola, the Senior Vice President of Viz
Gen Fukunaga, President and CEO of Funimation
Rich Johnson, Co-Publishing Director of Yen Press
Al Kahn, Chairman and CEO of 4Kids
Christopher MacDonald, Editor in Chief of Anime News Network
Lawrence Neves, the Editorial Director of Pokemon USA

The big news from this panel was Al Kahn’s amusing back-and-forth with Rich Johnson. In short, Kahn thinks all the creativity has leaked out of Japan. According to Kahn, toy companies have been spoiled by the success of Pokemon and want every property to be guaranteed that level of success. Japan, in turn, is making a lot of Pokemon-derivatives like Dinosaur King. The Dinosaur King cartoon uses the same Japanese voice cast as Pokemon (this was not mentioned on the panel) and it has been licensed by 4Kids (Kahn’s company).

Kahn’s comments have been covered elsewhere on the web, so I would like to point out my favorite part of this panel; Chris MacDonald of ANN dropped heavy hints about Viz’s total failure to stop the one website still fansubbing Naruto. Funimation CEO Gen Fukunaga and Al Kahn had no idea what MacDonald was talking about. Read on for more details…

Moderator Milton Griepp opened the panel by asking panelist to highlight the differences between the U.S. and Japanese markets. According to Lawrence Neves, Pokemon games and manga must be localized for a much wider band of distribution for the U.S. than it is in Japan. Things that were funny in the game in Japan must be changed if they are not funny here, or else dropped.

According to MacDonald, a success in Japan does not equal a success here. MacDonald encouraged the industry to look at the success of related merchandise in Japan and in the U.S. If you only look at downloads, you might miss what fans will respond to.

Rich Johnson pointed out that the manga market in Japan is very mature, whereas the manga market here is only eight years old. As the market matures, it will stretch to cover more areas.

Gen Fukunaga said his company sees a lot of cross-over success, but with caveats. Some genres don’t work as well here; moe shows and girl-oriented shows don’t sell well here. He specifically named Lucky Star as a hit in Japan which probably won’t sell as well here. Lucky Star is scheduled to be released by Funimation next year.

Al Kahn claimed that the number of anime series being produced in Japan is declining. He complained about producers there being uncooperative. He has a number of co-productions in Korea. Korea, according to Kahn, is more agreeable and he hopes to see more creativity from Koreans.

Kahn ranted on about how later Yu-Gi-Oh series fail to have Yugi as a character at all:

“Every time we get a letter from our kids they go ‘Where’s YuGiOh [Yugi]?’ and I go back to Japan and go ‘Let’s put YuGiOh back into Yu-Gi-Oh.’ And they laugh ‘Ha, we’ve moved on from that!’ It’s like taking Pikachu out of Pokemon! I think there’s a real systemic problem in Japan… We as a company have walked away to some extent from Japan.”

Kahn went on to plug 4Kids original property, called Chaotic, which features a card game, a cartoon show, and an online component. It will hit stores in January.

“I think if you’re big in manga you should be looking elsewhere, because it’s going south,” Kahn added.

Liza Coppola countered Kahn’s remark saying that “Manga is not dead.” When Viz looks for a property to import they look at content and the storyline. “Content is content,” Coppola said. Great content can come from anywhere.

Rich Johnson jumped in, eager to respond to Kahn, recalling the sad state of the American comics industry in the 1990’s, and saying the industry is cyclical. He brought up the death of Superman in the 1990’s and contrasted it with the present “Could there be a richer time for graphic novels that you can remember?” Johnson asked.

From there on out the panel proceeded like a senate hearing.

Kahn: What has Japan done for me lately?
Coppola: Uh, Naruto?
(4Kids is missing out on a slice of the Naruto pie.)
Johnson: Graphic Novels! Borders! Shelf space!
Kahn: What drove Spiderman? Graphic novels? Or four movies that have grossed over a billion dollars?
Johnson: A combination…!
Kahn: Without the movies no one would care.
Johnson: But it’s a great adaptation…!

Johnson firmly believes in the boom in books, but Kahn’s game is merchandising and licensing. This stuff is about 25 minutes into my recording, and it’s worth listening to.

