March 16, 2007
News for Anime Boston 2007:
Anime Boston 2007 announces second round of guests
Northeast's largest anime convention to host worldwide talentBoston, MA -- Anime Boston 2007 is pleased to announce its second round of guests. From Japan, the convention welcomes Junji Nishimura, director of "Ranma 1/2" and the "Violinist of Hamelin", and also Yasuhiro Imagawa, the creator of "Giant Robo" and chief director of "Mobile Fighter G Gundam." As for North American guests, the convention welcomes voice actors Chris Bevins, Luci Christian, Mike McFarland, and Mike Sinterniklaas and industry guests Grant Moran and Tom Wayland.
Yasuhiro Imagawa is most recognized as the creator of the Giant Robo OAV and chief director of "Mobile Fighter G Gundam." His work can be traced back to the 1980's where he worked on series such as "Aura Battler Dunbine," "Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam" and "Mister Ajikko." Later, he was a writer and director for "Gin Rei "and writer for "Violinist of Hamelin", "Berserk", "Hareluya II Boy", "Virgin Fleet", "Pet Shop of Horrors", "Chance! Pop Sessions" and "Fist of the Blue Sky." More recently, he has played a major role in the planning and direction of "NaNa Seven of Seven" and "Tetsujin 28."
Junji Nishimura is an accomplished director with many well-known titles to his name. Early on, he was as an assistant director for "Urusei Yatsura" and then as a director for "Ranma 1/2." He has also directed "D-1 Devastator," "Violinist of Hamelin", "Soul Hunter", "You're Under Arrest: The Movie", "Samurai Deeper Kyo", "Kyou Kara Maoh!" and "Windy Tales." His powerful directing style can be seen in the recent series "Simoun" where he is also a scriptwriter and storyboard artist. He is currently working as a screenwriter on the upcoming series "CODE-E."
Christopher Bevins is a voice director and line producer at FUNimation Entertainment. His directing credits include Akira Kurosawa's "Samurai 7", "Burst Angel", and "Dragonball GT" as well as "Spiral", "Case Closed" and "Speed Grapher." Bevins also has numerous voice acting credits: Bee the Puppy in "Dragonball Z", Shishi Wakamaru in "Yu Yu Hakusho", Naturon Shenron (the 7-Star Dragon) in "Dragonball GT", Kanone Hilbert in "Spiral" and Farmer Gosaku in "Samurai 7". He has also played minor roles in "Dragonball", "Blue Gender", "Fruits Basket", "Kiddy Grade", "Fullmetal Alchemist", "Kodocha", "Burst Angel", "Desert Punk" and "Case Closed."
Luci Christian is happy to visit Boston for the first time. Her voice acting credits for ADV Films include Kaname Chidori in "Full Metal Panic!", "Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu!" and "Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid"; Miss Yukari in "Azumanga Daioh"; Duck/Princess Tutu in "Princess Tutu", Margaret in "Madlax", Tetsu in "Peacemaker", Sarah/Kate in "Kaleido Star", Ringo in "Air Gear", Mako in "Nerima Daikon Brothers" and Mizuki in "Guyver." For Funimation Entertainment, she's played Psiren and Wrath in "Fullmetal Alchemist", Rico in "Gunslinger Girl", Komachi in "Samurai 7", Louis Ft. Drake in "Galaxy Railways", Kosuna in "Desert Punk", Asuna in "Negima" and Kasha in "Solty Rei." Her voice is all over Dance Dance Revolution Universe for the XBOX 360. In addition to anime, Luci's acting career spans commercial, industrial and film work, most recently filming on the Rodriguez/Tarantino B-film tribute, "The Grindhouse."
Mike McFarland got his start in anime as one of the first voice actors in Texas to be hired by FUNimation Productions in 1997. His notable roles include Master Roshi, Yajirobe, Android #8 and Pui-Pui in "Dragon Ball" and "Dragon Ball Z", Baby and Baby-Vegeta in "Dragon Ball GT", Ritsu Sohma in "Fruits Basket", Lt. Jean Havoc in "Fullmetal Alchemist", Cain in "Trinity Blood", Leo in "Burst Angel" and Bruce J. Speed in "Galaxy Railways". He has also worked in various animes such as "Parasite Dolls", "Gantz", "Shadow Skill", "Papuwa" and "Diamond Daydreams." As an ADR/Voice Director, McFarland has worked on "Dragon Ball Z", "Yu Yu Hakusho", "Case Closed", "Dragon Ball", "Galaxy Railways", "Fullmetal Alchemist", "Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror Of Shamballa", and "Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad" as well as "Trinity Blood", as seen on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
Grant Moran has been a writer, story editor, producer and executive in children's television for 13 years. A graduate of Dartmouth College and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Moran spent six years at Warner Bros. Animation as a staff writer-producer, contributing to the development and production of such award-winning shows as "Animaniacs", "Tiny Toon Adventures" and "Batman." He worked both sides of the desk at Nickelodeon, serving first as Executive Director of Current Series and then as Head Writer/Co-Producer on "Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius". Grant began getting involved in anime as head writer on "Lupin the Third" and "Viewtiful Joe". Most recently, he has been involved with bringing "Kiba" to television in the U.S.
Michael Sinterniklaas is thrilled to be joining many of his favorite industry guests at Anime Boston this year. The voice actor, director and owner of New York based studio NYAV Post has had a busy year. Current voice over credits include Leonardo on the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", Dean Venture on Cartoon Network's "The Venture Bros.", Mahad / Dark Magician on "Yu-Gi-Oh", Tunnel Rat on "G.I. Joe Sigma Six", Stuart on "Magical Doremi", Riven on "Winx", Seviper on "Pokémon", Tanner on "Kung Fu Academy", Kevin on "Princess Natacha", Akibi on "One Piece", and Professor Titerton in the C.G. feature "Impy's Island." Other titles include "Shaman King", "Sonic X", "Kakurenbo", "Fullmetal Alchemist", "Samurai 7", "Kiddy Grade", "Burst Angel", "Shootfighter Tekken", "Alien Nine", "Nana 7 of 7", "Piano", "Samurai Deeper Kyo" and "Weiß Kreuz." Directing credits include "Magic Users Club", "Berserk", "Giant Robo", "Osamu Tezuka's Jungle Emperor Leo" and "The Phoenix, The Weathering Continent" and Ah My Goddess.
Tom Wayland is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in acting. Wayland got his start performing in various theatrical productions ranging from Hamlet, to Jesus Christ Superstar, to Stomp. After a stint as a rock star roaming the East Coast's rock clubs, Wayland ran out of money and had to get a job -- so he started work at Central Park Media. In more than four years at CPM, Wayland has produced more than 200 different anime programs before moving on to voice directing on such titles as "Alien Nine", "The World of Narue", "Shootfighter Tekken" and "Ichi the Killer". In 2004, Wayland founded TripWire Productions and has gone on to direct numerous dubs for home video and TV broadcast including "Mew Mew Power" and "Magical Do Re Mi." Wayland has also become much more active as an actor landing recurring roles in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" as Jammerhead, "Mew Mew Power" as Minimew, "GI Joe Sigma Six" as Stormshadow, "Magical Do Re Mi" as Oliver, Marvin and Reanne's Dad, "One Piece" as about 8,000 different villains and pirates and several straight to video releases including "Knight Hunters", "Gokusen" and "Shura no Toki."
Other previously announced guests are Greg Ayres, Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Robert and Emily DeJesus, David Williams and Travis Willingham.
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.
