Anime Central Speculation and Announcement Thread

[Decay]

Hey all, it's time for another convention! Anime Central is starting just tomorrow, the 20th of May. It's the biggest convention until July's Anime Expo, and most of the major players of the VN world will be there! Except for JAST, I can't actually find them or J-List on the exhibitor's list on acen's website. All times below are CDT, or UTC -0500, I believe.  I will attempt to keep this OP up to date with all the latest developments.

VisualArts/Key

VisualArts is one of ACEN's "premium partners" so they get a nice posh booth that you'll want to visit if you're a Key fan (Booth 11). They will also have a panel, too. It will be held at 4PM on the 20th. 

"Join CEO Takahiro Baba, Artist Na-Ga, and Composer Shinji Orito for this multimedia industry panel all about your favorite games and shows from VisualArts!"

Announcements: VisualArts announced that the Clannad side-stories will release in just a few weeks, and that they have plans for an Angel Beats localization.

Sekai Project

Sekai Project will of course be present as well. They'll have a premium booth at Booth #61. Their panel will be at 5:30PM on the 20th.

Sekai Project has teased two new announcements from two new partners. It's always hard to predict exactly what Sekai Project will announce, especially since they have a fondness for partnering with pretty obscure doujin and OELVN developers. They've announced some pretty big stuff recently, though, so who knows? Sekai Project were previously planning a livestream but it unfortunately had to be canceled due to a lack of manpower.

Announcements: Sekai Project announced a couple new doujin titles, the sci-fi doujin VN 2236 A.D. and a side-scrolling platformer MAGICALxSPIRAL. The previously announced yuri VN Ne no Kami will have an IndieGoGo launch on May 25th.

MangaGamer

MangaGamer may have the dinkiest booth (Booth #410), but they'll have the biggest panel, at 9PM on the 20th.

MG has teased six new announcements for this show, one of them from a new partner. You can see their site for it here. Things to expect from MangaGamer: A new hardcopy announcement, perhaps euphoria. An "official" announcement for The House in Fata Morgana's fandisc, which has already been announced within the first game, MG seems to be waiting to give it a proper announcement. For the remaining four announcement, I'm guessing one of them will be a BL or Otome title, basically whatever Good Haro is translating next. We might also hear about the next Alice Soft title they're licensing at this point. Many people are expecting their new partner to be Chuablesoft, which is indeed possible considering their CEO took to twitter last year to engage english fans and talk about localization possibilities. That could just as easily be one of SP's announcements, however, or maybe they haven't yet made a commitment to the western market. They're also overdue for announcing their future SonoHana plans. There's a lot of possibilities with MG's announcements, it'll be interesting to see how they play out.

 

@Yotek says that he'll be at the event and will attempt to record the panels for those interested.

So what are you all expecting?

[Darklord Rooke]

9 minutes ago, Decay said:

MG has teased six new announcements for this show, one of them from a new partner. You can see their site for it here. Things to expect from MangaGamer: A new hardcopy announcement, perhaps euphoria. An "official" announcement for The House in Fata Morgana's fandisc, which has already been announced within the first game, MG seems to be waiting to give it a proper announcement. For the remaining four announcement, I'm guessing one of them will be a BL or Otome title, basically whatever Good Haro is translating next. We might also hear about the next Alice Soft title they're licensing at this point. Many people are expecting their new partner to be Chuablesoft, which is indeed possible considering their CEO took to twitter last year to engage english fans and talk about localization possibilities. That could just as easily be one of SP's announcements, however, or maybe they haven't yet made a commitment to the western market. They're also overdue for announcing their future SonoHana plans. There's a lot of possibilities with MG's announcements, it'll be interesting to see how they play out.

Which doesn't leave room for the nukige that's traditionally been their bread and butter. I would have expected at least a couple of new, sex oriented games. They always tend to sell solidly and take fewer resources to translate.

