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Hawaii's Kawaii Kon to Host Trigger's Shigeto Koyama, Hiromi Wakabayashi
posted on by Kyle Hallmark
Hawaii anime convention Kawaii Kon revealed on Friday that it will host Studio Trigger's Shigeto Koyama and Hiromi Wakabayashi as well as the musical unit GARNiDELiA during its April 8-10 event.
Koyama is an animator and designer at Trigger. He has worked on titles including HEROMAN, Eureka Seven, Gurren Lagann, Star Driver, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Rebuild of Evangelion, Kill la Kill, and Big Hero 6. Koyama has also provided design work for the No More Heroes video game franchise. This year, he directed his first short film "Obakechan" as part of Studio Khara's "Japan Animator Expo" project. Koyama previously appeared at FanimeCon in 2012.
Wakabayashi has collaborated on several works with Hiroyuki Imaishi. His work includes setting production for Gurren Lagann as well as the original idea, plot development, and directing participation for Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. For Kill la Kill, Wakabayashi contributed plot development, directed the second ending sequence, and assisted and oversaw the design team as a creative officer.
The musical unit GARNiDELiA is composed of vocalist MARiA and composer toku. The pair had their major debut in 2014 with the single "ambiguous," which Trigger used as the second opening theme song of Kill la Kill. Since then, they have performed theme songs for The irregular at magic high school, Mekaku City Actors, Gundam: Reconguista in G, and Gunslinger Stratos. In August, they released the greatest hits album BiRTHiA, which included songs such as "ARiA" and "SPiCA." GARNiDELiA made their first appearance in the United States at Seattle's Sakura-Con in April.
The convention also announced that it will host the following guests: fashion brands H.Naoto and Galaxxxy; recording artists Joe Inoue, Eyeshine, and EMKE; and voice actors J. Michael Tatum, Steve Blum, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Grey DeLisle, Lex Lang, and Sandy Fox.
The con will be held at the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu.