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Katsucon - Part 1

Due to scheduling problems, both Jeff Thompson of The Right Stuf and Shin
Kurokawa of AnimEigo were at panel originally slated for AnimEigo. The panel
started 40 minutes late due to the long-running opening ceremony. During that
time, the audience gathered votes of what they wanted from AnimEigo. About 30
people were in attendance, the majority of which (about 80%) subscribed to one
of the AnimEigo mailing lists.

At around 8:40pm, the participants of the panel finally sat down (with
Steve Pearl) to answer questions. Shin asked for and received the list of
questions he was requested to answer before he was to be released. He was
pressed on several subjects, along with Jeff. Here are the major DVD
highlights:

• Urusei Yatsura is "no more than 2 months" away (worst case scenario)
  from its initial DVD release. This was one of the biggest concerns the
  audience had.


• Oh My Goddess! on DVD is "a year or so" away.


• When asked about the release date of the Macross DVD's, Shin stated, "I
  don't know, but..." he was hoping to have a DVD-RAM copy to display starting
  at one of the summer cons.


• They will seriously consider doing any series if we obtain at least
  1,000 signatures on a petition to get it done.
  Kodomo no Omocha is a
  petition currently being run that already has about 300 people on it. Please
  sign up for this great series!


• Shin said how much he liked Hana Yori Dango and that AnimEigo was
  currently looking at other titles. When asked about HYD as a possible
  series they might do, he stated he could not comment on the subject. As you
  may remember, A.D. Vision gave the exact same answer last year at A-Kon when
  questioned about Rurouni Kenshin.

• Planned release of The Irresponsible Captain Tylor OAV will be 6 tapes
  with 4 episodes per tape.


• The Irresponsible Captain Tylor TV series will be planned for DVD
  the moment dubs are done (currently listed as March 28th). They have not
  
  
  decided whether to do it themselves or to outsource it (which he admitted
  would be much faster).


• Kareshi Kanojo No Jijou (aka His and Her Circumstances) will
  be attempted for a simultaneous DVD release. Jeff said he doubts this will
  happen.

"I don't consider a title released until it's on DVD." -Steve Pearl

Both Jeff and Shin stated their respective companies hold the broadcasting
rights for the majority of their titles. They stated most anime companies hold
the broadcast rights for their titles (Rurouni Kenshin being the most
obvious exception - Sony still holds those rights).

I would think most of the anime companies could put their heads together
and create an "anime channel" to create income that is currently untapped.
They've paid for these rights but have yet to capitalize on its potential.
It's like throwing money away.