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January 7, 2007

News for Anime Boston 2007:

Anime Boston 2007 announces first round of guests

Boston, Massachusetts (January 7, 2007) - The New England Anime Society is proud to announce the following guests will be in attendance at Anime Boston 2007: Greg Ayres, Troy Baker, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Laura Bailey, Robert DeJesus, David Williams, and Travis Willingham.

Greg Ayres is not your average voice actor. The once "fanboy" turned VA started working for ADV Films two years ago, and in that time, he snagged two of his favorite roles in anime. He was thrilled to voice the role of his favorite character Son Goku in Saiyuki, then one year later, Kaworu Nagisa in the director's cut of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Other roles include Toga in Gravion, Chrono in Chrono Crusade, Yuya Asou in SuperGals, Mannen in Pretear, and Shinji Kazama in Full Metal Panic. He can also be heard in other titles such as The Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Steel Angel Kurumi, Those Who Hunt Elves II, Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat, Cromartie High School, Gunslinger Girl and Azumanga Daioh.

Troy Baker is a multi-talented voice actor. Mostly recently chosen to be the voice of Abel Nightroad in "Trinity Blood," Baker is also voiced such memorable characters such as Frank Archer in "Fullmetal Alchemist," Nagi Springfield in "Negima! Magic 101" and Alphonso in "Gunslinger Girl." Baker has also appeared in "The Galaxy Railways," "Lupin III" and "Case Closed." This Dallas-area native was originally the lead singer and guitarist for the band Tripp Fontaine.

Colleen Clinkenbeard has been involved with professional voice acting for the past 13 years. Starting off with "Dragon Ball Z" as Zangya, Clinkenbeard gradually grew into stronger roles such as Éclair from "Kiddy Grade", Riza Hawkeye from "Fullmetal Alchemist" and Esther in "Trinity Blood." Clinkenbeard has also appeared in "Kodocha", "Lupin III", "Spiral" and "Samurai 7". She has lent her voice to various video game characters in "Aeon Flux", the Fullmetal Alchemist video games and "Spikeout".

Laura Bailey is the voice behind the lovable character Tohru Honda from "Fruits Basket". Don't let that ultra-sweet fool anyone; Bailey has also voiced Lust from "Fullmetal Alchemist", Alv from "Kiddy Grade" and Henrietta in "Gunslinger Girl." Bailey also provided ADR direction in "Case Closed", "Gunslinger Girl" and "Kodocha". She has also appeared in "Negima! Magic 101", "Dragonball Z", "Yu Yu Hakusho" and "Lupin III".

Robert DeJesus is an Indiana-born, self-taught artist. In 1990, he got his first art career break when he sent an eight-page short story to Antarctic Press' anthology, Mangazine. From that, he was asked to work on other assorted Antarctic Press comics, such as Ninja High School and Mangazine. After working for the company for about four years, Robert went freelance. He teamed with other artists such as Adam Warren on Bubblegum Crisis and Dirty Pair and Phil Foglio on the Xxxenophile card game. He co-produced a portfolio 'zine with Steve Bennett. Robert's biggest claim to fame has to be designing Banzai Chibi Chan, the mascot for PlayStation Magazine: 100% Independent. DeJesus and his wife, Emily, have started their own company, Studio Capsule.

David Williams is currently an ADR Director for ADV Films as well as their DVD Producer and voice on the Internet. He has directed Angelic Layer, Pretear, Najica, the original Nuku Nuku OVAs, Dirty Pair, and many others. He's produced more DVDs than he can remember and had more skin grafts due to online flame wars than he wants to remember. He's often invited to anime conventions where he can be seen wandering the con with his "What would you do for a DVD?" badge, giving out DVDs to clever and amusing otaku. His roots in the industry go deep, having been an anime fan since before there was an anime industry in the U.S. and with ADV from the beginning when his living room was used as a production facility for their first show, Devil Hunter Yohko.

Travis Willingham Best known as Colonel Roy Mustang from "Fullmetal Alchemist," Travis Willingham is mostly recently heard as Iggy from "Ergo Proxy". A graduate of Texas Christian University, this Dallas-native has also starred in "Yu Yu Hakusho", "Blue Gender", "Kiddy Grade", and "Case Closed" before settling into his Fullmetal Alchemist role. He has also voiced characters in "Time Crisis 4" video game.

Anime Boston is an annual three-day Japanese animation convention held in Boston, Massachusetts. Anime Boston 2007 will be held Friday, April 20th through Sunday, April 22nd at the Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Hotel Boston. More information about Anime Boston can be found at http://www.animeboston.com.

The New England Anime Society was founded in 2001. Based in Massachusetts, The New England Anime Society, Inc. is an organization dedicated to furthering public education and understanding of the Japanese language and culture through visual and written media. More information about The New England Anime Society is available at http://www.neanime.org.

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