SaikouCon: Bigger. Better. More Anime. More Guests. More Fun

SaikouCon continues to get ready for a bigger, better convention presentation at Holiday Inn Conference Center Lehigh Valley in Breinigsville PA!

6/3/13 Breinigsville, PA – Anime Ate My Brain Magazine announced last year that they will be hosting a convention called SaikouCon. SaikouCon, which means "best convention”, is the Northeast's newest large scale anime convention.

Presented by Anime Ate My Brain Magazine, a division of Tastes Like Rock! Publishing (Tastes Like Rock! Music Magazine, Anime Ate My Brain Magazine, Tastes Like Rock! Radio, and the upcoming original webcomic Zombie Skatepunk Apocalypse, and Amerimanga Machina Saisei: Jakkan), the convention promises to be a yearly high point in the Summer months of the anime convention season. Boasting a dedicated staff of longtime Japanese anime and manga fans, SaikouCon is excited to be the only convention dedicated exclusively to anime, manga, and Japanese culture in this area of Northeast Pennsylvania.

Confirmed Guests of Honor include Voice Actrees/ADR Director Terri Doty (Fairy Tail, Deadman Wonderland, Okami-san and Her Seven Companions) and prolific cosplayer and cosplay photographer RuffleButt (Jessie Pridemore), voice and stage actress Jad Saxton (Baccano!, A Certain Scientific Railgun, Freezing, Okami-san and Her Seven Companions, Shangri-La, Fafner: Dead Agressor: Heaven and Earth, just announced as the English dub voice of Carla for season 2 of Fairy Tail) , voice and television actor Darrel Guilbeau (Durarara!!, Samurai Champloo, Bleach, Cyborg 009, Paranoia Agent, and many more), and voice actor Steve “Warky” Nunez .

Guests will include The D20 Girls Project of New Jersey (like the Suicide Girls without the nudity, but better because they all love games, comics, and ANIME), the film makers behind Cosplayer Nation (the first large scale documentary devoted to cosplay) and more to be announced!

Musical guests include DJ Soul Eater from PA (spinning at SaikouCon's DJ Dance Party Happy Funtime on August 23), Turning Down Harvard from PA, and Hitomi Himekawa from New York City by way of Japan (both performing at the SaikouCon Cosplay Masquerade Ball on August 24)!

There will also be tabletop and CCG gaming tournaments, an AMV contest, Cosplay Competition at our Cosplay Masquerade Ball, activities, panel presentations, vendor room, Artist Alley, anime screenings presented by Crunchyroll and much more!

The convention will always feature some of the best live entertainment themed to Japanese culture as well as the best in J-Rock, J-Pop, and geek culture musical acts from all over the US and beyond.

All of this plus top creators, writers, artists, distributors, industry insiders, English dub and original Japanese voice talent, some of the best cosplay talent, shows, masquerades; and so much more!

Recently, SaikouCon's executive coordinator, Michael Meade (publisher and editor-in-chief of Tastes Like Rock! Publishing, publisher of webzines Tastes Like Rock! Music Magazine and Anime Ate My Brain Magazine; the latter of which SaikouCon came into existence through) was informed that the convention's original hosting venue was pulling out of the agreement to host SaikouCon 2013. As of March 27, the convention was to be booked into the Best Western Plus Lehigh Valley Hotel in Bethlehem Pennsylvania but unfortunately that did not work out either. Seemingly doomed at that point a light at the end of the tunnel appeared in the form of the Holiday Inn Conference Center Lehigh Valley located at 7736 Adrienne Drive, Breingisville PA 18031. The Holiday Inn has more than enough room to hold the new large scale anime convention between its numerous board rooms, meeting rooms, and large ballroom areas.

On the change, Meade had this to say, “I look forward to the move to a new venue and a new town. Yes, I had hoped to stay in the East Stroudsburg area, but that wasn't in the cards this year, and likely won't be again. Most of the sizable entertainment venues in the area are slow to embrace new things, and to them anime is a very new thing apparently. It's been a challenge from the get go to be accepted, but the staff of the Holiday Inn Conference Center Lehigh Valley are excited to have us there and we are definitely excited for the new digs and look forward to being hosted there for many years to come.”

SaikouCon 2013 will be held August 23, 24, and 25 of 2013 in the heart of the Lehigh Valley area in Breinigsville, Pennsylvania. Hosting the convention in 2013 will be the Holiday Inn Conference Center Lehigh Valley. To book a room in the SaikouCon block at the Holiday Inn please call (610) 391-1000 and tell the staff you want a SaikouCon room! Please reserve your rooms at the discounted SaikouCon Attendee only rate by July 22 2013.

It does not matter if you want to register to go to the convention, become a sponsor or register to become a dealer or vendor. All the information can be found at www.saikoucon.com, but hurry! Guest list and vendor spots are filling up fast!

To get the latest up-to-the-minute updates follow SaikouCon on http://www.saikoucon.com, http://facebook.com/SaikouCon, http://twitter.com/SaikouCon, and SaikouCon's listing on AnimeCons.com at http://animecons.com/events/info.shtml/3636/SaikouCon_2013