New York Anime Festival and ICv2 Conference on Anime and Manga

Manga Entertainment

Panelists: Adam Zeller (Starz), Dave Katz (Starz), Kevin Carney (Manga)

The first anime industry panel of the convention was Manga Entertainment, who started its presentation with the announcement that the latest Karas disc has been the number one selling anime DVD for two weeks in a row. In terms of upcoming releases, the boxsets for Noein and Tokko will be coming in February.

Next year will also see the release of Strait Jacket, a Manga co-production first announced at this year's Anime Expo. It will hit shelves sometime between July and September. This series is based on a novel, and a manga is currently in production as well, although there is currently no American distributor for it. A clip from Strait Jacket was shown at the panel; it will begin airing in Japan in early 2008.

Tokyo Zombie will have a street date of July 2008. Carney, who is part of Manga's sales and marketing division, calls it a “Japanese Shaun of the Dead.” He also spoke briefly about Eon Kid, a co-production between Manga and a CGI graphics company in Korea. Currently airing on Kids WB, the first DVD will be out the middle of next year, as well as a line of toys.

Manga's parent company, Starz Entertainment, will be premiering a documentary called Anime: Drawing a Revolution on December 17. The documentary talks about the history of anime in the United States, and features interviews with various actors and industry experts.

Manga.com has been completely redesigned, and now includes a vast library of clips from all the titles in its collection. Visitors can view clips organized by categories such as samurai, mecha, babes, monster, freak out, and others. Future plans for the website include customizable profile pages, an anime and manga encyclopedia feature, forums and communities, podcasts, a mobile version of the site, and a “manga-fy me” avatar maker. NYAF attendees can also go to their contest webpage and register to win one of five iPod Touches.

This report has been verified by a company representative.