News

C3 AFA Hong Kong Announces 1st Wave of Guests

The Anime Festival Asia convention revealed its first wave of guests for the C3 AFA Hong Kong event on Friday and Monday. The guests include fhána, Luna Haruna, Shiena Nishizawa, Nogizaka46, Daisuke Namikawa, and Hiroyuki Yoshino.

fhana formed in 2012, and is composed of three music composers — Junichi Sato, Yuxuki Waga, and Kevin Mitsunaga — as well as the group's vocalist, Towana. The group has performed theme songs for anime such as The Eccentric Family, Witch Craft Works, Celestial Method, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz!, Comet Lucifer, Haruchika – Haruta & Chika, and Tales of Zestiria the X. The group recently performed the opening theme song for Kyoto Animation's Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid anime, and also performed the theme song for the recent The Eccentric Family 2 and Knight's & Magic anime. The group will perform the opening theme song to the upcoming Märchen Mädchen anime. fhana released their latest album, What a Wonderful World Line, in April 2016.

Haruna was as a finalist at the 4th Animax Anison Grand Prix in 2011. Her debut single "Sora wa Takaku Kaze wa Utau" in 2012 served as the ending theme song for the second season of Fate/Zero. She has since performed theme songs for Sword Art Online, Sword Art Online II, Monogatari Series Second Season, High School Fleet, Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend, and Urahara. She also performed the theme song for the Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization video game. She released her first album OVERSKY in August 2013, and released her second album Candy Lips in March 2015. She released her third album, LUNARIUM, on January 21.

Nishizawa debuted in February 2015 with her "Fubuki" single, the title song of which was used as the ending theme song for the Kan Colle television anime. She released her second single, "Brand-new World/Piacere," in November 2015. "Brand-new World" served as the opening theme song for The Asterisk War anime, while "Piacere" served as the ending theme song for Aria the Avvenire. The song "Cross," which appeared in the same single, was the ending theme song for the BAD APPLE WARS PlayStation Vita game. She released her third single "The Asterisk War," in May 2016. The title track served as the opening theme song for The Asterisk War anime's second season, while the coupling track "Brilliant Star" is the theme song for the A.W. : Phoenix Festa game based on the anime. Her fourth and latest single, "Kikan," shipped in November 2016. The title song served as the theme song for the Kantai Collection: KanColle anime film.

AKB48 creator and producer Yasushi Akimoto created the Nogizaka46 group in 2011 as the "official rival" to AKB48, debuting in 2012 with their first single reaching #2 on Oricon's weekly single chart. Each of their singles since then has topped the Oricon single chart in its first week. The group's latest single is "Itsuka dekiru kara Kyō dekiru," which shipped on Wednesday. The group has also released three albums. Nogizaka46 made their first overseas performance at the Japan Expo convention in Paris in 2014. Members of the group have also performed in television dramas, films, and stage plays, such as a stage play adaptation of the Joshiraku manga, and the recent film and stage play adaptations of the Asahinagu manga.

Namikawa is a prolific anime, video game, and voice-over artist. He had his major debut role in 1989's Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, when he was still 13 years old. He played the character Alfred Izuruha, a central character in the OVA. His many notable anime roles includes Lupin III's Goemon Ishikawa, Hunter × Hunter's Hisoka, Haikyu!!'s Tōru Oikawa, Hetalia - Axis Powers' Italy, Fairy Tail's Jelal, and Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE's Fay. He has also performed theme songs for such anime as Brothers Conflict, Jinsei - Life Consulting, Prison School, and DAYS.

Yoshino debuted in the 1997 anime Bakusō Kyōdai Let's & Go!! WGP, where he played the role of Giulio and Hassler. He has since played roles in such anime as Vandread (Hibiki), Love Hina (Masayuki Haitani, Rage of Bahamut: Genesis (Favaro), Toradora! (Haruta), Kemonozume (Kazuma Momota), Kekkaishi (Yoshimori Sumimura), Baccano! (Firo Prochainezo), Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Allelujah Haptism), Hunter × Hunter (Genthru), Kill la Kill (Inumuta), Shirobako (Tarō Takanashi), and The Eccentric Family (Yajirō Shimogamo).

C3 AFA Hong Kong is one of five in content company Sotsu Co., Ltd. and Singaporean events and marketing agency SOZO Pte Ltd.'s "C3 AFA" joint events that bring together their C3 and Anime Festival Asia events. Aside from Hong Kong, the events have also run in Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, and Singapore.

The convention will take place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on February 9-11.