Christopher MacDonald went into his theory about Naruto. Huge titles are driven by merchandise, MacDonald theorized, but smaller titles are driven by DVD sales. Merchandising is more important for your Narutos and Yu-Gi-Ohs:

“These companies will market these titles in very different ways. I’d like to give an example of a particular title that’s exceptionally popular right now that I’m certain must be making tons of money in merchandise. We were talking about the problems of downloading earlier… Yet here we have an exceptionally popular title where the license holder is doing nothing about fansubs on a website that it could easily shut down, because those fansubs sell merchandise. So when you have a very popular title the whole skew will change. I’ll allow you to figure out what title I’m talking about.”

At this point Fukunaga from Funimation leaned back in his chair to whisper to Kahn, “What is it?” You can hear him ask at about 29 minutes and 19 seconds into my recording. Kahn only shrugged - he didn’t know either. I couldn’t see the Viz representative’s reaction at the other end of the table. Gen and Al’s interaction was pretty amazing - they are so out of touch with fans that they could not immediately pinpoint MacDonald picking on the fansub group Dattebayo, the main source of all Naruto fansubs for the last two years. MacDonald had even mentioned Naruto earlier.

Griepp asked the panel about the lag time “window” between the U.S. and Japan. Kahn said that it’s not a problem for kids under 10, who don’t typically download. He emphasized the importance of localization to make things more appealing, but generally supported the internet as a way to get kids interested in properties. Again, it was ironic to hear Kahn emphasize the importance of localization - isn’t that why he lost the One Piece license?

Fukunaga said the ideal solution is simultaneous worldwide release. What’s standing in our way is the Japanese structure - shows are driven to TV stations just days before the air date. He mentioned international co-production as one solution, and aggressively going after pirates as another solution.

MacDonald agreed on the “simultaneous worldwide release” solution, referring in a sidelong way to Justin Sevakis’s recent ANN editorial. He encouraged putting digital versions of episodes online if a simultaneous DVD release is not possible.

“The only way to stop piracy is to make it unnecessary. When fansubs are no longer needed then anime fans won’t make them. But the only way to make them unneeded is to provide quick, free, accurately translated anime. Even if you put the DVD out the same day, you’ll still have bootleg DVD rips.”

MacDonald expanded on his point, saying that the market consists of consumers and collectors. Collectors collect DVDs, but consumers just want to watch anime any way they can. “The majority of today’s fans are consumers,” MacDonald said, “And they’re the ones you’re losing due to that delay.”

Coppola addressed the fact that Viz streams several shows on Toonami Jetstream online and sells titles through the iTunes store. Viz hopes to shorten the release window for consumer, and they are working to add value to DVDs by adding extras for the collector, like toys that come with the DVD.

The discussion of electronic distribution continued later in the “New Media Frontier” panel.

This is the first entry of my coverage ICv2 conference held at New York Anime Festival. You can listen to the un-edited audio I recorded of the panel here. I hope to clean up the levels later for my podcast. On with the coverage:

ICv2: White Paper

Anime (in the DVD market) may have peaked in 2005. The number of DVD titles released in the U.S. each year increased up until 2005 and then started declining, according to statistics from the DVD Release Report. The anime market was worth $500 million in 2005, but in 2006 that number was down to $400 million. Where 2003 saw a 10% increase in the market size, the following year it went down 9%, and then -10% in 2005, and -11% in 2006.

Moderator Milton Griepp described anime as being in a “Best of times, worst of times” scenario. Awareness of anime and market penetration is at its highest ever, but as later ICv2 panels would elaborate on, the anime DVD market is in crisis, and faces collapse in three years.

Demand for anime on TV is growing while DVD sales are declining. In 2002, there were 18 anime series on TV, on five different channels. In 2007 there were 38 series on TV across 11 channels. (These statistics do not include video on demand.) There is more anime on TV than ever before, but sales continue to drop.

Anime did very well when DVDs started catching on in 2000, but Griepp pointed out that anime DVDs now compete with a lot more DVD content in the marketplace. Lots of American TV shows are currently available on DVD, and at a much lower price point.

Griepp said the main issue facing the anime industry is a “Pricing Quandary”:

“Consumers want season set pricing. That’s what they’ve become used to buying American television shows on DVD. The old model of anime on DVD was to put 3 or 4 episodes on a DVD and sell them one at a time, at the end maybe put out a box set. People don’t want to wait, and they don’t want to pay those prices.”

