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Kawaii Kon's Guests Announcements for 2016 Show

Honolulu, HI – November 27, 2015 –Kawaii Kon, Hawaii's largest anime convention, adds 11 guests of honor to their 2016 guest list

Studio Trigger's Design Shigeo Koyama and Plot Developer Hiromi Wakabayashi
Koyama-san is an active designer in Japan's media industry, and has worked on numerous hit titles, including HEROMAN, Eureka Seven, GURREN LAGANN, STAR DRIVER, Panty&Stocking with Garterbelt, Rebuild of Evangelion, KILL la KILL, and BIG HERO 6. Wakabayashi-san has been involved in several works with Hiroyuki Imaishi. Starting as setting production for “Gurren Lagann,” Hiromi has also worked on “Panty&Stocking with Garterbelt” as original idea, plot development, and participated in directing. For “KILL la KILL” Hiromi contributes as plot development and directing for the 2nd ending sequence. Most importantly, he assists and oversees the design team of “KILL la KILL” as creative officer.

GARNiDELiA – Recording Artists

GARNiDELiA is a music unit composed of MARiA, a female vocalist and toku, a music composer. Both are incredibly talented and have garnered musical fame independently. toku has written and arranged hit songs of Angela Aki, LiSA, An Café and others. MARiA performs with several musicians such as Jin (vocaloid producer), as guest vocal, and her video uploads have exceeded 2 million views. The two worked together on the song “COLOR” before GARNiDELiA was formed, the song was chosen to be the theme for the anime "Freezing". Their major debut as GARNiDELiA occurred in 2014, with their single “ambiguous”- used in the opening of Studio Trigger's “Kill La Kill”. In July 2014, their second single “grilletto” was for “The irregular at magic high school”, in October, “BLAZING” was for “Reconguista in G”, both songs were used as a theme song for those anime titles. Right after releasing their 1st album “Linkage Ring”, including all the smash-hit anime tie-in songs, they released their latest single “MIRAI”, released in May and can be heard as the theme song for “Gunslinger Stratos”. In August they have just released their Indies greatest hits album “BiRTHiA” including the smash-hits “ARiA” and “SPiCA”!

H.Naoto – Fashion Brand
Naoto Hirooka created his brand h.NAOTO in 2000, incorporating ideas of extreme punk, gothic-lolita and visual-kei. His designs are completely unique and visually eye-catching, garnering positive critiques worldwide. The brand h.NAOTO endlessly seeks for a new world, and will continue to multiply diversely, and deepen. h.NAOTO has produced many sub-brands such as NAOTO SEVEN, h.NAOTO FRILL, h.NAOTO Blood, Anarchy and DARK RED RUM. More recently h.NAOTO has focused on the series of the Seven Deadly Sins and developed a new category focused on Steam Punk fashion “h.NAOTO STEAM” in 2013.

Galaxxxy – Fashion Brand

Japanese fashion brand, Galaxxxy was established in 2007, and has created a lasting and trendy name for themselves. Galaxxy is essentially madcap world influenced by past and future music, Japanese Anime, and comet scattered virtual world. The brand collaborates with many artists. Galaxxxy prominently features bright colors, cute anime themes, and whimsical touches in their designs.

LOVERIN TAMBURIN - Recording Artists

LOVERIN TAMBURIN is comprised of vocalist Aya and pianist and programmer Akihiro. The band debuted with the opening theme "Aishitageru" for the 2006 anime adaptation of Nippon Ichi Software's Disgaea video game franchise. The band also performed Nanatsuiro Drops ending theme "mo.o!" The band's song "DA・SHI・TE" was used in Nippon Ichi Software's Oedo Blacksmith PlayStation Vita game.

Joe Inoue – Recording Artist
Joe Inoue was born in Los Angeles, California under Japanese parents who moved to the states to follow their careers. He grew up in an environment filled with music, and started listening to music seriously in his middle school years. Gradually, Inoue started recording his own materials on a multi-track recorder, with him playing every instrument, including vocals, guitar, bass, drums, etc. He even produces/arranges/mixes his own songs! In 2005, he decided to send few of his demos to Japan, and signed a record deal with Ki/oon Music / Sony Music Entertainment (Japan), Inc. He made his debut with his first E.P., "IN A WAY" in 2007.Since then, he has released four singles and two albums. He is best known for "CLOSER", which was used as the opening theme for one the most popular anime in the world, "NARUTO". Inoue is a member of "J-MELO", a television program by NHK that is being aired in 156 area and countries.

J. Michael Tatum – Voice Actor

Discovered by Funimation warhorse and visionary ADR director Christopher Bevins, who cast him as Rikichi in 2005's Samurai 7, Tatum's inexplicable luck has held long enough to see his flag hoisted on a slew of dream roles, most notably Kyoya Otori in the hit English language dub of Ouran High School Host Club, suave, demonic Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler and the equal parts maniacal/vulnerable Okarin Rintarou from Steins; Gate. Other characters the man still can't believe he's had the crazy good fortune to play include: Doumeki in XXXHolic, Jiro Mochizuki in Black Blood Brothers, Isaac Dian in Baccano!, Both God Eneru and Dalton in the new dub of One Piece, Komui Lee in D-Gray Man, Dororo in Sgt. Frog, the titular loveable savage of Heroic Age, Ryosuke Takahashi in Initial D, Lawrence Kraft in Spice and Wolf, Zarbon in Dragon Ball Z Kai, Scar in Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and Sir Hammerlock in the videogame juggernaut Borderlands 2.

