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C3 AFA Hong Kong Hosts Saekano, The IDOLM@STER Voice Actresses

The Anime Festival Asia convention announced on Monday that it will host Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend voice actress Kiyono Yasuno and producer Manabu Jingūji, as well as The IDOLM@STER voice actresses and performers Azumi Asakura, Asami Shimoda, Ayaka Suwa, and Haruka Yamazaki.

Yasuno plays the character Megumi Katō in the Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend anime series.

The original Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend (Saenai Heroine no Sodate-kata) light novels with illustrations by Kurehito Misaki and the anime revolve around Tomoya Aki, an otaku who is working part-time to earn enough money to buy anime on Blu-ray Disc, who meets a beautiful girl on his way home during spring vacation. He eventually models the heroine of his own dōjin game after her. However, he finds out a month later that the girl is in fact his classmate, and he doesn't know her name. He learns that the girl — named Megumi— actually is hardly noticed by others. Tomoya also has no artistic ability or writing skills, so he asks ace of the art club Eriri Spencer Sawamura to provide the art, as well as the honor student Utaha Kasumigaoka to write the scenario. Can they produce a decent game for Comic Market?

The first season of the anime premiered in January 2015 in Japan on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block. The second series, titled Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend Flat, premiered on April 13 earlier this year.

In The IDOLM@STER franchise, Asakura voices the character Yukiho Hagiwara, Shimoda voices the twins Ami and Mami Futami, Suwa voices Matsuri Tokugawa, and Yamazaki voices Mirai Kasuga.

The IDOLM@STER franchise originated from a 2005 arcade game that tasked players to play as the producer in a struggling idol agency. The players select one among many idols and supervises their training and concert schedules in an effort to make them popular. The series spawned many subsequent video games, that expanded the story and cast of the games.

Subsequent entries in the series include The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls, The IDOLM@STER: Million Live!, and The Idolm@ster SideM. The original game, as well as The IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls and The Idolm@ster SideM, have inspired television anime, with the anime series of the latter premiering on September 30.

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. Other guests include fhána, Luna Haruna, Shiena Nishizawa, Nogizaka46, Daisuke Namikawa, and Hiroyuki Yoshino.