[Last Update 7/2]

All dates/times/etc are subject to change. All schedules can change. This post probably will change too as I update over time. AX’s posted schedule almost most definitely will change [edit: 6/29 lol yep]. Check the con info desk and twitter/FB for the latest info as usual.

AX’s schedule here (now v2, changelog here. Most notable for Crypton’s panel Sunday 3:30pm and StarChild panel Saturday 10:30pm.) Autograph schedule here.

Scroll down by bold text. I am excluding most things not industry related and even many industry-related things, you have the con schedule for that…right?

Sentai Filmworks last AX marched out a female auteur. This year they’ll march out a male one. FB/HP.

• The Garden of Words English Language Premiere: Saturday, July 6th, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM in Video Room 1
  While Shinkai will introduce his film there, it runs against… AnimeSols, Production IG guests panel, and Crunchyroll. Plus this is Saturday, I ffear the lines.
• The Garden of Words Green Carpet Reception: Saturday, July 6th 4:15 PM – 5:15 PM in Lounge 21
  Free drinks with Shinkai is great. This runs against Kazuhiko Inoue and the A-1 Pictures panel. There is a 21+ age restriction which is GREAT.
• The Garden of Words Panel: Sunday, July 7th 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM in LP1
  Cuts into Charity Auction, but probably not a big deal.

Aniplex of America has an array of things, maybe more than last year? What’s good is that they’ve made a page that keeps track, right here. I like that fact, really. Because there’s sure a lot of stuff to keep track of. Notables:

• Lots of giveaways, but nothing super notable or doesn’t require great luck.
• Four limited scrolls for sale (might pick up the bake one, it’s p. nice, even if OreImo is more of my jam).
• Autograph ticket and poster w/ purchase of AoEx DVD/BD
• …and the AoEx autograph session is 3:15-4:45pm on Saturday at their booth. Including (Takamitsu) Inoue o/c.

The panel that I’m interested in the most is the A-1 Pictures panel, Saturday 4:30-5:30 at LP3. It runs against Kazuhiko Inoue’s focus panel and the Drinks With Shinkai event. I’m meh about AoEX in general but you can catch a screening of the film at AX–or just wait until it gets to driving distance of a town of your choice.

FUNimation… Placeholder.

The top brasses of Max Factory and GSC are coming, flanked by huke and some Gonzo guy who is banding together some small animation companies. Worth a visit for sure. Thursday 6:30 at LP1. Deets in the PR here. It also overlaps with the Shugo Chara concert unfortunately. GSC booth will also have some stuff–huke’s autograph session, special goods like this, plus their usual exclusives. They have finally listed their stuff for sale.

One of the things MangaGamers will go over at their AX panel is the self-published visual novel, World End Economica, from the author of Spice & Wolf. You can actually find out the messed up launch here, indie is gonna indie. I bought the game from DLSite so orz is me. Their panel (18+ required as usual) is on Thursday, 9:30pm to 10:30pm in LP1.

Starmarie has a meet&greet from 3-4pm in the 21Lounge Friday. They’re also in the fashion show. No concert as far as I know however. There may be a Starmarie ninja live? Who knows.

Mirai no Neiro: 2 Panels this year as far as I know, both on Saturday: LP2 at 10 and LP3 at 12 noon. Guests for the vocaloid panels include UtataP, Dixie Flatline, tennen, buzzG, and illustrator WOGURA. Thread here. As an aside, Nihongo de OK is a go, same place, Saturday 5:30.

Little Witch Academia: localization team is partying up with a AX Day-0 screening of Little Witch Academia, on July 6th, 2pm. Go read about it here. It’s not a part of the con. Only 50 lucky entrants can go.

Kick Heart will “premiere” at AX on Friday at 1:30pm in LP1. The short should not take up even half the time allotted so I think there might be a good 30-45 minutes of Q&A with Masaaki Yuasa at the premiere.

NISA finally put out their “Prinny newsletter” for AX on Friday. As usual there will be a game panel, 2:30pm Saturday at LP2, and an anime panel, 2:30pm Thursday at LP2. Speaking of which, Aksys has a panel right before the game panel, Saturday 2pm at LP3. Why you do this AX?

More importantly there are actually a ton of booth autograph sessions for NISA. These may require purchase so check with the booth before lining up. Also, there’s some kind of “photo session only” note under Kazuhiko Inoue and I’m not sure what it means. Okada and Kikuchi have autograph sessions at the same time. Click here for the source.

• Inoue: Thursday 3-4pm, Friday 2-4pm, Saturday 2-3:30pm.
• Ito – Friday 10:30-11:30am, Saturday noon-1:30pm, Sunday 1:30-3pm
• Okada & Kikuchi – Thursday 4:30-5:30pm, Saturday 10:30-11:30am, Saturday 4:30-6pm
• Sohei Niikawa (yeah…) – Friday 4:30-6pm, Sunday 10:30-12:30pm.

