Category Archives: Guest Announcements

We’re excited to be welcoming back the Chado Urasenke Tankokai Washington DC Association to perform the Way of Tea ceremony for us once again! This elegant ceremony is a glimpse at a different era and is a perfect way to relax at the convention. The Association is part of a network that spans throughout the US and Canada teaching the Urasenke school’s methods and promoting US-Japanese friendship and mutual understanding. Stay tuned for the schedule to find out when you can see the amazing Urasenke Tea Ceremony at Anime USA!

We’re happy to announce that Studio Cosplay will be on-hand at Anime USA this year! They’ll have a repair booth in the Artist’s Alley(right?) to help with all of your cosplay emergencies! On top of that, Studio Cosplay will have several workshops and classes designed to help cosplayers, new and old, to learn more and refine their work! You’ll be able to find them sharing space with our Art Show!

We’re happy to bring the 13-year cosplay veteran on board for Anime USA! A holder of over two dozen cosplay awards, Shiki meticulously crafts all of her costumes and enjoys ending up with no more than 30% vision or movement capability at any given time. Her style can be described as “where did you even find that many rhinestones” combined with “selectively picky tailoring”, “whatever will make me look taller”, and “50% chance of being Levi from Attack on Titan”. You’ll be able to catch her roaming the convention as Matthew Perry Jr. from Samurai Jam Bakumatsu Rock, Midori Nagamasa from Aoharu x Machinegun, and Mikazuki Munechika from Touken Ranbu. On top of her costumed exploits, Shiki will be holding several panels and will be one of our judges for the cosplay masquerade! You can see more from Shiki at http://www.acparadise.com/loves/shikarius and https://www.facebook.com/shikariuscosplays, as well as with us Halloween weekend!

Expert bladesmiths Ilya Alekseyev and Matt Stagmer will be showing off the tricks of their trade when they join us Halloween weekend! We welcome these amazing craftsmen from the hit youtube series Men At Arms: REFORGED, where they recreate the greatest gear from anime, games, and more! Check out their panel where they’ll be going over their craft and talk about their work. Outside of that, you’ll be able to catch them at their booth in the dealer’s room. Join us as they head from the forge and on to the fun right here at Anime USA!

Want a sample of what they can do? Check out this video of the Hattori Hanzō Katana from Kill Bill.

 Photo courtesy of Subdance and InMotion Photography

Michael was introduced to the decks in ‘09. He was determined to gain experience and knowledge with every aspect of DJ’ing & Turntableism and after learning the basics on Dj software, he picked up CDJ’s with months of practice. Soon after, he learned to play on Vinyl. Since the beginning of 2011, Hazelnut has been fortunate enough to play in clubs all over the DMV sharing the stage with acts such as Savant, Danny the Wildchild, Urban Assault; Gangsta Fun; Optiv; DJ Micro; LTJ Bukem; LJ MTX and much more amazing talent! Gaining experience playing almost every genre, Hazelnut’s taste and sets always vary; Guaranteed to please! Mainly sticking to Drum & Bass nowadays, there’s always a chance to hear a wide range but not limited to Electro Fidget, Funky Disco, with hints of Booty Swing’n House and Hip-hop Mashups. All the way to his original passion – UK Hardcore. Step by step, Hazelnut will make your feet move!

Photo courtesy of InMotion Photography

Ricardo experienced his 1st party when going to Otakon 2009 and going to the Otaku Rave that was held there with his friends and after that weekend of raving for the first time he was hooked. He and his friends started attending more rave parties and eventually Ricardo fell so much in love with the music that he wanted to learn how to spin. He always loved Happy Hardcore and Uk Hardcore and began spinning that in February of 2010. His alias came to be when one night he was talking to his good friend Link and asked him what his DJ name should be.   His friend told him Naughty Bitz as a joke, but Ricardo loved it and said, “I’m definitely going with that!” Eventually, Naughty Bitz started growing tired of the “happy” tracks and started finding dirty heavy Uk Hardcore, Freeform Hardcore (Trance fused Hardcore) and Breakbeat Hardcore. He experimented on spinning other genres like House, Electro and Fidget and eventually he found out that it didn’t fulfill his needs as a DJ and started messing with Drum & Bass and Drumstep.   He immediately fell in love with DnB as well and now incorporates Uk Hardcore, Freeform, Breakbeat Hardcore, Drum & Bass and Drumstep in his live sets! So, as long as there’s a party, an after party, or just people kicking it, Naughty Bitz always brings the noise. Ranging from Uk Hardcore, Freeform, Videogame Hardcore to Drum & Bass and Drumstep, he can always keep the party going and the crowd moving. With a passion for the scene he’s always bringing you the most distinct tracks full of crowd pleasing flavor. If you haven’t caught a Naughty Bitz set be sure not to miss one; you will be asking for more.

