Saturday

10:00 AM - Bubblegum Crisis OVA
You kids with your Bubblegum Crisis 2040! Get off my lawn! This is the ORIGINAL series, and the best episodes of it too! Featuring work by Masami Obari (Fatal Fury, Super Robot Wars: The Inspector, Gravion), this totally ’80s tale of lesbian non-sparkling vampire robots, exploding helicopters, and girls in powered armor with high heels blowing stuff up shows why the old-timers hate the newer Bubblegum Crisis series so much.

11:00 AM - Cowboy Bebop
We estimate about 40-50% of this convention’s attendees have never seen Cowboy Bebop, and the rest will be shocked to discover that’s the case. Over a decade ago this was THE hottest anime series in America, so whether you’ve not seen/heard this tale of spacefaring bounty hunters or just haven’t seen it in ages you may as well take a look at what you’ve been missing out on lately.

12:00 PM - Big Windup
The smell of fresh grass, the feel of the hot sun, the pressure of competition, and the certainty of knowing you have a team of friends all working together to get that last man across home plate. Baseball is about youth, discovering yourself, and teamwork; Big Windup captures it perfectly. If you aren’t into baseball, don’t worry — the character development and erm, “interaction” between the boys will make this completely worth it.

1:00 PM - Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix
Most who know the name Osamu Tezuka know him as the creator of Astro Boy and the founder of modern anime and manga as we know it. But his life work was Phoenix, a tale of life (and death) that spanned from the dawn of mankind until the end of time itself. Written over the span of nearly 50 years, alternating between past and future, beginning and end, the quickest way to describe it all is “cathartic.”

2:00 PM - Gall Force: Eternal Story
The classic “Alien”-inspired sci-fi action anime of the battle between the Solnoids (a race of all human females) and the Paranoids (a race of nasty jelly like stuff that inhabits awesome machines). Featuring excellent action sequences, character designs by Kenichi Sonoda (Bubblegum Crisis, Gunsmith Cats, Exaxxion), and lots of unnecessary nudity, Gall Force is one to check out!

3:30 PM - Black Jack
On the outskirts of the law, operating without a medical license, is the most brilliant surgeon to ever wield a scalpel. When you’re at the end of the line and all hope seems lost, he’ll come to your aid…for a price. See what happens when you combine Dr. House and Batman to form the most badass medical hero possible and put him up against the most bizarre and heartbreaking medical mysteries that the “God of Manga,” Osamu Tezuka, could come up with.

4:30 PM - Mobile Police Patlabor OAV
The individuals who’d later make Ghost in the Shell and Eden of the East are behind these stories of civil servant misfits who occasionally pilot robots. But this isn’t really a “robot anime.” In fact, if we had to pick ONE anime title that represented everything we liked about anime, we’d have a rough time of it…but Patlabor would be on the short list.

5:30 PM - Revolutionary Girl Utena (Episodes 1-2)
Girl princes (not “princesses”!), swords coming out of people’s chests, duels, upside-down castles, sports cars, sexual tension in every possible configuration, girls turning into cows, elephant rampages, shadow plays, the worst self-help seminar ever, and enough roses to bury a small village. Also, hands-down the most delightfully surreal introduction to why gender roles suck that you could possibly ask for. This is what happens when you let a slightly twisted shojo manga artist and the director of Sailor Moon go crazy.

6:30 PM - They Were Eleven
Based on a manga by legendary shojo mangaka Moto Hagio (A Drunken Dream and Other Stories), this SF thriller tells the story of ten students completing the final exam at the galaxy’s most elite University. Their mission: to work together and survive aboard a derelict space station. There’s just one problem: when they actually arrive, there’s one person too many, and since they’re all strangers no one can tell who doesn’t belong…

8:00 PM – Fist of the North Star OAV
Before Naruto, DBZ, and the rest of their ilk, 9 year-old Japanese kids were all watching this post-apocalyptic epic about people whose kung fu was so powerful they could make your brain explode out of your skull with a touch. As this is the BEST IDEA EVER, it has been continually remade with new stories, merchandise, and videogames (check out Ken’s Rage for PS3 and 360!) for decades. This installment from a recent revival is about KUNG FU JESUS.

9:00 PM – Cyber City Oedo 808
From Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust) comes a GREAT idea: take the worst criminals of the worst and make them police officers instead! Don’t worry, they’re fitted with explosive collars around their necks that’ll detonate if they don’t finish their assignments in time! This sort of cyberpunk science fiction could only have been created by mad scientists.

10:00 PM – PANEL: History of Hentai
WARNING: ADULT CONTENT. 18+ ONLY.  (IDs checked at the door.)
The world of hentai is not limited to DVDs, manga, and those games with lots of clicking.  Adult anime and manga go back as far as the existence of anime and manga itself, from Ukiyo-e woodblock prints, propaganda work of the 40′s and 50′s, avant garde work of the 60′s and 70′s, home video of the 80′s and 90′s, and the world of the internet today. Join the panel be surprised and amazed by the works and people involved with them.

11:00 PM - Legend of the Overfiend
WARNING: ADULT CONTENT. 18+ ONLY.  (IDs checked at the door.)
Bring the kids, bring the family! Actually…DON’T. Also known as Urotsukidoji, this is one of the nastiest, most hardcore, most gruesome works of “animated snuff film misogynist crap” ever made. Featuring some story about the end of the world, tentacles, and glowing phalluses, don’t watch this unless you’re ready to find out what people thought all anime was like before Pokemon existed.