Anime Expo, the largest anime convention in the United States, recently announced that it will invite Nakagawa to its July 3 to 6 convention in Los Angeles for her first overseas live performance. Shoko Nakagawa is best known to Pokemon fans as one of the hosts of Pokemon Sunday.

Nakagawa sang Sorairo Days on NHK's Kohaku Uta Gassen (Red and White Song Contest) 2007 and has released four singles, two mini albums and one album. But she said she "still cannot imagine what I will do in Los Angeles".

"I first thought I would sing just one song. But it turned out to be a 60-minute performance," Nakagawa said. "I have not decided yet, but I want to sing my songs from other anime, including Dragon Ball and Rurouni Kenshin, since they will be familiar to people in the United States."

"Of course, I want to do cosplay there, too," said Nakagawa, who was appointed the "cosplay goodwill ambassador" in August at the World Cosplay Summit 2007, a gathering of costume play enthusiasts held in Nagoya.

"At the summit, I was able to talk with participants from other countries, such as France and Brazil. That made me realise I need less language to talk with them since we can communicate using Japanese anime words," Nakagawa said. "For the upcoming US event, I am going to take a number of costumes. I may dress as Haruhi (the main character in the anime The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu) or a character from Neon Genesis Evangelion."

To learn more English and to familiarise herself with the United States, she has been watching US films of late. "I realised that action, zombie and alien stuff mostly came from that country, and I find such films wonderful! I especially like splatter and zombie films," Nakagawa said, adding that she is now keen on collecting items relating to chain saws. "I have figures with a chain saw and a very large chain saw stained with artificial blood. I love to play with them."

Source: http://www.star-ecentral.com
Source 2: http://www.anime-expo.org/