As summer approaches, so does Anime Expo, America's biggest gathering of anime, manga and Japanese pop culture held on July 1 - 4, 2010 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. This week, the folks at AX announced a very special guest of honor: comics creator Rei Hiroe, the creator of the high-octane seinen manga action thriller, Black Lagoon. Hiroe-sensei will be on hand to introduce the world premiere of Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail, the third and latest installment of the Black Lagoon anime series.
Black Lagoon is both a manga series, published by VIZ Media, and an anime series, created by Madhouse, and distributed in the U.S. by FUNimation. The story centers around a group of heavily armed couriers-for-hire called Lagoon Company. The Lagoon Company crew is based in the fictional Thai town of Roanapur, a place where a United Nations of lowlifes, pirates, thieves and mafiosos live, do business and occasionally, go to war against each other. Big guns, big action and larger-than-life characters are all a part of the world of Black Lagoon.
Roberta's Blood Trail refers to Roberta, a quietly efficient maid serving the Lovelace family, a powerful Columbian clan that's one of South America's 13 major noble families. But in her past life, Roberta was known as Rosarita Cisneros, a FARC guerilla known for her fearsome efficiency as an assassin. Recent volumes of the Black Lagoon manga centered on Roberta reverting back to her bloodthirsty roots to save the young heir to the Lovelace family, and once she's mad and armed, she is very, very hard to stop.
The Roberta story arc is featured in Black Lagoon Volumes 6 through 8, and will probably conclude in Volume 9, which will be released by VIZ Media on July 13, 2010.
The first two seasons of the Black Lagoon anime series is available on DVD from FUNimation.
Rei Hiroe is just one of many special guests planned for Anime Expo. Other guests include anime producer Tomohiko Ishii (Sky Crawlers), animator and character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto (Wolf's Rain) and J-pop sweethearts AKB8. See the rest of the special guest line-up for Anime Expo 2010
Anime Expo will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from Thursday, July 1 through Sunday, July 4, 2010. Attendees can save time by pre-registering today at Anime-Expo.org. You can also see some photo highlights from last year in my Anime Expo 2009 photo gallery.
Image credits: © Rei Hiroe / SHOGAKUKAN, © 1992-2010 Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA)
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