Maika NETSU (ネツマイカ)
Maika Netsu is an emerging artist and illustrator in Japan. Her first work was the manga, "Black Game" with story by Rei Akimi. After finishing "Black Game", Netsu-sensei started working on the illustrations and artwork for "My Dearest Devil Princess" with Makoto Matsumoto working on the story. Maika Netsu and Makoto Matsumoto are currently working together on "Kaprekar", which is running in the serialized magazine "Monthly Comic Rush" published by JIVE. In addition to illustrating artwork for manga, she also drew insert images for the light novel "Bara-iro ni Cheriska", written by Rei Kaibara.
"My Dearest Devil Princess" is Maika Netsu's first title released in North America. Published by Broccoli Books, the first two volumes are currently in bookstores.
This is Maika Netsu's first time at a US convention, and she is excited to meet her American fans.
Hidenobu KIUCHI (木内秀信)
Hidenobu Kiuchi is the voice behind a multitude of well-known anime characters, such as Ren in Nana, Dr. Tenma in Monster, and Nero in One Piece. As a seiyuu (“Japanese voice actor”), he is known most notably in his role as Yuushi Oshitari from The Prince of Tennis.
Kiuchi-san, like many American voice actors, first began as a stage actor and even took stage training. It wasn’t until a sempai (“older, senior colleague”) enlisted him for a voice acting job that set his career in motion for principal roles, such as Joze in Gunslinger Girl and Ramsbeckite Hematite in Cluster Edge. A role that Kiuchi-san currently holds as his favorite is Li Shenshung/Hei in the Sci-Fi production Darker Than Black from BONES.
Also included amongst Kiuchi-san’s numerous credits are the anime series Pocket Monster, Yu‑Gi‑Oh, Hunter x Hunter, Rurouni Kenshin, and psychological thriller Death Note. Hidenobu Kiuichi is the solo host for an online radio show, Seishun Radio, and hosts Chiraizumu no Yoru, a weekly Internet radio show, together with Kenjiro Tsuda, a fellow Prince of Tennis voice actor. The pair also teaches voice acting at the Human Academy Performing Arts College.
This will be Hidenobu Kiuchi-san’s second anime convention in the United States, after SugoiCon 2006.
Reuben Langdon
Based in Los
Angeles, Reuben Langdon is an Actor/Producer/Director who began his
career in Japan
when he landed a regular role on the Japanese superhero TV series B-Fighter Kabuto. Later relocating to Hong Kong, he worked on
various Hong Kong films including Jackie
Chan’s My Stunts, Gen-Y Cops and Jackie Chan’s fantasy adventure The Medallion. Reuben later
moved to Los Angeles
where he went on to appear in the CBS show Martial
Law alongside Sammo Hung and Saban’s Power
Rangers.
In addition to his success in the world of film and television, he has performed in and coordinated a number of performance capture shoots for interactive video games including Tao Feng, Star Wars: Jedi Knight II, Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, Deadrising, and both Devil May Cry 3 and 4. He has also worked as a performance capture actor with Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, and is currently filming the performance capture/live action hybrid film, Avatar, for director James Cameron.
Dan Southworth
Fans of Devil May Cry franchise would recognize him as the voice (and motion captures) of Vergil in Devil May Cry 3 and Credo in Devil May Cry 4. Other games Dan had worked motion captures on includes Halo 3: Full Combat, Bourne Conspiracy and the highly anticipated Resident Evil 5. Others may know him as the Quantum Ranger from Power Rangers: Time Force or have seen him star or co-star in numerous movie and television roles.However, Dan's eclectic vocation doesn't end there. A martial arts enthusiast since youth, he has achieved the highest honor in the various martial arts specialties and was a winning fighter within those circles. He has worked with Asian Cinema legends such as Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, as well as choreographs complex fight sequences in those films and executing them.
For a complete filmography of his work, please visit this page.
Richard Waugh
Richard Waugh is a prolific actor who has performed on film, television, radio, stage and video games across Canada and The United States. He was a member of the esteemed Shaw Festival Company In Niagra-on-the-Lake Ontario for six years. He has appeared In shows such as A&E’s Nero Wolf Mysteries, F/X: The Series, RoboCop the Series, The West Wing, and much more! Mr. Waugh is also a co-writer and star of the Gemini Nominated cult hit Jimmy MacDonald’s Canada.
Gaming enthusiasts who are familiar with the Resident Evil / Bio Hazard franchise may also recognize Mr. Waugh as the distinct voice of Albert Wesker (of Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil 1 (Remake), Code Veronica and Resident Evil 4).
Mr. Waugh currently resides in Toronto Ont. with his beautiful and talented wife, actress Sarah Orenstien, their two growing boys and a turtle named Squirtle.
For complete listing of Mr. Waugh’s work, please reference his filmography on IMDB.
