Hosted by: Adam Ferraro
The opening ceremonies for Anime Boston took place in a grand theatre room. Crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling and an upper level let some special guest sit from above and watch the people who were seated in the middle of the room. I was impressed by the number of people who attended who attended the opening ceremonies..
Patrick Delahanty, the vice chairman opened up the ceremonies by inviting up to the stage Adam Ferraro, the chair for Anime Boston. Adam started his speech his a historical perspective on Boston, which put most of the audience to sleep. Thing picked up a little when the two mascot came up on stage declaring, "the Otaku are coming, the otaku are coming!" The many events at Anime Boston were highlighted, especially the Masquerade and the Anime Music Video Contest.
The lineup of companies who were present or sponsors of the con were announced. The only two companies that set up representatives were David Williams of ADV and Mark MacKinnon of Guardians of Order. Fan guests were next with Steve Bennett, whose wife is a native of the Boston area.
Tiffany Grant came up next wearing a cute Hello Kitty t-shirt. She complained the podium was too small, so David Williams came to rescues offering her a chair to stand on. Jamie McGonnigal of several Media Blasters came up and said his first professional audition was at the stage were Anime Boston was having its opening ceremonies.
The big finale (well not the last, but certainly upstaged the final guest) were the Gundam Wing Voice Actors. Unfortunately Scott McNeil(Duo) hadn't arrived yet, so only Ted Cole (Wufei), Mark Hildreth (Heero), Kirby Morrow(), and Brad Swaile (Quatre) were on stage as the curtains in front of them were raised. One of the mascots of Anime Boston took the place of the missing Scott McNeil. Kirby Morrow was easily the crowd favorite .
Last, but not least, our Japanese Guest of Honor, Horiki Kanno, the animation character designer behind RahXephon, was introduced. Instead of coming on stage, he waved from the rafters where he had been watching the proceedings.
Licensing
Hosted by: Jerry Chu, David Williams, Mark MacKinnon
The first panel I attended was the licensing panel. Jerry Chu of Bandai, David Williams of ADV, and Mark MacKinnon of Guardians of Order ran the panel. Out of the three of them, only Mark MacKinnon is involved in actual licensing.
So, what is licensing? Every thing starts in Japan with a creator, who has an idea for a show or a manga. Funding them must be gathered to crate the show, and the ownership of the property decided. Licensing rights for different properties of the then get split up. American companies then try to figure out who has the license. At this time, terms of the contract start getting discussed, which may requite for the licensee to pay a certain minimum amount of money, and they set up royalties.
Mark of Guardian of Orders went into how they take the source material for a piece of anime, and adapt it into a role playing game. Guardians of Order typically doesn't go to Japan, but companies in the USA. When they acquired the right to Tenchi, they went to Pioneer Entertainment USA.
Jerry answered a question relation to merchandise, which will probably have a different license holder than the person who owns the rights to the show.
Co-producing came up with a question on whether it leads to an automatic licensing of a title by a US company. David answered that it was a safe bet. A lot of shows are produced by committee in Japan, which is a group of companies, so you have to work to figure out who has the rights to a particular part. There's a large education factor in figuring out what is licensed. One thing fans might not know is most shows are licensed now during the financing stage, before the show is even produced. This makes a lot of fansubs pointless now. Of course, there are still old shows that probably won't be licensed; but new shows are almost guaranteed. Some details of licensing that were discussed were how regions, media, time period, and an infinite number of combinations can be part of the contract. Even voice casting can be an issue. Jessica Calavello was chosen from her audition in a Go Nagai title one.
There's a lot more competition now with Columbia Tri-Start and Disney getting into picture. Of course, with the US anime companies competing for titles, they drive up the price of shows between them.
Split licenses cause problems for companies like Guardian of Order. Mark brought up Slayers, which is split between ADV and CPM, with CPM having both anime and manga of the series. All their Slayers RPG material is only based on the TV series.
