Guests

Hatsune Miku

A digital diva famous worldwide for her ankle-length aqua-colored pigtails and distinctive voice, Hatsune Miku will light up the stage at Nokia Theater on July 2nd in her U.S. live concert debut presented by The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, Crypton Future Media, Inc., SEGA Corporation, Tokyo Kawaii Magazine (ASCII Media Works) and Toyota Motor Sales, USA.

Hirano Katsuyuki

A life-long fan of heroic fantasies who grew up playing “Dragon Quest” and “Final Fantasy” and dreaming of making his own RPGs, Hirano Katsuyuki is today the Lead Artist at Idea Factory/Compile Heart. Mr. Hirano is most well-known for his character work on “Spectral Souls” and the “Record of Agarest War” series. “I am so excited about Anime Expo and hope to meet with fellow heroic fantasy and RPG fans from the US,” says Mr. Hirano.

Hiroyuki Birukawa

Anime producer Hiroyuki Birukawa is one of key forces behind the success of the first LASTEXILE series. He is also well known as the producer for “Linebarrels of Iron,” “The King of Braves GaoGaiGar Final” (OVA), “THE QWASER OF STIGMATA” series, “GUNxSWORD,” “Betterman,” “Metal Fighter Miku,” and “Generator Gawl.”

Itoh Hiroyuki

As CEO of Crypton Future Media, Mr. Hiroyuki has established himself as a visionary “meta-creator” — one who creates various products and services to assist the creations of other people. Soon after creating a new category of Vocaloid entertainers with the introduction of Hatsune Miku, he launched PIAPRO (www.piapro.jp), the Vocaloid info, music and artwork-sharing site. Most recently in 2010, he started the music aggregation service ROUTER.FM, which has started to transmit more than 1,000 independent labels to the world.

Izumi Matsumoto

Izumi Matsumoto is the creator of the popular romantic comedy manga, “Kimagure Orange Road,” first published in “Weekly Shonen Jump” in 1984. Teenage love triangle meets fantasy in this landmark manga that has been adapted into an anime series, novels and a radio drama.

Kalafina

Along with the hit-making sound producer Yuki Kajiura, Kalafina has provided memorable songs for popular anime series including “Kara no Kyoukai – the Garden of sinners,” “Kuroshitsuji — Black Butler,” and “PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA.”

Kentaro Hashimoto

Kentaro Hashimoto has produced mega-hit animated television series like “Death Note” and “Kurozuka”. Mr. Hashimoto has brought out new animated interpretation of the classic literature by Ango Sakaguchi in “Aoi Bungaku: In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom.”

Koichi Chigira

Acclaimed anime director Koichi Chigira is a frequent GONZO collaborator. Mr. Chigira is the director of such hits as “Full Metal Panic!,” “Gate Keepers,” “LASTEXILE,” “The Tower of DRUAGA –the Aegis of URUK– or –the Sword of URUK–,“ “Tokyo Babylon,” “Tokyo Babylon 2,” and “Brave Story.”

Makoto Kobayashi

From production design to mechanical design to directing, Makoto Kobayashi has played many roles in the mechanized world of anime. Fans recognize his unique artistic touch from such classics as “LASTEXILE,” “Space Battleship Yamato Fukkatsuhen,” “Mobile Suit Gundam Z,” “Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ,” “SAMURAI 7,” “Trinity Blood,” “The Tower of DRUAGA –the Aegis of URUK– or –the Sword of URUK–.”

Maon Kurosaki

Kurosaki honed her singing and dancing skills by performing at Dearstage, a famous Akihabara club, and made her major label debut at Geneon Universal in 2010 with the album H.O.T.D., a collection of ending theme songs for “Highschool of the Dead,” a smash hit anime series. Many of her songs have risen to the top of the Japanese Oricon charts including “Magic World,” the end theme for the “Toaru Majutsu no Index II” series which debuted in the top 20 and “Memories Last,” which rose as high as number 14.

Miyuki Sawashiro

Over the last 10 years, Sawashiro has provided voice-over in more than 120 anime titles. She has also lent her talent to many video games and Drama CDs. Notably, she voiced Puchiko in the English dubbed releases of “Di Gi Charat – A Trip to the Planet” and “Leave it to Piyoko!” making her one of the few Japanese voice actors to have reprised a role in English in addition to the original Japanese performance.