Steve Blum – Voice Actor

With literally hundreds of voice over credits to his name, Veteran Voice Monkey Steve Blum is best known as the voice of “Spike Spiegel” from Cowboy Bebop, “Wolverine” from several incarnations of X-Men (animated movies, games, the Wolverine and the X-Men TV Series, The Super Hero Squad Show, X-Men Anime and more), “Orochimaru,” “Zabuza,” and others from Naruto, “Green Goblin” from the Spectacular Spiderman series, “Heatblast,” “Vilgax” and “Ghostfreak” from Ben 10, “Grayson Hunt” (Bulletstorm) “Grunt” (Mass Effect 2 and 3),”Zoltan Kulle” from Diablo 3, “Abathur” from Starcraft 2:Heart of the Swarm, “Tank Dempsey” (Call of Duty), “Killer Croc” from Arkham Asylum, “Oghren” (DragonAge),“Vincent Valentine” (Final Fantasy VII), “Leeron” (Guren Lagann), “Jamie” from Megas XLR, “Storm Troopers” and many others in most of the Star Wars games, The voice of 7-11, dozens of Digimon and a gigantic list of other characters from Anime, Video Games, TV and Film. In 2012, Steve was inducted into the Guinness Book of World records as Most Prolific Voice Actor in Video Games – appearing in almost 300 games!

Mary McGlynn – Voice Actress

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn is a voice over actress, writer, singer and director. As an actress, she portrayed Major Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell Innocence, Solid State Society and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex for which she won the American Anime Award for Best Actress. You can also hear her as the Female Crusader in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, Kurutsu in Ghost in the Shell Arise, Mrs. Maheswaran in Steven Universe, Sei in Alpha Protocol and Nora in Final Fantasy XIII. Some of her other popular roles are Cornelia in Code Geass, Kurenai from Naruto, Julia from Cowboy Bebop, Zanpakuto from Bleach, Helba and Bordeau from .hack, Jagura from Wolf's Rain, Nuriko in Fushigi Yuugi and Caroline from Vampire Hunter D.

Grey DeLisle – Voice Actress
Grey Griffin (also known as Grey DeLisle) is a Grammy and Emmy Award winning and Annie nominated veteran voice actress who got her start doing the role of Reptar on Rugrats in 1994. Since then she has starred in hundreds of popular cartoons including The Fairly Odd Parents (Vicky), Avatar (Azula), Clone Wars (Assaj Ventress / Amidala), Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (Mandy), Danny Phantom (Sam), Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (Frankie), Batman (Black Canary), Green Lantern (Aya), Wow Wubbzy (Wubbzy), Clifford the Big Red Dog (Emily Elizabeth), and most notably the voice of “Daphne” on Scooby-Doo since 1997.

Lex Lang – Voice Actor

Lex Lang is best known for his roles as Kenshiro from Hokuto no Ken Fist of the Northstar, Sanosuke Sagara from Rurouni Kenshin, Goemon Ishikawa XIII in Geneon's dub of Lupin III part two, and Crim from .hack//SIGN. He also voiced Harlock in Captain Harlock and Doctor Doom in Avengers: The Earth's Mightiest Heroes. He has won 2 Emmy awards

Sandy Fox – Voice Actress

Sandy Fox is currently the voice of Chibiusa in Viz Media's Sailor Moon. She's also voiced Sumomo in Chobits, Flonne in Disgaea, and Kyoko in Akira among hundreds of other roles!

Eyeshine – Recording Artists

Eyeshine first found success in 2006 with a unique blend of pop punk and post grunge called Edge Rock. The band gained a modest audience with its debut EP, “How About that” and their first full length album, “Red Stripes White Lights” but it was their sophomore effort, “My Paper Kingdom” that officially opened the flood gates in 2009.
Eyeshine is led by Johnny Yong Bosch, known as the black power ranger, as well as the voice behind Ichigo Kurasaki in Bleach, Izaya in Durarara, and Itsuki Koizumi from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. He has recently been cast as Artemis in the Viz Dub of Sailor Moon and Makoto Tachibana in Free! Eternal Summer.

EMKE – Recording Artists

Formed in 2005, EMKE made their debut as the youngest rock band in the Honolulu music scene. The band features sisters Kira and Ezri Santos along with Mari Arakawa and Payton Sekigawa who met while attending a real life ‘school of rock’ in Hawaii.

About Kawaii Kon: Kawaii Kon is dedicated to creating a broader awareness of, and appreciation for Japanese animation by celebrating the richness of this art form. Through cooperation with the community, Kawaii Kon hopes to facilitate growth of the anime, manga and related industries in Hawaii and beyond. In addition to providing a central event for fans and enthusiasts, Kawaii Kon seeks to become a vehicle for sharing and disseminating industry information. Kawaii Kon also provides the community and related industries the opportunity to network and conduct business.

Kawaii Kon will be held at the Hawaii Convention Center from April 8th – 10th, 2016. For more information please visit: www.kawaiikon.com

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