Just to gather my thoughts on AX 2011, part two.

I’m helping out at a friend’s panel. You might know him as this fun-loving dude with a lot of figures and wears pro-Starcraft paraphernalia; you might not. But he’s going to take center stage on AX Day 3 (Sunday, 7/3) at 8pm @ LP3. He’s going to talk about figures. He’s going to show you figures. I’m going to do whatever…that I do. Come see us. Come heckle us! I don’t care. It’ll be fun, hopefully. And I say this with some uncertainty because I think we’re still a ways to go to finalize the content.

And “a ways to go” is pretty much how I feel about AX 2011. A lot of the stuff they’re promising for the public slipped, even if most of them did materialize at some point. Dates are missed (a couple big ones for press I think). Let’s get it together yo. But of course I say this without any condemnation. It’s just kind of how it is.

Armed with the convention schedule and now a list of descriptions, I’m going to drop some names and sigh at the fact that those two things only makes up maybe 50% of all you need to know. Anime Expo is big enoguh, elaborate enough and corporate enough that to get all you need out of it, you have to look at all sorts of places.

I mean, first off, we know there’s that Hatsune Miku thing, but what does it mean? You won’t find all you need to know from AX’s website; it’s all posted on Mikunopolis.

• Goods! Pass, Pass, WOO.
• What is happening at all the other Miku-related panels. Highlights would be the MMD workshop and probably the talks. I bet something gets announced at the keynote. I’m not wota enough to chase those self-starting dancers, but who knows.
• And then there’s the guys who come every year to run Nihongo de OK and the fan-run Vocaloid panel (this is their 4th one!)

Well, the fact that AX info is posted all over the place is nothing new. What is new is that we’re T-minus 4 days and there’s no news at all on autographs. I guess we should expect the usual…but that is not a good sign. And AX autographs can really use some good signs. On the bright side I can probably live without a set of Kalafina paw prints, and unless Nirgilis and Maon knock it out of the park, that leaves just Sawashiro for the minimum. It doesn’t mean I won’t be trying for more, though.

And because of all this, having the con event schedule alone  is kind of useless. Well, we can continue on.

The AX Maid cafe posted some pictures (and even they operate outside the AX media infrastructure to a degree, and they’re part of the con… what does that say to you?).  Along the same lines, there’s the pre-con offkai charity event Christina Vee (she really should cosplay Kurisu this year wwww) and Steph Sheh is hosting. I mean LOL whut. Wuuuuut.

What’s more LOL WUT is something on the schedule. The JETRO is helping to throw a panel (LP4, 10:45am on Saturday) that polls the audience on new media trends. I mean, let me just quote you what the PR says:

GRAB YOUR “YES” OR “NO” SIGNS AT THE ENTRANCE AND TELL THE PROFESSIONALS IF THEY ARE RIGHT OR WRONG!
Industry professionals will gather to present their ideas in developing the next best online business model, discuss recent trends and the next step necessary to make anime and manga content more accessible to consumer demands.

For every topic introduced, we will ask the audience if they agree or disagree with the professional’s viewpoint.
Grab a sign, grab a raffle ticket, share your opinions, have fun, and win your own Nintendo 3DS!

The thing is suppose to include these following people: Ken Iyadomi (Bandai Entertainment), Henry Goto (Aniplex USA), Atsushi Yanai (VIZ), Vince Shortino (Crunchyroll). Holding out on us huh, Gen? This is a recipe for LULS!

It’s probably also worth noting what the industry lineups and events are for these companies, but I’m not going to shill that hard. Well, maybe except Aniplex, because they have a certain contractual obligation to fulfill. That’s Day 1 at 2:30. But other than Madoka I’m not sure what they’d tell us, and, well, we already know about Madoka somewhat.

Aside from that, there’s a Funi-sponsored noitaminA panel; Which sadly conflicts with the one I’m helping with. Do go to it; I want see people blogging the hell out of that panel. I would totally go.

There are a few panels at AX about industry and IP stuff. I’m not sure if any of them are worth attending, but I am curious to know what they cover.

