The Japanese Animation Room

This is the most logical place to start, as it is the nexus point for anime fans at this con. The room was a good size and ran the standard shows one tends to see at conventions these days, which means mostly commercial releases by the U.S. companies. Viz provided the U.S. premiere of LUPIN III: DEAD OR ALIVE, the latest LUPIN movie. Also of note was Pioneer's premiere of the TENCHI MUYO movie--the subtitled version. When I ran into Nakamura Naoju, the Executive Director of the Animation Division, he confessed that he was a little surprised but very happy that the TENCHI movie had been so well-received here in the United States.
In addition to the premieres, the Japanese Animation room staff ran programming that consisted of both subtitled and dubbed materials, including such fan favorites as BUBBLEGUM CRISIS and MOLDIVER.

Anime Guests at San Diego

This year, Ohata Koichi, Monkey Punch, and the inimitable Scott Frazier were among those in the anime industry who attended COMIC CON. Each guest gave a panel and had autograph sessions. Scott, however, commented that his autograph session was poorly attended--possibly because there were no signs announcing his session and it was scheduled before his panel. "Two people even asked if they could eat lunch in the room," Scott told me, somewhat bemused.
Ohata was seen at one point casually enjoying lunch with some friends on the veranda of the convention center--something he was unable to do at ANIME EXPO. He seemed to be enjoying the anonymity. His anonymity was but a distant memory, however, when it came time for his signing at the Central Park Media table, where fans gathered to meet Mr. Ohata and get autographs.
The Monkey Punch panel was something of a spectacle. Monkey Punch related the story of how he had been influenced by Mort Drucker of MAD Magazine and how he had gone to New York to meet him, only to find out that he lived in Florida. Dejected, he returned home to Japan and never attempted to meet him again. However, at this very panel, Mort Drucker was brought out and introduced to Monkey Punch, who was ecstatic. The outpouring of emotion as this Japanese artist met his idol was clearly visible to everyone present and provided for a very moving and memorable panel.

The Exhibit Hall

This was the mother of all Dealer's Rooms--so big that to see everything in the room would took more than one day. It is very difficult to conceptualize the size of this hall unless you've ever seen it. As I walked around the room, I noticed a large number of places that carried anime or anime-related merchandise. Of course, Central Park Media, AnimEigo, Software Sculptors, Viz, and A.D.Vision were present, as was Books Nippan and Anime Wink. But, what was interesting to me was the number of places that didn't deal exclusively in anime but had tapes or art books or CD's for sale alongside American comic books and videos. While talking to some of these vendors who carried anime alongside other merchandise, they all said that their sales on anime and related items were increasing. If the Exhibit Hall is any indication, anime is gaining a stronger and stronger foothold in the United States.
Not all the exhibitors present were welcomed by the anime industry, however. One exhibitor in particular was selling obviously pirated copies of many anime titles--including one tape labeled "GUNDAM MS08 episodes 3&4 subtitled." Obviously, they don't know what they're talking about because episode 4 hasn't been released yet, let alone had time to be fan-subtitled. This piracy did not go unnoticed, and J.A.I.L.E.D. went into action. The anime companies threatened to pull all of their titles from the anime room if something was not done. As a result, the exhibitor in question was forced to pull all of the tapes for which U.S. companies owned the rights. But the other tapes, such as DRAGONBALL Z, were still left for sale. This was a small victory at best.
Dark Horse Comics, one of the leading publishers of translated manga in the U.S., was also there, but they did not seem to be promoting any of their manga titles. Last year, they had big posters and flyers everywhere for OH! MY GODDESS and the like, but this year, I could not find a single manga-related poster in the Dark Horse booth. After much searching, I did find a small corner of the booth running the new DOMINION OVA's to cross-promote the comic and CPM's video, but that was all I was able to find that gave any hint that Dark Horse even published manga.
One of the curious things about the Exhibit Hall is that, while the presence of anime has grown over the years, the number of dealers who deal almost exclusively in anime has declined. Laser Perceptions, Mikado, and other stores familiar to many anime fans, have not been attending COMIC CON for the last couple of years. Perhaps the expense of attending is prohibitive, or perhaps they are just worn out from all the other anime-related cons that occur around this time. But it is interesting to note that some of the larger dealers in anime no longer attend.

Other Stuff

This year there weren't too many panels featuring or related to anime outside of the guest panels listed above. Presto gave a panel on their Playstation GUNDAM game which was basically the same panel as the one they presented at ANIME EXPO. Other than that, though, anime-related paneling was sparse.
Does that mean there is nothing to do? Of course not--COMIC CON INTERNATIONAL covers a wide variety of genres; I think that's part of it's overall appeal. Fans of one genre are being exposed to several others at the same time, and before the days of anime conventions, this is the way that a lot of fans were introduced to anime.
COMIC CON INTERNATIONAL is an interesting place to go to get a feel for how anime fits into the rest of America's pop culture, and to see how it influences american comics and other media. Plus, you can gauge the fanaticism of the different fan groups (anime fans, Star Trek fans, etc.) It's also a good place to go to hang out with friends as there is always lots to do.

--Charles McCarter