We attended two industry panels at Anime North this year, one for Crunchyroll and the other for Funimation. If you’ve ever attended an industry panel at an anime convention before, these were pretty typical. Both panels featured company representatives who mainly talked about upcoming releases and showed some trailers. They also took questions from the audience after all of their announcements. Representatives of both companies were open to answering questions, but only about titles that their companies had announced publicly.

Titles announced at the Crunchyroll panel included: Majestic Prince, Oreimo, and Attack on Titan. All of their latest titles available to view on Crunchyroll can also be found at crunchyroll.com/lineup

The Crunchyroll panel was quite short with few announcements. The panel was over in about 30 minutes, rather than the usual 60 minutes allotted for this type of panel. I spoke briefly with the representative and got added to their official press release mailing list. At their booth, convention attendees could sign up for a free trial.

The Funimation panel was longer and pretty similar to other Funimation industry panels. During their announcements, their rep always describes the different titles and what they like about them. Trailers were shown for:

Black Butler (season 2)

Attack on Titan

Karneval

Date A Live

A Certain Scientific Railguin S

The Devil is a Part Timer

Red Data Girl

One Piece

Hetalia

Toriko

Steins: Gate

Appleseed XIII

Sophie Mc Nud hosted the Funimation panel and has been working on the new Funimation website. At the time they were still accepting people into the closed beta for their new website. They were also offering advance sales at their booth of Steins: Gate and Appleseed XIII.

Funimation currently has a 30 day free trial offer for fans who would like to check out their premium video service.

Next in the con report will be coverage of the Ask An Anime Character Panel with the male voice actors. Videos are on our Google+ page.

Anime North 2013 is only a few days away! The main schedule was announced recently on the Anime North website.

Here’s a listing of the Sailor Moon related events that may be of most interest to those of you attending. Most of these are at the Doubletree International Hotel, unless otherwise indicated. Autographs are at the Toronto Congress Centre and the photoshoots are outside, in front of the Congress Centre.

Friday

• 4pm – 5pm  » Opening Ceremonies (Plaza ballroom)
• 6pm – 7pm  » Behind the Mic with J. Micheal Tatum, Chris Cason, J. Swasey, and J. Stocker (Toronto panels)
• 6pm – 7pm  » Autographs: Lynda, Katie, Susan (Autographs Hall F, TCC)
• 7:30pm – 8:30pm  » Autographs: John Stocker (Autographs Hall F, TCC)
• 8pm – 9:30pm  » Ask an Anime Character with Lynda, Katie, Trina, Susan (Toronto panels)

Saturday

• 12pm – 1pm  » Sailor Moon Photoshoot (TCC 2, outside of TCC)
• 1pm – 2pm  » So Many Voices with John Swasey, Chris Cason, John Stocker (Plaza C)
• 1pm – 2pm  » Memories of the 80’s (Lynda, Katie, Susan) Toronto panels
• 1pm – 2pm  » Autographs: John Stocker (Autographs Hall F, TCC)
• 2:30pm – 3:30pm  » Autographs: Sailor Moon voice actors (Autographs Hall F, TCC)
• 5pm – 6pm  » Sailor Moon Voice Actors Q&A (Toronto panels)
• 6pm – 7pm  » Sailor Moon Industry Panel: presented by Moon Chase (Halton panels)
• 6pm – 7pm  » Sailor Moon R movie (Paris room)
• 7pm – 8pm  » Sailor Moon S movie (Paris room)
• 9pm – 10pm  » Sailor Moon Series Discussion (Windsor panels)

Sunday

• 12pm – 1pm » Canadian Voice Acting Industry (Toronto panels)
• 2:30pm – 3:30pm  » Autographs: Lynda, Katie, Susan, John (Autographs Hall F, TCC)
• 3pm – 4pm  » Sailor Moon Photoshoot (TCC 2, outside of TCC)
• 6pm – 7pm  » Closing Ceremonies (Plaza AB)

There will also be some industry panels that you may want to check out to ask industry reps your questions directly. The Crunchyroll panel will be on Saturday from 1pm – 2pm in International C. Funimation will have two panels (in previous years these are the same aside from fan questions). Funimation will have their first panel on Saturday from 2pm – 3pm in International C, and their second panel will be be on Sunday from 12pm – 1pm in International C.

There are lots of events at this year’s Anime North and we’re looking forward to reporting on the convention. You can find myself (Emily) and our new photographer/writer SixthCrow (Blake) at many of the events listed above as well as others.

If you’re able to make it to Anime North this year, feel free to approach us and ask questions or have your photo taken for Moon Chase. See you there!

And now for part two of my con report! This post will focus on the “industry” panels at Anime North.

The Funimation.com panel was one of very few industry panels at Anime North this year. Considering that Anime North is the biggest anime convention in Toronto, it’s a little disappointing that there aren’t more industry representatives leading discussion panels as well. Funimation however, had two, lead by Adam Sheehan, marketing manager for Funimation.

The first of their panels mainly focused on the Funimation website, with the premise that Funimation feels there should be more anime online, distributed legally.

