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Manga Barcelona to Host Gou Tanabe, Shinichirō Watanabe, Seatbelts Band, AiNA THE END, More Guests
posted on by Joanna Cayanan
Manga Barcelona announced on July 17 its guest slate for this year's event including manga artist Gou Tanabe, Wind Breaker manga creator Satoru Nii, Delicious in Dungeon anime food designer Mao Momiji, and Cowboy Bebop director Shinichirō Watanabe. This year's event will also feature musical performances by Cowboy Bebop theme song artist SEATBELTS, and DAN DA DAN second season opening theme song artist Aina The End. Manga Barcelona also revealed this year's event poster drawn by Witch Hat Atelier manga author Kamome Shirahama:
SEATBELTS will have their very first performance outside Japan at Manga Barcelona on December 5. Composer Yōko Kanno will lead the band and will feature Mai Yamane, the original vocalist from the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack. Kanno (Macross Plus, The Vision of Escaflowne, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex music composer) will also join Watanabe in a panel discussion about music and anime.
Aina The End will have her very first show in the West at Manga Barcelona on December 6 and 7. Her two performances at the event will also be her only scheduled shows in the West this year. Aina The End also performed the ending theme songs for the anime series The Apothecary Diaries, the second season of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, and for the Mononoke The Movie: Phantom in the Rain and Mononoke The Movie: Chapter II – The Ashes of Rage films.
Tanabe recently won the Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel award in this year's Bram Stoker Awards for his manga adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu story.
Watanabe directed Lazarus, the new original 13-episode anime that premiered on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block on April 5. The anime's opening theme song "Vortex" by Kamasi Washington is nominated for "Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music" at the 77th annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
Manga Barcelona Festival runs at Fira Barcelona Gran Via from December 5-8. The event celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, and hosted guests including 20th Century Boys artist Naoki Urasawa, Oshi no Ko creators Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari, and Witch Hat Atelier's Shirahama, among others.
Sources: Email correspondences, Manga Barcelona
