San Japan, San Antonio's Major Japanese Culture and Anime Convention, has announced the first round of guests for its July 2010 convention. San Japan is proud to announce that voice actors Carrie Savage, Chris Ayres and Josh Grelle will be making a return appearance in San Antonio. San Japan is also proud to announce the return of 'New School' hip-hop act Maja, local cover band LoliHolix and popular artist Amelie Belcher.

Christopher Ayres has been working professionally in theatre, television and film since the age of 6. He currently works as a voice actor for ADV and FUNimation. Chris is also an A.D. R. Director for ADV and Amusement Park Media.

Carrie Savage has voiced many anime characters: from California she has voiced such characters as 'Fuko' in I, My, Me! Strawberry Eggs, 'Rakka' in Haibane Renmei, 'Hakufu' in Ikki Tousen, 'Nancy Makuhari' in R.O.D. the TV series and 'Maromi' in Paranoia Agent.

San Japan A native Texan, Josh Grelle was raised on stage and in the art studios of Central Texas. He performed on stage for over 15 years prior to starting work for A.D.V. Films at the start of 2004. Since then he has worked for ADV and Funimation on numerous projects.

Amelie Belcher travels the country selling her award winning art, doing one of a kind commissions for con goers, giving the best damn panels on earth, and being paid tribute to by her army of fans known as the "Ami Army" in the form of Pocky and manga. Known as "the angriest chick on the net", she is the creator of the popular web comic "The Real Life Adventures of Amelie" at Cordeval.com.

Maja is an American lyricist who shares our love and fascination for things like Japanese animation, video games, and the Japanese language. In Fall 2009, Maja released a brand new album called "Bleach'd Out", a brand new hip-hop twist in tribute to the anime series Bleach which can be downloaded for free at reverbnation.com/majatron.

LoliHolix is a group of cool cats that will be performing the music you know and love. They've gathered members across time, space, and those pesky alternate timeline paradoxical universes to bring you a fun line up with fun songs. Influenced by video game music, Japanese styles, and all types of assorted musical diversities, they just want to rock your socks while saving the universe at the same time.

San Japan will be bringing many popular events to the convention including the Ouran Host Club, Hetalia Olympics (formally Otaku-lympics), an enduring otaku competitive event along with Ani-Idol, a karaoke and singing competition. San Japan is currently taking entries for its upcoming AMV Competition along with art submissions for its art contest with prizes given out for winning entries. San Japan will also be holding a charity auction with the proceeds going to Child's Play.

San Japan will be happening on the weekend of July 9th - 11th, 2010 at its new convention location at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter Hotel, adjacent to the Rivercenter Mall in the middle of the famous Riverwalk. Pre-registration for this event is currently $30 for a discount 3-day weekend pass. Hotel rooms are available at the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel for a special convention rate of $117 per night (standard nightly rate is $219). Pre-registration is open until June 10th and the discount hotel rates are available until June 17th.

For more information on registration, additional details about the convention, guest announcements, along with streaming music tracks of the performing music guests, can all be found at the official revamped San Japan website at www.san-japan.org. San Japan is also on Twitter at twitter.com/sanjapan or on Facebook at facebook.com/sanjapan, which will include the latest up-to-date news about the convention.

ABOUT SAN JAPAN

San Japan, LLC, is a not-for-profit organization devoted to bringing an appreciation of Japanese culture "state-side" through a variety of high-quality educational activities and entertainment events. In addition to the planned annual convention, San Antonio's first major Japanese culture and Anime convention, San Japan also participates throughout the Alamo City in a number of events such as the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures Asian Cultural Fair.

Press Release for January 20th, 2010