Masayoshi Tanaka

As an animator, Masayoshi Tanaka has worked on popular series such as ”X,” “CHOBITS,” “EUREKA 7,” “HONEY AND CLOVER” and many more. As character designer and chief animator, his most famous works include “TORADORA!,” the animated adaptation of the Shonen Jump series “REBORN!” and “HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD.”

Nirgilis

Famous in the Japanese music scene for their ability to fuse a variety of music styles with melodic songwriting and mash-ups, Nirgilis will perform on July 1 at 7 p.m. in Club Nokia. As Guests of Honor, the band will also participate in a meet-and-greet, autograph signing and focus panel.

Onyx Kobayashi

A multifaceted artist, Onyx Kobayashi is responsible for the lyrics, music, illustrations and video for the Vocaloid songs including his hit “Saihate,” which has been played more than 2 million times online.

Seiji Mizushima

Seiji Mizushima began his directorial career with the “Generator Gawl” series, which debuted in 1998. Since then he has gone on to direct hit anime series and movies including “Fullmetal Alchemist,” “Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie – Conqueror of Shamballa,” “Shaman King,” and “Slayers Next.”

Sohei Niikawa

Niikawa is the creative force behind such popular NIS games as the “Disgaea” series, the “Marl Kingdom” series (La Pucelle Tactics) and the “Hayarigami” series.

Sugano Kenta

One of the most prolific game directors at Idea Factory/Compile Heart, Sugano Kenta is famous for epic simulation RPGs including “Spectral Souls,” “Blazing Souls,” the “Record of Agarest War” series, and the “Hyperdimension Neptunia” series. He is currently directing the highly anticipated “Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2.” “I love to surprise and challenge players with deep and complex game mechanics,” says Mr. Sugano. “I can’t wait to meet with RPG fans at Anime Expo and share insights on the creation of our most popular series.”

Takaaki Suzuki

Takaaki Suzuki is known as a creator who has developed the military, world and science fiction settings for “LASTEXILE,” “GUNxSWORD,” “Strike Witches” and “Strike Witches 2.” He has written scripts for some of these titles and has also worked as a planning assistant for “Witchblade.” In addition to his contributions in the anime world, Mr. Suzuki is the creator of the popular novel series “The Witches of Africa.”

Taliesin Jaffe

Taliesin Jaffe started his career as a child actor appearing in films such as “Mr. Mom,” “2010” and “Explorers,” and television shows such as “She’s the Sheriff,” “Amazing Stories” and “The Facts of Life.” After a brief adventure living in Japan, he began working in the world of anime and video games. As a voice actor, Mr. Jaffe has portrayed characters such as Blanka and Adon (“Street Fighter IV”) and many more.

Tetsuro Araki

Tetsuro Araki has engaged with a number of animated TV series, including “Di Gi Charat Nyo” and “GUNGRAVE,” as a Madhouse staff. He makes a shocking directorial debut, with the animation adaptation of the comic series “DEATH NOTE.”

Toshihiro Fukuoka

Toshihiro Fukuoka is the Chief Executive Editor of “ASCII Weekly Magazine” and an Editor at “Tokyo Kawaii Magazine,” both from the ASCII Media Works publishing company. Mr. Fukuoka has played an active role in introducing Japanese anime and pop trends in these magazines including publishing a major feature on Hatsune Miku in “Tokyo Kawaii Magazine.”

Toshio Furukawa

Furukawa has played a variety of characters from comedians like Ataru of “Urusei Yatsura” and Inumanu of “Gosenzosama Banbanzai,” to calm, serious ones like Shin from “Fist of the North Star” and Piccolo of the “Dragonball” series.

Toshiyuki Morikawa

During his career as a voice actor, Toshiyuki Morikawa has lent his talents to a long list of popular anime series and video games. He has also been the Japanese voice of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars including Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves and Adam Sandler in feature films and most recently as Will Schuester from the popular TV show “Glee.”

Vic Mignona

Vic has been acting for stage and screen since he was 8 years old. His career in anime began about ten years ago as Vega in Streetfighter II. Since then, Vic has been in more than a 150 shows and video games.

Wataru Sasaki

Wataru Sasaki is in charge of Crypton Future Media’s marketing for music creation software. With the introduction of KAITO, the first male Vocaloid in 2006, and then with Hatsune Miku, Mr. Sasaki has used blogs, Twitter and other social media to spark an explosion in consumer-generated content using music creation software. He is currently recording various patterns of voices in Japanese and English as he continues to explore new possibilities in this realm.