Anime Central 2007

Geneon Entertainment

ACen's Geneon panel was run by Steven Tang, Andrew Huang, and producer Satoshi Fuji. They are currently working on the Trigun OVA, Black Lagoon, and When They Cry - Higurashi, and were able to show the boxes for the first two and a mock-up of the series boxes for Higurashi, Rozen Maiden, and Karin. The panelists then showed brief preview clips for the first three series and devoted the bulk of the rest of the panel to going over the release schedule for Geneon's upcoming new licenses and back catalog rereleases that was first revealed at Anime Boston.

During the question and answer session that concluded the panel, they mentioned that because Hajime no Ippo did not perform as well as hoped, it is not likely that Geneon will acquire the 2003 Hajime no Ippo - Mashiba vs. Kimura OVA. On the other hand, the success of the Geneon Classics release of the Tenchi Muyo! TV, Tenchi in Tokyo OVA, and the three Tenchi Muyo! feature films will be used to gauge the potential sales of a re-release of the original Tenchi Muyo! OVA series. Through the rest of the year, several other back catalog titles will also be added to the Geneon Classics line.

In response to a question from the Anime News Network correspondent, Tang and Huang said that Geneon feels that at this point in time, the manga market in North America is controlled to such degree by Tokyopop, Viz, and Del Rey that the costs for a new company such as Geneon to enter the market would simply be too high.

Errata: Tenchi in Tokyo is a television series.