The most business-like day of the con, Saturday launched with Gainax. The panel immediately preceeding Hiroyuki Yamaga's presentation of the History of Gainax was in fact a screening of Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance.
Yamaga's panel presentation lasted only twenty minutes or so, leaving the rest of the two hour block available for a Q&A session that featured some of the usual questions-- such as one about the infamous fourth episode of Gurren Lagann, whose change in art style led to mass whining, resulting in some unsavory comments from Gurren Lagann producer Takami Akai being posted online, followed by fan complaints, followed by Akai stepping down as producer --and some surprises. Dark Horse Manga editor Carl Horn, who edits Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project and the upcoming Evangelion: Campus Apocalypse, asked whether Gainax concerns themselves with their overseas audiences, which Yamaga answered more or less with a no.
(Yamaga also revealed the origin of the Gainax name: the co-founders wanted a name that, following trends of the time, ended in X "like Xerox," and they wanted to preceed it with an obscure kanji. The kanji they found was "gaina," which means "large.")
Straight after the Gainax panel came Dark Horse's, in which Horn gave out double-sided CLAMP posters featuring Card Captor Sakura and Chobits as part of their "Love and Wonder" manga campaign. Horn listed out upcoming DH manga releases, including Campus Apocalypse's first volume on August 11th, and then proceeded to take questions himself. Horn indicated that the original CLAMP manga project originally called "mangettes" is still on, but that no official updates could be revealed. He also declared that Eden - It's an Endless World! may not be performing as strongly as Dark Horse would like but that they are struggling to keep the series afloat.
After lunch I sat down with an interview with The Anime Companion author Gilles Poitras, available here.
While Beast of Reincarnation doesn't quite reach the heights of its truly brilliant inspirations, it still accomplishes more than enough to prove itself as a genuinely excellent game in its own right.― NieR: Automata is a top contender for my favorite video game of all time, so I am of two minds when I see some of these more recent games that are so clearly inspired and influenced by it. On the one ...
At the end of the day, while Echoes of Aincrad was an easy game for me to play and enjoy, it is a difficult product to recommend without including some major caveats.― I have to admit that I have maybe been too hard on Sword Art Online. In the 2010s, I was still finishing up college; I had only just recently gotten back into anime, and fancied myself quite the S.A.O. hater. Back then, it was easy to...
Halfway through the season now, the girls of BanG Dream! YUME∞MITA have come a long way. They've reached milestones in their personalities and relationships, including adding a new member to their number in Ritsu. Now they find themselves having delivered a live performance that has resulted in a make-or-break moment for their career!― Halfway through the season now, the girls of BanG Dream! YUME∞MI...
Get ready to vertical scroll your way to good reading with the Summer K-Comics Guide! We've got a mix of genres to give you something to do when it's too hot out to even think about going outside.― Welcome to Anime News Network's Summer 2026 K-Comics Guide, the companion to our manga guide! Every included manhwa was published in June or July or is an upcoming August release, although some are ongoi...
There’s a difference between “being real” with your audience and calling a rant your motivational speech.― If there's one type of story I'm quite fond of, it's stories about other artists. From Look Back to Blue Period, they often serve as a window into the creative's mind. If “write what you know” is practically law, this is just taking that literally. And while that could come off snobby, recent t...
We start off the Summer season with Jaadugar taking the lead and Tanya the Evil not too far behind. Find out what else is worth your attention in our weekly user rankings.― Let's have a look at what ANN readers consider the best (and worst) of the season,
based on the polls you can find in our Daily Streaming Reviews
and on the Your Score page with the latest simulcasts. Keep in mind that these ran...
While the main plot of this cour is largely wrapped up in finding Cure Éclair, it also has time to discuss the role of partners and friends.― Did you figure out who Cure Éclair is before the reveal in episode twenty-five? Whether you did or not, there's no denying that the publicized hunt for her identity was a very smart marketing move on the part of Toei. It recognized that for many mystery fans –...
Franchise celebrates 30th anniversary next year― The staff for the Digimon franchise's anime series announced on Saturday that a new anime project is launching for broadcast next year. Also as part of the 30th anniversary celebration, Fuji TV will begin airing the favorite episodes from the first four Digimon anime, as voted by fans from around the world, on October 4 at 9:00 a.m. (October 3 at 7:...
The Summer Manga Guide is complete! In our final update, we have the source manga for Clevatess, a new Elden Ring series, and the heartbreaking post-war manga On Their Frontlines, among others.― Welcome to Anime News Network's Summer 2026 Manga Guide! You may have seen one of our seasonal Anime Preview Guides, where a team of critics writes up each new anime television premiere as it airs at the be...
More than just alcohol, this anime indulges in a cinematic style that makes for an absolutely sublime watch.― On paper, Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk sounds like a very tired concept: another round of cute girls going to tourist destinations together, with globs of yuri mixed in for some additional flavoring. And let's 80 proof it by making alcohol a gimmick here. In the wrong hands, this ...
Updates! Updates for everyone - as long as "everyone" is FFXIV and Xenoblade 2, at least.― Welcome back, folks! Like many people, I've been keeping my ears open regarding the new Project R.E.D. series, Kakusei Hunter Omegahorn. It's very unique as a tokusatsu series; our protagonist summons giant kaiju to fight each other, while summoning other kaiju (and his spaceship) to serve as extra weapons. It...
It's official! As of the sixth episode of BanG Dream! YUME∞MITA, Ritsu will be joining her childhood friend Arale and the other members of MewType in the band. Ritsu is leaving behind an extremely dangerous dynamic with her previous group Fairy Bouquet and chief series antagonist Viola, which can and will spell conflict going forward, but it also means that Ritsu now has a whole new group of decidedly more accommodating associates.
Voice actors Miho Okasaki (Rimuru) and Megumi Toyoguchi (Raphael) spoke to Anime News Network about their time together (so far) as the duo, and even shared a behind-the-scenes look into their own chemistry.― Beloved isekai series, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, approaches its eighth year on air. The anime adaptation of Fuse's web novel started in 2018 and still welcomed a full house of ea...