Month: July 2008

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Tokyo Wanderings

After getting settled into my hotel, I went out to find some food in Ikebukuro. I found this great little nook of a noodle shop. I was advertised as a Ramen place, but I ordered the Mori Yasai (もり野菜) which was pretty interesting. It was a thicker noodle closer to soba. They gave me a bowl full of cold noodles, and a bowl full of broth with veggies in it. I put the noodles in the broth and then ate them up. Tasty. Add to that the 600 Yen (around $6) Asahi beer which was a 633ml bottle (that’s a lot of beer for $6), and I was satisfied. The meal was 800 Yen, so the whole night was $14. I strolled through a Pachinko parlor, but I was too tired to figure out where to get balls to start playing, I’ll work on that another day. Continue reading “Tokyo Wanderings”

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I have arrived

I’m currently sitting in my tiny hotel room in Ikebukuro, having been up over 24 hours, checking email and watching the “Wall Crash” game show on tv. I’m going to get some food, take a bath and then go to sleep. I’ll try to have some pictures for you all tomorrow after I stroll around Tokyo a bit.

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Anime Expo 2008: ADV Industry Panel

Here are my notes from the ADV panel.

ADV is not going anywhere.

They separated from their business partner Sojitz, and Sojitz took a lot of titles with them. But ADV has procured a new partner, whose funding has allowed them to start negotiating for a new group of Anime acquisitions.

They have no plans to acquire any new manga for at least 12 months, although they would “like” to finish their existing ones.

ADV will continue to do dubs, as they have their own production facilities. They might have new acquisition titles by Otakon.

Blu-Ray releases are coming, but have to wait on the Japanese distributors.

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Anime Expo 2008: Industry Notes #2

The 2nd industry panel was a moderated panel.

Technology, Entertainment and Licensing
Ken Iyadomi – President & CEO, Bandai Entertainment
Vu Nyugen – VP Business Development & Strategy, Crunchyroll
Trulee Karahashi – Society for the Promotion of Japanese Anime
Asako Suzuki – Director of Manga, CMX
Moderated by Justin Sevakis, Director of New Media, Anime New Network

Licensing is becoming more, not less, complicated. Multiple parties want approval and control rights about how things are released. The Japanese distributors have no real internet strategy because they fear the impact on DVD sales as well as piracy. Continue reading “Anime Expo 2008: Industry Notes #2”

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Anime Expo 2008: Industry notes

We’re here at AX, and so far the con is… lackluster. But there were a couple industry panels today, the 4th, that were interesting. Here is my recap of the first.

Keynote speech by Gen Fukunaga, the President of Funimation.

The Japanese market is the most competitive Anime market in the world, because Manga drives the Anime. This is because Manga is exposed to millions of people first to determine what might be good things to animate. Continue reading “Anime Expo 2008: Industry notes”

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New Layout

As you can see, I put together a new layout with a new mascot character that we commissioned from Jason and Heather from ArtPlayMix.com. I hope you like it and let us know of any bugs you find.