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Cel Shaded
Jason Yadao
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Kawaii Kon adds 2 more to guest list
Kawaii Kon guest announcements these days are like a certain brand of potato chips and its advertising slogan in a sense: You can't stop with just one.
So it came to pass last week when, soon after this column went live online with the announcement that voice actress/anime dub director Laura Bailey was the first guest announced for next year's edition of the local anime convention, the official convention Web site, www.kawaiikon.org, went live with that news ... and added a guest announcement of its own.
That guest: voice actor Travis Willingham, known best as the voice of Roy Mustang in the English dub of "Fullmetal Alchemist," or "FMA." This is the second Kawaii Kon appearance for Willingham, who last appeared here in 2007 and subsequently brought the house down at a late-night panel for those ages 18 and older with fellow voice actors Greg Ayres and Monica Rial.
Now, it would seem, the guest-announcement ball is back on my side of the court. So allow me to introduce the third person on next year's guest list to have a link to "FMA," the voice of handy automail mechanic Winry Rockbell in that series making her first Kawaii Kon appearance, Caitlin Glass.
Besides Winry, Glass has a number of prominent anime dub roles on her resume: Yakumo Tsukamoto in "School Rumble," Triela in "Gunslinger Girl," Chachamaru in "Negima!" and Haruhi Fujioka in the upcoming "Ouran High School Host Club."
She's also served as anime dub director for "Ouran," "One Piece" and "Suzuka," and sang English versions of the "Burst Angel" ending theme and the "Peach Girl" opening and ending themes.
There's also a bit of a developing twist to the "drive for five," as I've labeled this fifth-anniversary edition of Kawaii Kon. As it turns out, there are four other U.S. anime conventions scheduled for the same weekend of April 10 to 12: Anime Matsuri in the Woodlands, Texas; KamiKazeCon in Houston; Sakura-Con in Seattle; and AniZona in Phoenix.
It's not the first time there have been other conventions scheduled at the same time; last year, for instance, there was New York Comic Con in New York City and No Brand Con in Eau Claire, Wis. This will, however, be the highest number of conventions against which Kawaii Kon will be competing for guests.
There already have been some doozies announced: Sakura-Con has as its musical guests of honor Smile.dk, the female duo known for songs like "Butterfly" and "Golden Sky" in the "Dance Dance Revolution" series of games. And perhaps to the dismay of his legions of local fangirls and those hoping for a full-on "FMA" reunion in Hawaii, Vic Mignogna is listed as a guest on Anime Matsuri's Web site.
Some local fans might worry that Kawaii Kon could be at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to attracting guests, given Hawaii's geographic isolation. Not so, according to Kawaii Kon founder/co-director Stan Dahlin; all conventions are having to deal with rising transportation costs and a shrinking talent pool from which to draw guests.
It'll certainly be fun to see how things play out in coming months ...
Cel Shaded, a look at the world of Japanese anime and manga, appears every Monday. Reach
Jason S. Yadao at
jyadao@starbulletin.com