Hi from SDCC everyone. I missed Thursday, but I?m here on Friday to confirm things and bring you the latest news
Bandai: Panel
I confirmed that the Birth OVA would be attached to the Battleflag of the Stars II Volume 3. Also the contents of the Witch Hunter Robin boxset will include an animation cel, a t-shirt, cd soundtrack, and a shot glass.
Pioneer Panel
I confirmed Pioneer releasing the new Harlock series. Also it should be business as usual with their new owner, who incidentally was a funder for Spirited Away.
TOKYOPOP Panel
The new Manga titles announced SDCC are:
1. Ghost! From Shuri Shiozu.
2. Ai Yori Aoshi ? True Blue Love from Kou Fumizuki March 2004 release
3. Sgt Frog ? Kero Gungo from Mine Yoshizaki, creator of Arcade Game Fubuki. Jan 2004 release
4. Macross 7 Trash from Haruhiko Mikimoto in first quarter 2004
* pls note: The Macross 7 Trash manga was originally announced at 10:30 AM on Friday at the Robotech panel.
Fruits Baskets will be out in February 2004
Niea_7 was delayed due to issue with the creator. TOKYOPOP is currently finding a way to get out Marmalade Boy in a decent pattern. They are waiting for Naoko to settle things with Kodonsha in order to re-release that.
Rave Master will be on Toonami in 2004.
Also they said a new Clamp piece would be coming out, which isn?t a Mokona Apapa one, but a Mick Nekoi one.
Gundam Panel
The panel started with the first episode of Zeta Gundam dubbed. And yes, they says Ti-TANS, not TI-tans.
The toy division will provide something with the Limited Edition Zeta boxset. The MK2 should be getting a perfect grade release in the US.
And here?s the big news. Someone asked about the new Gundam series that is going to be released after SEED. Well., Mr. Matsumoto, a director from Sunrise Japan answered the question. It should be out in October 2004. And guess what, it?s Gundam SEED 2 and will be a TV series.
ADV Panel
ADV will be released the new series Wandaba Style from the creators of Devil Hunter Yohko.
Streets Dates for ADV Manga ($9.95)
FMP Vol 1 ? Aug 26.
Azumanga Daoih ? Vol 1 ? Sept 16
Rahxephon Bible. ? Oct 17 - $19.98
FMP Character Book ? Oct 24
Saturday Report
Saturday at Comic Con is proving to be most busy. After waking up amazingly early I took the shuttle back to the convention center. I think walking to the convention center would have been faster. I still got there ten minutes before the convention center was open at 10:00. When the doors opened everyone rushed inside to head upstairs. I wish I had followed them, since everyone was heading to the Warner Brother presentation with Halle Berry at 10:30. I had wanted to go, but the line by the time I reached there was insane. That?s the problem I guess being a Comic-Con newbie, I had no idea the lines here were even worse than anime conventions. I headed to the Smallville panel really early, and really only go to see fifteen minutes of it before I had to rush over to the CPM panel.
Central Park Media
John O?Donnell ran the panel with a July 2003-December 2003 presentation PowerPoint. So most of this will probably be a repeat. His wife, Masumi was also present sitting in the audience.
On October 28th, CPM will release the Alien Nine Collection Box for $59.98 which will include three Alien Nine Graphic novels and the DVD. Next the DNA^2 anime was brought up, which is 12 TV episodes and a 3 episode OVA. (I got a DNA^2 t-shirt )In On October 14, a box set for $119.99 contain all four volumes will come out. Revolutionary Girl Utena: Finale which will be released on November 11, will feature a commentary for the last three episodes with Kunihiko Ikuhara and Chiho Saito. This was recorded in Japan. Each time afterward a small spiel John showed a trailer for the show.
Descendants of Darkness (Yami no Matsuei) was covered next, with its thirteen episodes. John O?Donnell mentioned they would be showing up to Yaoi-con to check it out, not as an exhibitor. Cat Soup was next, and of course you can read the review by Chris. The Liquid Art special for Cat Soup will be limited to the first 2000 shipped, and they won?t show the artwork for it until it ships. Animation Runner Kuromi was up next, who has about the worst dub voice for a main character I?ve heard in quite a while. The Patlabor OVAs directed by Oiishi will feature a commentary with him and a box set will come out on October 14 for $49.99.
Machine Robo, Battle Area Toshinden, Goshugun, Spirit Warrior, Hades Project Zeophymer and other titles are coming out at a $19.99 price point. Legend of the Dragon Kings will come out as a special 2 pack. There was a lot of review at this point of the Dynamite Dozen line and the various other titles CPM has out already.
A lot of CPM manga will be re-released starting in October in the ?pocket sized? format at the $9.99 price point. Title includes Nadesico, Dark Angel, Popcorn Romance, and other Tomo Takuguichi like Call Me Princess in October and Aquarium in November.
Urotsukidoji: New Saga will come out on November 11 for $29.99. An immortal vagrant with the sex drive of a beast. Vixens comes out in December.
Narue no Sekai is scheduled to come out in the first quarter of next year.
Del Rey
This panel was headed by Betsy Mitchell the editor in chief, and Dallas Middaugh the director of manga for Del Rey. Dallas used to work for Viz, so he brings years of experience over to Del Rey.
Dallas started by mentioning that Del Rey would be releasing manga in partnership with Kodansha through a Del Rey -> Ballantine -> Random House relationship. Betsy started by mention that Del Rey spent a lot of time researching graphic novels, seeing with authors like Anne McCaffrey, Turtledove, they might be able to produce graphic novels of their works. After research, it seemed to be very unaffordable. What happened what the head of Random House Asia, headed off to Japan and made a partnership with Kodansha. There is a joint venture in place now.
Four title will be launched in the spring. Agreements have been finalized on two of the titles. The first one will be Gundam SEED by Masatsugu Iwase. The second title is Negima by Ken Akamatsu. These deals were wrapped up on Thursday, so they were pretty amazed.
The format will be the traditional manga sized format no popular in the US, and will read from right to left. Roughly about 200 pages and the $10 price point. These have not been finalized yet. They will try avoiding changing sound effects to the art, so they might put notes in the panel.
The opportunity to work with Random House, and Kodansha, two very large publishing houses, is what drew Dallas Middaugh to take the job. For the first year, they will be staying small in the new year.
Q&A began very quickly. The format of the translation, might be similar to the Kodansha bilinguals. There is no imprint name for the manga line yet. They are leaning towards a quarterly release schedule. The projects that Del Rey will concentrate on items aged towards teenagers and adults. Other parts of Random House may look at other Kodansha properties aimed more closely at kids.
The relationship between Random House and Kodansha is non-exclusive. Other companies could still get titles. Comic book stores shouldn?t be shafted in this either, as Random House has a large sales force that spreads everywhere. The books will be age rated similar to TOKYOPOP.
I have to mention this one. One person asked a question whether they would take fan input for titles. Dallas answer the question of course, and mentioned that one place he looked at was www.animeondvd.com. Plug
That seems to be all the anime and manga related items for this con, so I?ll think be a Hollywood fanboy right now.
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