ASAPA Presents Animethon 26: Over 9000 Anime Fans to Take Over the Entire Edmonton Convention Centre

Alberta Society for Asian Popular Arts (ASAPA) presents Animethon 26, taking place at the Edmonton Convention Centre from August 9th to 11th, 2019 with over 9000 expected attedees. Animethon 26 will be celebrating Japanese popular culture through costume contests, concerts, comedy improv groups, gaming tournaments, fan panels and other exciting activities. Animethon 26 will also be featuring musical guests from Japan for our “Anisong Edmonton” concert, Japanese animation studio Sunrise Inc., Bang Zoom! Entertainment audio post-production studio, Crunchyroll and many more!

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the revered Gundam series. To celebrate, Animethon 26 welcomes industry guests from Sunrise Inc. - Gundam series producer and also CEO & President of Sunrise Beyond (formerly Xebec), Ogawa Masakazu and voice talent Kengo Kawanishi from Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans which contains many scenes based on Downtown Edmonton.

Animethon 26 is pleased to present its first ever “Anisong Edmonton” concert, with musical guests from Japan, Yoko Ishida, Sayaka Sasaki, and ChouCho. These talented individual vocal artists will come together to perform hit anime songs from everyone's favourite shows from the past to present, such as OP and ED themes from Sailor Moon R, Fairy Tale, Girls und Panzer, and Senran Kagura.

Bang Zoom! Entertainment, a casting and voice production company, will also be present. They will be providing informative panels regarding work within the industry and smal open auditions held by their Casting Director & Director of Operations, Mami Okada and Recording and Editing Engineer, Ricky Watson.

Celebrity guests this year include voice talents Erika Harlacher, Daman Mills, Xander Mobus, and Brendan Hunter whose works include Persona 5, Mobile Suit Gundam: SEED, Rising of the Shield Hero, and Dragon Ball respectively. Other celebrity guests include Canadian cosplayer Phil Mizuno, AMV Editor King Redeem, and The 404s.

For the first time, Animethon 26 will host a charity auction for Extra Life Edmonton, who in turn, supports the Stollery Children's Hospital. All proceeds raised in the auction will benefit the hospital.

Animethon 26 is funded by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Downtown Business Association, and Edmonton Arts Council; Sponsored by Crunchyroll, Idea Factory, BioWare, Oomomo, Nomiya, BioWare, Bare-It Designs, and many more.

Tickets are available online at www.animethon.org or at the door. Ticket prices range from $20 to $60. Kids 12 and under attend free when accompanied by an adult ticket holder.

Join Animethon 26 at the opening ceremonies on Friday Aug. 9th from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Please email any inquiries to [email protected] and visit www.animethon.org for more information. Requests to interview any of the above mentioned guests must be submitted to [email protected] prior to June 30th.