Anime Expo, the largest celebration of anime pop culture in North America, came back from its three-year-COVID-mandated hiatus to once again set up shop at the Los Angeles Convention Center this past Independence Day weekend. The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA) hosted the event as Japanese popular culture was presented in all its facets for fans from over 70 countries.
Despite the ongoing COVID threat, convention attendees came out in droves to attend panels, get autographs, watch premieres, and buy merchandise dedicated to anime and manga of all genres.
The main panel at Anime Expo for the Disneyphile was on the recently localized mobile game from Japan, Disney Twisted-Wonderland–a “villains school adventure game, with elements of battle games, rhythm games, and the magic of Disney.”
[No photos or video during the panel were requested.]
The panel’s special guest was Natsuki Hanae, the voice actor for the rule-obsessed headwarden to dorm Heartslabyul, Riddle Rosehearts. Hanae has also voiced many other characters in properties such as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and was also was the Japanese dubbed voice for Artie (John McCrea) in the live-action Cruella.
Hanae did some Q&A with Aniplex America moderator Lauren Jeong, such as who is his favorite game character? (Ace.) Would he like to join Heartslabyul dorm? (No.) He also mentioned the care the game takes to adhere to its Disney origins, saying “…what's interesting about this game is, because it's inspired by Disney, there are areas where there's dialogue from Disney works. They take a lot of direction from it, and that interests me as well. When I was recording it, I tried to take some hints from the original work…in the Disney movie and the animation, like when Riddle got angry and growled, I took a hint from the [Alice in Wonderland] animation too.”
A video greeting from one of Hanae’s fellow voice actors, Nobunaga Shimazaki, (Silver from Diasomnia dorm) was presented, as well as a message and special artwork created for the panel by character designer and concept creator Yana Toboso. A replica of the letter was later posted at the Twisted-Wonderland booth in the Entertainment Hall.
The discussion then briefly touched on the recent content additions to the game–new chapters for the main storyline focusing on the Pomefiore dorm (dedicated to the memory of the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) as well as the currently-ongoing special event “Phantom Bride: Love at First Fright” that stars characters from dorm Ignihyde (based on Hades from Hercules.) The panel concluded with Hanae demonstrating his skill at the Twistune rhythm challenges from the game, and then echoing Shimazaki’s sentiments of appreciation and surprise that Twisted-Wonderland has proven to be so popular overseas, and a strong desire to go to Disneyland next time he visits the US.
Other game panels included the Obey Me! Meet and Greet in which all seven main voice actors from the popular mobile game answered questions and performed live, dubbing in lines to the anime of the same name.
Satoshi Kada, Kazuya Yamashita, Hirotaka Kobayashi, Shinya Sumi, Miura Ayme, Kyohei Yaguchi, and Satoshi Onishi from "Obey Me!"
Aksys Games made a number of new upcoming title announcements during their panel, which they uploaded for online viewing.
Anime Expo has always been an opportunity for companies to premiere and tease some of their upcoming shows, and this year was no exception. From Warner Brothers to HiDive, Crunchyroll to GKIDS, there is a lot of quality anime in store for viewers.
Some of the highlights::
Smile of the Arsnotoria follows a group of girls as they navigate life attending a boarding school that appears to be both a magical academy and a finishing school. The character design is cute and the animation is smooth, but at least in the two episodes we were shown, the girls were fairly standard anime archetypes. Combine that with the fact that every magical academy now seems like a distant relative of Hogwart’s, and you have a show that, while entertaining, doesn’t feel particularly new right up until some plot reveal at the very end of the first episode. The show currently is streaming on Crunchyroll.
Blue Lock is a sports anime in which Japan’s dejected, poorly-placing National Soccer team seeks to improve their standing by enlisting in Ego Jinpachi’s brutal training program. His theory is that Japan consistently loses because they care too much about performing as a team, as opposed to the athletes of other nations who only value their own performance. In a frenzy to achieve soccer greatness, all the hitherto considerate team players join in Jinpachi’s battle royal clinic, with the ultimate winner apparently becoming the world’s greatest striker, and the losers never able to represent Japan again. The ease with which the boys embrace the Egoist philosophy and convert to violent narcissists makes the show a little unsettling and sadly reflective of much of today’s society. Blue Lock is set to air on Crunchyroll in October 2022.
GKIDS continues its worthy work of bringing the Studio Ghibli films to the big screen with Studio Ghibli Fest 2022. Tickets for the fourth installment, Kiki’s Delivery Service are on sale now at GhibliFest.com, FathomEvents.com, or at participating theater box offices. In addition to being shown the film in either dubbed or subbed editions, filmgoers will also get to view some new footage from the 2005 documentary Hayao Miyazaki and the Ghibli Museum for the first time outside of Japan.
Along with old favorites, GKIDS is bringing its share of new anime to theaters, as with director Masaaki Yuasa’s INU-OH–a story about a blind musician and a cursed dancer who band together to take Japan by storm in a 14th-century revisionist rock opera. INU-OH will release nationwide on August 12 in select markets.
Paramount Pictures also screened its Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, now out in theaters. This film, based heavily on Mel Brooks’ comic masterpiece Blazing Saddles to the point where it was originally titled Blazing Samurai, is both funny and cute and also not likely to make anyone forget the original film any time soon. Part of what makes Blazing Saddles exceptional is its completely unrepentant send-up of racism and intolerance in scenarios as insulting and ridiculous as racism and intolerance merit…and that kind of edgy filmmaking is simply not possible in an all-ages format like this. Nonetheless, this story of a dog sent to be a samurai for a village of dog-hating-cats has its share of charm, and benefits from an all-star cast including Mel Brooks voicing the same part he played in the original (but as a cat.) Samuel L. Jackson and Ricky Gervais do much of the heavy lifting as Jimbo, Hank’s world-weary samurai mentor, and grasping evil warlord Ika Chu, respectively.
In manga announcements, Tsuburaya Productions announced a first-time crossover between their Ultraman universe and Marvel’s Avengers. Although not too many details were given, a teaser image was given for the miniseries and Ultraman himself showed up for the occasion.
One aspect of Anime Expo that always gives it a special feel is the effort it makes to display even non-genre aspects of Japanese culture. Workshops on areas such as taiko drumming give people a close-up look at Japanese art and performance that they might not otherwise experience.
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This year's Anime Expo had somewhat of an experimental feel to it as the first time back after the COVID years. The crowds were certainly back with a vengeance as people seemed starved for entertainment and tired of health-related restrictions. This led to a wide range of environments, from the big screening areas at the Marriott ballrooms and the Regal Cinema where it was possible to have some degree of distancing, to the Artist’s Alley which was situated in the parking garage underneath the convention center with reportedly inadequate ventilation.
Masks were recommended but not routinely enforced, so people were generally left to make their own judgments and take their own risks as far as COVID exposure, as is the case in general by now.
Hopefully, by next year, progress will continue to be made against COVID transmission and guests can continue to enjoy all the many aspects of Anime Expo with less worry about their health and more anxiety about the lines, as is the usual state of affairs.
Anime Expo will once again be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center next year from July 1-4. Ticket sales for Anime Expo 2023 will be announced in fall 2022. In the meantime, people disinclined to wait that long can enjoy a smaller spin-off convention: “anime expo” November 12-13, 2022 at the Ontario Convention Center. It will be largely made up of the exhibit hall and artist alley–a nice opportunity for people who skipped a lot of it this time due to crowding. Ticketing will be announced in the coming months.
