Con season for OFF BLXXK has officially closed out, leaving us exhausted and excited in equal measures. Anime Expo 2024 was full of exciting reveals and surprise guests who gave the fans insight into some of the hottest works coming out, and that’s to say nothing of the fun to be had simply walking around to visit the different displays and fan projects taking place! For a first-time congoer like me, the experience was almost overwhelming and a little scary, but in the way that high-stress experiences can create an adrenaline junkie, you know? For every potentially breakdown-able moment—like getting lost in 110-degree crowds—there were “Oh my God, I can’t wait to come back next year” moments to balance things out like those old Sour Patch Kids commercials.

Through my daily (ish..) coverage of the convention, as it went on, our readers were—I hope—able to get an easily digestible overview of the event unfolding. But now that some time has passed and the fairy dust has settled, it’s time to fully wrap up my feelings in a nice, neat, verbose bow. We’ll go over some of my favorite panels in more detail and some of the overall best moments and reveals from the event. In addition, this article will also feature an interview with the supremely talented Gensho Yasuda, creator of Make-a-Girl, whose team was gracious enough to reach out to OFF BLXXK with an offer for a private interview! So come along, my friends, and let us (finally) wrap up Anime Expo 2024 together.

New Releases

First up on the agenda is sorting through the pile of new and highly anticipated releases teased over the four-day extravaganza—and boy were there a lot of them. The con was jampacked with series spanning from screen to Switch; and in fact, OFF BLXXK was one of the first to get our hands on the gameplay from some of them!

One such title was the new Hunter x Hunter: Nen Impact game, releasing sometime in 2025 by Eighting Co. and published by Bushiroad and Arc System Works. As a fan of the main series, I was excited to see what a full-fledged fighting game with the characters would look like, especially from the creators of Guilty Gear Strive. As previously mentioned, the Arc System Works PR team kindly reached out to offer me a press demo opportunity at their booth, and even as someone whose “gamer girl” lifestyle mainly only extends as far as the cozy games genre, I really enjoyed the active gameplay and intuitive controls (and I totally crushed my opponent too). From what I could tell, I was pretty lucky to have gotten an invitation to demo; the game center of the convention floor was packed all weekend with lines of fans waiting patiently for their chance to try out the first playable demos of the game in America exclusively at Anime Expo 2024.

Blue Lock and Kinnikuman Panels

©︎ Muneyuki Kaneshiro, Yusuke Nomura, Kodansha / "Blue Lock" Production Committee

Thanks to the lovely PR team at 33 Usa Inc., I got to enjoy many panels I might not have been able to get into—or at least get such good seats—because of how highly anticipated the works or guests from the panel were. The Blue Lock and Kinnikuman panels, in particular, were some standouts from the entire weekend in terms of both audience size and excitement, with crowd interactive games being played with the voice actors in between stories. Now that enough time has passed, I think I can finally say I’m over the devastation of losing in the first round of a janken game with Mamoru Miyano, especially because I am still firmly (delusionally) convinced Mamo-chan met eyes with—and smiled at—me! Kinnikuman is also one of the titles that I kept up with post-event, managing to make my rather exclusive list of “Anime I’ve Actually Watched in 2024” due to how much I enjoyed the episode they screened at Anime Expo.

©Yudetamago/Shueisha, Kinnikuman Production Committee

Director Akira Sato visibly choked up when thanking the audience for our zealous reaction to the episode; our passionate response clearly mirrored the passion and hard work put into the title. When seeing just how passionate Anime Expo fans were about anime, he said, “You can really tell how much you all love anime. In Japan, you can’t really see that, so this has been enjoyable for me.” Especially considering the rather obscure popularity overseas of a classic title such as Kinnikuman, both Director Sato and Producer Rui Kuroki seemed especially touched by the audience’s enjoyment. Seeing how much love was put into a show about unreasonably muscled men fighting unreasonably muscled villains, I fell in love with the silly, heartfeltness I could see in just that first episode.

Final Thoughts on Anime Expo 2024

Anime Expo 2024 was honestly an experience I won’t forget. From fangirling moments that reinvigorated my love for Japanese pop culture to interview opportunities with industry professionals that I’m a fan of, AX24 was everything I imagined a con to be and even more! I really enjoyed the fandom spaces as well; the chill vibe of the outdoor karaoke on the 3rd night, for example, paired with the deliciously inviting food trucks, made for a fun “kickback” type of vibe that made it one of my favorite con experiences. It really helped illustrate to me that no matter where you’ve been made to feel like an outcast, you have a community at AX. As much stuff as I did do, there were still exciting activities and fandom panels I didn’t get to do because of time and honestly being a little overwhelmed. But I’ll definitely be going again next year, especially since I missed out on trying the 21 Lounge and Beer Garden due to my con partner’s commitment to inconveniencing me (i.e., being underage). Maybe I’ll even get into full regalia and actually cosplay like I’ve been putting off for a decade. Either way, I know if I decide to attend Anime Expo, I’ll definitely enjoy it.