Further complicating the pricing quandary, DVDs must compete with the abundant free downloads on the internet. Licensing and dubbing is expensive. The declining sales numbers only compound the problem.

Griepp added that stand-alone feature anime films sell quite well, because “the dynamics of season set pricing do not apply.” The anime feature business is doing well.

The manga industry continues to grow. 1,208 individual volumes of manga were published in 2006, up 120 volumes from the previous year. 1,469 volumes were released in 2007 and 1,731 volumes are set to come out next year. Of the manga numbers, 11% of titles are from Korea, 1% are from China, and 7% are OEL or global manga.

When asked if manga is eating away at the anime industry, Griepp said no - and this is a point that came up again and again all weekend: Downloaders of scanslations like to buy books because they then own the product. Downloaders of anime have the product in its entirety and do not tend to buy the physical product.

The question facing the anime industry is: Will the core audience disappear? The question facing the manga industry is: Will the demographic expand?

A few publishers like Aurora are starting to publish josei manga, and publishers like Dark Horse continue to pick up seinen titles for older men.

One member of the audience suggested that international anime co-productions could lessen the burden of anime license pricing and close the window on release dates between the Japanese air dates and U.S. DVDs; Griepp agreed that this is happening, and the window is being closed even by companies who are not co-producing.

NEW YORK, NY - December 9, 2007 - Marvel Entertainment and Del Rey Manga, an imprint of Ballantine Books at the Random House Publishing Group, announced today plans to publish two new manga series based on Marvel Entertainment’s highly popular X-Men series.

The manga, created with the cooperation and consultation of Marvel editors, will take the classic characters from the X-Men series and re-imagine them in a manga style. The first project, scripted by the husband-and-wife team of Raina Telgemeier (writer and illustrator of The Babysitter’s Club graphic novels) and Dave Roman (creator of the comic Agnes Quill), will focus specifically on the X-Men team. Indonesian artist Anzu will illustrate the two-volume series, which will go on sale in Spring 2009.

It’s the X-Men as you’ve never seen them before, with the storyline fashioned as a private school shôjo comedy. (Shôjo manga is aimed at girls and often covers popular subjects such as comedy, romance, and drama.) As the only girl in the all-boys School for Gifted Youngsters, Kitty Pryde, a mutant with phasing abilities, is torn between the popular Hellfire Club, led by flame-throwing mutant Pyro–and the school misfits, whom she eventually bands together as the X-Men.

A second manga series, to be published in Spring 2009, follows the adventures of Wolverine, a breakout member of the X-Men team known for his attitude and unbreakable adamantium claws.

Dallas Middaugh, associate publisher of Del Rey Manga, says, “The X-Men are some of the most well-known characters in the world, and it’s the strength of those characters-along with strong and unique storylines-that make the X-Men a perfect match for the manga form. It’s an amazing opportunity, and we’re eager to bring new interpretations to the fans through the prism of manga.”

The X-Men made their comics debut in The X-Men #1 in 1963 and have since become a mainstream pop culture phenomenon with the development of an animated television series, several video games and a blockbuster live-action film trilogy.

Ruwan Jayatilleke, Vice President of development of Marvel Entertainment, Inc., said “Del Rey Manga has been an innovative force in the manga landscape—consistently growing the medium and breaking the boundaries of print. We have found a partner who will bring the X-Men and Wolverine into the fastest growing segment of graphic fiction, with superior storytelling and visual fireworks. Comic book fans and manga readers have much to look forward to.”

Manga, the Japanese term for comics, is a Japanese cultural phenomenon that accounts for nearly half of all the books and magazines sold in Japan. Read by men and women of all ages, manga covers a wide variety of themes including adventure, romance, fantasy, and more. Manga has experienced incredible growth in the US and Canadian graphic novel market in the past few years. According to industry source ICv2 manga sales reached between $170 million and $200 million in 2006.

About the Creators
Raina Telgemeier is best known for her work as the writer and illustrator of The Babysitter’s Club graphic novels. She received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts and has been nominated for numerous awards, including the Eisner, Ignatz, Cybil, and Web Cartoonists’ Choice awards.

Dave Roman currently works for Nickelodeon Magazine as an associate editor. The co-creator of the Harvey Award-nominated series Jax Epoch and the Quicken Forbidden and the Ignatz award-winning Teen Boat, he also pens his own webcomic, Astronaut Elementary. He is also the creator of the comic Agnes Quill.