Adam explained that on their website, there are show pages for every show they have distributed, and thousands of hours of videos available to watch. Videos include not only trailers, but full episodes as well. He indicated that the video area has ten to twenty times more popularity than the rest of the Funimation website.

Also on the Funimation website are news delivered via their blog, discussion forums (on a wide variety of topics including forums for specific shows), simulcasts, and an elite video subscription option.

Latest simulcasts are available here. Latest simulcasts at the time of Anime North included: Toriko, Is This a Zombie? (season 2), Eureka 7 AO (sequel to Eureka 7), Sankarea, Jormungand, Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko, and One Piece.

The elite video subscription service is available for $7.95 USD per month (there is a 14 day free trial period). This includes HD videos, no commercials, dubs are available the day they are released for sale on video, some exclusive titles, bonus features such as interviews and con footage, and more to come.

New releases at the time of the panel were…

Shiki (a thriller with vampires):

Cat Planet Cuties (a harem style series with alien cat girls):

and Panty & Stocking (angels kicked out of heaven for using too much foul language that become superheroes?):

New releases in June were: Tenchi Muyo (OVA and movies), Hellsing (Ultimate and TV), Fractale, Tales of Vesperia, Panty & Stocking with Garter Belt.

If you’re interested in a more current listing of releases from Funimation, you can check out this page for an idea of some of the items soon to be available on their site, and here’s their latest news post about upcoming video releases.

The second Funimation panel had some similar content, so I won’t be discussing it in detail. Suffice it to say, the first part included a presentation outlining recent releases and titles coming soon while the second portion was a question and answer period, where fans generally asked about specific titles.

I did speak with Adam after the first panel to briefly talk Sailor Moon. He remembered Moon Chase’s purple binder from the first time we were sending out reports! He also said that he really wished he could say that Funimation has the rights to Sailor Moon, but they do not currently have it. However, he did indicate that they will be practically shouting from the rooftops if they do get it, because Sailor Moon is a great property and they would love to have it. (this is NOT an official statement from Funimation, although we would be more than happy to share a statement from Funimation here about Sailor Moon)

Next up in my report: general interest panels at Anime North 2012! We hope you’re enjoying the convention coverage so far. More coming soon!

There are some fantastic Sailor Moon cosplayers at Otakon this year- there's more where this came from.

Last year, Otakon featured a panal called, “The World of Sailor Moon,” hosted by Yosenex of Genvid.com. This year, it seems like con organizers made an attempt to streamline the schedule, and one of the casualties was our dedicated Sailor Moon panel.

Instead, two fandoms were put together into one panel, run by college students Tina Maiese and Brandon Auman, who covered SM and Dragonball Z, respectively. While the hosts were friendly and the crowd was enthusiastic, this combo panel seemed to occur at the expense of SM fans- about 75% of the panel ended up being devoted to DBZ.
Read the rest of this entry »

Hosted by Funimation representatives Joshua Morris and Joel Rodriguez, this panel was the usual fare for Funimation’s industry panels at conventions: announcements of new releases and answering a variety of questions from convention attendees.

The first question asked was if Funimation is still for sale. The panel hosts announced that Funimation has recently been purchased by an investment group led by CEO Gen Fukunaga (the link directs to a press release, for those interested in more details).

When it comes to jobs at Funimation (yes, they were asked about this), the representatives indicated that Funimation is always hiring. Openings are regularly posted to major job sites such as Monster and LinkedIn. Those interested in applying can also e-mail their résumés to Funimation. Please keep in mind that local applicants are given a higher priority.

Regarding Japanese credits not included on a DVD or Blu-ray release, this is directly related to the materials received for video release. Materials received for the theatrical release of properties (e.g. Evangelion) may differ, but Funimation can only include items on the video release based on what the license for video release covers and the materials received specifically for that release.

Canadians will be happy to know that Funimation.com videos are once again available for viewing in Canada. US visitors will have the video source re-directed from Hulu.

Readers may also be happy to know that the Trigun video release used the old Geneon dub track, it was not redone. However, representatives did mention that in cases where they redo or revisit a series (such as with Slayers), they do try to bring back as much of the old cast as possible.

Announcements:
Shin Chan season 3, part 1 is available for pre-order. Release date is July 26th.

The Treasure Hunter is coming to DVD in fall 2011. This live-action film stars Jay Chou, who also played Kato in The Green Hornet. The international trailer is available here. (ignore the dates on that trailer)

Fairy Tail will have a fall 2011 release date. The ADR Director is Tyler Walker and the protagonist, Natsu, will be played by Todd Haberkorn. An exclusive wallpaper is available on the Funimation site and a trailer for Fairy Tail is available on Crunchyroll.

Regarding Funimation’s Relief for Japan efforts, various items are available for auction in their ongoing fundraising campaign. All money collected in these efforts will go directly to organizations involved with the relief efforts in Japan. For those interested, the money is also tax deductible. A new set of auctions is planned for the beginning of May. So far, they have raised $11,300.

Photo credits: Shin Chan DVD cover from Amazon.com, Fairy Tail promo image from Funimation.com, Treasure Hunter promo image from Funimation.com.