Bonus Content: An Interview with Gensho Yasuda

Unfortunately, I could not arrange personal interviews with the panelists outside of the press opportunities offered by the PR teams involved in the convention. However, I secured one exclusive interview after being graciously invited by KADOKAWA to a private interview opportunity with Gensho Yasuda! Honestly, I was beyond stoked for this opportunity. As a fan of the short CG animations he would release on SNS, Make-a-Girl is an anime I am wholeheartedly looking forward to. Based on a prior YouTube Shorts animation he released called Make Love, we follow our main character Akira in his quest to “build himself a girlfriend” to help him power up while eventually proving that “love does exist.” The themes of love, power, and humanity are all present in this story. Unlike the prior story introduced via the short animation, the full-length film allows the author, Yasuda-san, to deeply flesh out the characters, their backstories, motivations, and overall story development. The first project from the newly created Gensho Yasuda Studios, Make-a-Girl marks Yasuda-san’s highly anticipated film debut!

©Gensho Yasuda/MAKE A GIRL PROJECT

As part of the interview, KADOKAWA’s promotion team provided each interviewer with three pre-set questions for Yasuda-san and encouraged up to three personal questions from each publication’s representative. Since I’m not quite sure of the protocol, the interview printed in this article will contain only KADOKAWA’s questions, as well as those I had. And so, without further ado, Yasuda-san!

KADAKOWA: Yasuda-san published many CG animations on SNS and YouTube. His total number of social media followers is more than 6 million followers. His works have been seen all over the world. What made you decide to create and post your own CG animation?

Gensho Yasuda: So, for the first question… the reason for working alone in making these… my hobby was creating stories. I had a lot of input and output of stories in my personal life and worked a lot in that sphere. And as an animator, I was sort of beginning to become like a senior creator. And that was where I realized a lot of my interests lay. So, in terms of why I put these materials online, I noticed—first off, I'm not sure how most animators share their work, but I noticed that most anime creators don't share their work online very much. Maybe you'll see some manga or some illustrations and that sort of thing, but I could sense there was a demand for this kind of work. So that's what really made me decide to put them online.

KADAKOWA: For the production of the film Make-A-Girl, you set up an animation studio called Gensho Yasuda Studio. Is there any difference between working alone versus working with a studio?

Yasuda-san: Working on my own is a very freeing experience. I think that’s the greatest weapon I'm able to use in many ways including creating the story and the setup. I can start creating works without deciding in detail what the story is going to be and continue working that way. This approach is not efficient with a team, but as an individual, this works quicker and allows for research as I create. When producing in a team, I think strength in numbers is the greatest weapon. There are some challenges when it comes to researching because the team is continually producing. So, the level of perfection is not as high perhaps, but because we are a team of eight we are completing work quicker. Each person, each team member, has different skills and expresses them in different ways. So, accumulating ideas in the team for Make-A-Girl was a big discovery and a first time for me.

©Gensho Yasuda/MAKE A GIRL PROJECT

KADAKOWA: What are the highlights of the film?

Yasuda-san: So, I mainly created short anime. And they didn't include any lines when I was making these and putting them on YouTube and that sort of thing. So it required some imagination from the audience. But now that I've had voice actors literally breathe life into these characters, I think people will be able to relate even closer to them and have that classic anime experience of really relating to the characters. And because I'm a 3D animator, I do a lot of strong work with 3D action. This film also has a lot of really great 3D action that I think audiences will enjoy.

Aalima: There exists a pervasive attitude amongst anime fans that 2D is the only valid form of anime, and/or 3D-CG cheapens the product. How do you feel about this attitude, and how do you feel your film will change people’s minds about 3DCG being bad/cheap?

Yasuda-san: There's a clear reason why 3D hasn't really been holding up to the 2D anime, which I think is just the experience, and the know-how isn't deep enough yet in the industry. So, in Japan, for instance, CG production companies like Studio Orange are great at creating hand-drawn characters. So, we know it's possible and I continue researching how to make 3D characters that look really good.

Aalima: Outside of the difference in graphics, what do you think sets you apart as an animator in the industry? Or what would you like to be known for outside of 3D animation? 

Yasuda-san: So, for me, when characters go through hardship and they experience an injury on their body, like a scar that won't go away or some sort of condition that won't go away, I think it's important not to just make that injury or illness go away and create a happy ending but shows characters that are strong enough to go on despite that injury. So, in my shorts, I often get these comments that say, “Oh, when is this character gonna get better?” “Can you heal this person or that sort of thing?” And I always think to myself, I am never going to do that.

Aalima: Can you tell us your next project yet? Do you have a next one?

Yasuda-san: Actually, just for that very process, I went to India just recently. India was great.