Anime Boston announces another round of guests including Yoko Shimomura, Christine Marie Cabanos, Ellyn Stern, Richard Epcar, Mona Marshall, and Michael Sinterniklaas! Meet them at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA on April 3-5, 2015! Tickets available now through www.animeboston.com.
Yoko Shimomura may be one of the most celebrated women in video game music today. Best known to US audiences for bringing us the music of Kingdom Hearts, she has many other instantly recognizable credits to her name including: Street Figher II, Parasite Eve, Front Mission, the Xenoblade Chronicles, Legend of Mana, and Radiant Historia.
She can be heard in the March 2013 release of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX and the July 2013 release of Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. In August of that same year PRESS START (a video game orchestra 
concert) included music from her Xenoblades and Legend of Mana works in the Top 10 People’s Choice. Shortly afterward in 2014 her first independent live concert “Shimomura Yoko 25th Anniversary LIVE – THANKS!” was held at the FM Hall in Tokyo. Two extra performances were added, and all 3 critically acclaimed shows sold out! By March 2014, her second Best Of album, mem`oria, was released by Square Enix.
Her current projects span a wide variety of industries, and include composing the music for such highly anticipated titles as Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3 as well as teaching music and performing.
Christine Marie Cabanos is a voice over actress based out of Los Angeles. She is most known for her roles in Anime and Video Games. Some of her most notable roles include Azusa Nakano in K-On!, Madoka Kaname in Madoka Magica, Shiemi Moriyama in Blue Exorcist, Mako Mankanshoku in Kill La Kill, Silica Sword Art Online, Minori Kushieda Toradora!, Haruka in Oblivion Island, the titular character of Squid Girl in SQUID GIRL, Minawa Ando in Mahoromatic: I’m Home, General Pisti in Magi, Michi Kondo in Lagrange, Ruka Asato in Accel World, Reina and Mew in Pokemon Origins, Filia in Skullgirls, Marie Rose in Dead or Alive: Ultimate, Chiaki Nanami in Danganropa 2, Nepgear in the Hyperdimension Neptunia series and Keina Sawaya in Aterlier Meruru.
She’s also appeared in video games such as Time and Eternity, Fairy Fencer F, Tales of Xillia 2, Ragnarok Online 2 ,Witch and the Hundred Knight and Mugen Souls Z.
Ellyn Stern is a classically trained actress, voice actress, director and writer, whose career spans from film, to television, to stage. Ellyn is widely known for her voice work and the wide range of characters she has played. She has done hundreds of characters. She started in anime with the original Robotech series – in which she played numerous characters.
Ellyn is currently working on two different Disney shows.
Ellyn is featured in the new animated feature Wrinkles, starring Martin Sheen and Matthew Bodine.
VOICED:
Martha Vist Carbine in Gundam Unicorn, Dorothy in True Crimes: Hong Kong, Masaki Kurosaki and Ichigo’s Mom in Bleach, Miyuki Goto in Noein, Jack’s Mom in MAR, Haraway in Ghost in the Shell 2 – Innocence, Rosalind in Armitage III, Himeno in Fight!! Spirit of the Sword, Sayaka in Metal Fight Miku, Moru in Vampire Princess Miyu, Hiroshis Mom in Zenki. The Great Miracle in Zentrix, Parome in Genma Wars, Keiko Misaki in Patlabor 3, Mini Pato, Digimon, BoBoBo-Bo Bo BoBo, Mobile Suit Gundam – The Movie Trilogy, Bushido Blade 2, Lupin the Third, Fighting Spirit and Technoman, Veronica Vera and other characters in Shadow Hearts, to name just a few.
Other cartoons include Wings of Honnesmise, Samurai X, Little Punk, Honey Bee Hutch, Wisdom of the Gnomes, Macross I, II, III, Tom Sawyer, Captain Schnauzer, Gigi and many others.
She has voiced lead voices in many live action feature films that have been adapted into English including Academy Award winners Cinema Paradiso, Belle Epoque, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, Kika, Mostly Martha, Babbette’s Feast, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Fencing Master, Widow of St. Pierre,and Amores Perros, Mission Kashmir, Iron Monkey, The Emperor and the Assassin, Onmyoji-Ying-Yang Masters, Le Femme Nikita, Tae Guk Gi, Shiri, to name a few.
