AnimeNEXT, Somerset NJ, June 8-10

Anyone in the New Jersey area is invited to come to AnimeNEXT at the Garden State Exhibit Center, Somerset, New Jersey. (This is very easy to get to from I-287, exit 10.) It's a smallish con, but that makes it easier to meet and hang out with people.

I will be on two (maybe three) panels. One, which is my creation, is a rather serious talk about the ways in which some anime (notably CCS) deals with the developmental issue in which young girls transfer their affection from their fathers to socially lawful partners. Another will talk about the brony phenomenon and ways in which it is similar in many ways to the fan reception of anime.

I'd put in for a panel on "Anime under the Radar," in which I'd planned to talk about series that I discovered while cel collecting, and which I haven't actually been able to screen. (Like Microid S and Maeterlinck's Blue Bird.) But it's actually OFF the radar in the proposed schedule, so it may not come off. (The other panelists had their own slate of anime they wanted to discuss, ranging from Hajime no Ippo to Heat Guy J.)

So no cel/sketch-devoted panels this time, but I'd love to hang out with any collectors who come and could be induced to bring a book or box up with me.