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Anime Midwest 2012 Announces Appearance of Panty and Stocking Cast Members

Monday, 30 April 2012 GM

Press Release: Anime Midwest 2012, one of the largest up-and-coming anime conventions to happen in the Chicagoland region, is tremendously exuberant to announce the appearance of three cast members from the new FUNimation Panty and Stocking dub will be appearing at the Anime Midwest 2012 convention. Voice actors Jamie Marchi (Panty), Ian Sinclair (Chuck), and Joel McDonald (Brief), will join Anime Midwest 2012 in Lisle, Illinois this July for three days of autograph sessions, discussion panels, screenings, and more.

Jamie Marchi is the lead character, Panty, and is also the lead writer for the show, which announced its English cast at Anime Central 2012. Some of Jamie's most popular roles are from Hetalia (Narrator), Soul Eater (Liz Thompson), Witchblade (Masane Amaha), Sgt. Frog (Aki Hinata), YuYu Hakusho (Juri), Fruits Basket (Motoko Minagawa), Black Cat (Rinslet Walker), Spice and Wolf (Chloe), Rin (Mimi), Blassreiter (Amanda Werner), Negima(s) (Haruna), Burst Angel (Meg), Claymore (Helen), One Piece (Miss Valentine), Strike Witches (Shirley), The Tower of Druaga (Fatina), Ga-Rei-Zero (Mei), Ouran (Chizuru Maihara), FMA (Rebecca, Rick), as well as the unforgettable Miss Polly from Shin Chan. A few of her more recent roles include Rosario + Vampire (Ms. Nekonome), The Sacred Blacksmith (Penelope), Sekirei (Uzume), Legend of the Legendary Heroes (Milk), Sengoku Basara (Matsu), Baka and Test (Shouko), and Heaven’s Lost Property (Mikako Satsukitane).

Jamie has behind the scene experience whipping out script adaptations for several shows including Hetalia, Hetalia: Paint it White, Spice and Wolf, Sgt. Frog, Yamada’s First Time, Baka and Test, Okamisan, Oh! Edo Rocket, Strike Witches, and Negima?! amongst other "yet to be announced" ridiculously awesome titles. She’s also directed Hetalia (Season 3), Spice and Wolf, Sgt. Frog and Negima?!.

Ian Sinclair will be Chuck in Panty and Stocking. Ian got his first voice work when he visited Funimation Studios as a college student in 2004, and a director asked him if he'd like to jump in the booth for a one-liner. Unbeknownst to that poor director, that insignificant character ended up being an extremely small, yet still recurring, role, and Ian had to be called back in.

As a native of Dallas, Ian graduated from TCU with a degree in Theatre, returned home, and began his career as a stage actor where he won awards such as Best Local Actor in Dallas of 2009. He continued at Funimation, gradually working his way up from one line characters until his break as Dallas Genoard in Baccano!, a show which he Assistant Directed. Since then he has performed in roles such as Toraji Ishida in Bamboo Blade, Douglas Rosenberg in El Cazador de la Bruja, Sobi Nakajima in Linebarrels of Iron, Haruki in Master of Martial Arts, Akoz in Casshern Sins, Kaoru Seo in Sekirei, Shinze Kamiu in Shikabane Hime, Liam in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Ginei Morioka in Rosario + Vampire , Marc Cole in Spice and Wolf II, Toyama in Oh! Edo Rocket, Bora in Fairy Tail, Romano in Hetalia, Shu Koibuchi in Princess Jellyfish, Tatsumi in Shiki, Bardroy in Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler), and most recently Ryner Lute in Legend of the Legendary Heroes.

As a director, Ian has worked on Initial D, Spice and Wolf II, both seasons of Black Butler, and a few others he can’t talk about… yet. Additionally, Ian can be heard in numerous radio/TV spots, as the voice of Baron Flynt in the video game Borderlands, and as the “Cool” custom voice in Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi.

Joel will be providing the voice for Brief. As a director, Joel has worked on shows including Initial D, Tsubasa Chronicles,, Heroic Age, Kenichi, Spice and Wolf, Big Windup!, Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl, and Sgt. Frog. He has also written for shows like Claymore, Big Windup!, Ga-Rei: Zero, STRAIN, DBZ: Kai, D. Gray-man, Sands of Destruction, and Linebarrels of Iron. Joel's acting credits include Okami-san (Ryoshi), Sekirei (Minato), Big Windup! (Hanai), Baccano! (Jacuzzi Splot), Nabari No Ou (Yoite), Initial D (Takumi), Rin (Mary), Chrome-Shelled Regios (Haia), D. Grayman (Jasdero), Baka and Test (Kubo), Linebarrels of Iron (Yajima), and Heroic Age (Iolaos).