[Decay]

Well, the Sonohana games are yuri nukige. But yeah. I definitely don't expect all of those predictions to be accurate.

[Crayten]

Im hoping for Chuablesoft and some crazy stuff like Light or Eushully (not gonna happen though)

[Chuee]

1 minute ago, Decay said:

Well, the Sonohana games are yuri nukige. But yeah. I definitely don't expect all of those predictions to be accurate.

On the topic of SonoHana, I almost wonder if they specifically wanted to shy away from releasing any translated titles out of fear that they might not sell well. I remember seeing a post from years back saying apparently some of the people translating SonoHana stuff at the time tried contacting Fuguriya about localizing some of their stuff officially, but didn't hear anything back. So maybe they were a bit unsure about the market coming in, which is why they wanted to start with an all-ages title that would sell more. Either way, there's still a few big untranslated SonoHana titles they could easily go for that would sell, namely https://vndb.org/v10700 , https://vndb.org/v12645 , and https://vndb.org/v16262 , and I doubt they'd have any problem finding people willing to translate them. 

[Decay]

Just now, Chuee said:

On the topic of SonoHana, I almost wonder if they specifically wanted to shy away from releasing any translated titles out of fear that they might not sell well. I remember seeing a post from years back saying apparently some of the people translating SonoHana stuff at the time tried contacting Fuguriya about localizing some of their stuff officially, but didn't hear anything back. So maybe they were a bit unsure about the market coming in, which is why they wanted to start with an all-ages title that would sell more. Either way, there's still a few big untranslated SonoHana titles they could easily go for that would sell, namely https://vndb.org/v10700 , https://vndb.org/v12645 , and https://vndb.org/v16262 , and I doubt they'd have any problem finding people willing to translate them. 

The climate was extremely different several years ago. A Japanese company giving any sort of response to a direct inquiry from western fans, even fan translators, was unheard of. I don't think their silence in that case was indicative of anything at all, really. 

[littleshogun]

I'll try to following this tommorow at 9 AM (Indonesian time obviously). As for my opinion in regard of each company.

- Sekai, well I couldn't speculate much as for now but maybe we'll had another doujin game and publisher here. Although we'll had 2 new partner from them sounds interesting though.

- Key? If you didn't care too much about translation quality, all of their main game was already translated and discussed to the death (Except Little Busters EX though, in which case it's still not translated). Although it's good to hear though thag Key want to expand the market to English speaking community.

- Mangagamer - 6 announcements was sounds interesting, and with one partner. Well, if you want my speculation I did that based on the poll result. So I'll not write my speculation here again. Although if I might said based on Mangagamer partner, any of Sonohana game (Hopefully 11) or any Alice Soft games sounds possible for the announcement.

I think that's all for my thought now. See you tomorrow in this thread.

[VirginSmasher]

I'm not expecting much from either SP or MG because I have learned not to overhype myself over this sort of thing.

[littleshogun]

Maybe all of you already knew this, but since Decay miss this update, might as well fill it here. The news was that Frontwing will also attend Anime Central, which of course not so surprising considering that they announce many project aimed for English speaking audience. And at this moment I don't expect much from Frontwing if you ask my expectation about them.

[FuryTomic]

The biggest convention until July's Anime Expo huh.. Interesting.

Probably gonna follow up with the Visual Novel announcements and see what might be in store for us. 

Hoping to see some eye catching visual novels that has a good story line, and maybe a different kind of genre we aren't used to seeing everyday.

[Yotek]

I didn't see a panel on frontwing. Pretty drunk and tired right now. If you guys can get me the info, I'll see if I can get to it.

[Chuee]

14 minutes ago, Yotek said:

I didn't see a panel on frontwing. Pretty drunk and tired right now. If you guys can get me the info, I'll see if I can get to it.

I think they only have a booth here. 

[Dergonu]

Damn, if we see a Euphoria hardcopy and more info on SonoHana releases form MG, then yaaaay!  

