Geek-Culture News
Anime Expo 2012 – NIS America anime panel
Posted 12:44 pm on Friday, July 6th, 2012 by Chris Del CastilloAt Anime Expo 2012, NIS America, a publisher for video games and anime, was holding two panel; one discussing video games and the other about anime.
The panel moderator was Ryan Phillips (PR at NIS America) who introduced Mitsu Hiraoka and Eugene Chen. A few trailers showcasing many of NIS America’s already released animes like Zakuro, House of Five Leaves, and Kimi ni Todoke. Afterwards, there was a new trailer for new series like Bunny Drop, Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, and finally Ghastly Prince Enma Burning Up (which is hilarious with alot of adult themes and situations). He also announced that as a special treat for Anime Expo goers, Anohana and Kimi ni Todoke vol. 3 were being sold early to attendees almost 2-3 weeks before release.
Next Eugene Chen and Mitsu Hiraoka talked about the way NIS America differs when it comes to releasing anime compared to the rest of the industry. NIS America becomes very selective when it comes to choosing what series it wants to release by two main factors, story depth and comedy. Another thing that was pointed out was NIS America doesn’t dub anime releases like everybody else. Eugene talked about how many other anime companies have closed or stopped releasing animes due to not being able to make a profit after all the work going into localizing an anime. By not dubbing anime, they save quite a lot of money while show love another way. NIS America puts a lot of work and effort into the limited edition packaging, the slip cases the outer box holding everything, including the artbook inside. The artbook for them is especially important and work with Japan to get as much packed in as they can, promotional artwork, special artwork and even translating articles and stories.
Teasing at the start of the panel, Ryan Phillips announced a new acquisition, and it was time to let the cat out of the bag. A trailer for Natsume’s Book of Friends was shown, and it was announced that the first two seasons would be in the first set.
A Q&A session followed. There were a few game-related questions asked, which while a few were responded, fans were asked to keep the questions anime related, since the game panel was the next day. There were some hints given about releases by other companies acquisitions. An interesting question was asked, “Where does NISA plan to go back and release Blu-rays of animes that weren’t released before (since they weren’t available at the time in Japan)?”
Mitsu replied that they have thought about it, but had no news about it at this time.
Another question, “Will NIS America also release the later seasons of the Natsume series?”
We got a nod.
Growing up Chris watched a lot of the original Saturday morning cartoons and developed a love for arts and animation. Growing up he tried his hand at animation and eventually script writing, but even more his love of video games, anime and technology grew.