Since age 7, Joel was acting in plays at school and church, which led to community theatre, high school theatre and speech tournaments, which somehow turned into a BFA in Acting and Directing from Sam Houston State University. From there, Joel began acting professionally. In 2006, after years of freelance stage work in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Joel stumbled upon voice acting. And to everyone's surprise, he was a passable ADR director and adaptive screenwriter, and has worked in some capacity on over 80 titles to date.

All three guests will be available in various panels, interview sesions, Q&A sessions, and more. They will be joining numerous announced and yet-to-be-announced guests, including Random aka MegaRan, The Pillowcases, V is for Villains, Level Boys, FanService Renji, Party Monster DJs, DJ Oso, and DJ Jeffito. Convention events include a cosplay masquerade contest, anime screenings, autographs, fan panels, workshops, a formal ball, multiple rave dances, and many many others.

Anime Midwest will be held July 6-8, 2012, at the Wyndham Hotel & Convention Center in Lisle, Illinois, just east of Naperville and about twenty minutes from downtown Chicago. Rooms for the convention can be reserved online at http://animemidwest.com/location for only $99.99 per night. Registration is online for only $30 until June 10th, or $35 at the door for a weekend pass. Online registration can be found at http://animemidwest.com/register

More information about Anime Midwest's events, guests, and more, can be found at http://animemidwest.com/

Taiyou Con 2011 Announces First Round of Guests

Wednesday, 10 November 2010 GM

Taiyou Con is excited to announce Chris Cason, Kitsune Robot, Perfect Math Class, and Tristen Citrine will be attending as guests.

For over ten years, Chris Cason has been associated with numerous projects for FUNimation Entertainment in a voice acting, ADR directing, or scriptwriting capacity. Some of Chris's voice credits include Gluttony in Fullmetal Alchemist, Mr. Popo in Dragonball Z and Dragonball Z Kai, Holy Roman Empire in Hetalia - Axis Powers, Boo in Shin-Chan, Fumihiro in Initial D, and Babbit in Kodocha. He can also be heard in Soul Eater, Ouran High School Host Club, Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, One Piece, and D. Gray-Man. Some of his ADR directing credits include Dragonball z, Negima, Kodocha, and Initial D. He has also had the opportunity to be a part of many popular video games, including being one of the contributing guitarists in Guitar Hero 3.

Formed in 2006, Kitsune Robot was one of the world's first anime cover bands. They are devoted to playing covers of the most awesome anime, video game, and Jrock songs. This band is comprised of Cira on vocals, Pali on lead guitar, Anna on rhythm guitar, Dustin on bass, and Jordan on drums. They'll rock you with covers of songs from all your favorite anime, including Naruto, Bleach, K-On!, and more. More information about Kitsune Robot can be found at KitsuneRobot.com.

Formerly known as "The Elevens", Perfect Math Class is a cover band dedicated to playing music from anime, video games and rock tunes--both in English and Japanese. The members of Perfect Math Class are Arizona locals who met through anime conventions. In all of the members, the common desire to rock the stage in the most nerdy fashion had clicked, and thus Perfect Math Class was born. Perfect Math Class realizes that a concert needs be a fun and interactive experience. At Perfect Math Class concerts, you can expect performance in cosplay, lots of bad jokes and silly, random games in the middle of a set. Expect the unexpected. Perfect Math Class will rock you visually, musically and awesomely.

Tristen Citrine turned her artistic attention to cosplay in 1998, going on to make well over a hundred costumes for herself and friends. Even after so many years in the hobby, she finds anime, manga and games quite inspiring and still loves sitting down to create something new. She and her friends have won many major awards for their works, including "Best in Show" at both Comicon International and World-Con. Her website, www.TristenCitrine.com features tutorials and advice for cosplayers as well as a myriad of colorful pictures. She is a co-owner and founder of CosWorx, North America's number one cosplay wig store. In addition to her cosplay and business ventures, Tristen is very excited to have joined the marketing team at FUNimation as a Brand Manager in 2009.

ABOUT TAIYOU CON: Taiyou Con is a three-day celebration of anime, manga, video games, and other aspects of Japanese culture. The convention features industry guests, fan and guest panels, live concerts, cosplay, Dealers Room, Artist Alley, open console gaming, maid and cosplay cafes, and so much more. Taiyou Con will be held January 7-9, 2011 at the Hilton Phoenix East/Mesa in Mesa, Arizona. Register online for $25 until Dec 31. Rates at the convention are as follows: $35 full-event badge, $20 Friday single-day badge, $20 Saturday single-day badge, and $15 Sunday single-day badge. Children 10 and under free with paid adult admission. For the latest news and information, visit http://www.TaiyouCon.com.