Of course, I can’t leave out Fred at AX. But to me this dude is just as big of an attraction. Thankfully it doesn’t entirely conflict with the Yuki Kajiura panel that’s being hosted by zzeroparticle. And I say I’m thankful because the whole looking-at-AX-schedule thing is just an exercise to determine how many interesting things you are going to miss out because of a time conflict. That these two panels I want to be at overlaps only for half the time (and probably a 5-minute walk between panel rooms) makes attending them somewhat feasible. Fred’s panel starts 10am on Sunday, Zz’s at 10:30am.

Back to the schedule. And shilling. Although in one case it is a genuine premiere… And there’s the stalking.

• As of today, the last of the TBDs on the event schedule has filled in, so there are more items you can worry about conflicts. There’s going to be a Friday night show for Maonsu, tied to HOTD (which may require age verification? Unclear), a mini concert. Com’on, Maon stakers, you know who you are.
• The video schedule reveals Gundam Unicorn focus panel on Sunday at 2pm.
• Onigamiden is screening at 2pm on Friday (with an intro).
• More relevantly, Sawashiro frontwomans the Arakawa UB screening on Saturday at 10.
• Right after the Arakawa UB screening is the premiere of Last Exile Silver Wings at noon, with a Gonzo panel after that. What? A Gonzo panel?

• Looks like I am very much in a position where I may have to trade an autograph opportunity for Silver Wing. AUGH.

And I haven’t even touched the various hanging-out events with real people! Or the stuff I need to help out with on top of the panel itself. Or the press-related things.

So tempted to just wing it. Oh, you know what else is sorely missing? The AX iOS/Android app. At least last year there was that website where I can export the schedule as a calendar file, which I can load into Google cal (or whatever that you use). I guess I can live with PDFs, but that is a real slip.

Last for this post, and hardly least–food truck gallery at AX. Three days. They say the way to a man’s heart is where? I AM SO EXCITED.

Jim Vowles used to run the guest relations for Otakon for the past, I don’t know, 10 or so years. He stepped down this year and is just helping the new guys taking over. I bring him up because he used to play this guessing game over at Otakon’s forums, teasing us who is lined up as guests every single year. I think it’s a lot of fun, both to guess and to be teased. I think he enjoys this inequality in information too, so it’s win-win for everyone.

Unfortunately this can backfire. It doesn’t happen in a way you think it does. What has happened was that he trains people to think very, shall we say, resourcefully. Arguably there’s nothing “backfiring” about that either. What has happened in the past couple days is a little more complicated, but I’m going to attempt to explain because it’s very amusing.

And let me just say this right off the bat: it’s entirely speculation. Totally guessing. Nothing I’m going to postulate is true.

The point isn’t who we think will line up Otakon’s “star-studded” import guest list (and their domestic list, for that matter). It’s more like because it points to certain things, it adds a lot of urgency and excitement to the people who are still kept in the dark.

The situation begins at some point several weeks ago when Otakon basically confirmed they have a horde of Japanese guests lined up, booked, and all that is left is to announce them. That’s actually unusual for Otakon, and perhaps first time ever once taking into account the number of them. When something like this happened (as it has before), it’s usually because of some third-party stipulation. Usually what you want to do is have all involved parties announce their participation at the event at the same time.

It gets trickier when the guests are a tie-in with a product announcement. Naturally, that means not only the parties have to sync up their release notes, but the date will hinge on some kind of contract talk about the product. And by product usually I mean either a premiere of some sort (so we’re talking about some dubbed anime or a film or something), or a license announcement.

Why would anyone do this? Because some companies want to use cons to promote their shows, of course. By hyping up some event via “world premiere” or “we’re bringing all the voice actors and directors and whatever to the con that we’re announcing this at” it would be pretty cool. Of course, I don’t think serious cons like AX or Otakon would let someone pull that off entirely (I think Bandai did it last Otakon for Christina Vee?), let alone Japanese guests which will need con help in accomodating, so it’s much more likely that you’ll get an announcement at one con, and the staff support and more hype at the next one.

So tell me how people would feel when there are 5 seiyuu spots lined up and locked? And 5 american voice actor spots lined up and locked? All on the morning when Aniplex’s lock on Madoka’s domain came up in the news (ie., it all happened yesterday)?

I have no idea, honestly. It was just a lot of fun to kind of push the point that Otakon is about a month away, or right around the time when the biggest announcements are due.