Anzu, a manga artist based in Indonesia, will make her US manga art debut in April 2008 with the first volume of The Reformed, written by Chris Hart. She has contributed to Hart’s bestselling How to Draw Manga series.

About Del Rey Manga
Del Rey Books (http://www.delreybooks.com ) was founded in 1977 as an imprint of Ballantine Books, a division of the Random House Publishing Group, under the guidance of the renowned Judy-Lynn del Rey and her husband, Lester del Rey. Del Rey publishes the best of modern fantasy, science fiction, and alternate history. Ballantine Books is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, which is a publishing group of Random House, Inc, the U.S. publishing company of Random House, the trade book publishing division of Bertelsmann AG, one of the world’s leading international media companies. In 2004 it expanded by launching Del Rey Manga (www.delreymanga.com), which has grown to be a major force in the U.S. graphic-novel field. Bestselling titles include Tsubasa, Negima, xxxHolic, and The Wallflower.

About Marvel Entertainment, Inc.
With a library of over 5,000 high-profile characters built over more than sixty years of comic book publishing, Marvel Entertainment, Inc. is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in licensing, entertainment (via Marvel Studios), publishing (via Marvel Comics) and toys, with emphasis on feature films, home DVD, consumer products, video games, action figures and role-playing toys, television and promotions. Marvel’s strategy is to leverage its franchises in a growing array of opportunities around the world. For more information visit www.marvel.com.

X-Men, Wolverine: TM & © 2007 Marvel Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Now that the last cosplaying Soul Reaper has hung up his zanpakutou, I thought I’d take stock of the major manga news stories to emerge from the first New York Anime Festival. If you want the lowdown on individual titles, I encourage you to visit About.com, where Deb Aoki has posted plot summaries and release dates for series discussed at NYAF, and MangaBlog, where Brigid Alverson has filed detailed reports on the weekend’s big panels. Anime fans and fujioshi should check the Manga Recon blog later this week, when Erin F. files her reports on the anime panels and Drama Queen’s big plans for 2008.

Here are my votes for the five most important manga-related news stories from NYAF 2007:

5. Everyone’s riding the omnibus.
Chalk it up to budget conscious consumers or burgeoning back catalogs, but several publishers announced plans to repackage fan favorites in new, multi-volume editions. Tokyopop and Viz are focusing on older titles, with Tokyopop offering both deluxe, hardbound editions of Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy and Fruits Basket (complete with extras and larger trim size) and more wallet-friendly omnibus treatments of crowd-pleasers like Chronicles of the Cursed Sword and Kare Kano. Viz, meanwhile, will be rolling out Big Editions of Rurouni Kenshin and both DragonBall series. The Viz Big Editions will be formatted like Tekkonkinkreet, with a larger trim size, color pages, and a dust jacket. Curiously, no one at the Viz panel mentioned the more exciting news that Inoue’s Vagabond will also be getting the Big Edition treatment in 2008. File that under Things That Make You Go Hmmmm….

While Del Rey has no plans to continue its Barnes and Noble omnibus program, it will be offering readers a deluxe presentation of Me and The Devil Blues (June 2008), a fictionalized biography of legendary Delta guitarist Robert Johnson. Each installment will include two volumes of the manga—that’s nearly 500 pages of story—formatted for a slightly larger trim size.

• Tokyopop Graphic Novel Editions: Chronicles of the Cursed Sword, Kare Kano, King of Hell, Rebirth (Spring 2008), Sgt. Frog (December 2007) (3 volumes each; $12.99; limited availability)
• Tokyopop Ultimate Editions: Battle Royale, Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy, Fruits Basket (available now) (2-3 volumes each; hardcover; $14.99 - $29.99)
• Viz Big Editions: DragonBall (April 2008), DragonBall Z (August 2008), Rurouni Kenshin (February 2008), Vagabond (Fall 2008) (3 vols. each; softcover; $17.99)

4. nisiOisin: not just an acronym anymore.
In an effort to capitalize on popular manga franchises, Del Rey and Viz have licensed novels by prolific author nisiOisin. Del Rey will offer CLAMP fans xxxHolic: Another Holic, a novel set in the xxxHolic universe, while Viz will be releasing Death Note: The Last Note, a prequel to the manga. nisiOisin’s work will also appear in the first volume of Del Rey’s Faust anthology, which will include a collaboration between him and Loveless manga-ka Yun Kouga. And Del Rey has licensed his light novel series Zaregoto: The Kubikiri Cycle.

