Kawaii Kon, Hawaii's premier anime convention and conference, is back for a 7th year and announces its first round of guests for the 2011 show. Scheduled to appear are:

Jonathan Tarbox - Owner of Arashi Productions.
Bio: After graduating from Oberlin College and the University of Chicago, Jonathan spent 15 years in Japan, during which he spent several years as the senior editor of Raijin Comics at Coamix, a Japanese manga and anime production company.

Back in the US, he took the position of Group Editor at DC Comics in charge of starting up and operating the CMX manga line and anime production company. There, he produced over 20 volumes of graphic novels, including Gals and Tenjho Tenge.

In 2005, he created Arashi Productions, a California-based production house creating projects to develop manga, anime, film and other Japanese content for the American market. His current clients include DC Comics and Viz Media.

Scott McNeil - Voice Actor
Bio: Scott hails from Vancouver, Canada by way of Brisbane, Australia where he grew up. With a voice acting career that spans for more than a decade, he has worked on more than 70 series.

Scott is best known for his VA talents as the voice of Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing, Piccolo (the first) in Dragon Ball Z, and Koga from Inuyasha. Among his other voice credits are Reboot, Ranma 1/2, Project A-Ko, The Vision of Escaflowne, Megaman, and many, many other series!

Kawaii Kon 2011 will be held at the Hawaii Convention Center from April 29th to May 1st 2011.

Kawaii Kon is a three-day convention event dedicated to creating a broader awareness of, and appreciation for Japanese animation by celebrating the richness of this artform. Through cooperation with the community, Kawaii Kon hopes to facilitate growth of the anime, manga and related industries in Hawaii and beyond. In addition to providing a central event for fans and enthusiasts, Kawaii Kon seeks to become a vehicle for sharing and disseminating industry information. Kawaii Kon also provides the community and related industries the opportunity to network and conduct business.

Thanks to the support of organizations like Bandai Entertainment, Sentai Filmworks, Seraphim Digital Studios, The Honolulu Festival, The Hawaii International Film Festival, and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, Kawaii Kon has grown in just six years to include thousands of annual attendees. Fans, artists and industry guests gather from all over the world for the 3-Day extravaganza.

For more information, please visit our website at www.kawaii-kon.org.

Press Release for Oct 15th, 2010