Anime Expo 2007

CMX

Panelists: Jim Chadwick, Asako Suzuki, Fred Gallagher, Larry Berry, Sarah Farber

The CMX panel began by introducing Fred Gallagher's popular Megatokyo series. They then covered current releases including Go Go Heaven!!, The Time Guardian, Canon, Apothecarius Argentum, Samurai Commando: Mission 1549, I Hate You More than Anyone, and a new printing of the classic manga, Gon.

Other upcoming series include King of Cards, Key to the Kingdom, Venus in Love, The Palette of 12 Secret Colors, Orfina, Presents, Variante, Tears of a Lamb, Dorothea, and Two Flowers for the Dragon.

The panel was then turned over to questions. Readers of Megatokyo continue to be interested in a "Megatokyo anime"; fan-made clips do exist online. CMX is open to the idea of original series like Megatokyo but is not actively seeking submissions. Such works require a deeper editorial commitment than licensed properties. There is also interest in Shirley, the companion series to Emma, but the company has no announcements at this time.

Chadwick also discussed the licensing process; the company looks for promising series (completed or otherwise), but still has to check for appropriateness. Emma, for example, had to be rated Teen+ due to content later in the series. The issue of editing also came up. Tenjho Tenge Volume 15 is due out soon; from this point the series will be rated M and will "not be edited as heavily as before," said Chadwick. Also, new M-rated titles will be printed in a larger format to differentiate them from the rest of the product line. Current and ongoing M-rated titles will still be printed in a regular-sized format.

This report has been verified with a studio representative.