Carl Horn
Carl Gustav Horn has worked in the U.S. anime and manga industry since 1993. A former editor at Animerica and Pulp magazines, he was a co-author with Patrick Macias in 1999 of Japan Edge, the first book on otaku culture to be reviewed in the mainstream media. He has contributed to the U.S. DVD releases of Royal Space Force, Jin-Roh, Patlabor 2, Gunbuster, Gunbuster 2, and Appleseed: Ex Machina, and has provided commentary on the field to Newsweek Japan, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, AERA, Clarin, The Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter, NPR, and Wired. He currently edits the manga Oh My Goddess! and The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service at
Dark Horse Comics. A longtime attendee of Foothill Anime (which he once
praised in an essay as "America's Most Beautiful Anime Club"), he is
honored to be among Bay Area otaku again as a guest of Fanime.Jonathan Osborne
Jonathan Osborne was born in Boston, and shortly thereafter became a huge anime fan. He got his first anime voice acting role in "Bastard!" and continued on into the wonderful world of walla (which is the industry term for background voices). Having been dubbed "The Man of 1000 Deaths", Jonathan had become the famous extra of the anime voice acting world. Jonathan is thrilled to be making his 8th appearance at Fanime this year. Jonathan has played Shojo in "One Piece", George in "NieA_7", William Morris in "Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory" and Gordo in "Fist of the North Star". He has also appeared in "The Big O", "Burst Angel", "Cowboy Bebop", "Mysterious Play", the new dub of "Akira", and many other titles.Ric Meyers
Ric Meyers has been called "one of the men most responsible for the success of Chinese films and stars in America," as well as "King" (at Medieval Times) and "Santa" (at malls, stores, and corporations all over the northeast). He's author of more than a dozen books (including three Martial Arts Movie volumes, two sci-fi sagas, a horror trilogy, four Destroyer novels, twelve Ninja Master thrillers, and the last fantasy novel ever written for Dungeons and Dragons [before it was acquired]). When he's not writing tomes, he's a contributor to countless magazines (including Asain Cult Cinema), and audio commentator for more than forty kung-fu and samurai DVDs.
He's also a movie & TV consultant, having most recently helped with DreamWorks' Kung Fu Panda. On top of that, he's now a professor at the University of Bridgeport, a multiple Gold Medalist at International Martial Art Championships, and a general all-around scamp (ask last year's Masquerade audience).
Although he's really busy, Ric's back because he loves this con, this town, and you!
Gilles Poitras
Gilles Poitras is the Access Services Librarian at Golden Gate University in the San Francisco area.
He is best known to anime fans for his three books; The Anime Companion, Anime Essentials and the Anime Companion 2, as well as his writing for Newtype USA and Otaku USA. He also sits on the senior board of Mechademia, an annual scholarly anthology of essays on anime, manga and fan culture. Gilles also has done presentations on anime for Japan - US friendship groups, for public libraries, at conventions, all day workshops for librarians, introduced anime films at the Smithsonian and even taught a course for eight weeks on the subject for Pixar staff. He first discovered anime while walking through San Francisco's Japantown in 1977. As a fan of foreign films he was instantly attracted by the use of cinematic effects in ways that he had never seen in animation before. This began an interest in anime that continues to grow after all of these years. He has two Masters degrees, one in Library Science from the University of California at Berkeley and one in Theology from Pacific School of Religion also in Berkeley. His background in theology has proven beneficial in that it gave him the scholarly skills to look at anime and manga with a disciplined eye. This has enabled him to employ anime and manga as a window into Japanese culture. "One important thing I learned studying religion is that one should never assume that something from another culture means what it would in ones own culture. Humanity is far too diverse and interesting for that to be the case."
Ryan Gavigan (Anime Hell)
Anime Hell harkens back to the days where film enthusiasts held gatherings and showed film clips, trailer reels, and out of print cartoons and cult films to their friends and the public (in the days of actual celluloid film).
Anime Hell in its modern form began over a decade ago, as a presentation put on at various anime cons. It's sort of a visual disk-jockey kind of thing - short clips of bits from Japanese cartoons, commercials, movie trailers, educational films, short animated films, pop culture detrius, bleeps, blunders, and practical jokes. To maybe a few people's surprise, it became pretty popular. Anime Hell now has many shows throughout the year, produced and hosted by a cabal of friends who lend their own creative bent to each of their shows. The quick-paced and free flowing nature of each Anime Hell show that can't be experienced anywhere else or online. In addition to entertaining audiences at shows, the Anime Hell crew are dedicated to celebrating, archiving, and popularizing the bizarre and hilarious bits of human pop culture. Anime Hell is thrilled to be bringing its bit of showmanship back to the west coast after it's debut at Fanime 2007, so please no poking with sharp objects.
