Maybe it's just me but every time someone mentions anime and comic conventions in the same sentence, I end up picturing those terrible, western produced, knock-offs like Captain Planet. Sure, from a distance they look like anime, but the moment you see them in action, you find yourself wondering why it just isn't the same. I definitely felt that way when I was attending San Diego Comic Con the other month. Sure there was anime there, but everyone there seemed to have their focus elsewhere.

Now it seems New York Anime Festival might be headed in that direction, as it will joining New York Comic Con in co-locating next season. By that, I mean the conventions will take place in the same location, at the same time. The operating company, Reed Exhibitions Pop Culture Group, decided to do this in order to balance out their events with the launch of the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo in April of next year, with New York Comic Con moving to a permanent October date.

According to a representative for the company, everyone, including attendees, agreed that this is was the best idea. While I somehow doubt that to be the case, what's done is done. if you ask me, I would have gladly taken 2 conventions over an over-crowded one. I suppose there's no word on if this will drastically alter the attendance, but I'd say is safe to assume that it'll likely grow as a result. Is anyone else as disappointed? Over-joyed? Maybe just the tad bit skeptical? I'd love to know.

Brigid from MangaBlog took a few minutes at NYCC to talk to Kurt Hassler, the head of Yen, to get some more information out of him in regards to their upcoming release of Yotsuba&!

First off, volume 6 will be coming out in September, and Amy Forsythe will be the one translating the manga -- she originally worked on some of the earlier volumes of the series, so she's familiar with it and won't have to worry about developing voices for the characters.

The rights for the previous volumes will be reverting back to the Japanese company, at which point, Yen will have them. In the meantime, though, they're in the middle of negotiating with ADV to acquire their translation materials, so that they can simply reprint the volumes without much delay -- much like how FUNimation has done with all the series it has acquired from Geneon and ADV.

And for all you Yen+ subscribers, the series won't be appearing in the magazine, I'm sorry to say. Which is a shame, because for those who are just getting into manga and have picked up Yen+, they're missing out on one of the bigger titles. That is, of course, provided Yen Press doesn't pimp the hell out of it in other venues.

Okay, it wasn't necessarily a Q&A session per say, but we decided to address some of the comments from our recent NYCC coverage. That said, I could think of no better way than to record a quick, high audio quality show to accomplish just that.

Topics of Discussion:
Yotsuba&! being produced by Yen Press
Some small con hijinks
How badly I want to buy Zetsubo and Spice and Wolf
Talk of industry reps
Talk of how being in Hawaii is awesome.

Grab the show here! For your knowledge, we'll be recording again in the next few days, and may or may not do a teaser before successive shows. If you want to ensure we discuss something, leave a question/comment here. 

(Note: This podcast, as stated before, is relatively short. My new promise to you are short, better quality shows more frequently)

Ah, Viz. Ever the eternal tease. From their panel at NYCC, they announced that they've licensed a new series from Rumiko Takahashi, and that it'll be awesome, but are keeping the information about the title itself on-the-mum.

To fill out the rest of the Viz panel, I'll be relying on Gia's liveblog of the event. Some of the other bits from the panel were that the Detroit Metal City manga will be coming out in June -- the Japanese manga is sitting on my desk right now, actually -- and Yu-Gi-Oh! R will be coming out in October.

It also looks like the Monster anime will be coming here "sooner than you think," according to the Q&A at the Viz panel. There are several other titles in their release schedule, like The Gentleman's Alliance Cross artbook and Butterflies, Flowers are just some of the items cropping up.

Be sure to take a look at Gia's liveblog if you're interested in some of the other announcements. There's plenty of Naruto news that's in there!

The concept of time is so foreign to me at the moment. That said, this rock and roll lifestyle is all about the fun. New friends include:

Narutaki and Hisui from Reverse Thieves
Michael Pinto from Fanboy.com
Brigid from Mangablog
Vampt_Vo from AniGamers (and here!)
Kuro
And others I'm less willing to try typing/linking on this miniature internet enabled device.

Tomorrow is the last day, and I need some advice on what to buy. Seriously, I told myself I'd buy at least two things I've never heard of before. I'm open to manga, but I can buy that at anytime. Right now I'm considering picking up The Walking Dead and something else. Help!

Note to everyone who commented on the panel coverage posts: Some of your questions I had an answer for, some I did not. Since most of the reps will still be here tomorrow I will do a follow up for any questions you may have had (like about the Love Hina dub and the Gundam street date.) Compile your questions after the jump.

P.S. Kobe hamburgers kinda rock. So decadent its delicious.

P.T.S Gia rocked the boat on this one. We did two recording of podtoid-san (one from the bar at the New Yorker, and one from some chocolate shop near union square,) but the pen drive she saved them on went the way of the dinosaurs. Maximum apologies, but you'll just have to settle for my regular coverage. 

