New York Comic Con: Year II
Mignola described himself as untroubled by how their details diverged in spots. "They exist in separate media: the comics and novel are my real Hellboy world, the animation is Tad's spin and the movie is Guillermo (del Toro)'s." Mignola acknowledged most people will consider the live-action Hellboy the "real" one, but looked at it as an opportunity for many of them to cross over and discover the other versions.
For inexplicable reasons, information about the convention's anime events was relegated to a single, detail-free page in the program book, far away from the lengthy descriptions of the rest of the convention's programming. The page lacked room numbers as well, leaving anime fans scrambling to discover where the events were being held. ("I wondered why the anime sessions were so sparsely attended," mused FUNimation's Scott McCarthy.)
ADV's Matt Greenfield screened the first episode of a show the company has high hopes for: Sgt. Frog, a long-running anime series (based on a likewise long running manga) about a battalion of frog-like, would-be conqueror aliens stranded on Earth and grown overly fond of otaku culture. While its premise is similar to the Nickelodeon cult favorite, the dark-toned Invader Zim, Frogs' (as it will be retitled) goofball, slapsticky humor may help it become more popular than the Nickelodeon series or the average anime import.
Greenfield talked of the company's commitment to serving and expanding the U.S. anime audience, with free streaming and downloads of the premiere episodes from its upcoming series, Coyote Ragtime, Le Chevalier D'Eon, Air Gear and Utawarerumono.
An Afro Samurai panel focused on the DVD release of Samuel L. Jackson's anime mini-series. FUNimation's Scott McCarthy, show exec Eric Calderon and character creator "Bob" Okazaki were on hand for the session. According to McCarthy, 15 minutes of footage have been added to the miniseries, the difference between its 26-minute Japanese running time and the 22-minute episodes that aired in the U.S. on the Spike cable channel. Other additions included, "a more mature relationship" between Jackson's title character and the Kelly Hu-voiced Okiku. "We let Sam be Sam," McCarthy said, referring to the re-insertion of Jackson's favorite mother-effing expletive into his dialog.
McCarthy also announced that FUNimation will be redubbing and distributing Tsubasa, an anime series based on a phenomenally popular manga from Studio Clamp, a four-woman studio that McCarthy compares to the Beatles in terms of sheer popularity in Japan. The manga and its anime version follow the princess Sakura and three accompanying warriors on an interdimensional search for her stolen memories.
Back in the exhibit hall, a videoscreen was the centerpiece of TOKYOPOP's booth, screening a music video of the Dollyrots performing Out of LA, superimposed over animation adapted from TOKYPOP's I Luv Heaven. The company's goal with the video and with similar efforts is to adapt their material into 2D and 3D animation for the rapidly growing mobile content market.
The smaller anime distributors were on hand as well, including Right Stuf, heralding its release of the post-apocalyptic The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye. Central Park Media announced a collector's edition re-release of the 34-minute Cat Soup, described by one critic as "Hello Kitty on acid," as well as the princess-in-peril feature Fencer of Minerva: The Emergence.
Anime threw its own version of the Oscars the night before the real thing with Saturday's premiere presentation of the "American Anime Awards," held at a nearby midtown hotel. The big event's big winner was Full Metal Alchemist, snagging four of the 12 "Mechas" up for grabs, including best voice actor (Vic Mignogna as "Edward Elric" and as "Hikaru Ichijo" in Macross), as well as overall cast, package design and best long-running series.
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