Otakon 2007

Geneon Entertainment

Company representatives: Andrew Huang, Kevin Chu, Chad Kime, Terry Ho, Jason Alnas

While many of the panels held at this year's Otakon only featured one or two presenters, Geneon Entertainment brought out a full five employees. Chad Kime kicked the panel off by talking about some of Geneon's more strategic goals as a company. The presenters first talked about the Geneon Spot online initiative. After the initial attempt to launch this product, which they said calling a beta would be far too generous, it has been put on hiatus. Current plans are to relaunch the Geneon Spot towards the end of 2007 or early in 2008. Nonetheless, one project that did grow from it has been the Geneon Spot podcast. They are continuing to also import exclusive merchandise to be made available to members of the Geneon fanclub. In addition to the limited-edition Hellsing pocketwatch, these include Fate/stay night and Shakugan no Shana calendars.

As announced earlier in the year, Geneon is actively participating in "unpackaged" (digital) distribution of its anime on the Akimbo and Vuze services, as well as on XBox 360 Live. In particular, Geneon will be working to put Lupin the Third on these services, since this series has not been profitable enough on DVD. While some companies are picking sides in the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray battle, Geneon will be looking to make its own high-definition releases available primarily via download, since many more people can download high-def content than can view either of the new formats.

At Anime Expo, Geneon licensed the epic fantasy anime Deltora Quest and Chop Socky Chooks, a 3D cartoon series that was produced by Britain's Aardman Animation. Both of these were acquired with the intention of developing them for the broadcast market and helping Geneon build relationships with American TV studios. Cartoon Network and Teletoon will be airing Chop Socky Chooks throughout 2008.

Geneon is actively pursuing TV deals for many of its anime. It currently has blocks running on ImaginAsian TV and Fuse. Geneon titles are also airing on G4TechTV Canada.

Kime then quickly went over the series Geneon will be starting to release in the immediate future: Shonen Onmyouji, Saionkoku Monogatari, volume 3 of Hellsing Ultimate, Familiar of Zero, Guardian of the Sacred Spirit and the Shakugan no Shana OVA. Scheduled for December, this will be available as a stand-alone disc and with a box that would hold both that DVD and the entire first season of the Shana TV series.