Broccoli Books Blog

Hi blogger Shiz here.

I wrote the Yaoi Con report on Industry Babble.
Yaoi Con 2008 Day 1
Yaoi Con 2008 Day 2

I met Pet on Duty manga artist Nase Yamato, but forgot to get autographs for the mailing list give-away… sorry!

Hello, blogger Shiz here.
I just got back from San Diego.

My thoughts on this year’s event.
1. They really should implement some sort of “no driving to the convention center” rule, similar to Comiket. If shuttle buses were the only ones allowed to drive to the con center, it wouldn’t take 1 hour to move 0.5 miles.

2. They should provide heat packs for booth staff. It’s soooo cold inside the exhibit area. I know they don’t want to make the room stuffy & smelly, but it’s pretty cold when my 4-month old surgery scar starts throbbing.

3. I liked how they organized all the similar companies together this year (more so than previous years). Although I wish the TV section would have wider aisles so it’s easier to pass through when we’re trying to get to the other side.

4. Is that new Hilton on the East side of the convention center open? It’s a huge hotel!

Okay, my body hurts all over. I hope I can recover in a week, because I have Honoka Level Up vol 1 to edit soon.

Hi, blogger Shiz here in San Diego.

Today was my day off, sorta.

After I passed out badges to staff in the morning, I headed over to the Square Enix booth. I bumped into Aniplex producer Henry Goto, international division’s Kodaka-san, and three other people from Aniplex Japan. The marketing person was dressed up as Roy from Fullmetal Alchemist. So Broccoli Japan isn’t the only company with staff who will happily cosplay for the company *giggle*

I went to the VIZ booth when BLEACH manga artist Tite Kubo was signing autographs & Yen Press editor Tania was in line. *giggle*

Then former Broccoli sales manager Ardith, Treyarch artist Erika, Square Enix localization specialist Jyun and I went searching for voice actress Stephanie Sheh’s autograph session, when we bumped into Robotech.com webmaster Steve who told us that she’s signing at the Score Entertainment booth. Voice actress Michelle Ruff was signing with her too.

At the end of the day, I headed over to Anime Jungle booth to talk to store manager Tetsu-san. On the way there, I bumped into the Nightow, Minowa, Yoshimatsu group. My childhood friend & Anime Expo staffer Toyo was there, so I was chatting w/ him when Aniplex USA manager Hiroe-san came by.

And… and… and…
She introduced me to Yukari Fujimoto, who is a writer & educator of Japanese culture, especially of the shoujo manga genre. I had read her essays in college when I was taking a Japanese pop culture class & wrote a report on shoujo manga and Boys Love siting her as a reference.

In my nine years in the anime/manga industry, I never felt so fan-girl in my life!
I even asked if I could take a picture with her.

I still have shivers in my body. Now I know how nervous and happy and all these emotions I can’t describe fans feel when they meet their favorite manga author or animator. This could be one of the happiest days of my life.

After the convention, I met up with Sakura Con staffer Hidehiro. This is the last time I’ll see him before he heads back to Japan to do real lawyer work. But maybe I’ll see him at the Tokyo Game Show, since he’s going to be part of a panel there.

And then I met up with ADR director & voice actor Michael Sinterniklaas. VA Stephanie Sheh, SEI Jyun, Treyarch Erika & her sister and I went to eat at an Indian restaurant.

This is my 8th year, and I realized I never walked around and did so much stuff in one day at Comic Con before. Today was a lot of fun… and I never have “personal” fun at a convention.

Just one more day left!

Hey, blogger Shiz here from San Diego.

Today was the Broccoli Books panel. Nothing new announced, but I did talk about the current status of our books. And about the state of the industry. Thanks to MangaCast Ed & GiaPet Gia for coming. If other press came… sorry I didn’t recognize ya!

Also, Mushishi director Nagahama-san came by to visit. I had met him at Sakura Con this year, and he came to Comic Con for fun. Later on, he introduced me to Trigun manga artist Yasuhiro Nightow, Vampire Hunter D character designer Minowa-san, Trigun character designer Yoshimatsu-san.

At night, I went to eat out w/ the Anime Jungle staff & the NIS America staff.

Hey, blogger Shiz here.

Apologies for the retro blog entry. It gets busier and busier every day.

Marketing coordinator Jonathan called to let us know that COSMODE USA arrived! Whoo!

And what’s even better? Freelance Dee said he can bring the books with him, since he hadn’t left for San Diego yet! That means I don’t have to drive back & forth to Los Angeles. Whoo!

