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Anime Expo Hosts Yoshiki, Takayuki Hirao, Cast of Love Live! Franchise, More

The staff of Anime Expo revealed on Saturday that this year's Anime Expo convention will host musician YOSHIKI in a special event discussing his writing process for several anime theme songs and collaborations with other artists from around the world. The event will also host director Takayuki Hirao (GOD EATER, The Garden of Sinners) as a Guest of Honor, several cast members from the Love Live! franchise, Bleach voice actor Masakazu Morita, and Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead manga creator Kotaro Takata

YOSHIKI has a long-running career both in the band X Japan and as a solo artist. YOSHIKI composed songs for anime such as X, Attack on Titan, Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary, and Buddha: The Great Departure. X Japan's most notable anime contributions were the songs in the X² music video collection and later X movie. The animation Studio Madhouse adapted both productions from CLAMP's X manga. The surviving original band members — Toshimitsu "Toshi" Deyama, Yoshiki Hayashi, Tomoaki "Pata" Ishizuka, and Hiroshi "Heath" Morie — reunited in 2007, 10 years after they first disbanded and nine years after the death of guitarist Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto. YOSHIKI, HYDE, SUGIZO, and MIYAVI have recently formed a new band named The Last Rockstars.

The convention will host Takayuki Hirao as a Guest of Honor on July 1. He will attend the event's screening of POMPO THE CINEPHILE and participate in a Q&A session in room 403 at 1:30 p.m. PDT.

The event will host the following cast members of the Love Live! franchise on July 1 in JW Marriott Platinum Ballroom at 6:00 p.m. PDT:

• Aika Kobayashi (Voice of Yoshiko Tsushima from Love Live! Sunshine!!, Yohane from YOHANE THE PARHELION – SUNSHINE in the MIRROR-, Yu Tenma from Farewell, My Dear Cramer)
• Mayu Sagara (Voice of Kasumi Nakasu from Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club)
• Sayuri Date (Voice of Kanon Shibuya from Love Live! Superstar!!)

This year's Anime Expo will return to Los Angeles on July 1-4. The convention recently discontinued its Premier Fan Badge system.

Source: Anime Expo's website (link 2, link 3, link 4, link 5)