It takes a moment to sink in, but NISA is fronting three really big guests at AX this year. If anything that makes my annual NISA purchase at their booth something I look forward to; without these guests AX would be a utter husk of its former self. Keep bringing over the good people, d00ds.

The latest AX Schedule update also now lists a 12:30am event on Saturday, something like NISA movie premiere or some such. It’s in Video 1, after the StarChild panel also in Video 1, 10:30pm.

JAST has a panel at AX. I’m not sure if they run any other panel at any other con, given a typical year. So this is the place to hear all their new eroge/galge announcements, listed here. They’ll also have other usual and new things, like posters. Friday at 10pm, WS2. It’s an 18+ only panel, natch.

Small-time idol group Starmarie will perform after all. AX has posted their schedule here. Basically an hour before the fashion show, they will perform. The times are Friday at 1pm, and Saturday at 1pm. Both are at the Hybrid Dance/concourse. This is also on top of the meet-and-greet at 3pm in Lounge 21 on Friday, and the meet-and-greet at the Cure booth at 3pm on Saturday.

Others:

• There’s a panel on streaming in North America that takes place in LP3, 12:30pm on Thursday. Right after that is the FUNi inside the Industry panel. Then it’s ANN, then it’s Sentai’s industry panel. I’m not sure what that FUNi panel is suppose to be, but there’s all kinds of FUNi panels (heh) this AX and until they publish a guide of some sort I have no idea which is what.
• Wolf Children is screening 4:30pm on Thursday. Great movie. There was a snafu in AX’s schedule and said it was a dub. Nope, it’ll be subbed–Otakon is premiering the dub, for better or worse.
• If you want to watch Perfume’s live show in London on AX Day 4 (which is a 2-day-late-cast?), you can check it out here. It’s not a part of the con but it’s nearby
• I hear Toshio Maeda’s 18+ panel might actually be interesting. Anyone knows what it’ll be about? It’s 8 to 9PM on Thursday, LP1.
• Crunchyroll still gives free t-shirts to premiere subscribers. God bless their souls.
• Danny Choo has a schedule posted. Kind of amusing. Also he is going full merch this AX.
• Lastly… FOOD TRUCKS

PS. Food truck breakdown–

7/4/2013 Thursday
1    George’s Greek - I’ve had it. P. okay.
2    Luck Dish– Possibly alternative. Also, what is up with the kancolle link lol
3    India Jones – I’ve had it. P. okay.
4    Tokyo Doggie Style
5    Phantom Truck – Possibly first pick
6    Trailer Park Truck – Possibly alternative
7    Tornado Potato – Will target
8    Kogi – always massive line, but maybe!
9    Piaggo on Wheels
10    Bool BBQ – Possibly first pick
11    Mighty Boba – Pretty okay but probably pass
12    Fluff Ice – If line is not too long

7/5/2013 Friday
1    George’s Greek
2    Luck Dish
3    India Jones
4    Tokyo Doggie Style
5    Phantom Truck
6    Trailer Park Truck
7    Tornado Potato
8    Jogasaki Burrito – Will target
9    Me So Hungry
10    Slap Yo Mama – Liked it last year, will try again?
11    Rancho A Go Go
12    White Rabbit
13    Kogi
14    Piaggo on Wheels
15    Belly Bombz – If they still have any left…
16    Fluff Ice

7/6/2013 Saturday
1    George’s Greek
2    Luck Dish
3    India Jones
4    Tokyo Doggie Style
5    Fresh Fries – Could be good
6    Trailer Park Truck
7    Tornado Potato
8    Me So Hungry
9    Slap Yo Mama
10    Rancho A Go Go
11    White Rabbit
12    Bool BBQ
13    Belly Bombz
14    Boba Truck
15    Del’s Lemonade

In the past there are also trucks on Sunday, but it’s just whoever wants to come back.

The con intersected a tropical storm on Friday. Thankfully things cleared up mostly by Saturday morning so the grass, despite still full with moisture, didn’t give into muddy slides. And this is important at AnimeNEXT 2013.

Since its relocation to the Doubletree / Garden State Expo Center right before the anime bubble burst, it’s got a lot of grassy gnolls and alcoves for photographs. In fact, down the road from the con, there’s this place called the “Palace” where large halls are rented out for elaborate weddings (and wedding photography) and other events. (Like the NJ State Bar Exam.) In other words, it’s great location for cosplay photography.

In exchange, the location is pretty horrible for the usual hall cosplay photography since there really isn’t a large, open and centralized area unlike, say, the water fountain area at the BCC or the main lobby at the LACC. It’s hard to find where everyone is. Even Animazement has the front lobby area, and its glass-y construction means you can see both the indoors and outdoors areas easily, increasing its effective size. At Anext, there is actually a place where cosplayers congregate, which is to one side of the Doubletree, by the so-called red docks. But it’s like, way to the side and you wouldn’t even know where to look unless you knew.

