Otakon is still a couple months away, so it’s possible they still may attend. Looking at Otakon’s site, they don’t even have a finalized list of panels.
SIGH
That’s one of my biggest frustrations with Otakon. They’re so incredibly slow with everything. Otakon posts its full guest list so late that you pretty much have to pre-reg blind. By the end of the discounted pre-reg period, I think there were only 4 guests announced, one of which was some band (and all of which were pretty lame). I think that they got their full guest list up by the time pre-reg ended, but they cut it close. Sadly the ultimate guest list turned out to suck.
Since AnimeCons has stated that they don’t list industry guests at cons unless the cons themselves list them as guests of honor (and animecons is pretty darn slow at updating itself anyhow) and most convention websites don’t list their industry guests until late (if at all), and almost never with a listing of what industry reps will be there, I wish that the industry guests themselves would, a fair bit in advance, announce at which events they will be.
Funimation is fairly good about posting at which events they will be and who they’re sending to represent them there. Sentai needs to, I think, follow suit. Especially since David Williams attending a con has been shown to not imply that there will be a Sentai panel, and I don’t think it is definitive that if Sentai has an appearance at a con that David Williams will be there. It’s not a “hard and fast” Sentai rule like the “if it has a blu-ray it has a dub” 
Was David Williams at Otakon last year? Sentai was, but I only remember seeing a woman at the Sentai booth, and the Switchblade pictures booth was empty when I saw it
Yep, I’ll be working in the Section 23 booth at Sakura-Con again this year. If anyone is attending, stop by and see me! (special brownie points/eternal place in my heart if you bring me a sugar-free Rock Star!)
If there is a convention that you guys really want to see us at, drop us a line! We’d love some fan feedback on what you’d like to see at our booths and panels.
[quote=“celestial_being”]
SIGH
That’s one of my biggest frustrations with Otakon. They’re so incredibly slow with everything. Otakon posts its full guest list so late that you pretty much have to pre-reg blind. By the end of the discounted pre-reg period, I think there were only 4 guests announced, one of which was some band (and all of which were pretty lame). I think that they got their full guest list up by the time pre-reg ended, but they cut it close. Sadly the ultimate guest list turned out to suck.[/quote]
Sadly, most cons are like that. Anime Boston just released their panel schedule and they are this weekend. I know Tekkoshocon here in Pittsburgh doesn’t release everything until just before the con. I always hold out and hope there will be someone I want to see, but this year there was no one. Todd Haberkorn was the only notable guest and I’m not a fan of his work.
The main reason I went to Cons is to meet guests and buy stuff. I’m running out of room for stuff and it seems the VA’s I really want to see never attend cons I go to, and many don’t do cons at all anymore.
[quote=“dragonrider_cody”]
Sadly, most cons are like that. Anime Boston just released their panel schedule and they are this weekend. I know Tekkoshocon here in Pittsburgh doesn’t release everything until just before the con. I always hold out and hope there will be someone I want to see, but this year there was no one. Todd Haberkorn was the only notable guest and I’m not a fan of his work. [/quote]
I’m not surprised that anime Boston was super slow on updates as key members of its staff run animecons and that website is absurdly slow with updates, and relies on crowdsourcing. I’m also not really a haberkorn fan (though the Vic retaliation videos mocking him can be funny). He sounds the same in everything, the male Britney Karbowski, and that isn’t really a good thing. I thought he was a vocal match for Firo in Baccano, but then when he uses the same voice (as he does in practically everything) for roles that aren’t wimpy adolescent Italian mobsters it just doesn’t work.
Didn’t Tekko eventually get Travis?
[quote=“dragonrider_cody”]
The main reason I went to Cons is to meet guests and buy stuff. I’m running out of room for stuff and it seems the VA’s I really want to see never attend cons I go to, and many don’t do cons at all anymore.[/quote]
My reasons for attending cons are really all about guests, and I share your problem as there are so many guests that don’t do cons, or if they do, they’re rare and in obscure/distant locations.