DIRECTED
Ellyn has recently directed the dub of Star Wars into the Navajo language, the first time a film has ever been dubbed into any Native American language.
Other films she has currently directed into English: Farewell My Queen and Delicacy.
She also directed and voiced Jade Cacoon, Aero Wings 1 and 2, Super Magnetic Neo and Galerians. Other games include Inherit The Earth and Abby.
ON FILM
Ellyn starred in Jessie’s Girls, co-starred in Duchess and The Dirtwater Fox, co-starred in Fatal Charm, and Prisoner in the Middle aka Warhead.
On television she’s done numerous shows, American Carrott, Charlie’s Angels, and recurring characters on General Hospital, Santa Barbara and Days Of Our Lives.
RECENTLY
Ellyn co-stars in Milk and Honey with Debbie Allen, produced by Idris Elba.
Ellyn is also starring in Blood on Canvas, a legal drama.
Other recent films include starring in The Waiting Room, Eldad, Both Thumbs, Electronica 2, The Other Way and IMA.
Ellyn starred as the Queen in Exit the King by Ionesco, adapted and translated by Geoffrey Rush, who won a Tony for it on Broadway in 2009.
Ellyn also played Jacqueline Kennedy at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, in We’ll Never Be Young Again, the story of JFK’s assassination, in which the horror of that day is recalled. She also starred in Mrs. Warren’s Profession as Mrs. Warren, and starred in Apple, an award winning play.
She is set to star in the play Toyer, a psychological thriller.
Richard Epcar is one of the hardest working men in show business, having voiced over 400 characters in games, animation and anime.
Best known as the voice of Batou in Ghost in the Shell, The Joker in several Batman games including Injustice: Gods Among Us (Fighting Game of the Year!) and Ansem in Kingdom Hearts.
He’s voted one of the Top 20 Video Game Voice Actors of all Time and Top 20 Anime Actors of all time by IMDB!
Starting out in Robotech, you’ve heard him in Legend of Korra, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Blood Lad, Lupin the Third, Monster, Naruto, Bobobo-Bobobo, Transformers, Bleach, Kenshin, GTO, Gundam Macross, Cyber Soldier 009, Lucky Star, Digimon, X-Men, Gundam Unicorn, Babylon 5 and Power Rangers to name a few.
He’s also in tons of games including Mortal Kombat as Raiden, Final Fantasy as Gaius, Saints Row, Arkham Origins, Skyrim, Infinite Crisis as the Joker, Call of Duty-Advanced Warfare, Fire Emblem: Awakening as Walhart, MK vs D.C. UNIVERSE as the Joker and Raiden, Stargate SG-1 as Gen. Hammond, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Star Wars, Transformers, X-Com, Command & Conquer, Dead or Alive 3-D, Starcraft as Dark Templar, Dead Space, Xenosaga as Ziggy, Marvel Heroes, World of Warcraft, League of Legends as Xin Zhao, Naruto, Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Warriors, Blue Dragon, Star Ocean, Splinter Cell, Guilty Gears, .Hack, Street Fighter, Medal of Honor, Space Seige, Spec-Ops, Bayonette, Catherine, Tekken, Ace Combat and Resident Evil.
Richard has voice directed many games including Arkham Origins, Dead Island: Riptide, Blue Dragon, Shadow Hearts II, Star Ocean 2 &3, Enemy Territory, Quake Wars, Unreal Tournament 3, Jackass the Game, Smackdown vs. RAW and Dead Head Fred and voice directed many shows including Ghost in the Shell 2, Robotech: Shadow Chronicles, Almost Heroes, Jungle Shuffle, The Reef, Grand Master, Noein, Digimon, Lupin the III, Fighting Spirit, Patlabor 3, Zentrix, Azumi I & II, Fearless, Better Blue, Iron Monkey, VR Troopers, Power Rangers, Ugly Better Webisodes and Old Boy to name a few.
On camera, Richard has appeared in many shows including Warehouse 13, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Columbo, Diagnosis Murder, Matlock, Cheers, General Hospital and a lead in the soon to be released Broken Spirits.
Please join us in welcoming Mona Marshall to her first Anime Boston! If you haven’t heard Mona Marshall’s voice, you might be living under a rock. Mona takes prolific to the extreme and we are super excited to have her attend Anime Boston 2015!
