Nation's Expo Brings Famed Director to Highly Anticipated Convention
 
Anaheim, California (May 16, 2007) — Animation director Eisaku Inoue is the latest addition to the hottest line up of Anime Expo® 2007 Guests of Honors for the highly anticipated 2007 convention June 29-July 2 at the Long Beach Convention Center.  More information can be found on the website
www.anime-expo.org.
 
As a child, born in the Kanagawa prefecture, Eisaku Inoue was hooked on drawing his favorite robot characters including classics like Mazinger Z. It was the Leiji Matsumoto’s pioneering Space Battleship Yamato that galvanized Mr. Inoue’s intentions on pursuing his passions professionally in the animation industry.
 
Mr. Inoue has been involved in a great number of projects most notably, Devil Boy (Akuma-kun), Saint Seiya, Madoh Oh Granzort, Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, DNA², Street Fighter, B’TX, and Saint Seiya: The Hades Chapter-Sanctuary, etc. on which he served as animation director. Also, he served as key animator on Gunbuster, DIGIMON ADVENTURE 02 - Digimon Hurricane, DIGIMON ADVENTURE 02 - Revenge of Diaboromon、Iriya’s Sky, the Summer with UFO, etc. On One Piece, he serves as chief animation director while creating the storyboards for the TV series. Moreover, Mr. Inoue has served as chief character designer and chief animation director for One Piece movies One Piece - Adventure of Spiral Island, One Piece the Movie: The Mecha Soldier of Karakuri Castle and the recent hit One Piece the Movie: Episode of Alabasta Kingdom – The Pirates and the Princess of the Desert.
 
Eisaku Inoue joins Tetsuro Araki, Masaru Kitao, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and ORESKABAND as Anime Expo® 2007 Official Guests of Honor.
 
First time exhibitor, Toei Animation, will also bring renowned animation director, Konosuke Uda, to the convention as their special guest. Uda has director numerous series including One Piece, Sailormoon, Ge-Ge-Ge no Kitaro, Young Kindaichi’s Case Book and Moon Guardian.

All registrants who register before the end of April are automatically placed into the drawing.  Those who have already pre-registered are also automatically entered into this drawing.  Secure pre-registration can be done via online at https://secure.rhq.com/anime/anime2007/attreg/index.cgi.
 
Attendees interested in booking flights, car rentals and/or other hotels for Anime Expo® 2007 can do so via the AX Travel Store located at www.AXTravelStore.com. 
 
About Anime Expo®
Located in Long Beach, California - Anime Expo®, the nation¹s largest anime/manga convention, serves to foster trade, commerce and the interests of the general public and animation/ comics industry. This event serves as a key meeting place for the general public to express their interest and explore various aspects of anime/manga, as well as for members of the industry to conduct business. AX 2007 will be held June 29 ­ July 2, 2007 at the Long Beach Convention Center in Southern California. More information can be found at its website (www.anime-expo.org). 
 
About Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation
The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA) is a non-profit organization with a mission to popularize and educate the American public about anime and manga, as well as provide a forum to facilitate communication between professionals and fans. This organization is more popularly known by its entertainment property ­ Anime Expo®. More information can be found at its website (www.spja.org).