The staff of Otakon 2023 announced on Saturday that illustrator Hidetaka Tenjin (Macross Frontier) will attend the event as a guest.

Tenjin is an illustrator and mechanical artist whose works include Macross Zero, Aquarion, Noein – to your other self, Hellsing Ultimate, and Macross Frontier. He also drafted mechanical art for the Gundam and Space Battleship Yamato franchises. He started his career drawing the Macross‘ signature fighter, the VF-1 Valkyrie, for a fansite while he was in college. This later led to work for the official publications Macross Chronicle and Space Battleship Yamato Fact File. He worked on mechanical design for LeSean Thomas and MAPPA‘s Yasuke anime. He is also a voice actor, having played roles such as Rafael Banderas in Garo the Animation and Goreinu in Hunter x Hunter.

Comic-Con International in San Diego awarded its Inkpot Award to Tenjin (Macross Frontier) in 2022. He attended the event in person, where Udon Entertainment offered early copies of Tenjin’s Artistry of Macross: From Flashback 2012 to Macross Frontier book before its October 18 release.

Otakon 2023 is scheduled for July 28-30 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. This year’s event will also host manga artist Kyoko Aiba. The event announced its its COVID-19 policy for this year’s event on March 3. The policy says that masks and proof of vaccination are no longer mandatory for attendees of the event in alignment with “local and federal guidance.”

Last year’s event took place on July 29-31, 2022.

Source: Press release

NetEase Games recently launched the Anici (pronounced ah-nee-shee) anime brand as part of Nici Co. Ltd. Anici had its first AnimeJapan exhibit at this year’s event last weekend. The brand aims to provide content with respect to content creation and the spirit of challenge under the theme of “that passion, even 10 years later.”

NetEase Games established Nici Co. Ltd. in Tokyo in June 2020 to “support the anime industry,” delivering a variety of animation together with various partners.

Anime listed on Anici’s official website include upcoming titles Skip and Loafer, Heavenly Delusion, Otaku Elf, and Kizuna no Allele. There are also anime listed from the past few years that Nici has been involved with, such as Cells at Work Black, Black Rock Shooter: Dawn Fall, and Yurei Deco.

NetEase Games is the online games subsidiary of NetEase, Inc. NetEase Games formed Nagoshi Studio Inc. in January 2022. The creator of Sega‘s Yakuza (Ryū ga Gotoku) game series Toshihiro Nagoshi serves as the Representative Director and CEO of the company while former Yakuza series producer Daisuke Satō serves as a producer. While NetEase Games is located in Guangzhou, China, Nagoshi Studio Inc. is located in Tokyo.

NetEase Games acquired Gōichi Suda‘s (SUDA51’s) game developing studio Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. in 2021. Game developer and Devil May Cry 5 designer Ryosuke Yoshida left his job at CAPCOM in July 2020 to work as a senior game designer at NetEase Games‘ Sakura Studio. Game producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi (Resident Evil, Dragon’s Dogma, Sengoku Basara, Devil May Cry) left CAPCOM in March 2022 after 27 years to join NetEase Games as a producer.

Sources: Anici, Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)

The official website for the television anime of Kentaro Yabuki‘s Ayakashi Triangle manga announced on Tuesday that the anime will restart its originally scheduled broadcast of 12 episodes in July. The anime will re-air from episode 1. Broadcast dates and times will be announced in the future.

The staff delayed the fifth episode and beyond in January due to the effects of COVID-19 on the production schedule. The fourth episode aired on schedule on January 30, but the anime began reruns on February 6, the fifth episode’s originally scheduled air date. The fifth episode later aired on March 6 after a delay, and the sixth episode followed on March 13. However, instead of the seventh episode on March 20, a recap special for the first six episodes aired on that day. A special program then aired the following week.

The first Blu-ray Disc/DVD volume of the anime has also been delayed from March 29 to September 27. The subsequent second to the sixth monthly volumes have also been delayed to October 2023 to February 2024.

Ayakashi Triangle is the third Aniplex television anime this season to suffer from delays, following NieR:Automata Ver 1.1a and UniteUp!.

The show premiered on January 9 in Japan, and Crunchyroll is streaming the series as it airs.

Noriaki Akitaya (Bakuman., Castle Town Dandelion, Slow Loop) is directing the anime at CONNECT, with Kei Umabiki as assistant director. Shogo Yasukawa (Hyperdimension Neptunia, Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma, The Executioner and Her Way of Life) is in charge of the series scripts. Hideki Furukawa (Strike The Blood III, IV, FINAL, Battle Girl High School, Invaders of the Rokujyōma!?) is designing the characters. Jin Aketagawa is the sound director, and Rei Ishizuka (A Couple of Cuckoos, PriPara) is composing the music.

Viz Media and Shueisha are both publishing the manga in English digitally, and Seven Seas is releasing the compiled book volumes digitally and physically in English. Seven Seas describes the story:

Teenager Kazamaki Matsuri has long been part of an elite force of ninja exorcists, tasked with fighting malicious ayakashi spirits who threaten Japan–especially those after his childhood friend, the spirit medium Kanade Suzu. As he fiercely protects her, and his relationship with her blooms from friendship into something more, a powerful cat ayakashi vows to get between the lovebirds: by casting a forbidden spell that turns Matsuri into a woman! With no apparent way to undo the spell, Matsuri must continue battling ayakashi–and go back to school–in this new feminine body until he can find a way to turn back.

Seven Seas released the second uncut volume on February 7.

Source: Ayakashi Triangle anime’s website