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Anime Expo 2025 Hosts Mokumokuren, Shinobu Seguchi, More Guests; Reveals 2 World Premieres

The staff for the Anime Expo event announced over the past 10 days that it will host the following guests:

• Manga creator Mokumokuren and voice actor Chiaki Kobayashi for the world premiere of the anime of Mokumokuren's The Summer Hikaru Died (Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu) manga
• Shinobu Seguchi, creator of the Prisoner Riku manga
• Gorō Taniguchi, Tatsuyuki Tanaka and Alex Xu for the "Community-Driven Anime Production" panel
• Doujin artist Asanagi
• Director Hiroaki Akagi and producer Go Inagaki for the TV Asahi Industry Panel
• Director Masaki Watanabe and producer Genki Ito for the Netflix panel
• Voice actor Makoto Furukawa
• The founder and CEO of Dandelion Animation Studio Kazuhiro Nishikawa and manga editor Rei Hebiguchi for the "Amuse Creative Studio Presents: How the Pros Make Anime & Manga" panel
• Voice actor Daiki Yamashita
• Producer George Wada for the "VIZ Presents: Roosters, Samurai, and Mayhem!" panel
• Manga creator Ogeretsu Tanaka

The event will also host the world premiere of the GINTAMA - Mr. Ginpachi's Zany Class (3-Nen Z-Gumi Ginpachi-Sensei) spinoff anime on July 5, and will host the world premiere of a scene from the KILLTUBE anime featuring guest director Kazuaki Kuribayashi.

Anime Expo will also host Karin Isobe, Yuki Nakashima, Fumiya Imai, and Kent Itō for the Hatsune Miku: Colorful Stage fan event this year. The event will also host MAPPA President and Vice President Manabu Ohtsuka and Hiroya Hasegawa, ODDTAXI director Baku Kinoshita, Higurashi and Umineko creator Ryukishi07, and voice actors Sora Amamiya and Gen Sato from Call of the Night season 2.

The event will feature a music concert festival named "J-POP SOUND CAPSULE @AX2025 Anisong World Matsuri Returns." Performing artists include TOGENASHI TOGEARI — the real life and in-story band for Girls Band Cry — as well as FLOW (Code Geass, Naruto, Eureka Seven), GRANRODEO (Kuroko's Basketball, Bungo Stray Dogs, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans), Sakurazaka46, and JAM Project member Hiroshi Kitadani (One Piece), with metal band ASTERISM (Even Given the Worthless "Appraiser" Class, I'm Actually the Strongest opening song "Crescendo") serving as the opening act.

The event will host Final Fantasy XIV director and producer and Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida (also known as Yoshi-P), voice actor Kazuki Ura, and NextNinja CEO Masayuki "Yama-P" Yamagishi, manga artist Peach-Pit, and director Kazuaki Kuribayashi. Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX's creative team; including director Kazuya Tsurumaki, series composer Yōji Enokido, voice actress Tomoyo Kurosawa, and Bandai Namco Filmworks Naohiro Ogata; will also be at the event.

Anime Expo takes place at the Los Angeles Convention Center from July 3-6.

Sources: Press release, Anime Expo's Instagram account