Baltimore's Otakon to Host Felipe Smith, Peter Beagle

Manga creator of MBQ/Peepo Choo & author of The Last Unicorn

Otakon has announced on Thursday that manga artist/creator Felipe Smith and award-winning fantasy author Peter S. Beagle will attend the July 30-August 1 convention in Baltimore.

Smith is one of the few successful non-Japanese manga artists working in Japan today. After winning second place in Tokyopop's 2004 Rising Stars of Manga contest, he went on to publish the three-volume series MBQ. In 2008, he began serializing Peepo Choo in Morning 2, a manga magazine published by Kodansha in Japan. Vertical is publishing the first volume of Peepo Choo in the United States this month.

Beagle is the author of The Last Unicorn, one of America's classic fantasy tales. The Japanese studio Topcraft animated the novel for Rankin/Bass in 1982, and the film's staff later became pivotal members of Studio Ghibli (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away). Beagle has also written The Folk of the Air, The Innkeeper's song, The Line Between, We Never Talk about My Brother and a number of other novels. He also wrote the scripts for the animated versions of The Last Unicorn and Lord of the Rings, as well as the episode “Sarek” from Star Trek: the Next Generation.

Otakon 2010 will be held at the Baltimore Convention Center. The event will also hosts other guests such as voice actor/sound director Yuji Mitsuya, MADHOUSE studio founder and producer Masao Maruyama, An Café's bassist kanon, hip-hop group Home Made Kazoku, voice actress Maile Flanagan, and director Koji Masunari.

Update: More background information added.

Otakon Hosts Welcome to the Space Show Premiere, Staff (Updated)

1st film by R.O.D/Kamichu! director Masunari, designer Ishihama, producer Ochikoshi

Otakon has announced on Wednesday that Koji Masunari, character designer Masashi Ishihama, and producer Tomonori Ochikoshi will present the American premiere of their Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW anime film during the July 30–August 1 event in Baltimore. The science-fiction family film begins during the summer vacation of fifth grader Natsuki Oyama, who just moved into the countryside. She and four of her schoolmates embark on an space-spanning adventure that takes them beyond the fields they call home. The first 22 minutes of the film are streaming online with English subtitles.

For this film, Masunari, Ishihama, and writer Hideyuki Kurata joined forces at A-1 Pictures Inc. after working together on the R.O.D. Read or Die and Kamichu! anime. Susan Boyle, the 49-year-old Scottish woman who became globally famous after performing on the televised competition Britain's Got Talent, is contributing her "Who I Was Born to Be" song as the theme of the film. The film opened in Japan last month, after a February screening (without the theme song) at the Berlin International Film Festival and June screenings at the Sydney Film Festival.

Otakon is also hosting Michael Sinterniklaas, the prolific voice actor and dubbing director behind Gundam UC, Slayers, and many other titles.