MomoCon Goes Virtual With MomoConline, Toonami Panel Still Canceled Replaced By Adult Swim Panel

Last Updated on by Joshua Mathieu (Jmb a.k.a. The Boss)


UPDATE: MomoCon announces (May 16, 2020) they will be going virtual, here is the statement released by MomoCon:

“Thanks to the help of many great partners and panelists we have gathered over 75 hours of NEW live and pre-recorded panels and content! While 2020 has been a year of significant change, one thing we did not want to change was bringing you awesome panels and events and much more fun on Memorial Day Weekend! MomoCon goes virtual with MomoConline, May 21st – 24th! During the 4 days we will be featuring livestreamed panels and events on Twitch, exclusive merchandise on our MomoCon Shop, a community-focused Discord Server to interact with your fellow fans, an Online Cosplay Showcase and , and even an MomoCon-themed Animal Crossing Island and merchandise!”

Industry Panels include Adult Swim, Right Stuf, and Crunchyroll, however, it looks as if the Toonami Panel will remain canceled. Instead, an Adult Swim Panel “Adult Swim Tender Touches: Television’s First and Only Low-Budget, Animated Soap Opera” as been scheduled in its place. If this changes, we will be sure to report it as the information becomes available.

To learn more about MomoConline click here: https://www.momocon.com/online/

 



UPDATE: MomoCon has just announced that they will be postponing the convention due to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic, here is the statement released by MomoCon:

“On behalf of the entire MomoCon family, our hearts go out to every person and family affected by these challenging global times.

MomoCon organizers are currently exploring new dates for the MomoCon 2020 experience and we will continue to work around the clock with the Georgia World Congress Center, our hotel partners, and government officials to bring our fans an update as soon as possible.

In the event you are unable to attend during the later dates, we will also be providing options for existing memberships. As soon as we have our new plans for 2020 in place, you—the valued members of our community—will be among the first to know.

Thank you for your continued patience as we work toward finding the best solution for MomoCon 2020. ”

UPDATED: MomoCon has announced on Monday, April 6, 2020 that they have decided to canceled MomoCon 2020.

Updated 4/6/2020

“Over the past weeks, many academic centers, health systems and businesses have issued notices that do not allow for domestic travel and gatherings on a large scale. After much consideration in conjunction with our venue and city partners, MomoCon 2020 will be cancelled, with MomoCon returning bigger and better than ever in 2021 (May 27-30th, 2021). We would like to thank the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Georgia World Congress Center, and Eventsphere, our housing partner, for their extensive efforts over the past few weeks to attempt to find alternate dates, move existing business, and aid the efforts.

MomoCon’s goal has always been to provide a world-class event. Like many of you, we have been eagerly anticipating and preparing for MomoCon 2020, but the health and safety of attendees, volunteers, vendors, exhibitors, and everyone else involved must come first. Our concern is for both the health of everyone involved and the quality of event we can deliver with the current challenges we are all facing.

Our team has been meeting to discuss recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. In light of the potential risks associated with large gatherings and increasing global travel restrictions, it became very clear that not holding the event over the originally scheduled dates was the right thing to do.

We are grateful to everyone who has worked tirelessly in the planning of MomoCon and those who will continue to assist with next steps for our 2021 event. The 2020 MomoCon experience was years in the making, with thousands of volunteers, speakers, attendees, exhibitors and community partners coming together to make this event possible. Our vital work will continue in the days and weeks ahead.

Thank you for your commitment to MomoCon and to our community as a whole. It’s been a challenging time and we appreciate your patience while we’ve worked with partners to find the best path forward. We will provide more details and information on our website, through our social media channels and via email to various groups affected in the coming days.

Hotels

Our hotel partner Eventsphere is ready to process the cancellation of hotel rooms within the MomoCon block at our partner hotels. They will be in contact with all reservation holders via email this week. If you need to reach out to them, they are available at momocon@eventsphere.com, but we encourage you to give them some time as the volume will initially be high. Reaching out to them is not required to process your hotel cancellation, which will happen automatically, so we encourage you to only reach out if you have questions or concerns. No credit cards or deposits have been charged from the reservations at this time and they will not be for the 2020 event.

