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Otakon Hosts Japanese Musicians from Its Anime Opening

Otakon has announced that three new musical guests — Hiroaki Yura, Hiroki Kikuta, and Shihori — will appear at the July 30-August 1 convention in Baltimore. All three have worked on Otakon 2010's new opening animation, which is being produced by the Production I.G anime studio.

Otakon had previously announced that it will open with an original short from Production I.G and the song, "Shackles of Night." Yura composed the song, Kikuta supervised the music, and Shihori performed the song.

Kikuta is known for his work with the developer Square on video games such as Secret of Mana, Secret of Mana 2 and Koudelka. Kikuta has also worked as a manga illustrator and has composed music for video games after leaving Square, while also releasing albums of his own work.

Yura is a violin soloist and founder of Eminence Symphony Orchestra and the Eminence Artists. He has directed orchestral recordings for works including The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk. Eminence Symphony Orchestra also performed music for the anime Romeo × Juliet.

Shihori is a singer and songwriter from the classical pop unit "Shihori and Asuka," and she collaborated with Yoko Kanno on the song "Universal Bunny" for the Macross Frontier.

Otakon 2010 will be held at the Baltimore Convention Center.