Anime Expo 2011

Bandai Entertainment Industry Panel

Bandai Entertainment President Ken Iyadomi, Marketing Director Robert Napton, and Marketing and Production Consultant Loy Fruel launched Bandai Entertainment's industry panel, which— as with all of the panels in the Live Programming 1 room —began late. Additional technical difficulties resulted in Napton introducing voice actress Stephanie Sheh to promote upcoming Gundam UC and K-ON! events throughout the weekend.

Napton wound up having to run the panel from the central area of the room where the technical staff support the panels. He opened by promoting the Bandai Entertainment online store, particularly its exclusive items. Next, Fruel presented Gundam 00 the Movie -A wakening of the Trailblazers- and its English-dubbed trailer. Iyadomi introduced a trailer for Tekken: Blood Vengeance, a CG film based on the popular videogame franchise. Iyadomi also revealed two voice cast members for the English dub of the film:

• Ganryu (gym teacher) - George C. Cole
• Lee Chaolan - Kaiji Tang

They will join Carrie Keranen, Cristina Vee, David Vincent, Kyle Hebert, Tara Platt, and others. On July 26, Fathom Events will show the film in theaters across the country.

Napton moved on to K-ON!, a brand met with great applause by the audience, followed by The Girl Who Leapt Through Space. Both series' second volumes will be released in stores on July 5. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time's Blu-ray two-disc set is available now. Next up was Tales of the Abyss, whose first volume is set for September or October.

Gundam UC's two-episode DVDs came next, along with a reminder about the weekend's upcoming events for the series and a trailer. The first DVD will be released this summer. The original Mobile Suit Gundam series' first half is set for a September 13 release date, while Turn A Gundam will be released this fall.

Setting Gundam aside, the film The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzuimiya is getting a September 20 release on DVD and Blu-ray. Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters Per Second is on sale at the Bandai Entertainment store. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society's Blu-ray is currently available as well, but Star Driver's release is still to be determined.

Iyadomi presented the company's new anime announcement, Sacred Seven, which will air on Hulu and Crunchyroll one week after its Japanese broadcast (starting July 8).

On the manga front, Napton announced some upcoming titles: Tales of the Abyss, Lucky Star, Code Geass: Tales of an Alternate Shogunate, Gurren Lagann, and Kannagi.

New manga titles include:

• Gundam 00-I, the sequel to the Gundam 00-F spinoff manga
• Lucky Star Boo Boo KagaBoo, created by Nyoro~n Churuya-san creator Eretto

After the announcements, the trio took questions from the audience. Of significance: there has been no decision yet about dubbing Star Driver. Additionally, The Girl Who Leapt Through Space's release features the broadcast version, not the Japanese home video version, because those are the masters that Sunrise gave to Bandai.