Jerry talked about how Grunty was a new licensing product, and how they had to go through the bureaucracy in order in order to get the product made.
Anime broadcasting in the US came up and with how a convoluted process it is. NAPTE is a convention where most of the deals are made.
The Japanese are now going to US companies when they produce an anime, since they now count on the additional source of revenue. The Japanese also are worried about grey market imports, like R1 DVDs being sold in Japan.
The panel ran out of time at this point.
Manga Entertainment
Hosted by: Keith Burgess
Keith Burgess started out with release date of current anime. The current announced schedule was given, and then Keith went into one of the extras that were included on the tenth anniversary Ninja Scroll. An interview with Wendee Lee will be included, that goes into the early days of dubbing when they didn't even have beeps when you could speak. The Evangelion movie boxset was given a date of Oct 28. September 30 should also see the release of Orguss 02 and a Macross Plus boxset.
Kadaimoruh was described as a period piece that begins in black and white. As the film progresses it moves to pastels. Finally, the film ends in color. A booklet will be included that gives the watcher a heads up into what happens before the movie takes place.
Our first question was someone complaining of Manga titles such as Angel Cop and Baoh being hentai. Of course, he was completely mistaken as the titles are violent, despite. Next, a question relating to which studios Manga might go for new titles and back titles. I think this was a loaded question by the asker, as she was Japanese and filming. The answer was Production I.G., with an example of Blood and Kadaimoruh.
Jerry Chu had a great question for Keith, "speaking of black and white, when are you releasing Gunbuster. Keith reached into his bag, and pulled out an answer of November 15th! It will be a two disc boxset. Giant Robo was also asked about, but we got a no comment from that.
We were fully into, how many more questions came people asking about half an hour in the panel. Keith answered a question relating to his acting in the Eva Movie as Hyouga. Manga does have an option for the Ghost Sweeper Mikami TV series. Someone asked a question concerning Macross Zero, and Keith said they didn't have it. He did let slip that Pioneer had it though! He then said ignore it. Take things with a grain of salt though until Pioneer confirms it.
AnimeOnDVD.com
Hosted by: Chris Beveridge, Sean Broestl, Riki LeCotey
The AnimeOnDVD panel was hosted by Chris Beveridge, our esteemed webmaster, Sean Broestl, forum and server administrator, and Riki LeCotey, site artist. The panel was an opportunity for anyone to ask questions about the site or give feedback. Questions were rewarded with DVDs to help Chris recover valuable real estate in his house. I made sure to ruin that by dumping all the DVDs I've ever reviewed for him at the end of the con. Some quick stats went out first as we learned the AnimeOnDVD site receives about 15,000 unique hits a day and the new forum has thinned the herd a bit of inactive users. After this announcement we went straight to an open Q&A session.
One of the first topics brought up was how AOD sucks away all the money from everyone who reads it. The deals that get mentioned on the site by Chris or in the forum are usually what cause many readers to raise their empty wallets at Chris daily. The Right Stuf is responsible for many of deals, with their various coupons or bundles.
Con coverage was another topic. AOD basically covers what cons it has people at. In the beginning it was just people who either mailed in reports or posted them on the forum. That evolved over the years, especially beginning with AX2001 where I obtained press for the first time (how embarrassing, talking about myself). In addition, Mariela Ortiz, Sean Broestl, Wolve, and Merliwolf have all been official reporters for AOD (expect AnimeCentral coverage next).
Of course, one of the questions that got brought concerned how the site got started. Chris had just finished up a term of service running a pay MUD, so an immense amount of time just got freed up. DVD was still in its first year, and the web was coming into its prime. Deciding to learn some HTML skills, Chris started the site mainly as a DVD site. This has evolved more into an anime site over the years, but Chris still prefers to catalogue his site with sites like DVDFile and The Digital Bits. The site has turned out far more successful than Chris has ever imagined.
One person wondered how Chris gathers all the news he posts on the site? 90% of the news on the site is from readily available public information. Retailer sites, press releases, and anime company sites provide a lot of information, and Chris consolidates it in one location.
