11:10 AM – 12:10 PM (PDT) | Channel 2 | Saturday 4 July 2020

Panel Description: Join Production I.G. USA President/Producer, Maki Terashima-Furuta as she hosts her annual Production I.G panel, introducing their current and upcoming shows, including Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, B: The Beginning Season 2, along with many other titles. The panel will feature the new trailers, as well as video letters from her virtual guests Mitsuhisa Ishikawa (the founder of Production I.G), Hiroshi Nagahama (director of Uzumaki Anime), Haruyasu Makino (producer of Ghost in the Shell SAC_2045), Rui Kuroki (producer of B: The Beginning), George Wada (producer of Attack on Titan, Great Pretender, etc.), and Junichi Fujisaku (writer of Ghost in the Shell: SAC, Blood C, Blood +), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (English voice of Major Motoko Kusanagi) and Jason DeMarco (senior VP Adult Swim). Followed by 10 minutes of Q&A.

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My Review (@peggyseditorial): There were not many notes to be had in this panel. One of the cool things about attending was simply seeing all the different faces of Production I.G.’s team and some of their partnering creators. We also got to see some trailers for upcoming or recently released works like Haikyuu!!: To The Top, Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, and Mars Red. A thing to note is that production has been delayed from the current pandemic, maybe by a lot more than the team was willing to express in the panel. 

Overall, it was a semi-disappointing panel. The messages from the creators were pretty repetitive and there was not much news to be found in the mix. Some of the things we were looking forward to hearing about, as Noblesse’s release were never mentioned. (Fingers crossed that we still get a 2020 release!) But there was still some news and I know that Casea (@madamekrow) is looking forward to Junji Ito’s Uzumaki being adapted into a 4-episode animated mini-series.

In all, you can keep up with Production IG’s working list by checking out their website, link. You can read more about the panel hosts here, link.