Reservations made directly through a hotel must be cancelled directly with that hotel or booking service. Please refer to your reservation confirmation for refund information for direct hotel or third party bookings; MomoCon is unable to intervene in these circumstances.

Travel bookings for most major airlines have been made more flexible for transfers due to the current US situation; if you have booked travel, please contact your airline directly for what options are available.

Parking

If you have pre-paid for Red Deck parking, please contact ParkMobile directly at 866-330-7275.  They have been advised that all refunds are approved.

True Dungeon

If you purchased True Dungeon tickets at td.events, the folks at True Dungeon will begin processing full refunds today at 5:00 pm central.  The refunds may take up to a week to show up on your credit card, but they will all be initiated tonight by TD. If you have any questions about your refund, please email lori@truedungeon.com for assistance.

Attendees

MomoCon has been around for 15 years, through 5 venues, one college campus, and even a tornado. We aren’t going anywhere and we look forward to bringing you amazing entertainment long into the future. We thank you immensely for your support and understanding right now.

You have a few options for your membership if you’ve already purchased:

  • If you would like to retain your membership for our next convention, you don’t need to take any action. This rollover will happen automatically for attendees on May 15, 2020, with no ticketing fees for repurchases, unless another option is chosen. If you do choose to roll over your registration to the next MomoCon, we have something special for you: an exclusive MomoCon item that will not be released in any other form or fashion, as a memento of thanks for sticking with us through this. These will be provided for you at the next convention.
  • If you request a refund, it will be provided with no questions asked. Thank you for allowing us a little time for the ticketing provider to process. Please request before May 15, 2020 for refund consideration.
  • If you’d like to have your merchandise order mailed to you or refunded, all who have pre-purchased merchandise will receive an email within a few weeks for options.

You can request a refund here

Vendors and Artists 

We understand the gravity of postponements and cancellations in the event space. This industry touches many small businesses, artists, conventions, vendors, and other workers that rely on the sales from events for their livelihood. If you’re able, there are ways you can help the conventions, vendors, and artists you love, at MomoCon and other events.

  • Think about carrying over your convention memberships to the next year/event for postponed cons, opting not to get a refund, if you can. That small amount can go a long way to help the events you love continue for future years.
  • Take a look at the list of vendors and artists for a convention. Support them. Commission things. Get early holiday gifts. Grab a gift card for when things are better! We will be featuring exhibitors and artists through the coming weeks on our social media channels.
  • Don’t have the ability to spend right now? Spread awareness and positive posts about the cons and vendors. A little kindness goes a long way.

Small actions now mean a lot to people and communities that are hurting.

If you are a vendor, artist, or indie game developer registered for MomoCon, look for an email from us today with your options for the next convention and refunds.

Participants who have submitted for various contests, game shows, panels, and fan-organized photoshoots and gatherings will be contacted in the coming weeks by their section coordinators.

Online and Future Offerings

Some features of MomoCon will continue online! We will share more details about some of our contests and events in an online/distance format soon.

We will be working with guests and agents currently booked for MomoCon 2020 throughout the coming weeks to ensure as much of the awesome event we’ve been planning for the past year can carry forward to the new year, but please bear with us as some guests may have scheduling conflicts. We want to bring you the best event possible and will do everything in our power to keep the awesome set of guests and amenities we have now while adding new features to help fill in for those guests and partners who cannot attend the new dates. Thank you for your patience on further updates, as this will take some time.”

UPDATE: Toonami has announced that they have decided to cancel their Panel at MomoCon due to current events, here is the statement Toonami released:

“To our dear Atlanta and Momocon fans, after much thought we’ve come to the sad conclusion that we are going to cancel our Toonami panel this year. So sorry to miss hanging out with you. But with the need to protect everyone as much as we can, we hope you understand the reason for us cancelling is to help keep our fans safe and away from large crowds right now. But rest assured Toonami will keep going this and every Saturday night. So stay at home, wash your hands, and watch your favorite shows this Saturday from 11:30p – 3a!”

As we previously announce we were also approved as accredited press to cover MomoCon, if MomoCon is able to reschedule we still plan on trying to cover the event if possible.


Toonami will be returning to MomoCon once again this year! The Panel will be on Friday May 22, 2020, at this time no other details about the panel are available.