Hate mail is something Chris gets on a daily basis. For some reason, the Dutch in particular seem to have something against the site. Chris still gets hate mail on the Fist of the North Star reviews he wrote many years ago. I guess I have something to look forward to when I review Manga's new Fist of the North Star DVDs.
Another great question was what anime titles Chris feels are under appreciated? The first title that came to almost everyone's mind in the room was Princess Nine. Princess Nine was a topic for many months as it came out, and spawned a lot of forum discussion and a thirteen person cosplay group. The title was rarely mentioned anywhere else. Daiguard is another title that Chris feels is underappreciated and the Patlabor Movie. And the title that Chris believes should be licensed that isn't, Legend of the Galactic Heroes. This fits into Chris's favorite category of anime which is sci fi/political. Other favorite titles in the genre are Crest/Banner of the Stars and Macross.
Anime DVDs have come a long way over the years, but are there ways they could still be improved? Anamorphic video is one area that needs improvement, especially with the number of titles today that are being released in a letterbox format. This requires work on the Japanese end though, in making the proper masters. Also, more dub extras in terms of audio commentaries and outtakes seem to be very well appreciated.
Some fans wondered about the review portions of the site, and what Chris looks for in alternate angle reviews. Content is the main factor, as Chris can cover the technical aspects of the DVD instead. Also, reviews of the dub are greatly appreciated as he concentrates on the Japanese version.
Chris tries to review every title that comes along, so when the anime piles up how does he decide which title to watch first? Easy, he doesn't. It's all up to Melanie Beveridge, the real power behind AnimeOnDVD.com.
Central Park Media
Hosted by: Tom Wayland, Ross, Steven, Amber
Descendants of Darkness in volume 3 will have a pop up type video extra and an interactive Tarot Card Reading. The boxset of Descendants of Darkness will also include Tarot Cards, and will be exclusive to the boxset.
The big push at the panel was for Alien 9. In July expect the DVD, with the manga in May. A trailer was shown for both the DVD and manga featuring the English dub. After watching the trailer, one of the first comments was "CPM, specializing in child abuse anime". The anime matches the first part of the manga, so you'll want to get the manga to get the complete story. An interview extra with Taro Maki, the writer, will also be included. Some TV commercial extras will also be completed. The Alien 9 manga will be unflipped.
The open Q&A session started next. People asked about whether an old Matsumoto work would be coming out, but CPM has nothing more of his titles. Blackjack was also brought up, but CPM said they would have to refer to the license. The CPM Manga line was brought up, concerning titles like Geobreeders that seem to have dropped off the radar. Again, they brought up the license.
Since the repriced anime line was created, people were wondering why the Utena DVDs weren't also repriced. Tom deferred the questions to sales, who weren't at the panel. More Machine Robo was deferred also to the matter of how many sales it has. Here is Greenwood is in licensing hell currently. Also for all you hentai fans, the new Urotsukidoji will have 5.1 tracks in both Japanese and English for rear tentacle action.
Bandai Entertainment
Hosted by: Jerry Chu
Jerry led the Bandai Entertainment panel with a hastily prepared five minute outline. 2002 was a great year for Bandai, so to start off 2003 they did the .hack//SIGN limited edition box.
On television Kikaider will be on Cartoon Network in June. The first season of the Big O will be rebroadcast sometime in the Fall or Winter, which will lead into the Big O 2.
At E3, Bandai will be showing the second .hack game, Mutation. Jerry had a small trivia game next in order to give away some Scryed t-shirts.
A review of the release schedule was next. Please Teacher LE, .hack//SIGN volume 2, and Geneshaft. Blue Sub No. 6 will be released in June, and the third DVD will include Playstation game footage that is like a fifth episode. Mobile Fighter G Gundam will conclude in June plus the collections of Angel Links and Crest of the Stars. In July, Scryed will be premiered, and it will come with a pendant. Jubei-chan will be out in a collected volume in July also.
