NYCC fansneed hardly any additional motives to attend the highly anticipated event, but anime fans will be happy to know that Toei Animation has prepared some special content for them this year. The distribution company will hone in on three of its most popular titles —Digimon,Dragon Ball,andOne Piece— in order to bring exciting news tootakuseverywhere.
The Toei Animation activation kicks off with crowd-pleasingDragon Ballon a special panel which is gearing up to make a special announcementrelated to the franchise, and which will be revealed byDragon BallJapanese executive producerAkio Iyoku. The panel will be hosted by English dub voice actorMonica Rial(the voice of Bulma) and will also featureIan Sinclair(voice of Whis). The trio is set to unveil at a teaser whose content will be kept under wraps until it is revealed to the NYCC attendees. The panel will begin at 12:45 p.m. ET on Thursday, October 12 on the Javits Center Empire Stage.
Die-hardDigimonfans will be glad to know that Toei Animation will celebrate thefirst two seasons of the anime, with a focus onDigimon 02. The new movie,Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning, is set to premiere this fall. In order to tease it, the “Digimon: Past & Future” Q&A panel will be hosted byJustin Rojasand will feature Japanese guestHiromi Seki, producer of thetwo originalDigimonseries. The panel begins at 1:45 p.m. ET on Friday, October 13 in Javits Center Room 409.
‘One Piece’ Villains Take Center Stage
For the third day of the event, Toei Animation will gather the English dub voice actors ofOne Pieceto present the “One Piece Villains Panel,” in which the most iconic villains from the long-running anime series will be celebrated. They will also debut the English dub ofOne Piece’s1,015th episode, and a major franchise announcement is also slated to be unveiled in October. The panel will be held on the Javits Center Main Stage at 6:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, October 14.
Aside from that,all anime fanswill be able to enjoy multi-booth experiences including a pop-up shop, life-sized statues, a GIF photo booth, murals, and aDigimoncard game demo play. Toei Animation will also unveil two giant character inflatables: They’ll make the worldwide debut of a new Son Goku balloon and Americans will witness the first-ever display of theMonkey D. Luffy Gear Fiveballoon outside of Japan.
In case you missed it, the live-action adaptation ofOne Piecewas recentlyrenewed by Netflix for Season 2, which only made fans more excited about the franchise. The episodes are overseen and produced by franchise creatorEiichiro Oda, which certainly explains why so many decisions that the series made were welcomed with open arms by long-time fans.
This year’s NYCC takes place from October 12 to 15 in New York City, stay tuned at Collider for fresh news from the event.
