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Anime Central to Host Wake Up, Girls! Voice Actress Group

Anime Central to Host Wake Up, Girls! Voice Actress Group
Anime Director Yutaka Yamamoto and Supervising Producer Hiroaki Takeuchi Also to Attend

ROSEMONT, IL - In association with avex entertainment, Ordet, and Crunchyroll, Anime Central is pleased to announce Wake Up, Girls! as Guests of Honor at their upcoming convention, May 16-18, 2014 in Rosemont, IL. Along with the 7 girls comprising the voice actress group, anime director Yutaka Yamamoto (Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens, Fractale) and supervising producer Hiroaki Takeuchi (Animatrix) will be in attendance. Wake Up, Girls! will make several appearances throughout the weekend, including a live stage performance following a screening of the "Wake Up, Girls! - Seven Idols" movie.

Wake Up, Girls! is Mayu Yoshioka, Yoshino Aoyama, Minami Tanaka, Nanami Yamashita, Miyu Takagi, Airi Eino, and Kaya Okuno. The group plays the main characters in the anime series "Wake Up, Girls!" Not only are the characters in the series named after the actresses, the actresses and characters even resemble each other in appearance and personality.

Movie and series director Yutaka Yamamoto is an anime director, formerly a member of Kyoto Animation, and a founder of anime studio Ordet. In 2008, he directed "Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maiden," the first anime he produced with Ordet. In 2013, he dedicated the short anime "blossom" to charities helping children affected by the Tohoku Earthquake. The video gently reveals an old farmer's life as he works to bring a tsunami-ravaged land back to life. His most recent work is the "Wake Up, Girls!" series. The film titled "Wake Up, Girls! - Seven Idols" opened in Japan January 2014, and the following TV series aired between January and March 2014. The series also takes place in Sendai, the biggest city in Tohoku, to cheer up the area. A fusion of anime and real-life idol, "Wake Up, Girls!" keeps its reach throughout the world from Sendai.

Supervising Producer Hiroaki Takeuchi is a leading producer in both traditional cel animation and digital animation in Japan. Some of Mr. Takeuchi's major works as producer or executive producer include the video game Virtua Fighter (SEGA: CG animation), "Voice of a Distant Star" and "The Place Promised in Our Early Days" (directed by Makoto Shinkai), "The Animatrix" (co-produced with Warner Bros.), and "blossom" and "Wake Up, Girls!" (directed by Yutaka Yamamoto). Mr. Takeuchi also lectures at various universities in the field of digital animation and serves as council member for animation related committees run by the Japanese and Tokyo Metropolitan Governments.

"Wake Up, Girls! - Seven Idols" movie and the entirety of "Wake Up, Girls!" series is available to view on Crunchyroll's streaming services (www.crunchyroll.com/wakeup). Additionally, Crunchyroll will be hosting two autograph sessions with the members of Wake Up, Girls! at their exhibit hall booth at Anime Central.

Wake Up, Girls! Official Website: http://wakeupgirls.jp
Anime Central Announcement Page: http://www.acen.org/content/wake-up-girls

ABOUT AVEX GROUP HOLDINGS, INC.: Avex Group Holdings, Inc. (www.avex.co.jp) was originally created as a record wholesaler in a tiny apartment in Machida, Tokyo in 1988. On April 11, 2013, it celebrated its 25th anniversary. To fulfill its missions as a pure holding company specializing in the formulation of group strategies and in shared services, it seeks to construct a mechanism and a system that maximize synergy between different businesses on the basis of the characteristics of individual Group companies.

ABOUT ORDET CO., LTD.: Ordet Co., Ltd. (ordet.jp) was founded in August 2007 by Yutaka Yamamoto. Ordet's primary function is production, manufacturing, and distribution of animation and other media, followed by production and distribution of character goods as related to their intellectual property. Since the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, much effort has been given to the support and relief of the people of Tohoku.

ABOUT CRUNCHYROLL, INC.: Crunchyroll (www.crunchyroll.com) is a leading global destination and platform for Japanese anime and Asian content. Crunchyroll delivers more than 25,000 episodes and 15,000 hours of officially-licensed content from leading Asian media producers directly to viewers translated professionally in multiple languages within minutes of TV broadcast, through applications including Crunchyroll for iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle, PlayStation®3, PlayStation®4, PlayStation®Vita, XBox Live®, AppleTV, Roku, Internet-enabled TVs, set-top boxes, affiliate websites and its own streaming website.
Crunchyroll's majority investor is The Chernin Group, LLC (TCG), a privately-held, independent media holding company founded in 2010 by Peter Chernin and based in Los Angeles, CA. TCG builds, manages, operates and invests in businesses in the media, entertainment and technology sectors around the world. Crunchyroll has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Tokyo, and is a member of the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA).

ABOUT ANIME CENTRAL: Anime Central (www.acen.org) is the Midwest's largest anime, manga, and Japanese pop culture convention. The convention is currently held in Rosemont, IL, just outside of Chicago and 5 minutes from O'Hare Airport. As part of its mission, Anime Central brings fans together with guests from the Japanese and U.S. sectors of the animation and manga industries, as well as gaming, cinema, and Asian culture. Anime Central is sponsored by the Midwest Animation Promotion Society, a registered 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization.

Anime Central to Host Wake Up, Girls! Voice Actress Group
May 16th and May 17th, 2014
Donald E. Stephens Convention Center
9291 Bryn Mawr Ave.
Rosemont, IL 60018 USA
http://www.acen.org/content/wake-up-girls




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