Interview (141)
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The internet sensation Hatsune Miku is well known around the world. Originally a musical voice synthesizer program named Vocaloid 2, fans have created a whole subculture of music, artworks, and even a 3D live stage concert. See what the creative team, Crypton Future Media's CEO Hiroyuki Itoh and Producer Wataru Sasaki had to say in our brief interview as we caught them at the end of day!
People may have seen Shinji Katakura clad in a black ninja outfit sketching at the MangaGamer booth during previous years at Anime Expo. For those who might not know, Katakura is a character designer at the Japanese game company, OVERDRIVE that has produced many well-known visual novel titles such as Kira☆Kira (キラ☆キラ) and Edelweiss (エーデルワイス). All of the games that Katakura has worked on has been released worldwide with English translations. See why he's back in our brief interview with him at Anime Expo 2011.
Amongst the various guests that appeared at Anime Expo, illustrator Kazue Yamamoto, who is also President of visual novel company Denbonosu, made a surprise visit at MangaGamer's booth. Yamamoto-san is probably best known for her works on the Izumo series. She was also a Guest of Honor previously at Anime Expo 2005. We got to briefly chat with her during her break and hear what she had to say!
This year was North America's largest anime convention, Anime Expo's 20th anniversary. To celebrate, the convention decided to bring back some of it's more popular guests and otaku blogger Danny Choo was one of them. It's been a year since we last interviewed him (you can read our past interview here), hear what's it like for an otaku blogger who is now an entrepreneur working with some of the biggest names in the business!
Japanese pop sensation Yuya Matsushita made his first American live performance in San Jose, California at the anime convention, FanimeCon 2011. Matsushita is probably best know for his music featured in several anime series including Durarara! and Black Butler. More recently, he has made appearances in Japanese television dramas and movies. See what this young rising star had to say about his rise to stardom!
While at Wondercon 2011, we got a chance to talk briefly with Hyung Ming-Woo, the creator of the manwha, Korean comic, Priest about the upcoming Hollywood adaptation of his series. Manwha have become quite popular in Japan recently with titles such as Black God and Freezing receiving anime adaptations. Check out our video interview with him for the full scoop!
While traveling in Japan during mid August 2009, the staff of The-O Network stumbled upon Inu, creator of the popular Hatsu Inu adult manga. His purple haired vixen, Shion Fujimo, has become somewhat iconic in the hentai, or adult animation, community. Originally published in 2006 in three volumes, the overall popularity of the series led to a two volume revised Complete Edition released in 2010. The series has also received a hentai anime adaptation released by Pink Pineapple in 2007, with a second season released in 2008. See what Inu had to say about his works, life, and a little about his thoughts on the recent rise of fan groups translating and uploading doujinshis online.
Japanese pop star May Nakabayashi (May'n) who's probably best known as the vocal for Sheryl Nome from the anime series Macross Frontier, was in attendance at Anime Expo 2010 in Los Angeles to meet her fans as well as for a live concert performance. Having only briefly chatted with May'n previously at Animelo Summer Live 2009 in Japan, we conducted a followup interview a couple days before her American performance.
Akio Watanabe: Bakemonogatari Animation Director Interview
Written by Benjamin Chu
Apart from the impressive official guests at this year's Anime Expo, English visual novel publisher MangaGamer brough their own all star line of guests including Akio Watanabe. Watanabe has provided character designs for series including Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko, Magical Canan, Nurse Witch Komugi, and Popotan. He is probably most well known for his recent work as Animation Director and Character Designer for the highly successful anime adaptation of Bakemonogatari. Each DVD release in Japan has seen a rough average of 40,000 copies sold the first week of its release! See what he had to say in our brief interview with Watanabe!
Amongst some of the all star artists and character designers that MangaGamer brought to Anime Expo 2010 who were available to accept commissions on sketches, there were a few lesser known illustrators to the American public including Yuki Takano, a relatively new artist working for the popular visual novel company, CIRCUS.
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Many people may not know who Sou Miyata is, but they probably have heard about the Muv-Luv visual novel series which he works on in Japan. Muv-Luv was originally a visual novel PC game whose popularity grew into manga and novel adaptations. The series even has an entire toy line released by Volks. Volks is a popular figurine, doll, and toy manufacturer in Japan. See what he had to say in our brief interview with him at Anime Expo 2010!
Voice actresses Yui Horie and Eri Kitamura were in attendance at Anime Expo 2010 to celebrate the English release of the school romance comedy anime Toradora! in America. Horie is a highly successful singer and voice actress in Japan with an impressive number of roles including Naru Narusegawa from Love Hina, Eri Sawachika from School Rumble, and of course Minori Kushieda from Toradora!. Kitamura has recently established a fan base for herself with her role as Rin Kokonoe from Kodomo no Jikan. She is probably also best known for her work as Saya Otonashi from Blood+, and as Ami Kawashima from Toradora!. See what they had to say about their work in the series in our exclusive interview with them both!
Rei Hiroe is the creator and author of the popular manga series, Black Lagoon. The manga has received an anime adaptation, with a third season that debuted in North America at Anime Expo 2010. Hiroe himself was at Anime Expo to celebrate the screening, and we got a brief chance to talk to him a little bit about his work.
Internet sensation Danny Choo made his first official American appearance on June 30, 2010 at one of the largest anime conventions in the United States, Anime Expo. Choo runs the internationally recognized otaku blog, dannychoo.com which covers topics ranging from anime, figures, and Japanese culture. His website's popularity has spawned a plethora of merchandise including a future figure of his mascot Mirai, and an anime adaptation titled Chinka. Choo is also known for his Tokyo Stormtrooper dancing videos in Japan. Living the otaku dream, Choo works with various anime related companies including figure maker Goodsmile Company and more recently starring his own television show, Culture: Japan.