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Kenshin's Watsuki Cancels Otakon Vegas Appearance, Eyeshield 21's Inagaki to Attend
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The organizers of Otakon Vegas announced on Thursday that Rurouni Kenshin manga creator Nobuhiro Watsuki will not be able to attend the convention. His wife, novelist Kaworu Kurosaki, will still attend the event.
Watsuki provided Otakon Vegas with this message:
Due to a new Rurouni Kenshin project that just came in, my work schedule now forbids me from attending Otakon Vegas. I am terribly sorry... please accept my sincere apologies.In lieu of my attendance, I would like to introduce a new wonderful guest for Otakon Vegas. His name is Riichirō Inagaki, the writer of the popular SHONEN JUMP manga Eyeshield 21. Inagaki-sensei was in charge of writing the story and the storyboards (nemu) for the American football manga.
His attendance at Otakon provides a unique and special chance to know the secrets of how to build a strong backbone for a fun and exciting manga. I would suggest to those who are curious to listen carefully to what he has to say. He can definitely offer you some insights into what makes manga so interesting.
Otakon noted in the announcement, "While we are very sorry that Watsuki-sensei cannot make it, we are delighted to welcome Inagaki-sensei, and very appreciative of the assistance in bringing us a new guest."
Riichirou Inagaki started his career as a manga creator in Big Comic Spirits with Nando demo 6.13 (June 13). He won Shonen Jump's 7th Story King award for the storyboard section in 2001, and he started working on Eyeshield 21 in 2002 with Yūsuke Murata. The two worked on the 37-volume manga until it ended in 2009. Viz Media released the manga in North America, and Sentai Filmworks partially released the 145-episode anime adaptation on DVD. Crunchyroll is streaming the entire series online.
Inagaki joins the following previously-announced guests: director Masahiro Ando, singer Sayaka Sasaki, novelist Kaworu Kurosaki, voice actor Richard Epcar, actor Jason David Frank, voice actresses Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and Ellyn Stern, and author and translator Frederik L. Schodt.
Otakon Vegas will be held from January 3-5 at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
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