Latest Guest of Honor Announced for Nation’s Largest Anime/Manga Convention

Anaheim, California (May 9, 2008) — Anime Expo® 2008 announces the attendance of Masahiro Ando as an official Guest of Honor to this year’s Anime Expo® 2008 held from July 3-6, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, CA. More information can be found on the website www.anime-expo.org.

Born in Hokkaido, Masahiro Ando has played a key role in the creation of many popular animation features and TV series. He has also been involved in production, mainly with BONES. Mr. Ando is most well known for his involvement with such features as COWBOY BEBOP: KNOCKIN’ ON HEAVEN’S DOOR, JIN-ROH, METROPOLIS and GHOST IN THE SHELL. He has also worked on the storyboard and production of FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST (TV/Film)”.

Mr. Ando’s current work includes his debut as the director of SWORD OF THE STRANGER-a historical action animation set in feudal Japan five hundred years ago revolving around the friendship between two people with tragic pasts, a fiercely powerful warrior “No Name” (Ronin) who has vowed to give up his sword and a “boy” who has lost his parents and has a contract out on his life.

Masahiro Ando joins legendary American voice actor David Hayter, famed POKEMON director Masamitsu Hidaka, the dynamic duo known as Jyukai and the new Japanese “It-Girl” Shokotan in Anime Expo® 2008’s amazing line up of Guests of Honor.

Attendees that have pre-registered can also update their information and add on orders for main event tickets via the Anime Expo® 2008 Online Registration Area at www.anime-expo.org.

Free shuttle services for all hotel attendees will be provided. Regular non-hotel attendees will have access to utilize the free shuttle services during designated hours as well. All schedules and routes will be posted in the lobby of each shuttle hotel. Frequency of service is pending local traffic, road conditions and can change without notice. Also, no shuttle service provided to the Holiday Inn City Center and the Figueroa Hotel (both are within walking distance of the Los Angeles Convention Center).

Attendees, Press and Industry Members are also encouraged to view the video coverage site of the 2007 convention at www.AXBackstage.org.

This year’s Red & Black Sponsors are FUNimation and ImaginAsian Television. Platinum Sponsor is Imagi Studios. Gold Sponsor is Digital Manga Publishing. Silver Sponsor is Gaia Online. Patron Sponsors are Central Park Media and COPIC Markers.

Continue reading ‘Anime Expo® 2008 Invites a Stranger’

Song Siren to Perform at Nation’s Largest Convention

Anaheim, California (March 26, 2008) — The new Japanese “It-Girl”, television celebrity, blogger, voice actress and illustrator Shoko Nakagawa (“Shokotan” as her fans call her) joins the hottest line up of Anime Expo® 2008 Guests of Honors for the highly anticipated 2008 convention July 3-6, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. More information can be found on the website www.anime-expo.org.

Born in Tokyo in 1985, Ms. Nakagawa broke blog visit records in February 2008 when her blog, ‘Shokotan Blog’ received over one billion hits. Filled with photos and entries written in her own unique slang, this blog is arguably the most popular of the many celebrity blogs. The site, which Ms. Nakagawa updates as many as 15 times a day, garners over 1,800,000 hits a day.

Among many fields of Ms. Nakagawa’s activities, music has been one of her most successful ventures. Since her singing debut in 2006, she has quickly expanded her fan base. Her single ‘Sorairo Days’, released in June of 2007, was chosen as the theme song to the popular TV anime TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN. Her first ever rock song, it debuted at #3 on Japan’s Oricon weekly single chart. Thanks to the ever-increasing popularity of fan events held all over the country, Ms. Nakagawa had her first concert in Tokyo in December of 2007. Tickets sold out in 25 seconds, and the show drew a crowd of 2000 enthusiastic fans.

Ms. Nakagawa is also known for her extensive knowledge of anime and manga. On her blog she posts her thoughts on works that catch her interest, along with her own professional quality illustrations. In May of 2007, she chose 5 songs from over 1,500,000 requests, and released ‘Shokotan☆Cover’ a cover album of anime theme songs. In August of the same year, she was selected as Japan’s good will ambassador at the ‘World Cosplay Summit 2007′, an event for aficionados of cosplay from all over the world. Her live performance at the event received rave reviews from guests, setting the stage for her worldwide popularity. The next month she followed up her hit anime song cover album with the release of ‘Shokotan☆Cover 2’. The album became yet another smash hit, ranking in at #11 on the Oricon album chart.

2007 was no doubt a huge year for Ms. Nakagawa. On December 31st, she realized her dream of performing on the Kohaku Utagassen, Japan’s traditional end of the year singing TV program. It was a fitting way to end an impressive year. Ms. Nakagawa took her place on stage with other artists representing the best and brightest of Japan’s music stars, and received attention for her real time updates to her blog from backstage at the event.

On the first day of the New Year 2008, Ms. Nakagawa went straight from Kohaku to perform at the prestigious Countdown Japan rock festival at 3 am. Regardless of the time, more than 5,500 people turned out to see her perform live. The same day a DVD of her 2007 concert, ‘Shokotan Donyoku Matsuri’ was released, ranking at #5 on the Music DVD chart.

The ‘Shokotan’ fever shows no signs of stopping. The third book from her blog sold over 10,0000 copies, and her 4th single, ’snow tears’, released on January 30th, went to #2 on the charts. The ballad showing off her vocal talents like never before, the song was selected as the ending song for the TV anime HAKABA KITARO, for which Ms. Nakagawa also voices a character. She was quite moved by this fateful collaboration as her late father, the singer Katsuhiko Nakagawa had often said, ‘You can’t grow up without reading HAKABA KITARO in her childhood.

On March 19th, her first full-length album “Big☆Bang!!!” was released with roaring support of her fans, the album debuted at #5 on the Oricon album chart. In support of the album, Ms. Nakagawa will kick off her much-anticipated Japan nation-wide tour in May.

Ms. Nakagawa joins legendary American voice actor David Hayter and famed POKEMON director Masamitsu Hidaka in Anime Expo® 2008’s amazing line up of Guests of Honor.

Attendees, Press and Industry Members are also encouraged to view the video coverage site of the 2007 convention at www.AXBackstage.org.

Continue reading ‘Shokotan “Fever” to Shake up Anime Expo® 2008′