Mona’s voice may be best known to anime fans as: Haku in Naruto, Doraemon in Doraemon, Konekomaru Miwa in Blue Exorcist, Koushiro “Izzy” Izumi in Digimon Adventure, Motoko Aoyama in Love Hina, Ryoko in Tenchi Muyo! GXP, and Toboe in Wolf’s Rain. But that’s only just the beginning of her anime credentials. She’s had leading roles in anime such as: Armitage: Dual Matrix, Carried by the Wind: Tsukikage Ran, Chobits, El Hazard – The Magnificent World, Kyo Kara Maoh, Last Exile, Magic Knight Rayearth, Rozen Maiden, and Street Fighter Alpha. All told, Mona has been in over 150 anime titles!
Mona is also well known in the video game world lending her voice to such titles as: .hack//G.U, Brave Fencer Musashi, Drakengard, Eternal Sonata, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, Grandia III, Guild Wars Factions, Persona 3, Ratchet & Clank, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Suikoden V, Tales of Vesperia, and Wild Arms 4.
If that’s not enough, Mona can be heard on several prominent non-anime titles as well. She is the current voice of Sheila Broflovski, Linda Stotch, Token and Bebe’s Mom, and various others on South Park. She can also be recognized as Moki in Fraggle Rock, Tracy Milbanks in James Bond Jr., and Kat in Rambo. Mona has also had roles in many other shows such as G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, Inspector Gadget, Jackie Chan Adventures, Jem and the Holograms, Rainbow Brite, The Smurfs, and Transformers.
Additionally, Mona was featured in Bang Zoom’s Adventures in Voice Acting and has her own TV Tropes page!
Michael Sinterniklaas is a veteran of the anime industry and has worked as a ADR Director, actor, voice actor, script writer, sound engineer, mixer and producer. In 2000, Michael founded NYAV Post, a bicoastal recording studio that has worked on over 400 anime and non-anime titles.
As a director, Michael has worked on several anime shows including: Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, Berserk, Magic Users Club, Ah! My Goddess, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Slayers Revolution, Slayers Evolution-R, Giant Robot. He’s also directed several non-anime shows including Peter Rabbit, Kappa Mikey, Robotomy, The Venture Brothers, and the Oscar nominated movies A Cat in Paris starring Anjelica Huston, Marcia Gay Harden, Matthew Modine. As well as: Ernest and Celestine starring Forest Whitaker, Lauren Bacall, Paul Giamatti, William H. Macy, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, Jeffrey Wright and McKenzie Foy.
Michael is also an extremely prolific and talented actor. He’s probably best known as as Dean Venture in The Venture Bros, Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), and Mikey Simon in Kappa Mikey, and even Funshine in The CareBears, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He’s also voiced Netherlands in Hetalia, Xellos in Slayers Revolution and Evolution-R, Gasud in Jormungand, Jessie’s Seviper / Joshua / Kennedy in Pokémon, Man in Zetman, Lucemon in Digimon, Ivan Karelin / Origami Cyclone in Tiger & Bunny, Sarutobi Sasuke in Sengoku Basara, Sora and Utakata in Naruto, Jared / Jess in Speed Racer: The Next Generation, and Luppi / Nnoitra Jiruga in Bleach. He can also be heard as: Age in Patema Inverted, Masakazu Masaki in Time of Eve, and Takeru in FREEDOM. He has also appeared in video games such as: Final Fantasy XIII, Excom, GTA V, and the Lego Movie Game. Michael was also recently cast as a Marvel super hero but cannot disclose which one just yet…
Previously announced Guests of Honor include Greg Ayres, Christine Marie Cabanos. Richard Epcar, Kazuhiro Furuhashi, Lauren Landa, Cherami Leigh, LiSA, Cassandra Lee Morris, Haruo Nakajima, Yoko Shimomura, Ellyn Stern, Akira Takarada, and Koki Uchiyama.
View all of our Guests of Honor here.
About Anime Boston:
With nearly 25,500 attendees in 2013, Anime Boston is an annual three-day Japanese animation convention held in Boston, Mass. Anime Boston 2015 is scheduled for Friday, April 3 through Sunday, April 5 at the Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Boston Hotel. More information about Anime Boston can be found at www.animeboston.com.
About New England Anime Society:
The New England Anime Society was founded in 2001. Based in Massachusetts, The New England Anime Society, Inc. is parent organization of Anime Boston and is 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.
