#aodcon

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By now, you may be wondering about dates and status for AOD 2018. AOD has been a fixture in the San Francisco Bay Area's anime community for 15 years now, and we are extremely grateful for your...

Many of you may have heard already, but here is the official statement on what’s been going on with AOD.

We thank everyone that’s been a part of our community and attending for the past 15 years; we couldn’t have done it without you guys.

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Register Online before AOD

We’re just a day out from AOD’s official opening ceremony, but there’s still time to register online at EventBrite! This way, you can simply go to the pre-reg line and pick up your badge, letting you get in even faster! In fact, as long as you register online before you arrive at AOD, you are eligible for the pre-reg line.

tl;dr: You can still register right now and skip the at-con line!

Our schedule is online for you to plan your events this weekend!

Still unsure what else there is? Aside from our annual events like Masquerade, Charity Auction and concerts, why not check out our other events?

Scavenger Hunt: The scavenger hunt will be a photo scavenger hunt, requiring you to take photos of specific items, characters, scenarios, and more! We have amazing prizes provided by Aitai☆Kuji from Japan, so don't miss out! You can pick up the scavenger hunt instruction sheet at Registration or the Scavenger Hunt table located next to Registration. All entries for the Saturday scavenger hunt are due by Saturday 5PM.

Foam Sword Fighting: Belegarth Medieval Combat Society is a fun, safe, and inexpensive sport where participants wear medieval or fantasy-themed clothing and fight with foam-padded weapons. The fighting is hard and fast and has, since 1979, refined into its own brand of martial art. The rules are easy to learn, and after a few practices, you'll be hooked! Come watch a demonstration, or take a few hacks yourself!

Mahjong: Fancy yourself the next “Kaiji”? Want to learn how to play? Check out our mahjong area in the gaming hall and go a couple rounds!

Karaoke Open Mic: Find yourself looking for something to do at night? Just want to sing? We’ll have open mic karaoke starting at 8pm running all the way until midnight on Saturday! (Live Events 3)

We hope to see you there~! ☆ヾ(*´▽｀)ﾉ

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Guest of Honor: Ken Pontac

Our next Guest of Honor is one that many longtime attendees--and probably even some new ones--should recognize: the venerable writer, animator, and all-around-outrageously-talented guy Ken Pontac! 

Ken Pontac has been a Migrant Film Worker in the animation industry for over a quarter of a century, writing and directing content for television, film, and various new-fangled thinking machines. His early work includes the stop-motion series Gumby, as well as the various iterations of the classic videogame Clayfighter. In the past several years Pontac has written scripts and dialog for the Marvel Heroes MMO, NSFW barks for Undead Labs’ State of Decay 2, multiple Sonic the Hedgehog games for Sega, an international hit series featuring the ghost gobbling Pac-Man, Disney’s animated action/adventure series Slugterra, the charming pre-school show Octonauts, and the less-than-charming Internet sensation Happy Tree Friends (a show so violent that it's banned in Russia). He is also still receiving royalty checks for writing the LazyTown song "You Are A Pirate," which has become an Internet meme, enjoying tens of millions of hits on YouTube and inspiring multiple mash-ups and drunken karaoke videos. Pontac has recently written for the new Thunderbirds Are Go! series, as well as the Netflix property Kong – King of the Apes. His cult classic stop-motion series Bump in the Night is available in a new compilation produced by Mill Creek Entertainment, and a compilation of his controversial mini-series, Wacky Raceland, will be available on March 14th. Pontacʼs work on the delightfully pro-social animated series Arthur may offset some of the karmic debt incurred by his other literary efforts (MadWorld, anyone?), but will probably only bump him up from tapeworm to tree-frog on the reincarnation cycle.

Pontac lives in Sausalito with a beautiful redheaded nurse and his two crazy dogs, Whistle and Mickey Blue Eyes.

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Music & Performances Line Up!

We’re happy to announce a packed lineup of musical performances and other fun stuff on the Main Stage this year!

SATURDAY

Ayashiki - 3PM

Aivi & Surasshu - 5PM

Lotus Juice - 9:30PM

SUNDAY

Team Hideo - 2PM

Super Soul Bros. - 4PM

All performances will be held on the Main Stage, so make sure you swing by and check them out!

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Guest of Honor: Micah Solusod

It’s that time again--another Guest of Honor announcement! Today, we’re happy to say we’ll be having voice actor Micah Solusod join our line-up of amazing guests! If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s currently voicing one of the main characters on the break-out hit Yuri!!! On Ice--the “Russian Fairy”, Yuri Plisetsky (or Yurio as we all know and love).

Micah Solusod made his anime debut as Malek Werner in Blassreiter and is best known for his role as Soul Evans in Soul Eater. He has shown up in a number of other Funimation titles as Yuichiro Hyakuya in Seraph of the End, Toma Kamijo in A Certain Magical Index, Yukine in Noragami, Midnight in Fairy Tail, teen Coby in One Piece, Wisely in D.Gray-Man Hallow, Tagoma in Dragonball Z: Resurrection ‘F’, Mizuki in Kamisama Kiss, older Ame in Wolf Children, Ao Fukai in Eureka Seven AO, Gakushu Asano in Assassination Classroom, Black/King of Despair in Blood Blockade Battlefront, Bea in Space Dandy, Seido Takizawa in Tokyo Ghoul, and most recently, Nikolai Krasotkin in the Project Itoh film, The Empire of Corpses!

Currently, he can be heard in Funimation's SimulDubs as Kakeru Naruse in Orange, Yuri Plisetsky in Yuri!!! On ICE, Arata Kaizaki in ReLIFE, and Shun Kaidou in The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.

This is his first appearance at a California convention, so be sure to stop by his panels and autograph sessions and say hello!

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Guest of Honor: David Hollin

Incoming! New Guest of Honor alert! Today we are happy to announce another guest to our lineup, David Seiji Hollin of Niantic, Inc.!

David Seiji Hollin is a technical artist and designer at Niantic, Inc. He has been with the team since it was still a part of Google and is a core developer for the smash hit Pokémon GO. His responsibilities have ranged from 3D art and animation, visual development for UI, gameplay design, and brainstorming and prototyping new features to add to the game. Two examples of David's contributions to Pokémon GO include the introduction of camera AR and the Pokémon buddy system.

He is a graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts Interactive Media Division and is also a gigantic Poké fan.

David will be hosting a panel on Pokémon Go and another on online communities and fandoms; in addition, he’ll also be having an autograph session, so be sure to stop by and say hi, and maybe even chat about Pokémon!

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Speaking of the scavenger hunt...if you want a closer look at those prizes from @aitaikuji!!!

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AOD Scavenger Hunt

A new event is coming this year...that’s right, AOD 2017 will be having our first ever SCAVENGER HUNT this year! The scavenger hunt will be a photo scavenger hunt, requiring attendees to take photos of specific items, characters, scenarios, and more! We have amazing prizes provided by Aitai☆Kuji (@aitaikuji) from Japan!

Just a few of the prizes you can win! (I want those nekos...)