I had so much fun at AnimeNEXT I hardly know where to begin!

Thursday night began with introducing the final showing of the Sailor Moon Musical ~ Le Finale Mouvement which, I’m gonna say, is legitimately the best Sailor Moon musical I have ever seen, even if it is based on Stars. The writing gets super messy, Sailor Cosmos still makes no sense and the ending is ridiculous, but Haruka and Michiru are fantastic and even Usagi and Mamoro get some squee moments. My wife worked with the sound guy so that I had a musical intro, which made her happy. Thanks to the folks that came out to see it! It was fun. 

Friday got off to a bang with the Yuri Court, which is a game that I literally made up one day last summer. But, with help from the wife, who added supporting and rebuttal testimony to the rules, the comedy writes itself. It’s a hoot listening to people counter each other and it’s all in great fun. I was joined by my wife and long-time friend of Yuricon, Kelli, who were brilliant. Thank you to the heroes who stood up and made the Yuri Court an hour of laughter.

We then did this year’s Yuri Panel and, for the very first time ever, I was able to premier something. We had the official subtitled Pony Canyon trailer for Asagao to Kase-san! It’s so cuuuuuttttteee! And YNN correspondent Verso S tells us that the Blu-Ray, which was available in the theaters showing the movie, has English subtitles. Thank you Asagao to Kase-san Production Committee and Pony Canyon! My dream come true.  As soon as a link for the BD comes up on Amazon JP, I promise to make sure you all get it. I cannot *wait* to see it. (I spent all day today, reading tweets of folks who have seen it and are on Twitter squeeing.)

Saturday was a back-to-back extravaganza. The Great Debate had myself, translators Zack Davisson, David Evelyn and James, our moderator, heatedly discussing topics like honorifics, long vowels and scanlations. I was unusually brilliant and won every point.^_^ Apparently, we did a great job, because after the panel, Zack heard someone saying that they thought we’d come to blows. ^_^

The last panel of that day was The “Secret” History of Yaoi and Yuri and I have to say, this was the BEST crowd I’ve ever had, with brilliant, thoughtful questions and I would have loved to talk with you all for hours.

Sunday we did a travel panel, An American Otaku in Japan, again joined by my wife. She always makes amazing points. We had good questions, then talked for another hour with folks in the lobby. Great stuff, always. 

Thank you so much to the folks who came to the panels. You were great and really made my con experience wonderful.

The DR and artist’s alley were great. We saw this punk Senshi trio and had to nab a photo. These costumes gave us life. Pluto’s one boot read “Who’s a Dwarf Planet Now?” 

This photo lead to a minor issue, as the Artist Alley has a no-photo policy, which I consider to be ragingly hypocritical, when so much of the art is derivative. I get fanart, but you don’t get to be protective of your version of someone else’s character. It’s not yours. You stole it. You don’t have any leg to stand on for copyright, unless you’ve licensed it. So, frankly, that policy just pissed us off.

As for myself, I bought myself a t-shirt by kyoshiki, check out their site and see if you can guess which one. ^_^

Thank you to all the ANEXT staff, especially Bryan, Derrick and Vince who went out of their way to make myself and my crew feel extremely welcome. Thank you Tech Staff, to Brendan the photographer, to Panels Staff, to all the volunteers, and of course to the entire Guest Relations team. You folks were amazing. Everything was just lovely and I would love to come back net year and take on Zack again. ^_^

Extra special thanks to Kelli for coming up to carry my boxes, get me coffee and catch up, it’s been too long. It was genuinely fabulous to see you. And, always first in my thoughts, thanks to my wonderful wife for all her help on the panels. You are fantastic.

This was one of the best years ever at AnimeNEXT. Can’t wait to do it again.

One more panel and one last set of prizes!

An American Otaku in Japan -11:15am – 12:15pm, Panel Rm. 302
If you have ever wondered how to get to Japan, how to get around once you’re there, what to eat, where to eat and how to find anime and manga goods, you’ve come to the right panel!

And a quick report on Saturdays panels:

The Great Debate with Zack Davisson was fucking awesome! I’m told that people thought we’d actually come to blows. ^_^ It was an awesome debate over honorifics, scanlations and other things. We must do that again, Zack. Let’s take it on the road.

And I honestly believe we had the best audience I’ve ever had for the “Secret” History panel. Great questions. Really, genuinely fabulous stuff.

One more panel and I’ll have wrung all the fun I can out of AnimeNEXT for the year. ^_^ See you soon!

Catch me today at two back to back panels! 

!? vs ?! – The Great Debate!!! – 11:00am – 12:00pm
Two passionate duelists on the field of battle….which one will convince you that they are right? Watch me take on another Guest for a mystery debate that will shock you!

The “Secret” History of Yaoi and Yuri – 12:15pm – 1:15pm
Have you ever wondered where the tropes all come from? You should! Boy’s Love and Yuri have a rich literary and artistic history in Japan. Learn about it all here. Prizes for good questions. ^_^

Quick report from Saturday. It was my very sincere pleasure to have been able to premiere the official subbed trailer for the Asagao to Kase-san movie, which debuted today  in theaters in Japan! Thank you Pony Canyon!

See you tomorrow!

Join me at two Yuri Panels today here at AnimeNEXT 2018 in Atlantic City, NJ.

Yuri Court

Be heard! Defend or Accuse a Yuri series of being Innocent (Good) or Guilty (Bad) at the Yuri Court Friday, 12:45PM in Panel Rm 301. Bring your best arguments and win prizes!

Must-Read/Must-Watch Yuri

Get all the latest Yuri news and tons of classic and new series to read and watch at  6:15 Friday in Panel Rm 301. Good questions get prizes!