Today, I grabbed more freebies from the DC Comics booth for Murder Princess manga artist Inui-san. I sent him an email asking if he wanted any of the con exclusives… so we’ll see if there’s some shopping to do the next few days.

I attended the Lost in Translation panel, which was a mix of freelance translators & editors talking about what they do. I didn’t know any of the panelists except for former Animerica editor Julie Davis & Manga the Complete Guide author Jason Thompson, but it was interesting stuff.

After the convention, I crashed the VIZ party. Then headed out to an izakaya restaurant with President Kaname, Aurora Publishing manager Mika-san & Sakura Con staff/moe-lawyer Hidehiro.

This is a shot of me & Mika-san

By the way, Mika-san is awesome. I’d like to talk about her one of these days in the Industry Babble blog 2.0.

Hi, tis blogger Shiz from San Diego.

Set up is all done & we survived Preview Night.

I do like the staff of San Diego Comic Con, but I wish they would do without Preview Night. If we’re setting up from 7:00am, we don’t make happy sales clerks at 6:00pm to 9:00pm. That’s 14 hours of work (minus lunch breaks & short naps).

Anyhoo, we have a lovely manga reading section at the Broccoli & Aurora booth. I thought I took photos of the reading area, but I completely forgot! I’ll take photos tomorrow & post them up.

Please come by and read our latest manga on the lovely chairs. They’re in my favorite color green ^_^

MangaCast Ed came by the booth, but I didn’t recognize him because he had a full beard. “Who’s that old guy looking right at me… oh, It’s Ed!”

Former co-workers Katie & Steve came by the booth too. But I was too distraught over misplacing my favorite pen that I couldn’t chat w/ them much.

I also didn’t have a lot of things to do for Preview Night, so I walked around to check out the freebies. Hasbro booth is giving away Transformers post-its (yay!) and magnets. WB booth is giving away gigantic bags that look great, but are really too big to carry around when you’re 5-feet-2.

VIZ is doing something like a stamp rally, but with metallic pins. I collected 3 of them so far… but I’d like to say Broccoli was the first to do stamp rally at a US con with NISA for Disgaea. (cuz I like to implement fun things they do at Japanese conventions in the US)

Here’s all the stuff I got today.

I also stopped by the PMBQ booth and picked up two draw-string backpacks. Her animal characters are so cute, I like to buy things from her. I’ll go around to other independent artists’ booths tomorrow.

Tomorrow, former sales manager Ardith is coming to check out the Dr Who panel. What a gee… um, nothing.

Hey all. This is blogger Shiz from San Diego.

We arrived safe and sound, and we started prepping the booth.
But the convention folks were super busy yesterday and couldn’t come around our booth to put up our hanging banner. So business development staffer Ryojin & I will be waking up early in the morning tomorrow to oversee the banner hanging.

Look for our booth #2235 with the green Broccoli sign hanging overhead. Plus red UART banner & white Aurora banner. We’re right next to Sideshow Collectibles, like we have been for the last 3 years.

Production staffer Yukiko reported to us that the COSMODE USA 01 Glamour Issue shipment will be arriving on Thursday. So guess who gets to drive up to Los Angeles to pick them up? No worries, I’m used to staying up all night during the convention days… but my poor ol’ body can’t keep up anymore.

Okay, time for bed!

Hello, blogger Shiz here.

All of us at Broccoli Books are busy getting ready for Comic Con 2008. Good thing the booth isn’t as big as Anime Expo. And we don’t have guests, which makes my life easier.

This year, Broccoli Books will be sharing the booth with Hong Kong figure maker UART and our good friends Aurora Publishing.

If you didn’t get sola vol 1 or COSMODE USA Glamour Issue at Anime Expo, pick them up at Comic Con!

Or you can always order sola vol 1 from dot-anime.us.

Oh, and COSMODE USA too.

Hi blogger Shiz here.

We just received the panel schedule for Anime Expo 2008.

Broccoli Books panel
Saturday, July 5
3:30pm - 4:30pm
Room LP3

COSMODE USA panel
Sunday, July 6
11:00am - 12:00pm
Room LP3

Fun talk & give-aways. Come and join us!

Marketing coordinator JonJon has been busy prepping for Yaoi Con.

Broccoli Books will be sharing a booth with Aurora Publishing.
Please stop by our booth & pick up some BL manga and other stuff.

Boysenberry Books will have a panel on Sunday too.
Sunday, October 28
1:00pm

We’ll make 2 new title announcements.
And hints for more titles to come.