News from Animazement
While it has been around for half a decade now, and Animazement has continuously grown each year, I was surprised that few actual industry panels that took place. Nonetheless, Animazement's remaining a relatively low-key convention (when compared to others like Otakon) has helped to keep it one of the more laid back and relaxing cons to attend here on the East Coast.
Broccoli/Synch Point had the most to say, of the two translation companies holding industry panels at Animazement. While the panel was not relatively large, they were kind enough to give out free pencil boards to the first arriving attendees, and a free poster to anybody who asked a question during the panel. The company's still-budding American branch proceeded to announce that we'll be seeing the release of the second volume of I'm Gonna Be An Angel! (Tenshi Ni Narumon) late this summer. They continued on to the future of FLCL, announcing that volume 3 is coming out July 22nd, and will include extras such as three versions of the creditless opening and ending for the show, and it will come with a special collector's box to hold all 3 DVDs together.
After that, they spoke of their two new title acquisitions for 2004. Di Gi Charat:The Movie - which originally came out in December 2001 - focuses on the story of Dejiko's return home and all the things that happen then. It will be 30 minutes long, and include an extra episode about the Black Gema Gema Gang. In addition to the movie, they announced Leave It to Pyoko, a Di Gi Charat spinoff about the Black Gema Gema Gang, connected to the original fan-favorite TV series. Responding to fans' questions during the panel, they stated that they had no plans of releasing any of the Di Gi Charat games, CDs, or the original series as of yet on North American shores, nor do they have any plans to open any AnimeGamers store locations on the east coast at the moment (but they encouraged people to visit their store on the West Coast, in California). There's no need for east-coast Broccoli fans to fret, though, as they do try to focus more on their eastern anime convention appearances, amongst the few they do each year, and confirmed that they will be at Fanime, Anime Expo, and Otakon this year.
Also, at Fanime (in Northern California), they will be hosting a joint booth in the dealers' room with Gainax, and will be selling FLCL volume 3 a whole month early. Additional early opportunities may pop up on their website to acquire FLCL vol. 3. As a note of interest , they mentioned that a number of Gainax employees will be there with them at Fanime, including artist Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (of Evangelion, FLCL, and Project .hack fame). In response to one other fan question, they announced that at the moment, they themselves do not have plans to bring any other Broccoli-produced anime from Japan to the states, but one of their shows (Galaxy Angel) has already been licensed by another company they did not name. Broccoli had a strong showing, and a bright future surely lies ahead for their US division through Synch Point.
AnimEigo's panel ultimately consisted of their historical act of satirically pointing out that they cannot confirm nor deny virtually anything about their company or anything else. They simply talked about the industry and their plans for the future, as they continue to look for new titles, while they work on their backlog of translations, gradually rereleasing everything from VHS to DVD, like Kimagure Orange Road, and You're Under Arrest. They did, however, hint that they were considering remastering their well-known Captain Harlock translation, Arcadia of My Youth, in a similar manner to what they did with SDF Macross TV.
Like I said before, Animazement wasn't this year - and hasn't been - a big name convention in general (where industry representatives all rush to compete for opportunities to announce their latest acquisitions first). However, it was still a fantastic convention this year, and the showings from Broccoli and AnimEigo weren't at all disappointing.
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