Kodansha Comics is back in San Diego and ready to talk about the hottest manga of the year, Attack on Titan! Penguin Random House's Dallas Middaugh and Kodansha USA's Kana Koide talk about what's happening with Sailor Moon, Attack on Titan, Fairy Tail, Vinland Saga and No. 6, to name just a few. They'll have some new title announcements and an Attack on Titan sampler for everyone to check out.
Saturday July 26, 2014 12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT
Room 8
VIZ Media is releasing the 200-episode classic Sailor Moon series for the first time on Blu-ray and with an all-new completely uncut and uncensored English dub. Join members of the VIZ Animation team for a presentation on all the ins and outs of the production of this legendary anime series. Bring your questions, too, for the Q&A session at the end!
Saturday July 26, 2014 12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT
Room 5AB
Meet UDON's artists and editors, including Joe Ng (Street Fighter Origins: Akuma), Long Vo (Street Fighter II HD Remix), and Chris Butcher (director of marketing, UDON) as they discuss this year's big hits and preview their upcoming 2014/2015 books, including the new Manga Classics line. Panel attendees will be the first to hear about some amazing as yet unannounced titles featuring iconic properties from across the pop culture spectrum.
Saturday July 26, 2014 5:30pm - 6:30pm PDT
Room 26AB
There's a lot of manga available in English now, but what's really worth reading? A panel of opinionated bloggers, retailers, manga mavens, and comics curmudgeons spotlight the best new manga that hit the shelves in the past year. Hear them rave about their favorite continuing series! Watch them rant about the excruciatingly mediocre manga that they were forced to read (so you won't have to)! Find out which manga Brigid Alverson (CBR, Robot 6, MangaBlog, Good Comics for Kids), David Brothers (4th Letter), Christopher Butcher (Comics212.net), and Deb Aoki (MangaComicsManga.com, Publishers Weekly) have loved and loathed so far this year, hear about their picks for the most anticipated upcoming releases for fall and beyond, and discover their favorite underappreciated gems that are worth picking up.
Saturday July 26, 2014 7:00pm - 8:00pm PDT
Room 23ABC
Japan has long had a history of "visual novels", which are highly evolved story-based games for PC as well as game consoles like PS2/PS3. These games simulate interaction between the player and various characters, often with romantic elements. While many games are adult, the genre is well represented by both adult and nonadult games, and many of the top games are made into mainstream anime series. Peter Payne, owner of JASTUSA, will outline the history of these games from the 1980s to now and will include discussion of the growth of the genre, as well as covering subgenres. Examples of these are "otome games," or girl-centric romance Sims for female players (one of the hottest kind of games for girls in Japan now), and games like Steins;Gate, a hardcore sci-fi/time travel visual novel (all ages) with romantic themes. Steins;Gate was recently released in the USA in English.
Saturday July 26, 2014 7:00pm - 8:00pm PDT
Room 29A