Last Saturday at Anime Expo 2012, NIS America held an informational panel hosted by Eugene Chen, localization director; Mitsu Hiraoka, NIS America producer; Ryan Phillips, PR and Marketing; Sohei Niikawa, president of NIS and NIS America. First, they teased their up upcoming releases for shows like Bunny Drop, Anohana and Kimi no Todoke, and then plugged their online store. They also took a moment to explain their release philosophy, noting specifically that while they don’t do dubs, an immense amount of care goes into the artbooks included with their premium releases.
Then came their big announcement, Natsume’s Book Of Friends, which is about a boy who sees yokai (demons), and then befriends a magical cat. That title should street in the fall, and NIS noted in the Q&A that they have the later seasons of that series.
Speaking of that Q&A, some other interesting tidbits were as follows:
-Blu-ray rereleases of older titles requires additional licensing.
-A company that isn’t NIS apparently already has Nichijou.
-Getting a show licensed is less effort than the localization process.
-Budget editions of titles will only occur once the premium edition of that title sells out. Thus, if a show is a slow seller, don’t expect a cheap reissue any time soon.
