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Otakon Hosts Toshio Furukawa, Shino Kakinuma, Katsuyuki Sumizawa, Hideyuki Tomioka
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
The staff of the Otakon convention announced on Wednesday that it will host voice actors Toshio Furukawa and Shino Kakinuma. The staff also announced that this year's event will host scriptwriter and novelist Katsuyuki Sumizawa and Sunrise senior managing director Hideyuki Tomioka.
Toshio Furukawa began his prolific voice acting career in 1974. He has voiced dozens of roles including Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z, Portgas D. Ace in One Piece, Kageroza Inaba in Bleach, Kai Shiden in Mobile Suit Gundam, Ataru Moroboshi in Urusei Yatsura, Shin in Fist of the North Star, Sakamoto in Maison Ikkoku, Asuma Shinohara in Patlabor, Leon McNichol in Bubblegum Crisis, Hawks Eye in Sailor Moon Super S, and Asura in Soul Eater.
Kakinuma's roles include Naru Osaka in Sailor Moon, Videl and Pan in Dragon Ball Z Kai, and Rie Kakinoki in Kemonozume. She and Furukawa are married.
Furukawa and Kakinuma have previously appeared together at other United States conventions, including Anime Boston and Dallas' AnimeFest last year.
Both Sumisawa and Tomioka are attending Otakon as part of a collaboration with Sunrise
As an anime scriptwriter, Sumizawa has handled series composition for Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Inuyasha, Yakitate!! Japan, Zoids/ZERO, and Tokyo Underground. He has also worked on scripts for Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, Macross 7 and Yū Yū Hakusho.
Sumisawa wrote the Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop novel series, which he adapted into a picture drama for the second Gundam Wing Blu-ray Disc box set.
Tomioka joined Sunrise as a part-timer on Taiyō no Kiba Dougram, and he later became a full-time producer. His production credits include Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Inuyasha, After War Gundam X, Turn A Gundam, Yakitate!! Japan, and Steamboy.
Otakon 2017 will take place from August 11-13 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. This will be the 24th convention, and the first year the convention is being held in D.C.; Baltimore has hosted the convention for the past 17 years.
This year's event will also host producer Masao Maruyama, animation director Hidenori Matsubara, and director Ei Aoki. Yousei Teikoku, JAM Project, Flow, and singer T.M. Revolution will all perform at Otakon as part of the convention's Anisong World Matsuri music festival event.
