Hey everyone. Some interesting news has cropped up over this past weekend, such as Moribito - Guardian of the Spirit being licensed to air on Cartoon Network. I have on idea whether or not the show would be a good pick-up for YTV (or perhaps some other courageous broadcaster?), but it's good to know that there are more options opening up, given the current lack of new anime programming.

Of course, I was not able to comment on the news, since I was too busy at SakuraCon over the past few days. I will admit right off the bat that it will likely take a few weeks for me to get my full con report up, since some rather important assignments are presenting major conflicts for me. However, I will say a few quick things here, since it was definitely a con that left a lot to talk about.

To be frank, the first two days of the con were an overblown mess, often bordering on being a complete disaster. Attendance had grown exponentially this year, and as a result the massive congestion of con-goers that littered the hallways and entrances literally became a risk to try and navigate through. The problem became so bad that the police were at one point called in to direct traffic down the escalators. Things only got worse as the Gaia Online panel and Cosplay show took place, transforming the entire top level into one massive line. Despite the fact that other events were taking place upstairs as well, the escalator leading to the top was blocked off completely. The only reason I was able to make it upstairs at all to attend the Bandai Entertainment panel was because I was because of my press badge!

That particular panel didn't exactly provide a lot of new information, either. As far as Code Geass goes, it was mentioned that there currently weren't any plans to get Code Geass on Canadian TV in late spring (which could change, but that remains to be seen), and vaguely suggested that the series may see a slightly different release format, although the rep was very careful not to specify anything. However, this was still a heck of a lot better than the three industry panels that didn't happen at all. Viz Media were no-shows at their Friday panel, the Ocean Studios panel was vanquished on the posted schedules, and Bandai Visual's panel was canceled due to a lack of executive presence. There were a few more interesting industry-related events going on which I'll get into later, but overall the con was a pretty big let-down in that area.

Another major let-down was the fact that the scheduled premiere of the first three episodes from the new uncut One Piece dub never happened. The disc was lost at the last minute, and instead the audience was treated to the disjointed horrors of the eighth One Piece movie. Maybe it was just my own bad luck, but this little mishap capped off what was undoubtedly a very crappy Saturday at SakuraCon.

However, things did pick up quite a bit on Sunday. Not only had antics died down in general, I was also able to participate in a private interview with Hiroshi Nagahama, who you may know as the director of the stunning Mushi-shi. I could never have had enough autographable merchandise to adequately prepare myself for that, but I will have a full audio recording of the interview available for you to listen to uploaded shortly.
__________________________
Zannen, Canada webmaster.

No, it was nothing like that. I didn't mean to say that they were restricting access to press only, but rather that my press badge was the only way I was able to bypass a very unfortunate situation.

They are going to HAVE to put some kind of attendance cap on the convention next year.

Zannen, Canada webmaster.

Was there any reasons given by Viz Media and/or Ocean Studios for the no shows or did you go to attend the panels that day and see a note that it was canceled?

I also agree with Dayspring - it looks like the people behind the con didn't plan properly or didn't think that there would be many there for gaia online and the cos-play stuff. Makes you wonder if the planners are really anime fans or just people who think of the stuff they want to do and ignore other anime convention related activities.

Gundam Plus II. Forums open to Gundam and any other anime related talk

Gia spoke to someone about that and found out that Viz's 'no-show' was actually a scheduling error by the convention staff. Viz hadn't intended to have a panel. Antarctic Press had the same problem, being scheduled for a panel they didn't know about.

Fulfill your Kuriousity