Next, Jerry showed an anime music video featuring video from Scryed that he made. It was actually pretty good, but Jerry didn't want anyone taping it.
In August, Kikaider will come out on DVD. Saber Marionette J Ultimate Collection will come out in August. It will contain SMJ, SMJ Again, and SMJ->X. Banner of the Stars 2 also comes out.
Yunkazu, or Junkers as it is also known, will see an August release. The new Spirit of Wonder was announced by Jerry, and will be released later on this year.
Jerry had 10 volunteers come up and write down the name of the title he would license. The video was played, and the new title was revealed to be Witch Hunter Robin. He wouldn't say the exact month it would come out, but he said it would be an appropriate month this year. No one guessed the title.
The open Q&A session began next. Just four .hack//SIGN soundtracks will be released in the special editions. A box will come to hold the soundtracks in volume 6. Volume 5 might contain a box for the Playstation games. Jerry denied any knowledge of Love Hina Again, and suggested going to the Production I.G. panel.
Superior Defender got brought up as a side. It's a brand new series, being developed for both the Japanese and American market. It will have SD Gundams, including Wing Zero and will probably be on TV this year.
The .hack//SIGN episode that was a bonus for the preorder in Japan will see a release in the US. The other two extra episodes are a separate license in Japan, and will require another license. Plushies like Grunty take five months to create. Also, Jerry said someone has the .hack manga.
Work on Galaxy Angel continues at Bandai, but no idea of a release date yet. Infinite Ryvius, Scryed, and Witch Hunter Robin will all be on Bandai's Platinum Series line.
Summary of new titles
Witch Hunter Robin
Spirit of Wonder new OVA
ADV Films
Hosted by: David Williams, Matt Greenfield, Andrew Kent
The panel started fifteen minutes late due to getting everyone seated into the room, which was completely packed. People had to be turned away. Since we were late, David and Matt wasted no time in playing a DVD for the audience.
They showed opening for their major new annoucements first. First we had Final Fantasy Unlimited. That was just a starter, cause we moved on to Azumanga Daioh next! Oh yes! Then, instead of something new they announced the director cut episodes of Evangelion. There was one more title though, Magical Shopping District Abenobashi! WOW! ADV hits a home run again.
We go to see the premiere of some trailers next for Najica, Super GALs, Pre-Tear, and Kaleido Star. Right after, David showed the Paul Champage Bubblegum Crisis 2040 box. It was very nice.
The director cuts of Evangelion will be released on two DVDs. Each DVD will come with the old version and the new version. Episodes 25 and 26 remain the same. ADV could not confirm whether they have the new remastered Revival episodes. For Voices of a Distant Star, ADV obtained the original hard drive that contains the rendered version of the show in order to produce a master that rivals the Japanese release. Dubbing for the Nadeisco movie should probably be started in a couple of week.
The Anime Channel will be coming to New Jersey Comcast systems very soon. ADV Music has around 3 CDs on the production schedule starting soon. A Go Nagai collection will be coming out at the end of the year that will include three titles.
Summary of new titles
Final Fantasy Unlimited
Azumanga Daioh
Director cuts of the last six episode of Eva
Abenobashi Mahou Shotengai - Magical Shopping Street Abenobashi
Pioneer
Posted by: Chad Kime
Chad attemped to show the latest trailer tape, but ended up canceling it after it was discovered he had an older trailer tape. So we moved directly into the release schedule. June will see the start of Master Keaton.
July is a strong CD month, with the start of the release of 6 CDs that have all been previously announced. The Yuki Kaijira CD is interesting in that it will be released in the US before Japan. Booklets will contains lyrics in English and Romnaji and some interviews will be translated also.
On the DVD front, Lupin Mystery of Mamo will be released in the US. The series Heatguy J will be released at 29.98 on seven volumes. It will come with two boxsets. The first box will hold volumes 1-3 and contain DVD volume one and a DVD with extras. The second box will come with volume 4 and hold the rest of the series. $34.98 is the price point for them.
