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Macross Delta's Junna & Minori Suzuki, Wake Up, Girls! to Perform at Anime Expo
posted on by Karen Ressler
The organizers of the Anime Expo convention announced on Thursday that it will host the full Wake Up, Girls! idol group and Walküre members Minori Suzuki and JUNNA as part of the convention's Anisong World Matsuri music festival event. The two acts will perform on June 30 at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles.
Avex and 81 Produce formed the Wake Up, Girls! group after holding auditions in 2012. The group's seven members – Airi Eino, Kaya Okuno, Mayu Yoshioka, Minami Tanaka, Miyu Takagi, Nanami Yamashita, and Yoshino Aoyama – voiced characters with the same first names in the various Wake Up, Girls! anime series. The group won the special award at the 9th Annual Seiyū Awards in 2015.
Suzuki and JUNNA are part of Macross Delta's in-story "Tactical Sound Unit" Walküre, the first major songstress group in the Macross anime franchise. Suzuki won a Macross singer audition when she was 18 and was chosen to play the female lead role of Freyja Wion. JUNNA, the singing voice for Walküre's lead vocalist Mikumo Guynemer, was 14 years old when she recorded the anime's key insert song "Ikenai Borderline." She is the youngest major singer in a Macross anime project thus far.
Anisong World Matsuri will hold concerts on Friday, June 30 and Saturday, July 1 during the convention. The festival event ran at last year's Anime Expo 2016 as a collaboration between Lantis, Sony Music Entertainment Japan Inc., Amuse, Bandai Visual, Bandai Namco Live Creative, and Anime Consortium Japan. Otakon will also host the event in August for its East Coast debut.
This year's Anime Expo convention will run from July 1 to July 4 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. In addition, the convention will formally include a preview night a day before on June 30. The Super Dimension Fortress Macross singer and voice actress Mari Iijima will return to the convention this year. Akira Himekawa, the manga creator duo known for their manga adaptations of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda games, is also attending the convention. Musicians ☆Taku Takahashi, Teddyloid, and Pa's Lam System will perform at the convention's Neon District concert this year. Ali Project, Minori Chihara, GARNiDELiA, Konomi Suzuki, angela, and Mashiro Ayano will also perform at Anisong World Matsuri.
