Academic
Anime Punch is proud to always bring a wide selection of academics to the table to ensure that our panels are the most interesting and educational as possible. It is taken as rule that you WILL learn something new at every panel you attend. Along with our staff, these guests bring research, knowledge, and expertise together in numbers you're unlikely to find elsewhere!
Richard Torrance
However, he has also written broadly on other subjects, including Japanese film, the definition of Japanese popular culture, and the relation between and Japanese fascism and literary movements in the nineteen thirties. He is presently working on a study comparing the regional literatures of Izumo and Osaka. He will be speaking on the relationship between manga, anime, and live action films in Japan.
Lawrence Eng
This will be Lawrence's fifth year at the Armageddicon, and he's prepared a fistful of panels to inform, amuse, and enlighten (and he's been known to give away fun prizes to people who are willing to prove their otakuness in public). Lawrence holds a PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he studied and wrote about otaku culture in the US. A die hard anime fan since he first saw Space Battleship Yamato on TV over 25 years ago, he turned his love of the medium into a multi-year academic project studying anime and manga fandom in America. Lawrence still does otaku studies when he's not working his full-time job as the Product Research Manager for Opera Software (makers of the Opera Web browser on PCs, phones, and the Nintendo Wii).
Lawrence has presented his work on otaku culture in fan, professional, and academic settings, such as the Japan Society in New York City, and has been cited and quoted in numerous publications. Some of his own writings have been published in Contemporary Youth Culture: An International Encyclopedia, the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, and Success Stories: Japan.
Since 1998, he has maintained a personal website containing many of his essays and articles. One of his most well-known sites is thought experiments lain, a serial experiments lain information site. He also founded the Anime and Manga Research Circle, an informal organization of scholars from around the world who study anime, manga, and their associated fandoms.
thought experiments lain: http://www.cjas.org/~leng/open.htm
Anime and Manga Research Circle: http://www.cjas.org/~leng/amrc.htm
Stacey Schlanger
Kinko Ito
Dr. Kinko Ito received her BA in English and American Studies from Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan, and her Master’s and Doctorate in Sociology from the Ohio State University. She is a professor of Sociology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Dr. Ito published two books in Japanese, Yappari Kekkon Shitai (“Desperately Seeking Marriage), a book on marriage and family, by Shufunotomosha in 1997 and Watashino Amerikan Raifu (My American Life) by Gakuyo Shobo in 2006. Her research interests are manga, Japanese comics, popular culture, and Zen.
Some of Dr. Ito’s most recent publication include “Introduction to China: Not-so-funny a Controversy” with Charles Musgrove (JSR 2008), “Middle-Aged Japanese Women’s Love Affair with ‘Winter Sonata’”(JSR 2006), “A One Week Retreat at a Zen Monastery in Japan” JSR 2005), “A History of Manga in the Context of Japanese Culture and Society” (Journal of Popular Culture 2005), “Growing Up Japanese Reading Manga” (International Journal of Comic Art 2004), “The Korean Popular Culture in the 21st Century Japan: A New Cultural Hegemony and Change of History” (with Alan Lytle, Tankyu 2004), “Teaching Japanese Culture and Society: A Pedagogical Strategy for American College Students and an Implication for Global Education” (Gurobaru Kyoiku 2004), “Japanese Ladies Comics as Agents of Socialization: The Lessons They Teach” (IJCA 2003,” “The World of Japanese Ladies’ comics: Fromt Romantic Fantasy to Lustful Perversion” (JPC 2002), “The Manga Culture in Japan” (JSR 2000), "Chikae Ide - The Queen of Japanese Ladies' Comics: Her Life and Manga" Mangatopia. (forthcoming), "Framing the Sensual: Japanese Sexuality in Ladies' Comics" Japan Studies Review. (forthcoming), "New Trends in the Prodcution of Japanese Ladies' Comics: Diversification and Catharsis" (JSR 2009), "The Touching and the sensual in Japanese Ladies' Comics: an Interview with Asako Shiomi." (International Journal of Comic Art 2008), "Masako Watanabe: 50 Years of Making Girls' and Ladies' Comics in Japan." (International Journal of Comic Art 2008), and "Manga in Japanese History" (A chapter in Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime. 2008).
Dr. Ito will be presenting a lecture on how Japanese womens sexuality is depicted in anime, and will demonstrate how one can derive elements of culture through media by performing a cultural analysis on a full DVD of anime.
Lee Makela
Lee A. Makela is an Associate Professor of East Asian History with thirty-eight years of teaching experience at Cleveland State University. He recieved his PhD from Stanford University in the field of East Asian history and is active not just in his research of Asian culture, but in his dedication to improving teaching techniques in and out of the classroom.
The subject of his lecture here at Anime Punch will be the same as that of his most recently published work: "From Metropolis to Metroporisu: the Changing Role of the Robot in Japanese and Western Cinema". Obviously the article refers to the German master film maker Fritz Lang's classic silent film :"Metropolis", which featured an idealized modernistic utopian/distopian city-state that is nearly destroyed by a workers revolt led by a robot disguised as a woman. The movie served as the inspiration for Osamu Tezuka, the Japanese master mangaka, who drew a manga about a robotic savior, which was then adapted by the Japanese master director Rintaro into an amazing anime movie featuring a robot girl who is the key to world domination. Professor Makela will use these works and others to describe transformation robots have seen over the last 80 years in cinema.
