Tokyo Anime Fair 2010 Blowout - Page 2

ANIPLEX

Far and away the largest booth with the most wares on display, Aniplex's show floor castle stood in the rear of the hall, the entrance festooned with promotional materials for the new theatrical offering from the director of Kamichu!, Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW, a family film about a group of 5 kids who go on an adventure in space guided by an alien dog.

The rest of the booth had a handful of familiar offerings spread out among Aniplex's many new series scheduled for the spring and summer. A trailer and a few framed images announced the second season of Kuroshitsuji, which will air this July. Katanagatari, the hour-long show (that had a serious leak of production materials last winter) was also on display. A few currently-running and completed shows were advertised, including Durarara!!, Soranowoto, and Seikirei.

Aniplex was clearly bucking this year's trend by displaying a sizable number of new series. Front and center was Night Raid, which involves a secret sect of spies living in Shanghai in the 1930s; next to that was Angel Beats!, which is set in the afterlife and involves a rebellious angel fighting against the powers that be. Big Windup! Season 2 was next, with a sizable standee of the entire team and some merchandise on display, followed by a small section dedicated to Hidamari Sketch x Hoshimitsu.

A handful of shows set to debut during the summer were also being promoted. Mitsudomoe, a comedy about a trio of 6th grade girls, based on the manga by Norio Sakurai, is set to premiere in July, alongside the decidedly creepy Shi Ki, which is about a village being attacked by vampires (notably this series features the voice of J-rock legend Gackt). Also in the supernatural category, a handful of limited promotional images were on display for Occult Academy, a mystery series which is also set for a July debut. Rounding out the booth were a couple of display cases featuring new DVDs, manga and other items from the Naruto and Bleach TV series.

SATELIGHT

While they didn't have any new shows for the Spring season (or, according to their representative, the Fall season either, at least at this point in the year), Satelight was busy promoting the upcoming sequel to their basketball-robot franchise Basquash!. According to the representative we spoke to, Satelight is planning on relaunching the series with a new focus: sports fans and little kids. The original series was targeted toward an otaku audience, and the idea with the new series is to pull in more casual sports fans and a younger audience, in order to broaden the show's appeal. The sequel series will apparently focus more on sports action and less on character development. No further details were available at this time.

Otherwise, Satelight's booth had the usual trimmings, including a “museum” of character standees from their previous series, a kids' station where puffy paint was being applied to promotional bags, and a display of toys and models from Macross Frontier, Basquash! and others.

TOHO

Although the film was being promoted heavily at other booths, TOHO had by far the most lavish presentation for this spring's upcoming Detective Conan movie, Lost Ship in the Sky. A bunch of standees and theater displays were set up and a trailer was running nonstop. Also attached to the TOHO booth were displays and videos for some of their stop-motion children's programming, including a theatrical film based on The Bears' School children's book series – one of the film's stop-motion sets was on display.

MEDIA FACTORY

Media Factory's booth was done up all Meiji-era-style to promote their big spring period drama, The House of Five Leaves; traditional lanterns adorned either side of the stage which will be used for events throughout the show's public days.

Also on display was Ikki Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor, the third Ikki Tousen series, the third season of Hetalia - Axis Powers, a new Queen's Blade TV series, Shukufu no Campanella (based on the visual novel, debuting in July), and Legend of the Legendary Heroes, which presently has no premiere date aside from ‘2010’. Tucked away in a rear corner of the booth was a trailer and some wall art for the next theatrical Pokémon film, set for release in Japanese theaters on July 10.