February 5, 2004
News for Anime Boston 2004:
Anime Boston 2004 announces first round of guests
From New England Anime Society, Inc.BOSTON, Mass. - February 5, 2004 - The New England Anime Society is proud to announce the following Guests of Honor who will be attending Anime Boston 2004: voice actors Crispin Freeman, Lauren Goodnight, Hillary Haag, Monica Rial, and Dave Wittenberg; artists Robert and Emily DeJesus; and DVD producer and ADR director David Williams.
Crispin Freeman has been portraying characters in anime for over 6 years. He got his start playing Zelgadis Graywords in The Slayers. Since then he's played Alucard in Hellsing, Balmung in .hack//SIGN, Amon in Witch Hunter Robin, Fuma Monou in X, Duskmon/Koichi in Digimon, Alan Gabriel in The Big O, Iketani (Cole) in Initial D, Touga Kiryuu in Revolutionary Girl Utena, Captain Tylor in The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, and many others. He has also directed and starred in I, My, Me, Strawberry Eggs and Space Travellers. He's worked as a script adaptor for titles such as Pokemon, Witch Hunter Robin, and Boogiepop Phantom. Crispin has acted theatrically on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theater and off-Broadway at the Blue Light Theater and Irish Repertory Theater in New York. He has also performed at numerous regional theaters such as The American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Alley Theater in Houston and the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
Lauren Goodnight, a voice actress for ADV Films, has appeared as Natsue Awayuki in Pretear, the narrator in Angelic Layer, Sanae in SuperGALS!, Shiorina in Sorcerer Hunters: Chocolate, Springs, and Other Hot Things, and several other titles. Anime has always been a part of Lauren's life, from watching Voltron and Speed Racer as a child through her Bachelor's Degree thesis on fandom which demonstrated how the love of something central can bind people together. In between all of the anime, she dances, sings, draws, and writes. Lauren is looking forward to earning a PhD in Behavioral Neuropsychology.
Anime Boston 2004 will be Lauren's first anime convention appearance.
Hillary Haag is from Houston, TX and has been working for ADV Films since the late 1990's. She has voiced characters in more than 30 titles including Nene in Bubblegum Crisis 2040, Ryo in Princess Nine, Karinka in Steel Angel Kurumi, Chloe in Noir, Tessa in Full Metal Panic, Menchi in Excel Saga, and Megumi in RahXephon. In addition to anime, she has appeared in several local and national television commercials.
Monica Rial is very excited to be attending her first Anime Boston. She has been with ADV Films for 4 years where she has worked on many shows including: Princess Nine, Steel Angel Kurumi, Excel Saga, Chance Pop Session, Full Metal Panic, Pretear, Angelic Layer, Saiyuki, Azumanga Daioh, and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. She has also worked for FUNimation Productions on their release of Kiddy Grade.
Dave Wittenberg is a relative newcomer to the world of anime voice acting, but has already given a voice to a number of major characters in various anime titles. His credits include Michael in Witch Hunter Robin, Jiro/Kikaider in Kikaider, Sora in .hack//SIGN, Kei Kusanagi in Please Teacher, the tamer Henry Wong and countless digimon in Digimon, Tak in Initial D, Lee Sampson in Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, as well as roles in RaveMaster, Last Exile, Captain Harlock, King Gainer, and 12 Kingdoms. He has also been a writer/director for Digimon and Figure 17. In addition, Dave has done a lot of work in video games. He can be heard in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, 3, and 4, Xenosaga Episode I, Metal of Honor: Rising Sun, and Metal Arms: Glitch in the System among others. Dave started his career in college radio. Three years later, he took a job at WBCN in Boston. He remained at WBCN for a few years until getting a contract with a station in Los Angeles. After that station switched to Spanish programming, he turned to Internet radio to broadcast the music he enjoyed. Dave has also been a writer for Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect, Dennis Miller, and Craig Kilborn.
Anime Boston 2004 will be Dave's first anime convention appearance.
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 AP comics, such as Ninja High School, and Mangazine. After working for Antarctic Press for about four years, Robert went on to do freelance work. He teamed with other artists such as Adam Warren on Bubblegum Crisis and Dirty Pair, Phil Foglio's Xxxenophile card game, and co-produced a portfolio 'zine with Steve Bennett. His art has also attracted invitation by Japanese artists Kenichi Sonoda and KoKoMai to do work for their own personal dojinishi circles. Robert's biggest claim to fame has to be designing Banzai Chibi Chan, the mascot for PlayStation Magazine, 100% Independent. Robert and his wife, Emily, have started their own company, Studio Capsule. Capsule will be involve in creating a line of underground doujinshis, animations, portfolios and other sorts of memoriblia.
David Williams is currently an ADR Director for ADV Films as well as the DVD Producer and voice on the Internet. Shows he has directed include, 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 flamewars than he wants to remember. Being the evil company rep that he is, 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. And those evil roots go deep, having been an anime fan since before there was an anime industry in the US and with ADV from the beginning when his living room was used as a production facility for their first show, Devil Hunter Yohko.
Anime Boston expects to make its second round of guest announcements within a few weeks.
About Anime Boston:
Anime Boston, held annually in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest Japanese animation convention in New England. The three-day event will be held April 9-11, 2004 at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers. Anime Boston 2004's comprehensive programming schedule includes video screenings, a masquerade, game shows, a music video contest, karaoke, dances, video games, role-playing games, panels hosted by fans, industry representatives and special guests, and more. Anime Boston 2004 will also host a dealers' room and art show at The Castle at Park Plaza. More information about Anime Boston is available at www.animeboston.com.
About The New England Anime Society:
Founded in 2001, The New England Anime Society Inc. is a Massachusetts-based non-profit 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 www.neanime.org.
