Susumu
Sakurai wore four hats at Nan Desu Kan. He started the weekend as part of
the Colorado convention's volunteer staff. On Friday night he spoke about
his work on a new video game based on the Mahoromatic Automatic Maiden anime,
and showed a demo tape of an anime series he would like to produce. But Sakurai
spent most of his time talking about the Anime Expo Tokyo convention that
was four months away. The event is going to be the first time for an American-style
anime convention in Japan. There are concerts and promotional appearances
by voice actors in Japan, but few attempts to have events where fans can
get close to anime creators, thus the idea for the Tokyo event. It started
with the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, and has been embraced
by members of the Japanese animation industry.
Admission
to Anime Expo Tokyo will cost 7000 yen, but the trip will be more expensive
for American fans. The convention has set up tours that will take fans from
the Unites States to Tokyo for the event; with incidentals, fans should budget
at least $1,500 for the trip. For that money, fans can expect to see some
of the top names in the anime industry. Sakurai expects Anime Expo Tokyo
to have around 100 guests of honor, a total that rivals the largest U.S.
sci-fi cons. Mentioned by Sakurai were names familiar to hard-core fans:
manga artist Ken Akamatsu (Love Hina), producer Noboru Ishiguro (Macross),
actor Kikuko Inoue (Oh My Goddess) and artists Hiroyuki Kitazume (Gundam)
and Kazuko Tadano (Sailor Moon). "I think it would be really fun if there
were more guests than fans there," Sakurai joked.
Often,
American voice actors have said they would like to meet their Japanese counterparts.
A goal of Anime Expo Tokyo is to make that happen, Sakurai said. He mentioned
actor Crispin Freeman as an example of the English-language performers who
have shown interest in making the trip across the Pacific to meet Japanese
performers. The convention has the same goal for artists, and Sakurai said
cartoonist Philip Moy is one of the people who could travel to Japan in January.
The convention also expects to be able to set up tours of animation studios
for American fans, in the same way that conventions such as Nan Desu Kan
have sightseeing tours for their guests of honor. The Tokyo convention has
proven to be so attractive that more than 100 American volunteers have shown
interest in working on the event, Sakurai said. There's also interest among
American cosplayers, although Sakurai cautioned them that they shouldn't
try to shop at Japanese anime stores in costume, because that short of thing
isn't accepted in Japan.
Susumu
Sakurai wore four hats at Nan Desu Kan. He started the weekend as part of
the Colorado convention's volunteer staff. On Friday night he spoke about
his work on a new video game based on the Mahoromatic Automatic Maiden anime,
and showed a demo tape of an anime series he would like to produce. But Sakurai
spent most of his time talking about the Anime Expo Tokyo convention that
was four months away. The event is going to be the first time for an American-style
anime convention in Japan. There are concerts and promotional appearances
by voice actors in Japan, but few attempts to have events where fans can
get close to anime creators, thus the idea for the Tokyo event. It started
with the Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation, and has been embraced
by members of the Japanese animation industry.
Admission
to Anime Expo Tokyo will cost 7000 yen, but the trip will be more expensive
for American fans. The convention has set up tours that will take fans from
the Unites States to Tokyo for the event; with incidentals, fans should budget
at least $1,500 for the trip. For that money, fans can expect to see some
of the top names in the anime industry. Sakurai expects Anime Expo Tokyo
to have around 100 guests of honor, a total that rivals the largest U.S.
sci-fi cons. Mentioned by Sakurai were names familiar to hard-core fans:
manga artist Ken Akamatsu (Love Hina), producer Noboru Ishiguro (Macross),
actor Kikuko Inoue (Oh My Goddess) and artists Hiroyuki Kitazume (Gundam)
and Kazuko Tadano (Sailor Moon). "I think it would be really fun if there
were more guests than fans there," Sakurai joked.
Often,
American voice actors have said they would like to meet their Japanese counterparts.
A goal of Anime Expo Tokyo is to make that happen, Sakurai said. He mentioned
actor Crispin Freeman as an example of the English-language performers who
have shown interest in making the trip across the Pacific to meet Japanese
performers. The convention has the same goal for artists, and Sakurai said
cartoonist Philip Moy is one of the people who could travel to Japan in January.
The convention also expects to be able to set up tours of animation studios
for American fans, in the same way that conventions such as Nan Desu Kan
have sightseeing tours for their guests of honor. The Tokyo convention has
proven to be so attractive that more than 100 American volunteers have shown
interest in working on the event, Sakurai said. There's also interest among
American cosplayers, although Sakurai cautioned them that they shouldn't
try to shop at Japanese anime stores in costume, because that short of thing
isn't accepted in Japan.
