Anime Expo® Announces Director, Lead Artist and Designer of Blazblue to Attend Anime Expo® as an Official Guest of Honor

Nation’s Largest Anime and Manga Convention Welcomes Toshimichi Mori to the 2009 Convention

Anaheim, California and Tokyo, Japan (April 13, 2009) — Anime Expo® is proud to announce the attendance of the legendary Kanagawa Prefecture born producer and artist Toshimichi Mori to the nation’s largest anime and manga convention held July 2-5, 2009 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. More information can be found on the website www.anime-expo.org.

Throughout his career, Mr. Toshimichi Mori has been influenced by many individuals, but only a few have earned his respect, “the person I respect the most would have to be Kojima Yoshio. He has done amazing things for this industry.”

When asked how about what inspires him, Mr. Mori states, “A lot of my ideas came from anime and movies, or ideas that I had from when I was in high school. In retrospect, a lot of the ideas I’ve come up with are kind of embarrassing.”

Mr. Mori is currently working on the Aksys Games title BLAZBLUE as its director, lead artist and designer.

Toshimichi Mori joins Morning Musume as official Anime Expo® 2009 Guests of Honor.

Anime Expo® Announces Musical Composer of Blazblue and Guilty Gear Producer to Attend Anime Expo® as an Official Guest of Honor

Nation’s Largest Anime and Manga Convention Welcomes Daisuke Ishiwatari to the 2009 Convention

Anaheim, California and Tokyo, Japan (April 13, 2009) — Anime Expo® is proud to announce the attendance of the world re-known South African born producer and composer Daisuke Ishiwatari to the nation’s largest anime and manga convention held July 2-5, 2009 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. More information can be found on the website www.anime-expo.org.

Mr. Daisuke Ishiwatari is famed for single-handedly creating the first GUILTY GEAR game, but he says it wasn’t all just him and shares this credit, “That is not quite true. In fact, it is a big misunderstanding. The core development team consisted of about five people. I was entertained by the idea that I could create a game, and got my toes wet in areas like concept, planning, direction, design, music, writing, and voice acting, so that may be where the rumors stem from. However, by no means did I ’single-handedly’ create this game … In fact, I often came to my colleagues for help.”

Mr. Ishiwatari is currently working on the Aksys Games title BLAZBLUE as its composer.

Daisuke Ishiwatari joins Toshimichi Mori and Morning Musume as official Anime Expo® 2009 Guests of Honor.