5:43 - I don't even know what's going on here! Ooh, a big Kadokawa Pictures USA logo! And... that's it. Seriously, what the hell is going on here? Oh, cute girls on the stage. Chiyako Tasai and Yuko Abe, from Kadokawa. Call me.

This is the first time they're presenting at Anime Expo, ever. They're happy about recent licenses. They're going to update us on existing titles and then present new titles. 

Here we go:

- H2O - Footprints in the sand. 12 eps based on the eroge.

- Good Luck! Ninomiya-kun! I love this show more than you!

- Rental Magica - 24 eps. I need to watch this.

- Coo ~ Our Guardian - New title. 24 episode comedy and supernatural drama. Ooh, gender switching. Ooh, fox ears.

- Romantica ~Pure Love~ 12 episode BL comedy/ drama. Manga sold 3 million copies in Japan. 3 couples mixed together, calling it a "love diamond."

- Spice and Wolf - 13 ep series, based in Feudal Europe. Wolf spirit... wait. Why am I telling you this?

Updates on titles:

- The Girl who Leapt through Time - available August.

- Lucky Star - OVA in production now. Yay.

Oh, now Bandai Entertainment is taking the stage. What's going on here? Robert is everywhere! They're talking more about the limited theatrical release of The Girl who Leapt through Time. Someone from Ocean Studios is talking about the dub. 

Now they're doing a quiz to win prizes. There's a Haruhi body pillow. *heavy breathing*

[Liveblogging - hit refresh to update!]

3:30 - Starting right on time with FUNimation. Good. In fact, this whole convention has been on time. It's nice for a change.

Adam says "don't panic" about the state of the anime industry. He quotes Gen Fukunaga on this topic: "Change creates opportunity." They say "Get a PS3, as anime looks spectacular in high definition." They also note that convention attendance is increasing nationally. Internet viewership is increasing, and Hollywood is taking on anime properties. All good things for the industry. 

They've added Witchblade and Aquarion to iTunes. Both are coming late July, and both are dubbed.  Sprint and AT&T have teamed up with FUNi for FUNimation Mobile. The episodes are presented in 5 minute episodes. Gunslinger Girl and Moon Phase are up! Text "funimation" to 22646 for info. $4.99 package.

3:38 - Blu-ray releases. Afro Samurai, Dragon Ball Z Double Features, Robotech, Shinobi: Heart Under Blade, and Vexille are all on the list.  They promise "a lot" of releases in the future.

Case Closed is coming in season boxsets. 1-26 for the first volume, for $49.98. Bonuses include character spotlights. July 26th. 

Yu Yu Hakusho is also getting season boxset, also 1-26 for $34.98. It goes on sale on July 8th. 

One Piece Season One - Second Voyage set is $49.98 for episodes 14-26. September 23rd release.

3:42 - Season Six is coming for Dragon Ball Z. Duh. 29 episodes on 6 discs, 700 minutes. September 16th. Also, Dragon Ball GT. We get a peek of the box, but no info. Coming late 2008.

Ouran High School Host Club is coming, as you've heard. October 28th is part one for $60. Part 2 finally has a date: January 6th. It's also $60 for episodes 14-26.

Darker Than Black is coming November 25th!

They're promoting the recent acquisition batch: Romeo X Juliet, D Grey-Man, Heroic Age, and the like. And now everyone is clapping for the new YouTube relationship.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Black lagoon, Elemental Gelade, Ergo Proxy, Fate Stay Night. Hellsing Ultimate, Kamichu, and Karin.  Oh, and Kyo Kara Maoh season 2, Lyrical Nanoha and A, Ninja Vixens, Paradise Kiss, Shonen Onmyouj, Tales of Phantasia, The Stry of Saiunkoku, When they Cry. 009-1, Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy, Air Gear, Air everything, Magikano, Moonlight Mile, Murder Princess, Venus Versus Virus, Red Garden, Xenosaga, Welcome to the NHK, The Wallflower....ugh. Even more.  

All voice actors are the SAME.

Now Gen Fukunaga comes in to talk!

Q&A and factoid tidbits after the jump.

It seems like just about everyone, save for AnimeOnDVD, missed the Honneamise panel. Well, thankfully we can turn to the AoD report on the panel to find out what they were talking about.

For those of you who don't know, the merger between Bandai Entertainment and Bandai Visual is happening under the Honneamise label. So the results of this mean that we'll now be seeing simultaneous release of U.S. and Japanese products, along with a pricing scheme that "is lower than previous Bandai Visual USA's pricing scheme." How much lower has yet to be seen, but at least it's not $50 a DVD. Also, DVDs will be dubbed on a title-by-title basis, so there is no guarantee of a widespread dubbing scheme from them.

Dale already talked about Freedom at the Bandai Entertainment panel, where the whole series will be released in Blu-ray for $140 on November 11th, with a regular DVD version to follow in 2009. Freedom will in fact be dubbed. There will also be Gunbuster vs. Diebuster on Blu-ray on November 25th, retailing for $100. Better start selling those kidneys! The discs will also be sold individually at the same time, but the box set comes with an extra disc of features. The whole thing will be sub-only, also.

Then there's the matter of dot-anime.us and AnimeVillage.com being merged. For now, they're going to be using the dot-anime.us front-end, and after their transition period, AnimeVillage.com will switch over to dot-anime.us.

