[USA] Shokotan to appear at Anime Expo in July

It has been confirmed that Nakagawa Shoko (aka Shokotan) is making her first US appearance at Anime Expo 2008’s Guest of Honor this summer. One of the nation’s largest and most anticipated anime conventions, 2008(www.anime-expo.org) will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center July 3-6.

About Shoko Nakagawa

Born in Tokyo in 1985, Shoko Nakagawa is Japan’s new It Girl. Singer, TV celebrity, blogger, voice actress, illustrator…’Shokotan‘, as fans call her, is a multi-talented performer with a resume. These days it’s hard to go a day without hearing her name.

In February 2008, she broke records when her blog, ‘Shokotan Blog‘ (http://blog.excite.co.jp/shokotan/) received over one billion hits. Filled with photos and entries written in her own unique slang, this blog is arguably the most popular of the many celebrity blogs. The site, which she updates as many as 15 times a day, garners over 1,800,000 hits a day.

Among many fields of Shoko’s activities, music has been one of her most successful ventures. Since her singing debut in 2006, she has quickly expanded her fan base. Her single ‘Sorairo Days’, released in June of 2007, was chosen as the theme song to the popular TV anime ‘Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann‘. Her first ever rock song, it debuted at #3 on Japan’s Oricon weekly single chart. Thanks to the ever-increasing popularity of fan events held all over the country, Shoko had her first concert in Tokyo in December of 2007. Tickets sold out in 25 seconds, and the show drew a crowd of 2000 enthusiastic fans.

Shoko is also known for her extensive knowledge of anime and manga. On her blog she posts her thoughts on works that catch her interest, along with her own professional quality illustrations. In May of 2007, she chose 5 songs from over 1,500,000 requests, and released ‘Shokotan ☆Cover’ a cover album of anime theme songs. In August of the same year, she was selected as Japan’s good will ambassador at the ‘World Cosplay Summit 2007′, an event for aficionados of cosplay from all over the world. Her live performance at the event received rave reviews from guests, setting the stage for her worldwide popularity. The next month she followed up her hit anime song cover album with the release of ‘Shokotan☆Cover 2’. The album became yet another smash hit, ranking in at #11 on the Oricon album chart.

2007 was no doubt a huge year for Shoko. On December 31st, she realized her dream of performing on the Kohaku Utagassen, Japan’s traditional end of the year singing TV program. It was a fitting way to end an impressive year. Shoko took her place on stage with other artists representing the best and brightest of Japan’s music stars, and received attention for her real time updates to her blog from backstage at the event.

On the first day of the New Year 2008, Shoko went straight from Kohaku to perform at the prestigious Countdown Japan rock festival at 3 am. Regardless of the time, more than 5,500 people turned out to see her perform live. The same day a DVD of her 2007 concert, ‘Shokotan Donyoku Matsuri‘ was released, ranking at #5 on the Music DVD chart.

The ‘Shokotan’ fever shows no signs of stopping. The third book from her blog sold over 10,0000 copies, and her 4th single, ’snow tears’, released on January 30th, went to #2 on the charts. The ballad showing off her vocal talents like never before, the song was selected as the ending song for the TV anime ‘Hakaba Kitaro‘, for which Shoko also voices a character. She was quite moved by this fateful collaboration as her late father, the singer Katsuhiko Nakagawa had often said, ‘You can’t grow up without reading ‘Hakaba Kitaro.’ in her childhood.

On March 19th, her first full-length album “Big☆Bang!!!” was released with roaring support of her fans, the album debuted at #5 on the Oricon album chart. In support of the album, Ms. Nakagawa will kick off her much-anticipated Japan nation-wide tour in May.