Seattle's Sakura-Con convention announced last week that it will host Sword Art Online light novel creator Reki Kawahara (pictured right), original character designer Abec, and the anime adaptations' producers Shinichiro Kashiwada and Kazuma Miki. They are attending in cooperation with anime and music production company Aniplex.

Kawahara's Accel World novel inspired a television anime series and original video anime in 2012. He is writing the story for the Accel World: Infinite Burst film that will open on July 23.

This is Kawahara's second appearance at Sakura-Con and Abec's first appearance at the event. Kashiwada also attended last year's Sakura-Con. Miki attended Anime Expo in 2014 with Kawahara and Abec.

Sakura-Con also announced this week a list of guests that it will host in cooperation with Pony Canyon: Masashi Ishihama, Takeo Takahashi (pictured left), Hijiri Sanpei, Tatsuya Ishiguro, and Ryoichi Ishihara. Ishihama directed From the New World and Garakowa -Restore the World-. Takahashi has directed anime including Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, MAOYU, and Spice and Wolf. Sanpei has served as episode director for anime such as Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, Rail Wars!, and Spice and Wolf II. Ishiguro has produced anime including Squid Girl, Ben-To, and Humanity Has Declined. Ishihara has produced anime such as Devil Survivor 2 the Animation, Kamisama Kiss, and SoniAni: Super Sonico the Animation.

English dub voice actors Micah Solusod (Kamisama Kiss's Mizuki, Wolf Children's Ame; pictured right), Ian Sinclair (Space Dandy's Dandy, Free! Eternal Summer's Sosuke), Megan Emerick (Blood Blockade Battlefront's White, Sky Wizards Academy's Chloe), and Natalie Hoover (Noragami Aragoto's Mineha, Show By Rock!!'s Tsukino) will also attend. Other guests include the all-female Japanese rock group Band-Maid and fashion designer Takeshi Kunitomo.