Yes, yes, I know, I'm disgusting

[Nosebleed]

Will this finally be the day MG announces SonoHana Nyu Jene? Fingers crossed.

[Decay]

1 hour ago, Yotek said:

I didn't see a panel on frontwing. Pretty drunk and tired right now. If you guys can get me the info, I'll see if I can get to it.

The acen site is frustratingly incomplete. They didn't have any info on VisualArts' panel for example, I had to get it from their facebook page. That said, Frontwing hasn't said anything about acen on their social media, so maybe they aren't attending at all.

1 hour ago, littleshogun said:

Maybe all of you already knew this, but since Decay miss this update, might as well fill it here. The news was that Frontwing will also attend Anime Central, which of course not so surprising considering that they announce many project aimed for English speaking audience. And at this moment I don't expect much from Frontwing if you ask my expectation about them.

Are you sure about this? Frontwing doesn't mention it anywhere on their site or social media, and acen doesn't list them at all. Are you mistaking acen for Anime Expo? They announced a month ago that they'll be attending AX.

[Dergonu]

15 minutes ago, Nosebleed said:

Will this finally be the day MG announces SonoHana Nyu Jene? Fingers crossed.

Will dance on the roof if they do. 

It's raining today so the roof is extra slippery. 

If you want to see me fall MG, hurry up and announce Nyuu Jene  

[Veshurik]

Hm... Don't understand why Mangagamer think that "hardcopy" can be 1 slot in announce. And "CD Dramas" too. I just expecting for new visual novels, not physical edition or something. 

Very interesting, what the 2 new partners from Sekai. Hm... Don't want to overhype, but... Maybe, this is titles that had anime adaptation? Shokomeza, for example... Or Noraneko, it has anime adaptation too...

Han, I don't know, don't want to guess. Will wait tomorrow.

[Maxel]

2 hours ago, Decay said:

The acen site is frustratingly incomplete. They didn't have any info on VisualArts' panel for example, I had to get it from their facebook page. That said, Frontwing hasn't said anything about acen on their social media, so maybe they aren't attending at all.

I guess it's hard to find, but all the info is still there. Search deeper, and you'll find it.

Frontwing will only attend A Expo.

[Decay]

Oh, they're in the "industry" part of the site, where those specific industry panels aren't listed with the rest of them in the panel programming section. Makes perfect sense.

[littleshogun]

@Decay Looks like I misunderstood the info from Grisaia Kickstarter earlier. Sorry about that, but after I reread the info in Grisaia Kickstarter they'll attend the Anime Expo later.

[Formlose Gestalt]

Mangagamers panel will be a little bit late for my time zone, so that has to wait for tomorrow, but Sekai Project will be okay so I am going to follow their panel and see what they have to offer. Too bad that it didn't work out with their livestream.

As for the announcements, I have tampered my expectations.  I have stated my wishes for Mangagamer in the other thread but I think it's entirely possible that they announce nothing that will catch my interest, so let's see what happens. And for Sekai Project it's even harder to make predictions, for their tendency to pick up smaller/lesser known VNs.

[Vorathiel]

Sekai yesterday published on their youtube this:

New Sakura title, this time 25+ years old, mechanic wise, RPG game. Think Eye Of The Beheolder, or Bard's Tale. So probably that will be one of their announcements today.

[Dergonu]

So MG managed to dump Winged Cloud onto SP?  

If that is seriously going to be one of their announcements, then RIP Sekai Project fans. 

[Decay]

14 minutes ago, Vorathiel said:

Sekai yesterday published on their youtube this:

New Sakura title, this time 25+ years old, mechanic wise, RPG game. Think Eye Of The Beheolder, or Bard's Tale. So probably that will be one of their announcements today.

No. This game was announced some time last year by MG and was announced again by SP during anime boston or sakuracon. Both of SP's announcements are from new partners, anyway.

[Maxel]

1 hour ago, Dergonu said:

then RIP Sekai Project fans. 

Sekai Project have fans?