As of right now, we know 2 of the 5 are for one show and 3 of the 5 are for another, so crisis partly avoided. So exciting!

With Memorial Day weekend squarely in the rear view mirror, it’s North American anime con season proper. With Anime Boston, Acen, and the Memorial Day triplet at Anime North, Animazement and Fanime Con, it feels like I’m already conned out. Except I did not go to any them!

Still, it’s good to keep an eye on what’s developing. With the Tohoku disaster still fresh on our minds and with the disaster opening up new opportunities while shutting down old ones, the guest-guessing game is a bit odd this year, I suppose. I’m just going to do a brain-dump of the AX events transpired thus far, since I’m planning to attend it.

Anime Expo is slowly rolling out its big guest announcements, but to many the Miku-fest (or properly, Mikunopolis) is going to be the biggest one. And amusingly to others it may not be obvious as to why. Maybe that’s for the best. Maybe not. It’s somewhat of a “large” event for any con, anyways. With Toyota behind them, it’s kind of just how it’s going to be. I just hope the organizers are encouraged by the result when it is all said and done.

Seeing Miyuki Sawashiro being announced, though, is pretty neat. She’s a very unique talent in a sense, since she’s on the full seiyuu career track for a while now (10+ years), and is already an industry veteran before she is 30. I mean, she’s only 26 or something (for perspective, Aki Toyosaki is 25). Also, she’s not really doing that idol thing either; instead she is just in a ton of random shows. It’s a very different kind of perspective. Anyway, it is her first real oversea fan event.

From the PR it looks like Miyukichi’s participation at AX is brought to us by at least NISA, with those ArakawaUB plugs. The other possible tie-in is from GSC–she is half of Black Rock Shooter OAV, after all. The president of GSC is going to be there, with Danny Choo. It makes you wonder. For the record, by Memorial Day Weekend 2010, the big guns for AX 2010 were already posted (not counting Secret Guest Kanno, but you knew). So compared to last year, AX is rolling out late by a couple weeks. Blame it on the quake I suppose; and definitely the best announcements, hopefully, is yet to come.

Well, a Kalafina is fine too. It’s cool to use this opportunity to see how much bigger of a fan I have become of them. I wasn’t much of one during their AB visit a couple years ago. It was amusing to see myself and some others I know in the omake video that came with the second album, now that during the time I have grown much more fond of their music. For a group formed just to do music for Kara no Kyoukai (why do a seiyuu group when you can use real singers?) Kalafina’s got some long legs. I wouldn’t even need to burn any glowsticks for this one.

On a totally different note, I want to see what’s on the menu for the symposium AX is hosting. Having seen (online) at least one Ian Condry talk, it sounds like something worth going to see. Is it worth an hour of precious con time, however, is something to be determined.

On Mangagamer’s side, the latest word from Bamboo during the live chat he hosted last week, it was unclear what industry or artist guests he will be able to arrange for. He did note it will be a quieter year in terms of that. The extent of the damage from the quake is large on the galge development efforts, given that they are often very small operations. Maybe next year he could drop by Otakon?

And speaking of the other Summer cons, Otakon has up to 6 seiyuu guests slated, along with a couple directors and the like. Could be very interesting! AnimeNext is the next con up on my list, even if I may not be covering it. I wonder if they have any opinion on Naoto Kan’s resignation and the recent vote-of-no-confidence thing. Wonder if Taro Aso would make a trip these days! Even if he ninjas into NYC like Aya Hirano, I don’t particularly mind.

That just leaves AM2 to be figured out. Scandal would be a cool addition to my list, but while at AX I would be at mercy of locals in terms of legging it to Anaheim and back to downtown LA. It’s about an hour drive, more with traffic. The con is free, but they do sell some special tickets for shows and what not, plus a paid badge for extra perks. It’s totally gimping off AX. Aside from the fact that it is run by people who used to run AX and released a PR about they’re not gimping AX, they are totally gimping off AX. On the other hand, AX is huge; the people can use an alternative. And I think that someone could double-dip on Scandal or kanonxkanon (Koi no Doutei? soooo not like Calendula Requiem. Heh) is always a boon than not being able to.