• Del Rey: Faust: Fiction and Manga from the Cutting Edge of Japanese Pop Culture (short story w/illustrations by Yun Kouga; summer 2008), xxxHolic: Another Holic (light novel; one volume; illustrations by CLAMP), Zaregoto: The Kubikiri Cycle (light novel; nine volumes)
• Viz: Death Note: Another Note (light novel; one volume; February 2008)

3. Yen Press has 4-coma fever.
Among the many titles Yen Press plans to release in 2008 are four series that follow the same yonkoma format as Azumanga Daioh. The first, Shoulder a Coffin, Kuro (May 2008), follows the adventures of a young girl who travels the countryside with a talking bat and a coffin strapped to her back; the second, Sunshine Sketch, is a slice-of-life comedy set in a boarding school dormitory (June 2008); the third, Suzunari! (July 2008), tells the story of a young girl and her cat-eared doppelganger (and yes, wacky hijinks ensue); and the fourth, SS Astro: Teacher’s Lounge (October 2008) offers a humorous look at how faculty members really interact when their students aren’t around.

2. X-Men/1999.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (or avoiding the Internet), you’ve probably heard the news that Del Rey and Marvel have teamed up to produce two manga series based on the X-Men. Before you roll your eyes, keep in mind that Del Rey and Marvel are bringing A-list talent to the project (writers, artists, and editors) in an effort to create a product that manga fans will want to read.

The first will be aimed squarely at a shojo audience. Editor Tricia Narwani reassured readers that the story would “respect shojo conventions” while remaining faithful to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original characters. The concept sketches suggested something in the vein of X/1999 or Godchild—a tone that I hope carries over to the dialogue and plot as well. (Please, no X-Men: Fruits Basket or Dr. Xavier’s Here Is Greenwood. Keep it dark, and keep those chibis to a minimum!) The second series, Wolverine, was aimed at a shonen audience. Though Del Rey had secured a writer for the project, no artist was announced, nor were any plot points discussed. (UPDATE: Deb Aoki has posted some preliminary character sketches at About.com. Click here to view bishonen Wolverine!)

• Wolverine (2 vols., Spring 2009; Story by Antony Johnston)
• X-Men: The Manga (2 vols., Spring 2009; Story by Raina Telgemeier and Dave Roman, Art by Anzu)

1. Shonen Jump may face some stiff competition.
Received wisdom is that the US market can’t support manga magazines. Given how many worthy anthologies have tanked—remember Super Manga Blast or Raijin Comics?—it seems like a fool’s errand to launch a new magazine. But Kurt Hasseler may have hit on a winning formula with the just-announced Yen Plus: run cool titles by big-name artists and authors. A manga adaptation of James Patterson’s best-selling YA series Maximum Ride will be serialized in Yen Plus, as will Svetlana Chmakova’s highly anticipated Night School. Among the other franchises slated to run in the magazine are Jack Frost, a supernatural Korean adventure story, and Pig Bride, a soong-jeong comedy about a young man who’s never seen his bride-to-be’s face. (She wears a pig mask at all times. Paging Dr. Phil…) Each volume will be approximately 460 pages, and will sell for $8.99 at a variety of retail outlets. Look for the first issue in the summer of 2008.

Del Rey will also be publishing an anthology, though Faust will offer readers a mixture of fiction and manga. The first volume, scheduled for an August 2008 release, will include contributions from CLAMP, Takeshi Oba (Death Note, Hikaru no Go), nisiOisin (Death Note: The Last Note), and Yun Kouga (Loveless), while the second will feature a short manga by American cartoonist Fred Gallagher (Megatokyo).

Most fan-friendly licensing news: Tokyopop announced that it will be releasing a manga adaptation of Kyo Kara Maoh! in the third quarter of 2008, while Bandai Entertainment announced that it had acquired the rights to the Code GEASS manga and light novels.

