Netflix Hearts Anime by Eri Kagami
Netflix is no stranger to providing programming for all audiences. In recent years, Netflix has picked up the anime bug collaborating with Japanese companies releasing and producing anime for Netflix bingers. The panel announced upcoming series such as a continuation of the tepid Godzilla anime, the exhilarating Castlevania, and 2018’s surprise hit, Aggretsuko. Even the red panda made an appearance when they showed the trailer for Aggretsuko season 2. New series to debut on Netflix also included Dragon Pilots. The creator of the show described it as a dragon cosplaying as a fighter jet. A few other shows teased and discussed included Cannon Busters, a kickstarter backed American-anime inspired production by the creatives behind Boondocks.
A Q&A followed the presentation. The best takeaway from the presentation was advice the panelists had for aspiring artists. Shinji Higuchi mentioned he had no sleep in his 20s and he worked hard to get where he is. Adi Shankar talked about defining your own style and not conform to what the industry expects you to do so. Finally, Shankar reminded everyone that everyone had a lion in them and encouraged everyone to find other lions to form Voltron – metaphorically speaking.
NISA Community Panel by Jared the Greek
This was the big panel for Nippon Ichi Software where they not only showed off their new games, but also discussed the future of their community. The panel covered Disgaea Complete, Labrynth of Revere, The Princess Code, and SNK Heroines. They also revealed that the new SNK 40th Anniversery game collection would begin with 23 games and have more games added as free DLC. The games and the trailers kept coming and the audience got hyped up with the various announcements. The panel ended with a giveaway of various games, most of which were for the PSVita, but those who arrived at the panel all got free swag like a pin and a comic.
Official Spike Chunsoft & Uchikoshi Panel by Jared the Greek
The panel began a little late, but they made up for it by running the panel smoothly. First they showed off some of their current titles such as Pixel Junk Monsters 2, Fire Pro Wrestling World, 428 Shibuya Scramble, and Yu-No. The Wrestling trailer was great and the addition of New Japan Pro Wrestling to the game roster got the audience hyped. After the trailers Uchikoshi Kotaro came up to discuss his previous projects as well as his new project Ai: The Somnium Files. The new game will be a murder mystery set in near future Tokyo. As a fun bonus Iris, one of the game characters, had a message video to the audience. It was a great panel and it was a nice way to hear the director of the Zero Escape series discuss his work.
TBS Animation – Present and Future by Jared the Greek
This panel began with a video package that showed several of their shows from previous years. Many of which were empty calorie slice of life trash. It made the audience happy, but anyone who enjoys variety would likely be disappointed. After that they showed off their new animation block title “Animerico” which went over like a spoiled milk. This was followed by a trailers and clips from current and upcoming shows. One of the shows that was made up of early artwork that got everyone’s attention was Gakuen Basara, a silly high school series featuring the characters from Sengoku Basara. They showed off some new DVD/Blu-Ray releases of their shows and even gave the audience a sneek preview of their new idol series Revue Starlight. They brought in a guest to talk a little about the show before giving away some prizes to the audience. This was a very robust panel filled with plenty of content for those who like less action heavy anime. The audience was generally happy and it was nice to see some previews of next years shows.
