NY Anime Fest 2007: List of Anime Announcements

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).