The trans-Pacific toons-and-tunes connection continues to get stronger: Hitomi Yoshizawa, one half of Japanese female pop duo Hangry and Angry, will be a special guest at this year’s Anime Expo pop-culture convention in Los Angeles, organizers of the event have announced.

Yoshizawa personifies J-pop/anime synergy: Since her “graduation” from idol group Morning Musume (who will make their American live debut at Anime Expo on July 3), she has voiced a fictional alter ego of herself in an episode of TV anime series Kirarin Revolution as well as a hamster (!) version of herself in anime movie Tottoko Hamutaro: Ham Ham Ham~Jya! Maboroshi no Princess.

Anime Expo won’t be Yoshizawa’s first Stateside appearance – she made her U.S. debut in April with Hangry and Angry partner Rika Ishikawa in concert at the Sakura-Con J-pop convention in Seattle.

Billed as America’s biggest J-pop event (43,000 people attended last year), Anime Expo is being held July 2-5 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Yoshizawa will not perform at Anime Expo, but will be meeting fans and signing autographs, as will the members of Morning Musume.

The nine-member female idol group, who no longer dominate the Japanese charts the way they used to, have recently been paying more attention to overseas markets. In March they released their catalog in North America through digital-download service JapanFiles.com, which is also releasing Morning Musume single Shouganai Yumeoibito and the group’s new album, Platinum 9 Disc, on CD.

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