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Anime Expo’s Pre-Show Night (Day 0) started the event off with a bang! Not only does it start the 4-day “AX-travaganza” but it also fell on our nation’s celebration of independence! Unfortunately, we were late and unable to attend the Chillin’ With Voice Actors Panel. To kill time while we wait for the next panel, we headed to the Entertainment Hall to check out all the attractions as well as the new One Piece Puzzle Hunt. After solving a few of the riddles, it was time to head to the Nep Yeah! A Community Panel!
We joined David, Robbie, and Zanda of the Imagination Factory (IFI) Marketing team for the latest Hyperdimension Neptunia news! They attend AX because it is an important opportunity to reach out to the fans. It all began in 2015, when all they had what a little booth, snuck in with the rest. Since then, they slowly began getting bigger and better. Before announcements, they went over the procedure for selling merchandise. They first have to receive approval from the Japanese team before they can even sell anything related to Hyperdimension Neptunia. Before ending the panel, we also got to see a demo of Super Neptunia RPG! With few choices during Pre-Show Night, we tried to get enough to get us ready for the days that are packed full of events, panels, and showings.
Anime Expo officially starts off with Day 1 and the first thing on our list was the Sentai Filmworks Industry Panel! The panelists start off with the annual Sentai selfie as well as an AMV Mashup of all Sentai related productions. Next were the following Summer Simulcast previews; The Thousand Musketeers, 100 Sleeping Princes & the Kingdom of Dreams, and Revue Starlight. They also announced the license acquisition and future dubbing for Mr. Tonegawa Middle Management Blues and Real Girl (Season 2). Later this summer, dubbing for Tada Never Falls in Love and Real Girl will be making their way to HiDive. Battle Girl High School, Love and Lies, Magic Stella, Long Riders!, PiaCarrot2 DX, the Legend of the Galactic Heroes (Box Set), the No Game No Life 0 (Box Set), and the K-On (Box Set) will be available for purchase and pre-order on their website. Sentai’s panelists also have some upcoming dubs for us. Those titles are; Scum’s Wish, Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions! Take On Me, Takunomi, My Girlfriend is Shobitch, UQ Holder!, and Made in Abyss.
The next panel that was covered was the Crunchyroll Expo Industry Panel! Our panelists start off by announcing the following premiers; How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, Angels of Death, Dies Irae (Last six episodes), Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar, and Free! Dive to the Future. VRV then took the stage to announce these following titles; Bee and Puppycat, Freakazoid, and Gary and His Demons. Crunchyroll finishes the panel off with their manga simulpubs! Planet With, Holmes of Kyoto, and Crossing Time all make their way to Crunchyroll July 7th, 2018.
VIZ Media Industry Panel was up next at the Petree Hall! We were joined by hosts, Urian Bron (Marketing) and David Brothers (Editor), as they take us through the latest news by VIZ Media. Fathom Events brings the Sailor Moon S and Sailor Moon Super S movies to theaters. One major announcement that had us very excited was the acquisition of Megaloxbox! For manga announcements, VIZ Media will be releasing NieR: Automata: SThe Whort Story Long and Homestuck. Finishing up the announcements, VIZ will be releasing their first game, The World Next Door, on Steam.
Next up, we had the Funimation Dragon Ball Super Panel! We were joined by Special Guests Monica Rial (Voice of Bulma), Sonny Strait (Voice of Krillin) and Sean Schemmel (Voice of Goku). The cast was able to share their favorite storylines, scenes, and character opinions from Dragon Ball Super. We even got to hear Monica Rial perform her very first “Kame-Hame-Ha Power Up” in Bulma’s voice. The panel then finished up with audience Q&As.
Although we did not attend the Netflix <3 Anime Panel, we did receive a Press Release regarding a few new and return series. Little to our knowledge, Maki Terashima-Furuta (President of Production I.G) was in the audience to watch the preview of Castlevania (Season 2). With that said, on to the next panel!
Aniplex of America is the next to take over Petree Hall. Aniplex panelists from Marketing started off with series that are currently streaming. Today’s Menu for Emiya Famliy, Record of Grancrest War, Persona5 the Animation, and Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online. Owarimonogatari (Volume 3), March Comes in like a Lion (Season 2), Oreimo, and Eromanga Sensei (Volume 1) are currently available for purchase. Granblue Fantasy the Animation (Volume 2), Oreimo 2, and Eromanga Sensei (Volume 2) are available for pre-order. For coming soon titles, we have The Promised Neverland, Cells at Work, and Sword Art Online: Alicization (Season 3).
Lastly, to conclude Day 1, we attended the KLab Games Industry Panel! Here we got to hear about the history, current, and upcoming projects from the mobile game developer. KLab Games was founded 2009 and they primarily focus on Japanese IPs, Global Growth, and Original Creations. Over the years KLab Games released; Bleach: Brave Souls, Love Live! School Idol Festival, Utano*Princesama: Shining Live, and Captain Tsubasa: Dream Team. Before leaving, we got a look back of all previous events that occur in each game. We hope you enjoyed reading our coverage for Pre-Show Night and Day 1 because there’s plenty more for the remaining days! Stay tuned until then and thanks for reading!