Industry
Brad Swaile
Vancouver-born and raised, Brad began acting in elementary school and, once in high school, had his first audition for an animated series. This first voice acting gig took the form of a pony named "Ace" in My Little Pony Tales and soon afterwards, he landed his first anime role as "Mousse" in Ranma 1/2. Some of his more notable characters include Amuro, Quatre, Dearka and Auel (on their respective Gundam series'), Gohan (from Dragon Ball Z UK & Canada), Kicker (Transformers: Energon) and Lan (Megaman: NT Warrior). As well as voicing the role of "Nightcrawler" in X-men Evolution, Brad has worked on several anime series' including Inu-Yasha, Hikaru No Go, Hamtaro, Maison Ikkoku, Infinite Ryvius, Tokyo Underground, Soul Taker, Project Arms, Boys Over Flowers, Kimba the White Lion, Shakugan No Shana, Dokkoida, Saber Marionette J, Video Girl Ai, Arjuna, Zoids and Dragon Drive .Along with voice acting, Brad continues to work professionally as a Graphic Designer/Illustrator and, when not at the hockey rink or on the baseball field, enjoys playing drums and guitar (often while doodling in his sketchbook).
Most recently, Brad can be heard as "Light" in Death Note (and the live-action Death Note films), "Rock" in Black Lagoon, "Ryuki" in The Story of Saiunkoku and "Setsuna F. Seiei " in his most recent mecha project, Gundam 00. He also looks forward to discussing his current and recently completed voice projects (but must wait until they've been officially announced...sorry).
Patrick Seitz
Patrick Seitz is a Los Angeles voiceover actor, script adapter and ADR director who has been fortunate enough to
lend his efforts to over 100 anime and video game titles during the last few years.
With most of his resume occupying that odd chunk of the Venn diagram where zany, evil, and ethically ambiguous overlap,
a few of Patrick’s more prominent roles include Franky in FUNImation’s One Piece, Isshin Kurosaki in Bleach,
George in Paradise Kiss, Hazel in Saiyuki Reload Gunlock, Dhaos in Tales of Phantasia, Raul in Ergo Proxy,
Koshiro in Koi Kaze, Charles Beams in Eureka Seven, Lee Linho in ROD the TV,
and Luke Valentine in Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate.
On the video game side of the ledger, you can hear him as Chopin in Eternal Sonata,
Dylan in Valkyrie Profile 2 and Sergei Vladimir in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles,
as well as various and sundry characters in the likes of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation,
Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology, Wild Arms 5, Time Crisis 4, and Romancing Saga, to name a few.
In addition to the voiceover work, Patrick has done script-adapting and/or ADR direction for
Naruto, Honey & Clover, Hell Girl, Girls Bravo, Kamichu!, Tales of Phantasia, The Melody of Oblivion,
Zegapain, Guardian of the Spirit and Rumiko Takahashi Anthology.
Patrick has a BA in Creative Writing and an MFA in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts,
both of which he received at the University of California, Riverside. Before falling down the voiceover rabbit hole,
he spent two very “Welcome Back, Kotter”esque years teaching English at his old high school.
Feel free to visit him at his own little carved out niche of e-hubris, www.patrickseitz.com
Japanese Guests
Kousuke Saito
Known better by his DJ names Kors K, StripE, Teranoid, and Disconation, Kousuke Saito is a Japanese DJ and music composer best known for his work on the Konami IIDX series. He also has extensive anime remix work, including samplings from K-On and Kanon. His work has spanned many genres and includes J-pop, Gabba, Techno, Schranz and UK Hardcore. His newest album "Ways for Liberation" will be the tenth addition to his very diverse discography.
Kousuke is excited to be flying out from Japan to visit his first US anime convention! He will be opening the Rave on Saturday night, so lets show him how much energy this country can bring to the floor!
Bands
Jimmy Riggs and The Projectile Style of Funk Nasty Freshness
The band was formed in August of 2008 by guitarists Benjamin Fultz and Ryan Sullivan in Columbus, OH. Their idea was to form a jam band that focused intensely on melding every genre of music they could possibly play while maintaining a lyrical strength atypical to most jam bands. They began writing new material and immediately saw the need for a strong bassist. Eventually they found Alex Miller, who had been trained in Victor Wooten’s expert class, and they knew the fit was perfect. Justin Higgins, a life-long drummer and songwriter was then added to the mix, and the band was complete. The music is a volatile blend of funk, hip hop, blues, rock, jazz, and jam band stylings. Jimmy Riggs got their start playing set breaks at Oldfield’s on High every Monday, until they landed a weekly three-hour Monday night gig at the Bier Stube. Once they began making some money from these shows, they invested in various lights, fog, and sound equipment in order to bring a new and unique show experience everywhere they go. They then began booking gigs all over Columbus, playing such venues as The Newport Music Hall, The Alrosa Villa, Suzi-Cue, Ruby Tuesday’s, The Basement, and many others as they continued to improve their shows along the way. The band eventually returned to Oldfields on High for a weekly Sunday night gig in December of '09 in order to build a bigger fan base, and still play there now.
The band is enthusiastic about playing at Anime Punch and bringing a new sound to our concert stage. They have wrote a number of songs about anime and anime fandom, and are covering some anime classics as well.
Web site: http://www.myspace.com/jimmyriggsandthepsofnf
The Spoony Bards
The group of musicians calling themselves the Spoony Bards have come to be known for their ability to assemble any available combination of vocal and instrumental talents to create a musical atmosphere at anime conventions. Hailing from different parts of the country, this network of musicians has grown in reputation and number, having played video game and anime music by request for days at a time at conventions. Count on the Spoony Bards to provide a fun, spirited show at Anime Punch!
Web site: http://www.spoonybards.com