We can assume that there were will be several updates and possible show announcements at MomoCon this year as Jason DeMarco, SVP/Creative Director of Adult Swim and Creator of Toonami, has recently stated on Twitter that the Toonami crew are currently working on six original series including Blade Runner-Black Lotus and Umuzaki between now and 2022. He also teased that they have some great acquisitions on the horizon.

Maki Terashima-Furuta, President of Production IG-USA and Co-Producer of FLCL, FLCL: Progressive, FLCL: Alternative, Sand Whale And Me, Uzumaki, also teased on Twitter that she will be bringing a lot of shows over to Adult Swim this year.

BLADE RUNNER – BLACK LOTUS which was announced in November of 2018 will feature thirteen 30-minute episodes produced by animation studio Sola Digital Arts (Ultraman). Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed) and Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) will direct all episodes of the premiere season, which will follow their current directorial work on the upcoming Ghost in the Shell series reboot.  Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) is a creative producer. While the series plot is being kept under wraps, producers have confirmed the story will take place in 2032 and will include some familiar characters from the BLADE RUNNER universe.

Back in January of this year Jason DeMarco had stated in a tweet that “The story for Blade Runner-Black Lotus is great and the look will blow people away. We are working hard on it and can’t wait to share more this year!”

To read more about Blade Runner – Black Lotus click here:

Adult Swim and Crunchyroll Producing All-New Blade Runner Anime Series with Alcon Television Group

Uzumaki was announced at the Junji Ito Panel at Crunchyroll Expo 2019, acclaimed horror manga artist Junji Ito will be partnering up with Production IG and Toonami to create a four-episode anime adaptation of his hit work, Uzumaki. The four episode mini-series will see its world premiere on Toonami in 2020.

Jason DeMarco had stated:

“That’s right! Premiering in 2020, the next Ttoonami original series will be UZUMAKI- a 4 episode adaptation of Junji Ito’s horror classic, directed by Hiroshi Nagahama (Mushishi) and scored by Colin Stetson (Hereditary). I’m beyond thrilled to be working with one of my favorite mangaka of all time, Ito-sensei. His support has been instrumental in getting this made and it’s been a joy to work with him! And yes, before you ask: the whole series will be in black and white. 😎 Also: Nagahama is a MASSIVE Ito fanboy, so rest assured he is doing his absolute most to do the story justice. We are very lucky to have such a talented director who is willing to let this be exactly what it needs to. Ito is very happy with the scripts and the trailer so far, and thrilled with the positive reactions to our announcement!”

Synopsis for Uzumaki:

“Kirei lives in a town that lately has odd occurrences, and each one somehow is connected to a spiral. Soon the spiral occurrences spread to infect even the bodies of people, which suddenly turns the everyday events in her life into chaos and horror.”

To read more about the Uzumaki announcement at CRX 2019 click here to see our coverage from that even:

Toonami and Production IG announces Uzumaki by Junji Ito at CrunchyrollExpo 2019, To World Premiere in 2020.

Also recently announced was a new Samurai Jack game, Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time. Become Samurai Jack, the greatest warrior of the past, present and future. Journey through time to finally stop Aku’s evil reign in this new adventure told by the creators of Samurai Jack. Encounter your favorite characters from the show including The Scotsman, Scaramouche, Sir Rothchild and more!

Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time is slated to release this summer which means it will most likely be a topic at this year's MomoCon Toonami Panel. To read more about Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time click here:

Adult Swim Games Announces New Samurai Jack Game, “Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time” Coming Summer 2020

There haven't been any major updates on Blade Runner-Black Lotus or Uzumaki since their respective announcements. Also as of right now nothing else has been said about what the other four original series are or when they are going to premiere on Toonami, it is also unknown what the "acquisitions" are or when they are slated to premiere.

We don't know what exactly is going to be announced/discussed at this year's Toonami Panel but whatever happens we will be there covering MomoCon and the Toonami Panel and will bring you any news that is announced so make sure you follow all of our social media accounts for updates!

You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Tumblr!

(Edit 03/10 @8:30am C/T: Added more information about the upcoming Samurai Jack game, Samurai Jack Battle Through Time.)


Source: Adult Swim via Email. MomoCon, Toonami Facebook