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Anaheim, California (June 4, 2007) — Model, actress and singer Anna Tsuchiya is the latest addition to the hottest line up of Anime Expo® 2007 Guests of Honors for the highly anticipated 2007 convention June 29-July 2 at the Long Beach Convention Center. More information can be found on the website www.anime-expo.org.

Ms. Tsuchiya has packed much into her short career since she first started modeling in her teens in the late 1990s. She has appeared in fashion shows, television commercials, performed as a stage actress and find time for a recording career. She did much to confound her image as a pop idol by starring as a foul-mouthed, leather-clad yakuza biker girl in the hit movie “Kamikaze Girls.” Anna scored her first top 10 hit with her third single “Rose,” the opening theme song to the anime television series “Nana,” in 2006.

Born in Tokyo on March 11 1984 to a Japanese mother and American father, Anna Tsuchiya did not have to wait long for her introduction to the showbiz world, getting her first break modeling for the Japanese teen fashion magazine Seventeen in 1998, aged 14. This break led to appearances on television and her becoming the first Japanese model to model for the jeans brand Edwin. Her profile was raised when she starred in Tetsuya Nakashima’s award-winning 2004 movie “Kamikaze Girls,” alongside another idol, Kyoko Fukada.

Anna’s music career began in 2002 as half of the rock duo Spin Aqua. The group earned a record deal with P-Vine, but quickly disbanded without making an impact, allowing Anna to pursue a solo career. The six-track mini-album “Taste My Beat,” released in 2005 on the Avex Trax “indie” imprint Mad Pray, featured Anna on the cover in her characteristic panda-eye black mascara, but Anna’s look was more sweet-sucking gothic vamp than Dusty Springfield’s girl next door. Musically, the album was all polished, pop-metal riffing and power ballads with obligatory soaring string arrangements. An album of remixes was released in early 2006, featuring reworkings by respected house producers Shinichi Osawa (of Mondo Grosso) and Yukihiro Fukutomi, among others.

Anna continued to cultivate an edgy image, which had first begun with her appearance in “Kamikazi Girls,” on her debut full-length, “Strip me?” (2006). The album peaked at number 11 in the Oricon charts and featured guest turns from A Perfect Circle drummer Josh Freese and session players who had previously worked with Garbage and Avril Lavigne. Most of the lyrics were in English and penned by Anna. The album also brought on board the hard rockin’ rhythm section of Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver) on “Rose,” which was used as the opening theme to the anime Nana, based on a popular manga series of the same name. “Rose” reached number 6 on the Oricon chart and Anna capitalized on its success by performing a sold-out tour of Japan’s club venues and performing at one of Japan’s biggest summer rock festivals, Summer Sonic. The album was not without its brighter, poppier moments, though, encapsulated in the sprightly reworking of Cyndi Lauper’s adult-pop hit “True Colors.”

Also in summer 2006, Anna performed nine songs (and modeled) as part of the Japanese fashion, music and anime showcase, Tokyo Summer Collection in Paris, leading some excited sections of the French media to dub Anna “the Japanese Madonna.”

(Official biography provided by David Hickey)

Despite a rise in her musical profile, Anna kept her hand in acting when she took on the voice of Lindsay Lohan’s character in the Japanese-language version of the Disney film “Herbie Fully Loaded.”

Ms. Tsuchiya will be performing a full one hour live concert at Anime Expo® on Saturday; June 30, 2007 at the Anime Expo® Main Events Hall (Long Beach Arena).

Anaheim, California (June 1, 2007) — Singer and songstress Chiaki Ishikawa is newest addition to the hottest line up of Anime Expo® 2007 Guests of Honors for the highly anticipated 2007 convention June 29-July 2 at the Long Beach Convention Center. More information can be found on the website www.anime-expo.org.

Ms. Ishikawa started singing from a young age as a member of a choir. Later she joined her elder sister’s band as a singer and started singing at venues in and around Tokyo. In 1993 she formed “See-Saw” together with composer, Yuki Kajiura. They released their first single “Swimmer” and released six singles and two albums over the next three years.

At the same time Chiaki wrote songs for other artists as well. After three years, See-Saw took a break and Chiaki started her career as a solo singer, called herself “Somali”, and released the album “Magnolia” in 1999. In 2001, See-Saw started their activities again, this time the soundtrack to the TV animation, ‘Noir’. In 2002 they released a couple of singles and the ending theme to the anime ‘Mobile Suit Gundam SEED’, titled “Annani Issho Dattanoni”, which saw them make it to the Oricon charts for the first time, at number 5.

In 2003 See-Saw released their third album “Dream Field” and Chiaki released her first solo album, “Inner Garden”. In 2004 she released a solo single “Ame no Hi ni Koi wo Shita / Haru”. In 2005 See-Saw released the single “Kimi wa Boku ni Niteiru” which was the ending theme of ‘Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny’ (Oricon Chart no. 4). In 2006 Chiaki released “Utsukushikereba Sore de Ii”, the opening theme song to the TV anime ‘Simoun’. In July, she performed at Animelo Summer Live 2006 at Nippon Budokan. She sung Utsukushikereba Sore de Ii and Annani Issho Dattanoni in front of 10,000 fans.

This year in June, she will release the single, “Uninstall” which is the opening theme of TV anime ‘Bokurano’, and is currently recording an original solo album to be released in August.

Victor Entertainment, Inc. will also be presenting savage genius at Anime Expo® 2007 as their official industry guest. savage genius has performed songs for anime titles such as ‘Uta-Kata’, ‘Elemental Gelade’ and the PS2 game ‘Gundam True Odyssey-Ushinawareshi G no Densetsu’. savage genius has been constantly recording and releasing new songs. In April 2006 another single was released “Inori no Uta”, the ending theme to the TV anime ‘Simoun’ and July saw the release of their first album “Kaze no Kessho” and their participation in the Animelo Summer Live 2006 at Nippon Budokan. On December 20th 2006, they released “Aizome – Futakomori”, a self cover version of the ending theme to the TV anime ‘Jigoku Shojo-Futakomori’. In May 2007 they have just released the opening theme of ‘EL CAZADOR De La Bruja’, titled “Hikari no Yukue”.

Ms. Ishikawa will be performing a full one hour live concert at Anime Expo® on Sunday; July 1, 2007 at the Anime Expo® Main Events Hall (Long Beach Arena).

Anna Tsuchiya
Chiaki Ishikawa
Anime Expo 2007
29 June - 2 July 2007
Long Beach Convention Center
300 E Ocean Blvd
Long Beach, CA 90802