Viz is so big now they can have three panels dedicated to manga alone at SDCC. Moreover, they can bring over some of the biggest names in manga to compliment their lineup that consistently dominates the manga charts. Hino Matsuri, creator of
MeruPuri and
Vampire Knight was in San Diego for the Shojo Beat panel on Friday (make sure to listen to that panel). Saturday saw Viz one-upping themselves as they welcomed manga superstar Watsuki Nobuhiro (Rurouni Kenshin & Busou Renkin both from Viz). The panel itself really was a tribute to the young artist and his beloved works. Complete with cosplayers and an anime preview of his upcoming series - Busou Renkin, Yumi Ohashi with all of Watsuki's editors joined the fans to pay respect for a career of wonderful work.
VIZ Media's Shonen Jump Panel featuring Nobuhiro Watsuki
1:30-2:30
â This panel features the editors of both the Japanese and U.S. Shonen Jump as well as Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of the hit series Rurouni Kenshin and the upcoming Buso Renkin! Two such diverse manga from a single creatorâwhere did these story ideas originate? Also take a sneak peek at the promo animation video of Buso Renkin, never before seen in the U.S. Panelists also include Hisashi Sasaki, original editor and current deputy editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump; Takanori Asada, current editor of Weekly Shonen Jump; Yumi Hoashi, editor-in-chief, Shonen Jump, and others. Room 1A
While everyone present wanted to share their appreciation of Watsuki's work, the mangaka could not help but let everyone know where he took his inspiration. North American manga fans will recognize the name Obata Takeshi for his work on
Hikaru no Go and the mega hit
Death Note. Obata-san's clean detailed art was the reason why Watsuki not only became a mangaka, but because of Obata's association with Shueisha Watsuki decided he had to follow suit and join what was the highest selling anthology in Japan - Shonen Jump. This was a relationship that in turn ended up creating many other names in manga as Watsuki himself had his share of assistants become SJ mangaka.
Watsuki is clearly a shy person. I get the feeling that many mangaka are. So getting a chance to see him open up with audience questions was a treat. Easily my favorite question was "Which Kenshin character to do you see yourself as?" The panel could not pick Kenshin or Kaoru. You wanna guess who Watsuki picked?
The rest of the panel was very brief. Ohashi started with a trailer for the
Busou Renkin anime. I wonder if she was hinting Viz already had this version of the recently ended property.
Watsuki announced he will continue to work on a series of shorts about an embalmer. And Viz "formally" announced three new titles. Only
Hoshin Engi was new information, as the other two were announced or tested in SJ magazine.
The reaction to Gintama's sneak peak in SJ was so huge Viz was basically forced to bring that series over in its entirety. We cannot say the same about
Boboboo.
Both YuGiOh DX and Gintama are coming Jan 2007 with Houshin Engi debuting in April.
Download the audio recording of this
SDCC Panel here:
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