Otakon is Pleased to Announce Tetsuya Kakihara

Baltimore, MD (June 7, 2012) – Known to his loving fans as "Kakki", we are pleased to welcome voice actor and musician Tetsuya Kakihara to Otakon 2012!

Kakihara debuted as a voice actor in 2003 and won “Best Male Newcomer” at the First Seiyuu Awards ceremony in Japan. Since then, he has amassed a considerable number of leading roles in his career, voicing the likes of Fairy Tail's Natsu Dragneel, Gurren Lagann's Simon, Linebarrels of Iron's Koichi Hayase, BlazBlue's Jin Kisaragi & Hakumen, and Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas' Pegasus Tenma. As a supporting cast member, Kakihara has been featured heavily in Blue Exorcist (Amaimon), Digimon Xros Wars Season 2 (Ryouma Mogami), Minami-ke (Fujioka), Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan (Shima), and Toriko (Tom).

As a music artist on Lantis and Bandai Visual's kiramune label for voice actors, Kakihara has released two albums, “Still on Journey” and “Continuous.” He has also performed the openings for Brave10, a Fairy Tail OAV, Sengoku Paradise Kiwami, and the Angel's Feather OAV.

Kakihara was born in Germany and resided in the country until the age of 18. In fact, Kakihara began to pursue his Japanese voice acting career in order to become more fluent in the language.

Kakihara plays Angelo Sauper in an ongoing OAV, Mobile Suit Gundam UC, continuing since 2010. In 2012, he will be featured in Fairy Tail as Natsu, and Ozma as Sam Coyne.

Otakon 2012 will be held July 27 – 29 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland.

ABOUT OTAKON AND OTAKORP, INC.: Now entering its nineteenth 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 31,000 individual members for three days each year (for a paid attendance of over 85,000 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 allvolunteer, 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 2012, see http://www.otakon.com/