While traveling in Japan during mid-August 2009, the staff of The-O Network stumbled upon Inu, creator of the popular Hatsu Inu adult manga. His purple haired vixen, Shion Fujimo, has become somewhat iconic in the hentai, or adult animation, community. Originally published in 2006 in three volumes, the overall popularity of the series led to a two volume revised Complete Edition released in 2010. The series has also received a hentai anime adaptation released by Pink Pineapple in 2007, with a second season released in 2008. See what Inu had to say about his works and life, and a little about his thoughts on the recent rise of fan groups translating and uploading doujinshis online.
Japanese pop star May Nakabayashi (May'n) who's probably best known as the vocal for Sheryl Nome from the anime series Macross Frontier, was in attendance at Anime Expo 2010 in Los Angeles to meet her fans as well as for a live concert performance. Having only briefly chatted with May'n previously at Animelo Summer Live 2009 in Japan, we conducted a followup interview a couple days before her American performance.
Apart from the impressive official guests at this year's Anime Expo, English visual novel publisher MangaGamer brough their own all star line of guests including Akio Watanabe. Watanabe has provided character designs for series including Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko, Magical Canan, Nurse Witch Komugi, and Popotan. He is probably most well known for his recent work as Animation Director and Character Designer for the highly successful anime adaptation of Bakemonogatari. Each DVD release in Japan has seen a rough average of 40,000 copies sold the first week of its release! See what he had to say in our brief interview with Watanabe!
Read more: Akio Watanabe: Bakemonogatari Animation Director Interview
Many people may not know who Sou Miyata is, but they probably have heard about the Muv-Luv visual novel series which he works on in Japan. Muv-Luv was originally a visual novel PC game whose popularity grew into manga and novel adaptations. The series even has an entire toy line released by Volks. Volks is a popular figurine, doll, and toy manufacturer in Japan. See what he had to say in our brief interview with him at Anime Expo 2010!
Voice actresses Yui Horie and Eri Kitamura were in attendance at Anime Expo 2010 to celebrate the English release of the school romance comedy anime Toradora! in America. Horie is a highly successful singer and voice actress in Japan with an impressive number of roles including Naru Narusegawa from Love Hina, Eri Sawachika from School Rumble, and of course Minori Kushieda from Toradora!. Kitamura has recently established a fan base for herself with her role as Rin Kokonoe from Kodomo no Jikan. She is probably also best known for her work as Saya Otonashi from Blood+, and as Ami Kawashima from Toradora!. See what they had to say about their work in the series in our exclusive interview with them both!
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