Our coverage of Anime Expo 2019 continues with Day 2, and this piece will offer a recap of the panels hosted by Sentai Filmworks and GKIDS.
Sentai Filmworks
The Sentai Filmworks panel strongly disallowed any cell phone usage during the panel, so this portion of the recap piece will not have any visual accompaniments. The panel opened up with a highlight real showing off various titles that Sentai had licensed within the past year or so, including Why The Hell Are You Here, Teacher?, Bloom Into You, W’z, and Pop Team Epic. Following this, there was a reminder of the Sentai Summer Sale currently going on from now up until the 21st, and they also discussed some upcoming limited edition releases, including the 20th anniversary release of The Big O and an uncensored release of Cutie Honey Universe.
Then came a refresher on various shows that Sentai would be simulcasting this season, including Wasteful Days of High School Girls, O Maidens In Your Savage Season, The Demon Girl Next Door, Re:Stage! Dream Days, and Is It Wrong To Try and Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon II. Aditionally, the film Is It Wrong To Try and Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? -Arrow of the Orion- is receiving a limited theatrical release on July 23rd. Speaking of movies, Sentai made the announcement that they had acquired the upcoming Made In Abyss film, Dawn of the Deep Soul, for an early 2020 release, and this was shortly accompanied by a brief set of bad dad jokes from Bondrewd. The panel then closed out with a brief list of dub announcements, including My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Too!, Delinquent Hamsters, the OVA Kase-san and Morning Glories, and we got to see previews of the dubs for season 3 of both Haikyu!! and Food Wars.
GKIDS
The panel for animated film distributor GKIDS opened similarly to others with a highlight reel of various acquisitions, many of which were brought up in more detail during the bulk of the presentation. They discussed the upcoming Makoto Shinkai film Weathering With You, released in Japanese theaters last month and eyeing an early 2020 release in North America. Following this was a mention of the film Children of the Sea, an adaptation of the manga by the same name from Daisuke Igarashi and produced by Studio 4C (Tekkonkinkreet, MFKZ, etc.). The film has been out in Japan for a month and is coming soon to theaters, although no release date was specified by GKIDS. Following this was a refresher of their acquisition of Ride Your Wave, the latest feature film from acclaimed director Masaaki Yuasa, which was released in Japan a couple of weeks ago, although no North American release date was specified. The panel closed out with some announcements for their upcoming home video releases, including the series Ronja, The Robber’s Daughter (August 20th), the 2015 film The Case of Hana & Alice (September 17th), and the entirety of the animated anthology series Genius Party (October 2019).
While that does it for the major industry panels witnessed on Day 2, it is also worth noting that I had the opportunity to catch the exclusive Anime Expo premiere of Promare, the much-anticipated feature film debut from Studio Trigger (Kill La Kill, Inferno Cop, Little Witch Academia, etc.) and director Hiroyuki Imaishi. You can expect a more detailed review some time in the next week or so, but for now it can be safely said that if you’re a fan of the heightened emotional intensity and creative visual bombast of any other Trigger production, then Promare is absolutely a film that you should see at the first available opportunity. That wraps up our Day 2 coverage, so be sure to stay tuned for Day 3.