Pioneer officially confirmed Haibane Renmei. It will be released on 4 DVDs. Mahoromatic Season 2 was also announced, and they are trying to get a box but Gainax is proving to be difficult. L/R (Licensed by Royal in the US) will be released in November.
On the theatrical side, Sakura Wars the Movie will get a limited print run as well as the live action Omiyoji. Omiyoji will start in LA and NY, and then move to San Francisco and Chicago. For its DVD release, there will be a regular and special edition.
The open Q&A session began next. The Fushigi Yugi boxset is being looked at in the same manner as the new split up Tenchi OVA set. For Haibane Renmei, they currently are planning to use the original title. Pioneer gave a no comment on the licensing of Macross Zero. So everyone should disregard Keith's comment at the Manga panel. Rondo Robe is what Pioneer LDC in Japan is using for titles it has a stake in. So watch for it in credits!
Summary of new titles
Mahoromatric Season Two
Haibane Renmei reconfirmed
Production I.G.
Hosted by: Maki
Production I.G. is a animation studio in Japan that concentrates mainly on OVAs and movies. The panel was hosted by Maki, who heads Production I.G., USA, their licensing arm. She is in fact, the only person who works on licensing. Sister companies of Production handle most of their TV properties. XEBEC (Nadeisco) is one example of their sister companies. Another sister company is Kiki, which is half owned by Studio Ghibli. It was formed to handle the overseas licensing of soundtracks.
One of the works Production I.G is no working on is called Dead Leaves, which is being co financed by Manga Entertainment. So it's LICENSED. It is being directed by Hiroyuki Umaishi. A sequel to the Ghost in the Shell movie is being made, which it titled Innocence in Japan. It should be released in Spring 2004.
Maki presented a trailer of some of Production I.G.'s works that have been licensed in the United States. First up was Sakura Taisen the Movie (Pioneer), Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (Bandai Entertainment) and Dead Leaves.
A hilarious documentary of a working day at Production I.G. was shown next, that was made by an intern who worked there. He doesn't anymore as apparently it was too challenging for him. The documentary was a mock one, featuring overworked animators.
We went a bit into the history of the US arm of Production I.G. Its original intention was to handle their own distribution, but after they spent so much time on production during Love Hina and FLCL, they felt that they should probably just stay with licensing. They also handle licensing for Europe.
After Jerry Chu of Bandai directed all Love Hina Again questions to Maki at her panel from his panel, her response was that it was already been licensed and produced. Unfortunately, we don't know by whom.
I.C. Entertainment
Hosted by: Steve Bennett
Report provided by: Kelly Soucie
Well this panel was organized as purely Q&A so I really felt like I was grilling Steve to get the info (sorry Steve!) but there weren't really a lot of questions about the manga as I think not many people in the room actually knew who I.C. Entertainment were. Anyways, Steve pulled out some great old yarns and made a clever commentary on Japanese-American differences. He also propounded on his usual "bringing the world together with manga and anime" theory. One thing I was a little disappointed to hear was him not quite denying the legitimacy of fansubs and scanalations and even admitting to owning a couple himself (there was pretty much one guy that went to all the panels to ask this very question). Mind you, Steve was bent much more on scripts being alright than the other formats.
So, here is some of the info I gleaned from the panel:
New manga:
"Black Crow" by Shusay (this can already be found in the latest Previews though)
"Eden" by Senno Knife
"DiGi Charat" the original manga
"Hana Kimi" by Hisaya Nakajo
When asked if the stories in Ameri-Manga will be collected into GN, the answer was "if the demand is there", titles most likely to be collected were "Warmth" and "Soul Union". There will be surveys coming out from I.C. Entertainment to try to get a feel for the demand. Also, I got a "maybe" on dropping the price of Ameri-Manga if sales get really good.