Fun note to start off with. For some reason we havea full house of like 150-200 people in here and Adam Sheehan thought this panel was one of their screener panels. Gia was actually charged with keeping the peace while he went to get his laptop.

Anime and the Economy:
Funimation is stable, and regrets the economy that led them to layoffs. Geekonomics continue, and FUNi states a 17% growth in product, and has pretty charts. Sheehan actually does a good job of talking directly to the audience, and attempts to push aside their qualms for the industry in general. Apparently you can already buy tickets for next year.

Anime and the Internet:
Playstation Network, Amazon, iTunes, Xbox Marketplace represent some of their paid channels, while Hulu and Youtube bring down their free offerings. Sheehan is also walking us through the FUNimation video player, with offerings like Romeo x Juliet (woo) and Ouran High School Host Club.

Anime FUNi wants you to watch:
Baccano: Hmm, I like Takahiro Omori's Hell Girl, and this looks nothing like it. High speed gunfights and chases amidst a 1930's setting.
Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry: [John neglected to put in a description. So, make up your own in the comments! -- DMV]
Afro Samurai: Resurrection: Lucy Lui and Samuel Jackson fight the snot about out of each other in the sequel to the original

(off topic)Sheehan "Okay, the trailer's pretty graphic. If anyone's under eighteen, cover your eyes till you stop hearing hiphop" Ha! The clip didn't disapoint. Go buy it on Blu-ray! Anyone played the video game yet? This trailer makes it look really pretty.

DragonBall Z: Season eight (the second to the last suckers) comes out this season. Movies 8, 10, and 11 come out March 31st.
DragonBall GT: Season two availible 10th.
Shin Chan: Season Two, part one. Apparently they have promotional Virgin Mary esc' Shin-candles at the booth right now.
Love Hina: In case you just needed to own the entire series (specials included), you can get it February 24th.
Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple: Season one, part one comes out March 10th

(off topic)FUNi has gotten really good at their trailers. Maybe its just me, but the production value has gotten berserk.)

Shiguri:Get your mildly artistic gore in regular or high definition March 31st. Oh shoot! This the show where the guy cut a girl nipple off ate it in front of her. Gross!
D Grayman: March 31st for the first part (13 ep box). Kinda darker than most shonen, but I dig the manga.
Vandread: Ecchi space mech thing
Tokyo Majin: The FUNaquired title is being released this summer. Old dub review.
Samurai 7: First Blu-ray only series for FUNi.

Now, I'm a big Robert Napton fan, but sometimes I wish he'd bring a friend to his panels. Compared to the upbeat festival Bandai put on at Otakon, I can't help but feel like having co-panelists might make Napton happy.

Reminders of things Bandai wants you to buy:
Code Geass: Season two dub trailer still looks smexy, five girls woot periodically. The final season one box set is availible next month, manga already availible.
Gurren Lagann: The final dubbed volume comes out March 17th. This limited edition will include a volume of the Gurren Lagann manga
Gundam 00: Still airing on Sci-Fi
Lucky Star: Final DVD (vol. 6) coming shortly. Addicts must sate themselves on Bandai's manga releases of Lucky Star.
Ghost Slayers Ayashi: New to me. Kinda dig the art though, kinda classic looking.
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence: 1st Blu-ray production for Bandai Entertainment
Hayate the Combat Butler: DVD release yet unscheduled, as one my more more favored light/do nothing shows, I'm very interested in the title.
Akira: 2nd Blu-ray offering, show with a comically standard definition trailer.

On the Manga Side:
The manga side feels identical to the anime side, since they are producing the manga for all of their high end IP's like Code Geass, Lucky Star, and Gurren Lagann. Apparently, Bandai is producing all three of the varient Code Geass manga (Lelouche of the Rebellion, Suzaku of the Counterattack, and Nightmare of Nunnally.) All stories take place in separate universes akin to the style of the Tenchi titles.

New Manga Announcment:
Ha! Bandai just announced they are producing the Gundam 00 manga.

Objects of note:
Bandai launched a Youtube channel to digitally distrubte some anime. As of right now, you can see five episodes of Code Geass and Gundam 00. The episodes will be cycled, and more series are expected for the service.

New titles:
Time and Again
Spice and Wolf: Novels currently, but the manga is informally announced.
Raiders:
Laon: Nine tailed demon has his tails removed and must look for them. Art looks pretty hot.
The Crescent Moon Story: Ha! Man commishions the Crescent Moon spirit to give him compatable lovers, but in mischevious form, the spirit keeps giving him male counterparts.
Yotsuba&! : Vol. 6 is actually, for realz coming out. Tell a friend. Volume 1-5 are in heavy talks.

Okay, so Laon suddenly peeked my interest, but everyone should flip their tops for Yotsuba&! & Spice and Wolf. Crescent could be fun, but will probably be a bit more Bishonen than comedy.

Yen Plus:
Going well. Anything with Soul Eater in it can't be all bad. Viva al Yen Plus!

Time to win swag. Catch you folks later.