Broccoli Books Blog

I’ll be hosting a COSMODE panel at Animagic tomorrow in Lancaster, CA.

I don’t have anything prepared, but we’ll make it a fun lively discussion about cosplay & COSMODE.

Plus some plans on the annual COSMODE photoshoot.

See you there!

COSMODE panel by Broccoli Books at Animagic 2007
Saturday, October 6, 2007
2:00pm - 3:00pm

Editor Samantha hosted the Broccoli Books panel at Mikomi Con on Friday afternoon.
I heard from editor Dee (who heard from Anime Gamers manager Dennis) that the Broccoli Books panel had a good turn out. I know editor Samantha gave out Murder Princess stickers to all attendees.

Today, I had an unnamed panel.
I’d like to call it the Shizuki’s industry babble panel.

It was a lot of behind-the-scenes stories.
How licensing works.
What it takes to bring Japanese video games over to the US.
The state of the anime/manga industry.
How I cause ulcers to my staff.

I think I’ll start hosting panels like this from now on. It’s mostly open Q&A, and we can talk about different aspects of the industry. It would be nice to have other industry folks be in the panel too. I’d love to have a panel session where I can geek out about anime & manga localization with someone like Carl Horn (I geeked out with him at a dinner during Fanime earlier this year).

Convention planners who are interested in a panel like that, please email pr@bro-usa.com.

PS. I got to see Royal Space Force the Wings of Honneamise on HD today. It’s soooo nice on HD. I really want a HD/Blu-Ray DVD player. I need to put my 52″ HDTV in better use.

Marketing staffer Jonbo, production assistant Krystal & Anime Gamers manager Dennis have been busy preparing for Mikomi Con.

Broccoli US is donating a bunch of goodies to Mikomi Con, so go & get freebies!
We’ll also have plenty of give-aways at the Broccoli Books panel too.

Please support editor Samantha by visiting the Broccoli Books panel.

Broccoli Books panel
Friday, Sept 7
5:00pm

The Anime Gamers booth will have lots of trading figures. Perfect for decorating your desk!
Of course you can pick up the latest Broccoli Books releases at the Anime Gamers booth too.

We decided last minute to participate in the Little Tokyo Anime Fest.

It’s going to be held in Little Tokyo in downtown LA. At the Little Tokyo Shopping Center, aka Mitsuwa shopping center.

Anime Gamers will have a mini booth selling things for blow-out prices.
And Broccoli Books will have a little reading area (our books only).

And you can also watch Bandai Visual USA’s anime.
Maybe we can run Galaxy Angel Rune.

Stop by if you’re in the area.
I’ll be there, but I won’t have much to do, so come talk to me.

New staffer Jonathan told me today that we’ve been invited to host panels at Mikomi Con, a local anime convention in Northridge, CA.

Not just one panel, but two.
Eep.

If we were going to have a panel, I was going to send editor Samantha to host a Broccoli Books panel… but now that there’s two panels, I have to think of something else to talk about.

So we’re thinking…
Editor Samantha will host a Broccoli Books panel on Friday.
And blogger Shiz will host a random industry talk panel on Saturday.

I occasionally host random industry talk panels, especially when we schedule a panel & then don’t have enough time to prepare materials. Kinda like our Anime Expo Broccoli Books panel this year. I also did a “talk” at UCLA anime club one year too. Good thing YouTube didn’t exist back then.

So if Mikomi Con allows us to… we’ll have two panels.
Please swing by if you’re in the area.

We’ll post more information when it gets closer to the event (I think it’s the first weekend of September).

Comic Con Day 4

Last day!
But I couldn’t wake up early enough to drive the cargo van to the convention center.

I do blame the alcohol from the night before.
Kids, drinking is bad.
It makes your face puff up the next morning too.

I saw some independent press booths when I went to the restroom… and a lot of them had cute characters & colorful books, so I decided to go around & check them out.

I bought a Mr. Toast book.
They had plushies of Mr. Toast, Mr. Bacon & Mr. Egg. But none of the one-eyed Carrot. Please make one!
I did think of getting Mr. Bacon, but I didn’t know anyone who liked bacon. Maybe sales manager Gema… er Ian. Tee hee.

I also got a Bumperboy book & t-shirt.
I’m happy to see so many Asian American comic artists showing their stuff at Comic Con.
I guess growing up with manga (and Sanrio), I naturally gravitate towards the cutesy art style of Asian American artists.

And I fulfilled my need to shop at Dumbrella, where they had tons of cute t-shirts.
I bought too many… plus a tote bag!