For the guests that do attend cons, I’ve gotten signed practically everything that they can sign. Even for prolific guests like Greg Ayres. Since I’m maxed out on signatures, now all I have to focus on are the guests who do panels. Real panels, not just the lame generic q&a sessions. Luckily some guests who are frequent con guests (eg:Kyle Hebert, The Ayres Brothers) do panels. Sadly many guests, including ubiquitous guests that I like (eg:Tatum), don’t really do too many panels. If katsucon was a sign of things to come, Tatum might soon be doing regular con panels.
Some cons, like matsuricon 2011 (Columbus, oh) had a strong emphasis on guests and guest panels. Most other cons, especially the larger ones, I find do not.
For cons like those (cough Otakon cough) I need industry panels to pick up the slack. Sentai, where are you? 
I suppose it only makes sense to have industry panels at the bigger cons, and there are only a few per year. I guess that explains why larger East coast cons like Animenext and Katsucon are left out, but it doesn’t explain why Otakon is omitted. Sentai also seems to have irregular cons for panels over the years. Maybe it’s just my perception.
*Otakon has had some events with guests, but they’ve all been industry sponsored (eg:hetalia conference, k-on concert) or abhorrent (Tom Wayland’s story time panel, but that follows as it was run by Tom Wayland). Otakon has a voice actors uncensored type panel but it depends on the guess who volunteer for it so it is hit or miss. It sucked last year; Tatum was the only saving grace.
[quote=“celestial_being”]
[quote=“dragonrider_cody”]
Sadly, most cons are like that. Anime Boston just released their panel schedule and they are this weekend. I know Tekkoshocon here in Pittsburgh doesn’t release everything until just before the con. I always hold out and hope there will be someone I want to see, but this year there was no one. Todd Haberkorn was the only notable guest and I’m not a fan of his work. [/quote]
I’m not surprised that anime Boston was super slow on updates as key members of its staff run animecons and that website is absurdly slow with updates, and relies on crowdsourcing. I’m also not really a haberkorn fan (though the Vic retaliation videos mocking him can be funny). He sounds the same in everything, the male Britney Karbowski, and that isn’t really a good thing. I thought he was a vocal match for Firo in Baccano, but then when he uses the same voice (as he does in practically everything) for roles that aren’t wimpy adolescent Italian mobsters it just doesn’t work.
Didn’t Tekko eventually get Travis?[/quote]
[quote=celestial_being]
[quote=“dragonrider_cody”]
The main reason I went to Cons is to meet guests and buy stuff. I’m running out of room for stuff and it seems the VA’s I really want to see never attend cons I go to, and many don’t do cons at all anymore.[/quote]
My reasons for attending cons are really all about guests, and I share your problem as there are so many guests that don’t do cons, or if they do, they’re rare and in obscure/distant locations.
For the guests that do attend cons, I’ve gotten signed practically everything that they can sign. Even for prolific guests like Greg Ayres. Since I’m maxed out on signatures, now all I have to focus on are the guests who do panels. Real panels, not just the lame generic q&a sessions. Luckily some guests who are frequent con guests (eg:Kyle Hebert, The Ayres Brothers) do panels. Sadly many guests, including ubiquitous guests that I like (eg:Tatum), don’t really do too many panels. If katsucon was a sign of things to come, Tatum might soon be doing regular con panels.
Some cons, like matsuricon 2011 (Columbus, oh) had a strong emphasis on guests and guest panels. Most other cons, especially the larger ones, I find do not.[/quote]
Yes, they had Travis either this year or last. I didn’t attend either as I wasn’t interested in the guests, and I was working anyway. They also managed to nab Hillary Haag a few years back, but that was before I started attending. :(. Sadly, she doesn’t do cons much anymore.
Sentai almost always has a panel at Otakon, as well as all the cons in Texas. They do also visit a lot of smaller ones as well. In fact, their license of Clannad was announced at a small convention in Minnesota.
I really don’t remember a Sentai panel at Otakon…ever. If there was one then I missed it, somehow, in the sea of industry panels that is always there.
I remember being there for some ADV panels, but I didn’t get to go to them.
