Update 3/11/12: We've hit our goal! thank you all so much!
AnimeBoston 2012, in addition to being the generally awesome con it always is, is going to be super special for Touhou fans! In addition to what will assuredly be an even bigger turnout than last year's already impressive Touhou showing, we should be seeing not one, but two potential Touhou guests!
The first is the person referenced in the thread topic. A few months ago, several of us in #conmeido got together, formulated the idea for bringing a Touhou guest to America, dredging up the courage to be willing to sponsor said guest should we not be able to get a con to sponsor them for us, and after a quick e-mail exchange with our first choice, we already had someone willing to visit. Having kept this contained to #conmeido until today, it is with great pleasure I announce that Hitoshi Mizuki, mangaka and main character of Hang in There, Kogasa-san!, has agreed to come to America and attend a convention! Our group generally agreed on AnimeBoston after other potential opportunities fell through, and so we begin the proper planning of getting him a plane ticket and a room.
Now, this stuff is obviously not cheap, and does not include whatever else he'll need while here (con badge, at the very least). Given this, we are currently planning to raise $2500 in order to safely get him over here with a comfortable cushion should something go amiss. We will try to cover as much of that as we can, but that's a fair sum of money, so we turn to you, other AnimeBoston attendees. If you would like to help us out, we will gladly take whatever you are willing and able to donate (osaise~n~). See the next post for the proper information; Gandalph will be covering the plane ticket, so all PayPal donations should be funneled to him. (I'll be covering the room and may nick a tiny bit of comp off of his collective depending on how much we can raise.) Make sure to send any donation as a Gift, since this is, after all, a gift to Hitoshi (also to ensure you avoid PayPal fees).
Our second potential guest at least won't require our direct assistance. After being informed that Mizuki-san was very likely to be at AnimeBoston, LeoModesto, operator of and artist for the Ask Udonge tumblr account, has become very interested in attending as well! While this is not a thing set in stone, AnimeBoston is one of the four conventions on his recent list of places he'd like to go, and assuming Mizuki-san shows, I suspect he'll choose AB. (He was rather excited on Steam and IRC, at least!) Unfortunately, this isn't going to work out this year, due to questionable interview practices by the US consulate in Brazil. We hope to have Leo next year, though!
Thank you for reading! The braying and neighing of AnimeBarnyard animals follows.