New Otakon Guests

The upcoming Otakon anime convention has announced a number of new guests. Japanese guests include Kunihiko Ikuhara, a member of Be-Papas, and director of Sailor Moon and Utena, Shinya Hasegawa, character designer for Utena and animation producer of Sailor Moon (R, S, and SS), Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Utena, and Hiroaki Sakurai, director of Cyber Team in Akihabara and Di-Gi-Charat.

Domestic guests include Scott Frazier (animator and digital animation consultant), Ian Kim (artist), Steve Bennett of Studio Ironcat, Chris Beveridge of Anime On DVD, Steve Perl (fan guest), Jeff Thompson of Right Stuf, Michael Granberry (voice actor), Neil Nadelman (translator), Amy Howard (voice actress), Adam Warren (artist, comic illustrator), Amanda Bonhomme (voice actress), Gilles Poitras (author), Scott Houle of Coastal Carolina Studios, Robert Fenelon (fan guest), Pamela Weidner (voice actress), and John Staton (artist).

Previously-announced guests include Serial Experiments Lain creator/producer Yasuyuki Ueda of Production 2nd, Lain character designer Yoshitoshi Abe, Production IG’s Hiroyuki Kitakubo (Blood) and Mitsuhisa Ishikawa (founder), as well as the British band BOA, known for the Serial Experiments Lain opening song “Duvet.”

OTAKON 2000 will be held August 4-6, 2000 at the Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore, Maryland.