Most YALSA-friendly licensing news: Go! Comi announced that it will be publishing Song of the Hanging Sky, a folkloric story about an indigenous people threatened by modernity. The concept and the gorgeous artwork suggest that this might be a future YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens pick. Ditto for Kasumi (Del Rey), an OEL title from American writer Surt Lim and Japanese artist Hirofumi Sugimoto. The premise sounded quite amusing: a teen moves to a small village where a tree god grants her (and other teens) special powers. The catch: they can only activate these powers by closing their eyes or holding their breath, making them less-than-ideally suited for saving the world.

Least surprising licensing news: Viz will be pushing more Naruto and Death Note products in 2008, including The Official Naruto Fan Book (February 2008) and a Death Note 13: How to Read (February 2008), while Tokyopop will be releasing a Fruits Basket sticker book (May 2008) that will include pin-ups, posters, and temporary tattoos inspired by the series’ zodiac theme.

Best news for manga bloggers and web surfers: Tokyopop will be overhauling its website, making it easier to navigate and locate information about its own products. Tokyopop will also be launching a new program that will dovetail beautifully with their Rising Stars of Manga initiative. I can’t say more right now—the details are still being hammered out—but I think that it will be a real boon for both the company and for creators.

Best news for booksellers: Del Rey will begin staggering its releases, offering two to four new titles per week instead of ten or thirteen titles on the same day each month. As an added bonus, Del Rey will be simultaneously releasing the first two volumes of several series including Hiro Mashima’s eagerly anticipated Fairy Tale (March 2008).

Best convention swag: Vertical’s Guin Saga leopard masks.

Most entertaining panel: Drama Queen. (And I’m not saying that just because I won volumes one and two of DVD—I swear!)

Most abused marketing hook: Comparing a series’ premise with Harry Potter. I heard no fewer than four pitches that began, “It’s like Harry Potter in manga form” or “Think of it as Harry Potter meets…”

What the kids will be reading next: Gakuen Alice (Tokyopop), Night School (Yen Press), The Record of a Fallen Vampire (Viz)

What the old curmudgeons will be reading next: Black Jack (Vertical, Inc.), Dororo (Vertical, Inc.); Manga Sutra (Tokyopop); Me and the Devil Blues (Del Rey); Real (Viz), SS Astro: Teacher’s Lounge (Yen Press); Summit of the Gods (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)

After reading over my list of five things to do at NY Anime Fest, Kaiju Shakedown blogger and NY Asian Film Festival guru Grady Hendrix sent me this mildly outraged email:

I saw your list of things to do at the Anime fest this weekend, and while it was great it was fatally flawed because you missed the motion picture event of the decade….the free screening of CASSHERN!!!!

This built-in-the-basement cracked masterpiece has never been shown in the US in all its majesty and this is the 35mm screening, of the complete 141 minute version of the film, in Japanese with English subtitles, and introduced by the movie’s military advisor (also the advisor on BATTLE ROYALE) and the soundtrack composer who’s part of the J-pop duo, Unicorn Table.

It’s at the ImaginAsian (East 59th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues) on Saturday night at 10pm and it’s free. This is going to be a rowdy, nutty, woolly event featuring singing sheep, prize giveaways, a visit from Naughty Santa and a screening of the greatest steampunk, anti-war, Space Nazis vs. Robo-Commies movie ever made.

So there you have it, folks… a film premiere that’s guaranteed to entertain (or offend) Monty Python fans, Akira buffs, Cold Warriors, robots, and border collies alike. Admission is free for anyone with a NY Anime Fest pass. The ImaginAsian will also be running a stand-by line for the general public; get there by 9:30 PM, and you have a good chance of getting in.

Planning to attend New York Anime Fest this weekend? If so, you need a strategy for getting the most out of this three-day extravaganza. Here are five fun things to do… besides shop ’til you drop and nab autographs, of course.

5. Watch a live-action adaptation of your favorite manga.
Sounds like a counter-intuitive thing to do at a festival celebrating animation, but Viz Pictures is screening a terrific line-up of movies that includes Honey and Clover, Lovely Complex (a.k.a. Love*Com) and both Nana flicks. Catch ‘em here before Viz releases them on DVD next year!

