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Animation Kobe Director Award winner, Hiroyuki Imaishi and 7th Annual Tokyo International Anime Award recipient, Atsushi Nishigori, are now announced as official Anime Expo 2009 Guests of Honor at the nation’s largest anime and manga convention held July 2-5, 2009 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Hiroyuki Imaishi

After graduating from Tama Art University, Mr. Hiroyuki Imaishi, was hired as an animator for the Gainax Company, Limited. His first work was the animation that many critics considered a social phenomenon NEON GENESIS EVANGELION. Since then, Mr. Imaishi has worked on storyboards and as art directors for such hit anime series as HIS AND HER CIRCUMSTANCES and FLCL. Mr. Imaishi made his directorial debut with the OVA DEAD LEAVES. Mr. Imaishi has also worked on RE: CUTEY HONEY and TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGGAN franchise. Mr. Imaishi was also the recipient of the 12th Animation Kobe
Director’s Award.

Atsushi Nishigori

Character designer Mr. Atsushi Nishigori has worked on many titles including MAHOROMATIC, THIS UGLY YET BEAUTIFUL WORLD, HE IS MY MASTER, OVER THE TOP! 2 and serves as the character animation director for the TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGGAN franchise. Mr. Nishigori was also the recipient of 7th Annual Tokyo International Anime Awards’ Individual Character Design Award category.

Mr. Imaishi and Mr. Nishigori join Daisuke Ishiwatari, Yosuke Kuroda, Toshimichi Mori, Morning Musume, Yasuhiro Nightow, Satoshi Nishimura and Kari Wahlgren as official Anime Expo 2009 Guests of Honor.

There are always “herds” of cosplay from popular anime (Naruto and Bleach come to mind), and the occasional “flock” of cosplays from less popular, but still fairly well-known, anime and games, and lastly there are the rarer, seldom seen cosplays from obscure anime and manga. Look! Over there! It’s that snake-guy thing seen on the left-hand corner of page hundred of Random Manga!! OMG! Get a picture before he gets spooked!

Each year offers new opportunities to finally check off the Cosplay-Watch List those cosplays we’ve longed to see, and see done right. Last year for me, it was Pip Bernadette from Hellsing at Anime Expo. That gal was dead on and looked fantastic, down to the tiniest detail. Then there was the absolutely adorable Schroedinger and the creepy Herr Doctor, also from Hellsing. Wow, three in one day! That’s good cosplay watching!

The one cosplay I’m still waiting to snap a photo of is a brilliantly done Alucard (another Hellsing, I know). It would be my greatest pleasure to see a perfect Alucard, cosplayed by a guy. Coming in close second on my wish list is a skillfully done L from Death Note. It’s an easy cosplay to do, but it’s hard to do right. I think it may be difficult to get perfect because people go visually verbatim with the hair. I’d also like to see a guy pull this one off successfully. I have many more minor cosplays I’d like to see, but I’m satisfied with the cosplays I’ve checked off so far.

What cosplays have made it onto your Cosplay-Watch List? Is it a rare character? Or is it a popular one, but one you want to see done perfectly? Is it a character from a video game, anime or manga? Does a group cosplay tickle your interest? Have you been crossing your fingers, hoping this will be the year to finally get a snapshot of that one elusive cosplay? Which cosplays are you hoping to spot at the cons?