Off to #AnimeNEXT! Man … maybe I should have left last night. ;)
— Saber Fan # 1 (Disputed) (@hisuiRT) June 7, 2013
This is the least normal person acessable intro to mecha panel. #animeNEXT
— Saber Fan # 1 (Disputed) (@hisuiRT) June 7, 2013

(note: No Ongoing Investigations this week.)
I have always enjoyed AnimeNEXT because for a mid-sized con it often goes that extra mile to feel like a top 10 North American anime convention, even when it is not. But one of the things that has saddened me recently is the lack of a blockbuster Japanese industry guest. 2013 is a return to form with Hiroshi Shimizu and Sayo Yamamoto which makes me remarkably happy. It is a Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine one-two punch. Hiro Usuda is also pretty fascinating and adds to the solid Japanese guest factor. On the American side, I am pretty sure Mike Toole will get some major crushes amount internet fandom.
Sadly, Narutaki is far too cool and busy to visit the plebeians in New Jersey in the flesh but she will be there in spirit. So here is my tentative schedule. I have highlighted my panels for anyone who want to see my solo work.
Friday
10:30 General Mecha Panel
12:00 Female Stereotypes in Shojo and Josei Manga
01:00 Directing an Anime
02:00 Creating a Manga From Start to Finish
03:00 Anime Pilots & Precusors
04:00 Conventions: 101
05:00 The Beautiful Backgrounds of Anime
06:00 Mike Toole’s Bad Anime By Great Creators
07:00 Awesome Animation Not From Japan
09:00 Vertical Industry Panel – 2013
10:00 The Measure of Man. The Nature of a Hero: A Fate/Stay Night Panel (18+) {A panel by a super cool dude that everyone should see.}
11:00 These are a Few of Our Favorite Scene
Saturday
10:00 Anime Under The Radar
11:00 Tales of the Strange (Visual Novels)
01:00 American Comics for Manga Fans
3:00 Kill Em All and Let Sunrise Sort them Out: A Yoshiyuki Tomino Panel {A panel by a super cool dude that everyone should see.}
04:00 Mike Toole’s Dubs that Time Forgot
05:00 Sayo Yamamoto Animation Panel
06:00 Post Apocalypse Manga: Surviving the Wasteland
07:00 Shoujo Manga For Men
08:00 Manga: Licensing, Acquisitions and Publishing
9:00 The 156,804,000 Yen Panel: Being a Better Otaku through Hayate {A panel by a super cool dude that everyone should see.}
Sunday
10:00 Jojo’s Posing School
11:00 10 years of Anime Fandom: A Retrospective
12:00 Sayo Yamamoto
01:00 Moon Stream, Sayo Yamamoto and Hiroshi Shimizu Autograph Session
02:00 The Good, The Bad & Ugly In Anime
This is a bonus segment of the Speakeasy Podcast we like to call Crime Scene Investigations. These are random bonus podcasts that we record live from various events. There is no regular schedule for these. We will put them up as quickly as we can when the opportunity for one occurs. We suspect they will mostly be from conventions but we might work in some interviews and conversation from NY events as fate allows.
In this edition of Crime Scene Investigations, we talk about our experiences on Sunday at AnimeNEXT 2012. The podcast contains the opinion of Hisui from this very blog (but no Narutaki who is too cool for you anyway), VamptVo and Ink from the AniGamers, and The Digital Bug from Reisen Goes to School by Bus all in one roundtable discussion. There are Bronies, Bluebirds, Interrupting Cows, and Rudolf von Stroheim. As always we have lots of good things to say as well as some constructive criticism.
Also seriously: What was up with people at panels this year? Is courtesy no longer common?