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Bubble Gum Crisis meets Project A-Ko: Kenichi Sonoda (left) , a fan
of Chicago who made the city a star in his Gun Smith Cats series, returned
for his second straight Anime Central. Sonoda's character and hard suit
designs for Bubble Gum Crisis entranced many new anime fans in the 1980's,
and those missed by BGC were delighted by the wacky humor of Project A-Ko,
directed by Yuji Moriyama (right), attending an U.S. anime convention for
the first time. |
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Tsukasa Kotobuki (left), who created the characters for Sabre Marionette
J and Battle Arena Toshinden, made his second straight visit to Anime Central
- and his first since Radio Comix started publishing his Mechanical Man
Blues manga in the U.S. American artist Daniel Kanemitsu (right) was on
hand to translate - and to sell copies of his new book on the history of
doujinshi, the Japanese fan comics that started the careers of most of
the major manga professionals. |
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With Kotobuki were Hirotaka Okuma (left), an artist who was as much
a surprise guest at Anime Central 99 as Daiken Yoko-O (right) was in 1998.
Yoko-O, one of Kotobuki's assistants, insisted on coming back to Rosemont,
Ill. |
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The first Revolutionary Girl Utena poster was autographed after the
opening ceremonies, and the honors were handled by English-language actors
for the dubbed series. Signing the poster was Leah Applebaum, Nanmi in
Utena, and waiting for Applebaum to finish was Rachael Lillis, who has
the title role of Utena. On top of those roles, both actors also are part
of the hit Pokemon series. Lisa Ortiz, the original English-language Lina
Inverse in Slayers, was just out of the frame. |
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The Right Stuf, the Iowa-based anime importer, is putting a lot of
emphasis on the Irresponsible Captain Tylor series they plan to release
in 1999. They used Anime Central to promote Tylor by brining the lead character's
English-language voice, Crispin Freeman, to the convention. |
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Many times, this page has featured the antics of actor Amanda Winn
Lee (left). For the first time, there is equal time for the other half
of this married acting couple, husband Jason Lee (right). Both have handled
roles in ADV productions - and they're still married. |
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Lorraine Reyes created the "look" of ADV Films, creating the packaging
for many of the tapes sold by the Texas anime importer. She even designs
computer games and has been coaxed into a recording booth to handle ADV
voice-over work. |
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Anime Weekend Atlanta throws candy into the audience at the opening
ceremony. As befits a metro area with two major-league baseball teams,
Anime Central decided to start a new tradition in Chicagoland and throw
out the first Pokemon. The strong arm of artist Robert DeJesus was chosen
for this important task. |