As for the Q&A, True Tears, Sola, and Shigofumi's DVD plans still haven't been decided yet, which is rather disappointing. I've been excited for Shigofumi ever since I got a chance to see the first episode.

So, a question to you readers: what do you think of the new pricing model, which is giving us two movies on Blu-ray for $100, or an entire season on Blu-ray for $140? Is it way too much, or are you willing to pay that? At this point, I think I'll be willing to drop the $100 for Gunbuster vs. Diebuster, simply because I've always been interested in watching the series.

[For all of you who don't regularly read Destructoid, I run a column over there called Weekend Reading. It's a longform discussion about a specific topic meant to kill some hours on the weekend -- basically, what you see over at AnimeAlmanac. Hopefully you'll be seeing this every week from me now. -- DMV]

Fansubs are serious business. You can tell by the current war that's going on in the blogocube. Lines have been drawn; sand has been kicked into peoples' eyes; my twitter page is constantly getting filled with fansub debates. I guess that means I can't avoid the discussion much more -- I was hoping a few minor comments would suffice, but I might as well throw my hat into the ring.

There's plenty to be said, and plenty to say on this. So, to get yourself ready, please be sure to read the posts by Scott, Hinano, and Omo, because those are the main three that will act as the background to what I'm saying.

Let's rock this.

In all the Anime Expo hubub going on, I nearly forgot about Japanese superstar Takeru Kobayashi attempting to reclaim his throne after being defeated last year by Joey Chestnut. Unfortunately, this was not the year for Kobayashi. The competition had been changed from its 12-minute-long form to 10, after organizers discovered a pamphlet from the original 1916 competition that described the rules as 10 minutes.

The two contestants tied at 59 hot dogs in the time limit, and Kobayashi lost in the five dog eat-off held as a tie-breaker.

"I suffered defeat in light of instantaneous force,'' Kobayashi was quoted as saying, adding that he plans to challenge for the championship again next year.

He tried his hardest, and you can see him doing that after the jump. Someone was kind enough to record the broadcast off of ESPN and upload it to YouTube. How many hot dogs can you eat in 10 minutes, readers? I tend to manage 2 or 3 in that time frame. That's why I'm not a competitive eater, I guess.

Neb's blog got word back from Yen Press in regards to their much-awaited Yen Plus magazine. The magazine is scheduled to come out on July 29th, but there hadn't been any word in regards to subscribing to the magazine. Well, Yen Press finally responded with the details for their magazine:

• A year’s subscription to Yen Plus (yes, twelve full 400+ page issues!) will cost only $49.95! And only $59.95 for our good friends in Canada! That’s over 50% off the cover price!!!

• Subscriptions will be available starting with the second issue of Yen Plus. But don’t fear, the first issue will be sold at major retailers nationwide! Newsstand prices are $8.99 in the U.S., $9.99 in Canada, and £3.99 in the U.K.!

• Subscriptions will only be available in the U.S. and Canada (for now).

Gia has been rather excited for this, and I'm rather tempted to drop the money myself on it. I'd rather not pay $9 every month, and so a $50 subscription seems just fine. Anyone else going for it?

[Liveblogging - refresh to update in real time!]

9:58 - Jesus. Not to sound all jaded and old man-ish, but I just want to go home. Or, I just want to go to the dealer's room for like 5 more hours and then go home. But now I'm here, bright and early, covering the Tokyopop industry panel. Why is this so early?

10:00 -Here goes the standard presentation. Ooh, Ghostbusters manga cover. Winston has a cigar in his mouth. Comes out in October. Collection of stories that takes place in the timeline of the videogame.

10:06 - Crowd screaming! High School Musical covers. Lawl.

ANNOUNCEMENT:  Manga-inspired full-color novel releases. Graphic novel that are larger, 7 x 10. First one is called Orange, done by a Hong Kong artist who is pretty popular. No name? Another, Remember, comes out next summer. We're looking at a nice watercolor sample on screen.

10:09 - Pixie is another of these releases. Fantasy tale. Done by French artists. Luuna is another release along these lines. Native American storyline.

10:12 - Manga Announcement: Tsubasa: Those With Wings from the maker of Fruits Basket. It's a story about two bandits, one an ex-theif and the other an ex-military commander. Meanwhile, there are these special wings that can grant special powers to the owners. Old-school shojo.

10:14 - Battlestar Galactica manga now on screen. Going to take place in the third season. They're in close contact with the writers of the new series, so they have access to unused stories from the show.

10:16 - The Tarot Cafe novel is coming. It's a story about a cafe where a woman reads people's futures. 

10:17 - .hack G.U. novel is coming next winter. 

10:18 - Peace Maker Kurogane is the follow-up to the Peace Maker manga and anime. Inspired by the anime. 

10:21 - Momo Tama is a bizarre retelling of the Momotaro story. Lots of fighting and action. Also, Masami Tsuda collections Castle of Dreams and Where Angels Roam are from this Kare Kano creator.

10:23 - NG Life is from the creator of Mugen Spiral. About a group of friends that remember their past life as residens of Pompeii, two-thousand years ago. Also, Togainu No Chi is a game that's very action-oriented BL, adapted to manga.

10:26 - This Ugly Yet Beautiful World is finally coming after being stuck in licensing hell. Maid sama! is also on the way, which was ranked in the top 50 in Japan. 

12:28 - Demon Sacred announced. Hot demons and unicorns. What else do you need to know?

That's it! See you at the next panel.