As the premiere anime convention in the San Francisco Bay Area, our expectations for FanimeCon 2015 were raised after their numerous improvements from last year over 2013. We were hoping that the hardworking staff would take the lessons they learned throughout the past two years and create a smoother, more efficient convention than ever before; much to our delight they did.

For their seventh anniversary, The-O Network is proud to announce that they will be collaborating with the South Korean cosplay design firm 2AO Design to bring the amazing cosplay talents of Aza and Hori to the United States as guests during Anime Expo 2015, the nation's largest anime and manga convention convention held July 2- July 5 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Known for their stunningly beautiful cosplay work, Aza and Hori, have risen to cosplay stardom through their modeling work with the South Korean cosplay design firm 2AO Design. Making their mark by working with both amateur and professional photographers alike, their extensive portfolio includes Oreimo, League of Legends, Sailor Moon and many more. Recently, Aza was selected as the Korean representative for the 2014 World Cosplay Summit.

During their panel at Sakura-Con 2015, Under the Dog (UTD)'s Jiro Ishii and Koji Morimoto sat down in a room full of backers to give their supporters the latest updates on their Kickstarter-funded animation project including a special inside look into studio Kinema Citrus. 

What do you get when you combine a Vocaloid veteran with a model/designer/singer? The answer: GARNiDELiA.  Seattle's Sakura-Con 2015 played host to the duo as part of the event's 18th iteration.  The group consists of Maria, real name Mai Mizuhashi, and Toku, real name Yoshinori Abe.  The two are signed to Sony Japan's Defstar Records.  Remember April 4, 2015; this is the date of GARNiDELiA's first American concert and what a night it was.  Just a few months earlier GARNiDELiA released their first album, "Linkage Ring," and now fans in America would get to see them live.  

As a longtime fan of Nitro+ visual novels such as Steins;Gate, Demonbane and of course, Saya no Uta, Kanako Itou's second appearance in America was a concert that I knew I couldn't miss. What started as a convention that I was only mildly interested in took off into the stratosphere, finally giving me a reason to go to Seattle's long-running convention for the second time.

Performing as the opening act for Sakura-Con's big musical concert on Saturday April 4th, Itou-san sang a set of fan favorite theme songs inside of a fully packed hall at the Washington State Convention Center. These songs included her opening number "Hacking to the Gate (Steins;Gate)," "Tsuso no Despair (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni)" and "TOPOLOGY (Robotics;Notes)."

To be honest, when we first heard of a small anime convention in Mesa, Arizona would play host to America's first Persona concert, we were stunned in disbelief. It wasn't that it was the fact that it took place in the nation's 48th state, but rather that Taiyou Con was able to invite some of the guests that we were thinking would select a larger con like Anime Expo, Sakura-con or Otakon for their American debut; especially given how popular the Atlus video game series has become in America. However, being huge Persona fans, we didn't hesitate at all to book a plane, car and hotel from California and before we knew it we were in Mesa.

One of the most popular Japanese MMO held a festival for about 2000 fans in Las Vegas. Filled with jaw dropping cosplays, lots of sneak peeks for upcoming releases, and of course gambling and alcohol, check out a recap of my three day adventure at the Rio Hotel.

Please note, there will be a mixture of photos from my camera and phone so the quality may vary.

Watch our full video of Akira Yamaoka along with The Silent Hill Band including Mary Elizabeth McGlynn rock out at the San Mateo Event Center during Japan Expo USA 2014! Stay tuned for the rest of our event coverage.