The blurb about cosplay is just so you guys know why I was there: take cosplay photos, and write about Sayo Yamamoto and Hiroshi Shimizu.

Shimizu is a veteran animator. He has a lot of key animator credits, but from what I can gleam during the two sessions I was there with him (who accompanied Yamamoto basically at all their events, neither had a solo thing) he mainly picked up the slacks from a lot of the bigger productions. And this guy is really an animator in the industry sense of the term, as he crunched out some genga during one of the panels while we did Q&A. He averages maybe a sheet every 250 seconds or some such. (As an aside this is why Hirosh Nagahama can sketch for everyone during his autograph sessions at AZ, like Shimizu at ANext.)

I got Lupin on a shikishi, can’t really ask for more than that…although I could’ve asked for, say, a Michiko instead. Sayo Yamamoto is, well, a bit stereotypical artist-y Asian woman. I think she’s probably just slightly younger than I am. Despite being talented I think she’s still got a lot of ropes to learn in the industry, so to speak. There’s not a lot to say, Shimizu is quiet but articulate when speaking, and Yamamoto is a bit flighty. The interpreters were not too helpful but it was what it was, nothing I haven’t seen before since the conversations can get down to the nitty gritty.

The only real takeaway is that Yamamoto is working on a new thing and it should be pretty cool. And somehow she is a fan of Yakushimaru Etsuko, which is to the surprise of no one.

The rest of the time at ANext I hung out with @7thwraith and his friends. Lots of words were spoken, jokes cracked, good times. I learned a lot about ANext cosplay culture that I never was interested in but am kind of now. There needs to be more Producers, surely. Since these guys are local to me, this is possibly some exciting news, who knows?

This is probably the first time I ate at the con for con food, the whole time. Actually, mostly in the Doubletree because the hotel had at least real food for prices that aren’t outrageous. Because parking is a pain, kind of. One of these days I’ll just go to Mamoun’s on my own, and I can possibly claim having been to all three locations!

We ran into some random Makoto-P who was volunteering at the con. It was kind of amusing. Also kind of strange interacting with people who just do it differently. I guess that’s just how it goes. I also ran into most of the rest of the guys I always see at the local East Coast events. Ed’s industry panel was pretty much just unhinged. One margarita was all you need man. I said hi to EJ, who is someone new to this scene, for sure. There was no new announcement at the Aniplex panel, but I guess that’s to be expected. Man, imagine if you’re this Cali guy and work sent you to a con in New Jersey! I have way more sympathy for him than the Texans.

Loot:

Yamamoto and Shimizu’s autograph session gave away these Fujiko Mine anime posters if you wanted something to get signed by. The 4 scribbles? Moon Stream baby!

Also, Doujin Press was there. Pretty snazzy.

Con season this year plans out to be something like:

Animazement: all done, just waiting for their charity auction. Since it is for charity after all, let me spill the beans a bit–the guests donated a lot of stuff at Animazement for charity, and the con charity auction ran too short to get to all the items. There are about a dozen or more stuff, as a result, that’ll probably get eBay’d for charity. The funds will probably go to OK tornado victims and for Touhoku relief. The items, I had a chance to look at them, and there were sketches and stuff. I have my eyes on two specific items: autographed scripts from Chihayafuru S2. It’s great, because I’d like to have one, and I won’t really think twice if someone outbids me on them, just because, you know, it’s for a good cause and I can put the money into use for something else.

Anime Next: June 7-9. The schedule is here and unlike last year there is no iM@S panel. Unlike last year there is an Aniplex panel. And unlike last year I didn’t have two weddings that I had to be in back to back. Not expecting much from Sayo Yamamoto but it would be nice if I can get her to sign something. Like, I don’t know, maybe a copy of Arakawa UB? I love that OP. Maybe I can catch Moon Stream there instead of AX? I mean, I plan to see Vertical anyway so that’s one conflict I can definitely live with.

Origins Game Fair: June 12-16. OK, this is just FYI if I’m missing for a week.

Anime Expo: July 4-7. Well, I don’t know what I’ll be doing there but I’ll probably be doing more press stuff. Hopefully I can catch up with all the twitter and blogging boys and girls. I might even get to go to a Megumi Han panel for once. I guess it’s time to dig up interview questions because some of these folks are at least interesting from that sense.

Otakon: August 9-11. Should be one of the best Otakon ever in terms of guest roster. Yoko Kanno brings all the old, decrepit, fallen-off-the-wagon fans to the yard. Too bad she’s not playing in Camden Yard or something, as the Orioles have away games that weekend. Joking aside it should be a good time and it will be a very trying 3-day period, with so much content overlapping each other.

And that’s really it. I expect I might attend NYCC, and I might attend, as a super long shot, AWA, even if it’s not really in the cards. I want to attend AWA this year, let’s put it that way, but I don’t think I can justify the time off or the flight.

Anything else interesting going on?