• Friday, Dec. 7th: Lovely Complex (5:00 PM, Live-Action Screening Room)

• Sunday, Dec. 9th: Nana (1:00 PM, Live-Action Screening Room)
• Sunday, Dec. 9th: Honey and Clover (3:00 PM, Live-Action Screening Room)

4. Tour Japan with a tall girl (and maybe pick up some cosplay tips, too).
Aimee Major Steinberger, one of this year’s Guests of Honor, will preside over two panels. The first celebrates the release of her charming travelogue Japan-Ai: A Tall Girl’s Adventures in Japan. (Dramacon creator Svetlana Chmakova explains, “It’s a sketchbook, it’s a story, it’s a warmly humorous and often downright beautiful glimpse of Japan through the eyes of a fellow geek.”) The second might best be described as Cosplay 101. Aimee will cover the basics from wig styling to adapting outlandish character designs into something you can wear to a convention… without being arrested for indecent exposure, that is.

• Saturday, Dec. 8th: Aimee Major Steinberger’s Japan Ai (4:00 PM, Anime Culture Panel Room)

• Sunday, Dec. 9th: Cosplay Workshop (11:00 AM, Anime Fandom Panel Room)

3. Break into journalism.
Whether you’re an armchair critic or cub reporter, the folks at Anime News Network have you covered with two panels offering would-be Pauline Kaels and Lois Lanes tips on breaking into the biz. The first, Getting Into Anime Journalism, focuses on making the transition from casual fan to anime insider, while the second, The Art of Reviewing Anime, explores the “differences between a good anime review and a bad LiveJournal post.” (Hint: spelling and grammar are major contributing factors!)

• Friday, Dec. 7th: Getting Into Anime Journalism (6:00 PM, Anime Culture Panel Room)

• Saturday, Dec. 8th: The Art of Reviewing Anime (11:00 AM, Anime Culture Panel Room)

2. Go mano-a-mano with Mothra.
Imagine an event that combined your favorite monster movies with your favorite pro wrestling moves, and you’ll have some idea of what’s in store for you at the Kaiju Big Battel panel. Go behind the scenes with the Kaiju Regulatory Commission to learn more about this “maximum security” sporting event in which “maniacal villains, ominous alien beasts, and gigantic, city-crushing monsters who are fighting for control of the globe” unleash “pent-up monster rage” without harming humans.

• Sunday, Dec. 9th: Kaiju Big Battel (4:00 PM, Anime Fandom Panel Room)

1. Learn something about Japanese culture.
Sure, your extensive knowledge of anime and manga has made you into an expert on maid cafes, cultural festivals, and White Day gift-giving. But there’s a lot more to Japanese culture than ramen noodles and cute boy bands. Expand your horizons by attending one of many panels exploring Japan’s rich history and traditions. Here are some highlights:

• Friday, Dec. 7th: Gekiga: Dramatic Manga (3:00 PM, Anime Culture Panel Room)

• Friday, Dec. 7th: Symbolism in Anime (4:00 PM, Anime Fandom Panel Room)
• Saturday, Dec. 8th: Anime & Manga Research Roundtable (1:00 PM, Anime Culture Panel Room)
• Saturday, Dec. 8th: J-Horror with David Kalat (5:00 PM, Anime Culture Panel Room)
• Saturday, Dec. 8th: Sake and The City (6:00 PM, Anime Culture Panel Room)
• Sunday, Dec. 9th: Samurai and Feudal Japan (11:00 AM, Anime Culture Panel Room)
• Sunday, Dec. 9th: Noh, Kabuki and Bunraku (12:00 PM, Anime Culture Panel Room)
• Sunday, Dec. 9th: Japanese Woodblock Prints (1:00 PM, Anime Culture Panel Room)

The organizers of NY Anime Fest have posted a complete schedule of panels, premieres, and screenings on their website. There are also more interactive ways to get your geek on: cosplay contests, artist signings, haiku slams, and a maid cafe. Click here for a full schedule of events and contests. And if you’re planning to duck out of the Javits Center, consult Erin F.’s map for the best places to find manga and munchables in midtown Manhattan.

If you’ve ever wondered how to break into voice acting, or are simply curious how actors bring your favorite anime characters to life, you owe it to yourself to check out Adventures in Voice Acting, a documentary exploring the voice acting industry. We recently sat down with Bang Zoom! Entertainment President Eric P. Sherman to learn more about the film, part of which will be screened at New York Anime Fest 2007. Here’s what he had to say.