There was another booth with really pretty art, but they didn’t have sizes I needed, so I didn’t get anything. One of the t-shirt was very Totoro-esque. Too bad I couldn’t get it.

Oh, this post is all about my shopping spree!

Um… it made me want to make more t-shirts & stuff for Broccoli Gear.
Someone asked me if we will make t-shirts for the Boysenberry line.
We might make it a pre-order system, but I’d definitely want to do one.
Let us know which title(s), and I’ll talk to our licensors!

Whew.
I got something in about Broccoli Books.

Comic Con Day 3

I kept my schedule open today, since I thought the booth would be busy & I’d have to give our staffers a break or two.
Especially since AnimeGamers manager Dennis & an unnamed staffer stayed up all night driving up to Los Angeles to get more merchandise.

We did have a lot of people stop by to say hi to editor Samantha & me, saying they attended the panel.
Yay!

Bandai Visual US staffers Aya & Loy came to help out the booth today too.
I hope everyone had a chance to take a look at FREEDOM, which is a pretty cool show.
Freelancer S@ki told me that vol 4 was just released in Japan, so I have to go borrow a copy.

I walked around the vinyl figure area of the convention center (4500s), but didn’t find much to buy.
Gama-Go didn’t have cute t-shirt designs I wanted.
Unkl stopped bringing t-shirts & none of the figures called for me to take them home.
I did buy a t-shirt at RocketWorld. One of these days, I’ll pick up a vinyl figure from them too.

But one t-shirt…?
So bummed.
I wanted to buy more.
Bu-.

Comic Con Day 2

Today was my busy day.
Mostly meetings, but they’re boring stuff, so I won’t get too much into.

Then there was the Broccoli Books panel.

I had told MangaCast Ed that we didn’t have a whole lot to announce, so he could just read the wires for info. But he stopped by anyway to check out how many people showed up to the panel. Editor Samantha & I had seen the small group that was lined up right in front of the door… but MangaCast Ed told us that there was a line wrapped around the hall. He was amazed. We were amazed.

Thank you!!!

So with an almost complete room, editor Samantha & I did our panel.
With sidekicks designer Chris & former editor Dee sitting up front with us.
Why they decided to sit up there, I’m not really sure. They didn’t talk during the panel anyway.

We talked about our upcoming releases.
And then re-stated our Disgaea announcements from Anime Expo (World of Disgaea 2 and Disgaea novel). And talked a bit about COSMODE which we also announced at Anime Expo during the COSMODE panel.

And our new announcement NUI.
About plushies who turn into bishounen.

We gave out Kon Kon Kokon stickers to everyone who attended.
And those who asked questions got a Juvenile Orion keychain (Kaname, Naoya or Isshin).

And we played a jan-ken game to give away gifts.
We had three Di Gi Charat battery operated fans (to keep cool on a hot summer day) and a Rabi~en~Rose gift set that I found in the office.

Hopefully everyone had fun.

Altho very very very few people who attended the panel read this blog.
I have this feeling that only press folks are reading, which is okay cuz I love you press folks.

We had a bunch of press attend the panel too.
So thank you all for coming.
Sorry I didn’t make the Q&A open mic instead of making people line up. I realized later that all of you guys have too much equipment to get in line to ask questions. I’ll have to think of a different way to get your questions next time.

Comic Con Day 1

I didn’t have much planned today.

So I sent new staffer JonJon to buy a Comic Con exclusive Nightmare Before Christmas figure for Inui-sensei. The booth was far, so I didn’t want to walk. I did go to the Upper Deck booth to get a Spiderman figure for said author as well. But that one was close by.

I also had a meeting with Square Enix today (afternoon).
Then had dinner with them at a nanchatte Japanese restaurant.

We also had couple of visits from press & librarians, since we offered up give-aways.

And GAINAX producer Sato-san came by today.
I hadn’t seen him since he came to Fanime back in 2003 with FLCL director Tsurumaki-san & character designer Sadamoto-san, so it was great to see him.

Tomorrow is the Broccoli Books panel.

San Diego Comic Con 2007 Day 0.5

Today was the dreaded Preview Night.
Why dreaded?

Because Preview Night is hell for exhibitors.
We set up all day… then have to stay standing until 9pm.
Hidoi!

We dropped off a bunch of Square Enix stamp hunt materials to their booth. We thought the stamp hunt (aka stamp rally) was going to start on Thursday, but they started today. So I was busy stamping cards with E’S stamps.

Couple of press folks stopped by today.
Like About.com, MangaCast and the former staff of AnimeOnline.

I think editor Samantha went drinking w/ MangaCast.
I guess we can ask her to write a blog entry about it.
Kids, don’t drink until you’re 21.