Hilary Haag and Shelly Calene-Black are awesome but having them cast is bittersweet IMO as they don’t do cons. Hilary Haag was at a con pretty local to me in 2007. In fall 2007 I was still anti-dub after being horribly, horribly scarred (metaphorically) by 2 awful dubs, one of which was by Bang/Zoom (the other, sadly, by NGP). Rage.
I know that Sentai has gone to small cons (they went to a small con in VA last November, IIRC), but they don’t have a list stating to which cons they are going and what they’ll be doing there. The only reason I knew that Sentai was going to be there was because I checked that particular con’s website serendipitously. As my misfortune (zemblanity lol) would have it, I couldn’t go.
I wonder what goodies Sentai will shower us with tomorrow?
Hyouka and Jormungand?
And I’m kind of hoping for Mysterious Girlfriend X and Upotte!! as well.
[quote=“TheCoffeeGod”]
Hyouka and Jormungand?
And I’m kind of hoping for Mysterious Girlfriend X and Upotte!! as well.[/quote]
Don’t forget the ‘sparkle, sparkle’ one:
Hyouka
Didn’t I just say that?
Oh yeah… 
The new Eureka series would go nice with my X’amd BD’s.
Alright Sentai, today’s your day. Make us go:
WOO!
YEAH!!
ALRIGHT!!!
AWESOME!!!
That is all.
I see that Section 23 has a booth at otakon this year. Last year I only remember them having a small table. Does Section 23 have bigger plans for otakon this year?
I hope so, as the trade-show like nature of otakon means that otakon requires corporate funding to be epic, and right now otakon is without one of its biggest sponsors.
They are having a panel at Anime Expo again this year, though the date and time aren’t finalized. I imagine they will have one at Otakon as well. However, it seems that Sentai’s panels are often scheduled at the last moment.
With Otakon, it seems that everything is often scheduled at the last moment and nothing goes to plan…ever. Experiencing a cluster~~~~ of epic proportions at Otakon is like a rite of passage, or something
My point being that if Sentai has a panel at Otakon, Otakon probably won’t let us know until they post the schedule, which is generally the week of the event. Any other reliable source of intel is faster than Otakon. It’s brutal and irks me each and every year as they seem to get slower and slower.
If Sentai is planning to do a panel, that would be worth doing Otakon for.
You can attempt emailing Sentai and ask them. That’s how it was confirmed that they would be holding a panel at Anime Expo.
In my experience, most anime conventions end up being giant clusterfucks of epic proportions. I love going to a panel, only to find out it was moved across the building at the last minute, so that by the time I get there, the room is already full. :whistle:
[quote=“dragonrider_cody” post=119055]You can attempt emailing Sentai and ask them. That’s how it was confirmed that they would be holding a panel at Anime Expo.
In my experience, most anime conventions end up being giant clusterfucks of epic proportions. I love going to a panel, only to find out it was moved across the building at the last minute, so that by the time I get there, the room is already full. :whistle:[/quote]
Or even “better”-you get to the room and find out the panel is canceled because not enough people showed up (of course, they were all trying to get to the new location!) 
The bigger the convention, the bigger the screw ups are, and the more frequently they occur, I’ve found.
After over half a decade, otakon still hasn’t figured out the idiocy of putting 2 back to back huge-draw events in the same room with a poorly planned and executed room clear between. After the infamous “otaku sit in” of 2006 I would have thought they’d learned, but they tried to pull that crap again last year. Luckily Bandai reportedly talked some sense into them. Room clears like that at otakon mean that if you see the first event, you won’t have a chance in hell of seeing the second.
With their discount prereg period about to end with only one English VA announced and their legendary propensity for screw ups I’m sorely tempted to not go, fwiw. A Sentai panel could fix that. Shoot, I don’t know how familiar y’all are with otakon’s programming but Bandai brought a lot of it, so if other companies don’t step up to the plate I don’t know if I want to see the results.
Also, to clarify: when I mentioned colossal screw ups at otakon being a “rite of passage” I meant it only for otakon attendance, that is, “if you haven’t encountered a royal, convention-breaking “wtf came up with this?!” screw up at otakon, then you haven’t been to otakon”