Other news included that the "Spectral Force" graphic novel and Fred Gallagher's art books were "done" and would be out soon. Adult titles will remain "flipped", reason given being that American readers would find it easier to keep one hand free in this format ;) . Also, in the DiGiCharat manga to come out, it will likely be right-to-left and in the same format as the latest Miyu graphic novels, but the final format was not yet settled (i.e. no glossaries like the Viz editions).
Final Thoughts
Wow, who ever thought so much news could come out of a first year convention. Anime Boston was certainly a new experience for everyone that was a part of it. This was the first time I've ever been to a first year convention, and I was amazed at how well it was run. Of course, every con has its snags, but the Anime Boston staff kept things running smoothly.
I've known a number of the individuals responsible for putting together Anime Boston for a couple of years now, so of course my perspective is slightly skewed, and I'm in the second year of staffing at my own local anime convention. Hearing the convention come together piece by piece, hearing about the problems that came up along that way, to finally seeing its execution; I applaud the staff of Anime Boston for their dedication in creating a convention for the North Eastern United States. In particular, I would like to point out Adam Ferraro, Patrick Delahanty, Rebecca Irvin, Elana Shenton, Shawn O'Shea, and Tiffani Nadeau for their amazing efforts. I'm missing a lot of people who should be thanked here, which I apologize for, but these are the ones who spring immediately to mind. Congratulations you guys.
t the Anime Boston closing ceremonies, the final con attendance numbers were slight above 3800. For a first year convention, this was astounding, especially considering they were only planning for 700 in the beginning. By Saturday at 11:00 AM, a sad decision had to be made by the senior staff. Registration at Anime Boston would have to be closed due to Fire Marshall's rules. Officially, the con didn't close until noon, and a sign was posted outside the hotel indicating registration was closed. Numerous people had to be turned away, some who had driven from three states away.
The amount of people at the con was painfully obvious on Saturday. The dealer's room, which was way too small for a convention of this size, was packed. Staff controlled the number of people in the room quite well, using only one entrance and exit to the room. I talked to a few dealers on Sunday afternoon, and they were quite happy with their performance at the con. Panel rooms on Saturday got so full that they had to empty panel rooms between panels due to lines outside waiting for the next one. This caused a few very angry con attendees. The ADV panel was so full, that an encore panel was held on Sunday. I wish more of the events on Saturday had been spread out to Friday and Sunday though. Saturday was extremely busy for those covering industry events, and I was saddened at the lack of a State of the Industry panel. One particular high light of Saturday was at the ADV panel, when a complete Princess Nine cosplay group, including a few of the male characters, crashed the panel.
The hallways were always crowded with people, and there were plenty of cosplayers; even this reporter cosplayed for the first time in his life. For a lot of people at the con, this was their first convention and they had no idea how to ask a cosplayer for their picture. Everyone got the idea eventually. Of course, there were plenty of confused guests at the hotel who had no clue what was going on.
One really nice part of the convention was the Masquerade was shown on the TV circuit in the hotel, so that everyone could just watch the Masquerade in the comfort of their own rooms. Since the theater filled, some people were forced to. At the closing ceremonies, the winners for each category of the Anime Music Video contest were shown. The Best in Show and Comedy AMV was done to the Mortal Kombat movie theme to Hello Kitty. After all the Hello Kitty I've reviewed, I could only cry out in pain as I watched it.
Many people from the AnimeOnDVD community gathered for Anime Boston, and they were even thanked during closing ceremonies. Members came from all over the United States, England, Norway, and even Japan. Different gatherings and activities for the con started on Wednesday night, and small gatherings took place through out the con. I know I didn't get to meet everyone, but with the number of people that were going to be there, that was impossible. Especially since our talented site social coordinator was extremely busy handling Anime Boston's guests.
Now that I'm on a plane heading back home, I look back at the past five days I spent in Boston and in the end I always come back to the same conclusion I have after every convention. It's not the convention that makes a convention great, but the people that are a part of it. And Anime Boston had some of the greatest people of them all.
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