Illinois convention runs from May 18-20

The Anime Central convention announced on Monday that it will host manga artist Takeshi Nogami at this year's event. The convention's website also announced on April 5 that it will host director Mitsuo Iso .

Nogami assisted with original character designs for the Girls und Panzer anime, and then worked on the character designs for Girls und Panzer der Film . He has also worked on character designs for the High School Fleet anime, and designed the "Third Aerial Girls Squad" for the Shirobako anime. He created his own manga series Sailor-fuku to Jūsensha , Shidenkai no Maki , and Zerokan of the Moonlight Lua , and contributed art for Anastasia Moreno 's Marine Corps Yumi . His original dōjinshi series The Azure Century Chronicles has an English release.



Iso is the original creator, director, and screenwriter of the Den-noh Coil anime. He won the Excellence Award in Animation at the 2007 Japan Media Arts Festival for the series. He has worked as a key animator for such anime series and films as: Ninja Robots , Gegege no Kitarō , Ocean Waves , Neon Genesis Evangelion , Napping Princess , Cowboy Bebop: The Movie , JoJo's Bizarre Adventure OAV , Perfect Blue , Porco Rosso , FLCL , Only Yesterday , and RahXephon . He also served as a key animator for the anime segment in the live-action film Kill Bill film.

Iso announced he will share details on an upcoming new animation project at Anime Central.