Anime Expo announced that Hiroyuki Imaishi and Atsushi Nishigori will attend Anime Expo as Guests of Honor. Both Imaishi and Nishigori contributed to Gainax's Gurren Lagann, with Imaishi serving as the series' director, and Nishigori as character designer.

Imaishi graduated from Tama Art University, and was immediately hired as an animator for Gainax. His starting project was Neon Genesis Evangelion. After Evangelion, Imaishi worked on storyboards, and as art director for a number of series, such as His And Her Circumstances and FLCL. He made his debut as a director with Dead Leaves, from which he went on to direct Re: Cutey Honey and Gurren Lagann. He was awarded the 12th annual Kobe Director Award for Animation last year, for his work on Gurren Lagann.

Nishigori provided character designs for a number of Gainax titles, including Mahoromatic and This Ugly Yet Beautiful World. He served as animation director for Gurren Lagann. Nishigori was awarded the Individual Character Design Award at the 7th Annual Tokyo International Anime Awards, for his work on Gurren Lagann.

Anime Expo will be held from July 2-5 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.