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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When I tried to gather my thoughts about this year’s AnimeNEXT into a unified thought one word came to mind: Mild. Everything about the trip really grooved into that feeling. My travel experiences, my dining choices, the panels, the guests, and even the weather. I’m not using mild as an insult. This is not the weak sauce sense of the word. It more means nothing that was spicy in either an exciting or aggravating way. A good mild sauce can be flavorful and complementary to what it is paired with but it also tends to stand out less than a spicy sauce which you tend to either remember for being great or horrible. Mild is both extremely accessible yet at the same time lacking any outrageous flavor. This General Impressions post will show you how that can be a wonderful thing as well as a bit of a disappointment.

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Since Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama seem to mostly be at AnimeNEXT to talk about their upcoming Ultraman project I figured I would make a color timer joke in honor of their visit.

Once again I am attending AnimeNEXT in Atlantic City. As always AnimeNEXT has a good mixture of Japanese and American guests as well as a solid foundation of fan-run panels and workshops. Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama are an excellent pair of Japanese production guests and Anime World Order will be flying in as featured panelists. It should be an educational time for everyone!

I will be doing a solo version of New Anime for Older Fans so it is all show only I have watched that I feel would be great for an older audience. I also played with the format a little bit so it will play a little differently than the versions of New Anime for Older Fans have in the past. With all new shows and a slightly tweaked flow but the same great concept, I think this year’s New Anime for Older Fans will be fun for everyone.

So if you attending the convention say hello and maybe we can all get White House Subs! If not I hope everyone looks forward to my convention reports over the next month.

I have panels! Attend them if you can!

Friday 06:00 PM – New Anime for Older Fans – Panel Room 319

My tentative schedule for the convention:

Friday
10:00 AM – Anime Before Astro Boy
11:30 AM – Shodo 101, Japanese Calligraphy
01:00 PM – Lesser Known Magical Girls: The good and the NO
02:15 PM – Anime in Non-Anime
03:30 PM – Pepakura: The Art of Papercraft
04:45 PM – Production IG Q&A
06:00 PM – New Anime for Older Fans
07:15 PM – 2017: Anime’s Turning Point
09:15 PM – Go Nagai in the USA (18+)
10:15 PM – Late Night With Anime: When, Why and How?

Saturday
10:00 AM – Literary Anime: Series that were Originally Light Novels
11:45 AM – Order Up: Cooking Manga/Anime
01:00 PM – Anime Killed the Manga Star
02:15 PM – Otome Games 101: Romance Delivered, On Demand!
03:00 PM – 39 Years of Gundam Anime: Omnibus Edition
04:00 PM – The Good Bad and Ugly in Anime
05:30 PM – ULTRAMAN feat. Kenji Kamiyama & Shinji Aramaki
07:30 PM – Bad Anime Bad!
11: 00 PM – 20 Contemporary Manga Recommendations For Grown Ups
(18+)

Sunday
10:00 AM – Jojo’s Posing School
11:00 AM – Gambling Anime: Raising the Stakes
12:30 PM – Macross: Musical Warfare
01:45 PM – A Brief History of the Edo Period