I’m not sure how many other people noticed this but I felt like panels were a little emptier this year. It was not as if there was no one in attendance this year but there seemed to be more unoccupied seats this year. Panels that usually have to turn people away like those presented by Charles Dunbar and Anime World Order were filled but they never close to capacity. Were there just fewer people this year, were people less interested in panels or was the staff better at putting the right panels in the right rooms? Or was it some combination of the three with some other factors I’m not seeing? I’m genuinely concerned because the panels at AnimeNEXT are some of the best around so I don’t want to see them fade away. What can I do as a presenter to help out the panel community at AnimeNEXT grow and become richer? Can I do anything? Is this the beginning of a major sea change or just an off-year?

By the way, did anyone attend the Chaldea Symposium panel? I was running my New Anime for Older Fans so I could no see what sort of Grand Order panel this was but I’m very curious what people thought of it.

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