Director, co-creator, character designer to attend Dallas convention in August

The staff for the Dallas anime convention AnimeFest announced on Tuesday that it will host director Sayo Yamamoto, co-creator Mitsurou Kubo, and character designer and animation director Tadashi Hiramatsu from the Yuri!!! on Ice television anime.

AnimeFest 2017 will be held at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel from August 17-20.

Yamamoto made her directorial debut on Michiko and Hatchin in 2008. She went on to direct the Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine television anime in 2012 and the figure-skating anime short "Endless Night" for the Japan Animator's Expo. She has also worked on Attack on Titan (ending storyboards and directing), Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (storyboard), Psycho-Pass (opening storyboards and directing), Space Dandy (ending storyboards and directing), among other titles. This will be her second visit to AnimeFest.

Manga creator Kubo made her debut in 1996 with "Shiawase 5-han" in mimi magazine. She later created 3.3.7 Byooshi in 2001 and Tokkyu!! in 2004. Her 2008 romantic comedy manga Moteki inspired both a live-action television show and film. She launched her high school cheer group manga, Again!!, in 2011, and it received a live-action film adaptation in 2014. She co-created the Yuri!!! on Ice anime with Yamamoto, and contributed original character designs and storyboards.

Hiramatsu made his debut as a key animator on Mister Ajikko. Since then, he has worked on numerous shows including Neon Genesis Evangelion (key animation), His and Her Circumstances (chief animation director, character design, storyboards), FLCL (animation director, key animation supervisor), Gurren Lagann (animation director, storyboards), Kill La Kill (key animation), and Parasyte -the maxim- (character design, opening animation director).

Yuri!! on Ice premiered in Japan on October 6, and Crunchyroll is streaming the series as it airs. Funimation began streaming an English broadcast dub on October 24.

Thanks to ravegrl and Joe Chan for the news tip.