PopCultureShock:Tell us a little bit about Adventures in Voice Acting. What can the average anime fan expect to learn from watching this documentary, and how will that enhance their appreciation of their favorite series?

Eric P. Sherman: We tried to make this film so as to create the feel of having a back stage pass, or access to a movie set. We tried to make it a pretty intimate experience for the viewer. We’ve worked on a lot of anime series, and I think it was important for us to really know and understand these talented actors, so they would be willing to open up to us. I think this was very important during filming, and it allows the viewer to learn not only the techniques these actors use, but the motivation behind what they do, and how they have accomplished all they have.

One thing aspiring voice actors should know is that these actors make it look (or sound) really easy – but it isn’t! The fact that it appears so easy and natural should clue the audience in to just how talented these folks are. So when you watch ADVENTURES IN VOICE ACTING and then watch anime, in either English or Japanese, I think audiences will hopefully have a greater appreciation for the voices of the characters they hear and a respect for the craft. It will be a more visceral experience.

Industry veteran Michelle Ruff (Bleach, DearS, Girls Bravo, MAR) in the studio. Michelle is one of 75 actors to appear in the final cut of the film.

PCS: Who can fans expect to see in the documentary?

ES: In ADVENTURES IN VOICE ACTING, Volume 1, fans can expect to see some of the most acclaimed and notable voice actors working in anime today. They include Steve Blum (Spike in Cowboy Bebop), Crispin Freeman (Alucard in Hellsing), Vic Mignogna (Edward in FullMetal Alchemist), and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, a renowned voice actress who is also a prominent ADR director. There are other facets of voice acting covered in this volume, but anime is definitely a focal point. Volume 2, which is forthcoming, is going to focus on voice acting for games, and volume 3 will be more about original animation. There are over 75 personalities featured in the final cut of the film, and as well as casting directors and voice directors. There is no shortage of informative and candid interview footage from professional actors across the country.

There’s also an insightful segment on up-and-coming actors. Voice actors with little to no experience at all, just on the cusp of breaking into the business themselves. They talk openly about their personal journeys and I think this gives encouragement to those who are just thinking of getting into the business.

PCS: American fans frequently note differences in voice-acting styles between the Japanese original and the dubbed versions aired in the West. What do American actors have to say about these differences?

ES: Japanese voice actors have a way of using breathing techniques that are different from their Western counterparts. In my opinion, the Japanese actors are often more concerned about what’s between each line of dialogue than the actual dialogue itself. It’s a subtle thing, but to me it’s a big difference, and I think some of these nuances and techniques have slowly made their way into English language dubbing of anime. This is a natural progression, since our goal has been to remain as true as possible to the original Japanese dialogue that we’re adapting into English. Not in all cases, but definitely a majority of them.

PCS: Your website suggests that one of the target audiences for Adventures in Voice Acting is aspiring voice actors. What kind of background/training do they need to break into animation and video games?

ES: It says it in the film around 20 times at least: take acting classes! Get yourself some training as early on as you can. Get into classes and workshops–not only to learn the craft of acting, but also, to start networking. These two go hand-in-hand. It’s great to be passionate about anime but knowing acting as a discipline and also as a business will definitely be what sets the successful ones apart. This may sound trite, but it’s true. It’s not just what you know, but it’s also who you know.

PCS: What will you be screening at New York Anime Fest?

ES: Episode One which is the first 23 minutes of the film. It’s a world premiere sneak preview event. The reason for this is simple. We’re not done with the rest of the film yet. We’re close, but we’re looking at another month or so in the editing room and then looking at distribution options. The film is divided into several “episodes” and we’ll be showing episode one in its entirety. This takes the viewer from the very basic “What is a Voice Actor?” all the way up through “How did you break into the business?” These questions are really at the very core of the film, and they are answered here, but in several different ways in the film. And in later episodes, actors and casting professionals give their own very thoughtful, personal nuggets of advice on what you should do if YOU wanted to do this for a living.

PCS: What kind of extras will buyers find on the DVD?

ES: Voice actor bios and personal messages to their fans, vocal warm up exercises, and mini-studio tours (behind the scenes footage).

Selections from Adventures in Voice Acting will be shown on Saturday, December 8th at 12:00 PM in the Live Action Screening Room at the Jacob Javits Center. Eric Sherman will be on hand to answer questions after the screening.