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Sakura-Con 2014

by Bamboo Dong & Lynzee Lamb,

Overview

This year's Sakura-con took place over Easter weekend from April 18-20 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, WA. Organized by the Asia-Northwest Cultural Education Association (ANCEA), the convention is the oldest and largest anime convention in the Pacific Northwest, drawing over 20,000 attendees.

Guests for Sakura-con 2014 included American voice actors Mami Koyama (Akira's Kei, Millenium Actress' Chiyoko Fujiwara).

The convention also brought over plenty of lauded Japanese industry guests as well, including director and Blue Submarine No. 6).

For those with an eye for fashion, the convention also featured designer MINT and Angelic Pretty's maki. This year's musical guest of honor was The irregular at magic high school, and more.

While the weather wasn't on the convention's side on Saturday, with heavy rains and dreary skies, the sun was out on the first and third days, giving cosplayers a chance to show off their handiwork in the convention center's lush outdoor space.

Guests and Other Programming

Festivities kicked off with the Opening Ceremonies early Friday morning. While the event followed the trajectory of past similar events, with introductions from the various guests of honor, attendees were also treated to a performance by a group of shamisen players led by Kabuki Academy founder Mary Mariko Ohno. The group started off with a traditional piece, but excited crowds with their rendition of the Super Mario theme song, and their cover of Attack on Titan's "Guren no Yumiya."

The rest of the convention offered plenty of opportunities for fans to attend Q&As from the convention guests, both American and Japanese. For those interested in the production side, Sakura-con brought over several fan-favorite industry guests, old and new. The staff of Sword Art Online, including director Tomohiko Ito and animator Shingo Adachi were in tow with Magi director Koji Masunari and character designer Toshifumi Akai, courtesy of Aniplex of America. Sakura-Con regular and Mushi-Shi/Flowers of Evil director Hiroshi Nagahama was also present as well as Last Exile character designer Range Murata and singer ELISA.

Nagahama gave detailed s on his current work and also hinted to fans to keep an eye on the last chapter of Shūzō Oshimi's Flowers of Evil manga:

"Very soon, next month actually, the last chapter of the manga will be published. The ending chapter of the manga was drawn by Oshimi with the anime in mind and answering our bet that the anime was supposed to happen. The manga will confirm our decision to create the anime the way we did. I think if you get a chance to look at the ending chapter of Flowers of Evil, you'll be able to see what I'm talking about."

Another great was the Q&A with artist and designer Range Murata, whose work can be seen in properties like Last Exile, Blue Submarine No. 6, Shangri-La, and others. During the , he revealed that much of his design inspiration comes from his love for "old, industrial things, especially American things like old cars, old trains, old planes, and stuff." His current hobby is buying old American typewriters and taking them apart, and using the part shapes for inspiration.

As for his work on Last Exile, the airships were modeled after Zeppelins. Murata added, "I went to recently and they have a museum of Zeppelins. I went there, and it was the best. If you get me talking about Zeppelins, I could talk for a whole hour."

When an audience member asked why the character designs were so different between the first and second Last Exile series, Murata answered that, "unfortunately, it's mostly because the director wanted to." He said that the colors were a little lighter and the characters cuter. "I find it unfortunate," he said, "but that's what happens when you're doing it for a job."

Attack on Titan fans who attended the Wit Studio with Kyoji Asano and Tetsuya Kinoshita were treated to a unique, behind-the-scenes look at episode 21 from the series. The episode showed off different examples of the various stages of the animation process, including storyboarding, early CG work, key animation, background rendering, and more.

Fashion lovers had an opportunity Saturday afternoon to attend a runway show featuring two popular, but very different, designers. Showing off his latest collection was MINT, who first debuted with Sixh., a collaboration with IBI under h.NAOTO. The MINT NeKO collection treated audiences to his brand of edgy, punk-inspired streetwear, with bold, cat-patterned graphics and pops of mint and yellow. Also featured at the show was the latest pieces from lolita fashion company Angelic Pretty, which dressed up its traditional silhouettes with a variety of graphic prints.

Industry s

Jerry Jewell, with the following cast:

Part One of the series will be released on DVD on July 1.

Funimation also revealed the cast for the series, Ben-To, an action comedy about of the Half-Priced Food Lovers Club, who battle for half-priced Ben-To boxes.

For the ing cast, check out the full article here. The series will be released on BD/DVD on July 8.

Earlier this weekend, Funimation also revealed the Code:Breaker, which will be released in a BD/DVD combo set on June 24.

Yen Press
Manga publisher Yen Press surprised fans with the Accel World series.

The company also licensed:

Dark Horse
Not to be outdone, Dark Horse also made an impressive number of announcements over the weekend, including manga by fan-favorite group, Legal Drug in omnibus format and also added:

Aniplex of America
Aniplex USA took the opportunity to go over its current streaming titles and releases. The company is also working with dubbing studio Facebook page.

Aniplex held similar auditions last year with a huge turnout of 400 hopeful participants. Only three contestants made the cut and got to voice characters in the first season of Magi.

film this winter.

The also showed footage for some of its shows, including films.

Cosplay photos by Jamie Carr

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