June 29, 2011
News for Otakon 2011:
Director, animator, and voice actor Makoto Shinkai to appear at Otakon 2011
Baltimore, MD (June 22, 2011) - Makoto Shinkai, an award winning director, animator, and voice actor, will appear this year at Otakon 2011.
Makoto Shinkai is a native of the Nagano prefecture in Japan. While in middle school, exposure to manga, anime, and novels birthed his desire for creation. One of these anime was Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miyazaki which he describes as his favorite. This desire led to his studies in Japanese literature at university.
His works include the award winning She and Her Cat, Voices of a Distant Star which was written, directed, and produced entirely by himself and in which he voiced in the original, the critically acclaimed The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and the multiple award winning series of short stories in the film 5 Centimeters Per Second.
This year, Makoto Shinkai has released his latest work, Children Who Chase Lost Voices from Deep Below, which was released in Japan on May 7, 2011.
Otakon 2011 will be held July 29 - 31 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland.
ABOUT OTAKON AND OTAKORP, INC.: Now entering its eighteenth year, Otakon is an annual celebration of Japanese and East Asian popular culture, and also one of the largest gatherings of fans in the United States. Otakon celebrates popular culture as a gateway to deeper understanding of Asian culture, and has grown along with the enthusiasm for anime, manga, video games, and music from the Far East. Since 1999, Otakon has been held in Baltimore, Maryland; currently, Otakon is one of Baltimore's few large, city-wide events, drawing over 29,000 individual members for three days each year (for a paid attendance of over 80,000 turnstile attendees). Otakon is a membership-based convention sponsored by Otakorp, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based, 501(c)3 educational non-profit whose mission is to promote the appreciation of Asian culture, primarily through its media and entertainment. Otakorp, Inc. is directed by an all-volunteer, unpaid staff - we are run by fans, for fans.
For more information about Otakorp, Inc., see http://www.otakon.com/otakorp/index.asp
For more information and the latest news on Otakon 2011, see http://www.otakon.com/
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