News
California's FanimeCon to Host Gainax Artist Suezen (Updated)
posted on by Gia Manry
The anime convention FanimeCon announced on Monday that it will host Gainax animator Fumio Iida, also known as SUEZEN, as a Guest of Honor at its May 27-30 event in San Jose, California. Iida has worked as an animator for Tatsunoko, Walt Disney Japan, and 20th Century Fox in addition to Gainax, where he has worked as key animator or animation director on such titles as Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance and The Wings of Honneamise. He has also created several manga series under the name SUEZEN, including the series Yadamon, which anime studio Group TAC adapted into an anime series in 1992.
Fanime also announced that it will hold a special event to raise funds for victims of Japan's March 11 Higashi Nihon Daishinsai (Great Eastern Japan Earthquake) disaster, as well as announcing the three charities that will benefit from the convention's annual charity auction: the Cancer Support Community, the American Red Cross of Silicon Valley, and the APA of San Francisco.
According to the announcement, Iida will take part in Gainax-related panels and autograph sessions during the convention. FanimeCon will also host voice actor and singer Yūya Matsushita, Petit Evangelion designer Ryusuke Hamamoto, Trigun designer Takahiro Yoshimatsu, Fullmetal Alchemist/Gundam 00 director Seiji Mizushima, the Japanese pop band Flow, and voice actor Tohru Furuya. Frequent guests Hiroyuki Yamaga (co-founder of Gainax) and Halko Momoi (voice actroess/singer) will also return the convention this year.
Image © Fumio Iida
Update: Added background information, image.
Update 2: Added Yadamon information.
Update 3: Added charity information.
this article has been modified since it was originally posted; see change history