Anime Expo 2019: Breakdown

 By Jonathan Bilski

Anime Expo returned to the LA Convention Center last weekend to almost 5 days of panels, special guests and screenings and G-d bless the fans and their butts. People sat and waited for the mere chance to do any of those things. We need to get midgets with small hot dogs carts rolling through to sell to people on the ground. They'd be eye level and the midgets could make a lot of money. The future will be...'What was your favorite part of AX, sweetie? It was the hot dogs we got from the tiny people, papa.'

So, yeah AX had some great panels if you could get into them.

We got into Promare Premiere, but heard from the people around us that they got in hours earlier just to see that film. We'll have a post on that later, but it was an action packed film that essentially was an insane take on Gurren Lagann. And yeah it seems like it totally steals from Fire Force at the start.

The top news from AX:

Katsuhiro Otomo, creator and director of the original Akira, is doing a new film as director, Orbital Era. Here's the synopsis

The plot takes place in the near-future on a space colony under
construction. It is an action-adventure story following the lives of some
young boys surviving in this peculiar environment and society as they
are tossed around by fate.

From what was shared, the film is in early pre-production, so don't expect it anytime soon.

Also, Akira is coming back as an anime series, which sounds like a stupid idea as its becomes such a standard of 80's anime culture. The new version will allow for a lot more of the manga and side characters from the books come to the screen, but still, sounds like a bad idea.

Oh, and the manga is getting another edition in the probably very costly Otomo: The Complete Works. This will have all of the guys work he has ever done. No, idea who'll handle it here in America, maybe Dark Horse again, if they even want to. That's a lot of translation work.

That Kickstarted anime actually looks pretty good, check it out the trailer for Cannon Busters below. It comes to Netflix August 15.

"Cannon Busters follows the adventures and exploits of S.A.M, a high-end friendship droid who’s joined by a quirky, discarded maintenance robot and a brash, deadly fugitive.  Together, the unlikely trio embarks on an unforgettable journey in a fantastic and dangerous world in search of S.A.M’s best friend, the heir to a kingdom under siege."

 AX tried a little more this year with these kinda creepy humanoid blow-ups outside. The bunny and cat mascot work. The humans look like giant chibi monsters. Hats off that the girl has panties under her skirt.

 This guy was keeping the line-goers in high spirits. Some people say they spotted a mysterious father figure near him on Friday.

The line for the VR Kareshi was mostly ladies and long...wonder why...just a virtual butler.

 A little be of Moe Booster makes the medicine go down. Yes it's from J-List. J-List was barely giving out tissues, they've got to order in bigger numbers. Do you collect them each year like many others?

 Though there were some interesting booths selling some great merch from their perspective anime companies...we felt the con lacked some booths. We miss Capcom, Nintendo and even some better representation from Bandai Namco.

We know it's been years, but the Funimation Booth itself isn't fun anymore, they use to make it look like one of their animes or gave out some really cool swag. Not anymore. Sigh. Duck.

Psyduck.

Still... we guess there was plenty to do and stand in line for...without midgets on stilts trying to sell you hot dogs.

 Chairs? You think you deserve them? Fwah-AX

 A streaming service we forget existed was in charge of the Lewd Dubbing panel and for a nice treat turned out dubbed two silly series. Why the hell are you here, Teacher? and How clumsy you are, Miss Ueno. , because people are afraid of renaming shows is America. They should be Clumsy Miss Melissa and Teacher? WTF. Anyway, both are fun shows to watch and we're glad they're dubbed.

Looking back, AX was fun. Thanks to friends, the cosplayers and the community. Now, only if we could get midgets to sell us food when we're sitting down. "Hot dogs for sale!," they would yell. "Anime juice, anyone?," they would scream. And it would be amazing.

C ya next AX!