For Aeric, it all started when he got hooked on early morning anime as an elementary school kid, which led to active volunteering at conventions, study abroad in Japan, and a B.A. in Japanese Studies. The adventure continued from there with his transition to DC to be a Committee Chair for the Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival and receive a research-focused Master’s degree (M.A.Ed.H.D.) in International Education focusing on Japan. With a background in research on internationalization, study abroad, cross-cultural communications, and pop culture, he has enjoyed working in a number of educational programs with students and their interests in Japan. Though currently managing several exchange programs in Japan, Aeric has fun visiting conventions and sharing his experiences, research, and study abroad know-how with all.

Check out the Japan+theWorld Podcast, hosted by Aeric at jpworldpod.com.

Twitter: @jpworldpod

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn is a voice over actress, writer, singer and director. As an actress, she portrayed Major Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost In The Shell Innocence, Solid State Society and Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex for which she won the American Anime Award for Best Actress. You can also hear her as the Female Crusader in Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, Kurutsu in Ghost in the Shell Arise, Mrs. Maheswaran in Steven Universe, Sei in Alpha Protocol and Nora in Final Fantasy XIII. Some of her other popular roles are Cornelia in Code Geas. Kurenai from Naruto, Julia from Cowboy Bebop, Zanpakuto from Bleach, Helba and Bordeau from .hack, Jagura from Wolf’s Rain, Nuriko in Fushigi Yuugi and Caroline from Vampire Hunter D.

Anime USA is very excited to have her with us this year, so come meet Mary this Halloween weekend, October 30th – November 1st!

With literally hundreds of V/O credits to his name, Veteran Voice Monkey Steve Blum is best known as the voice of “Spike Spiegel” from Cowboy Bebop, “Wolverine” from several incarnations of X-Men (animated movies, games, the Wolverine and the X-Men TV Series, The Super Hero Squad Show, X-Men Anime and more), “Orochimaru,” “Zabuza,” and others from Naruto, “Green Goblin” from the Spectacular Spiderman series, “Heatblast,” “Vilgax” and “Ghostfreak” from Ben 10, “Grayson Hunt” (Bulletstorm) “Grunt” (Mass Effect 2 and 3),”Zoltan Kulle” from Diablo 3, “Abathur” from Starcraft 2:Heart of the Swarm, “Tank Dempsey” (Call of Duty), “Killer Croc” from Arkham Asylum, “Oghren” (DragonAge),“Vincent Valentine” (Final Fantasy VII), “Leeron” (Guren Lagann), “Jamie” from Megas XLR, “Storm Troopers” and many others in most of the Star Wars games, The voice of 7-11, dozens of Digimon and a gigantic list of other characters from Anime, Video Games, TV and Film. In 2012, Steve was inducted into the Guinness Book of World records as Most Prolific Voice Actor in Video Games – appearing in almost 300 games!

We are very excited to have him with us this year, so come meet Steve at Anime USA this Halloween weekend, October 30th – November 1st!

An expert on plenty of areas in Japanese culture, Lord Ramirez returns for another year of Anime USA! From steampunk to kabuki, Ramirez has donned many costumes in his travels from convention to convention. He’s uniquely equipped to handle a huge variety of topics, from costuming/makeup, dance, and plenty of knowledge about Japan (We recommend the Kabuki panel.) Catch Lord Ramirez and his outrageous outfits this year at Anime USA!

Patrick Drazen holds a BA from Illinois Wesleyan University and an MS from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, both in Communications. His Japanese pop culture education, however, started before he was ten years old, when he saw the first anime to ever be released in America: “Alakazam the Great!”, a dubbed version of the legend of Son-Goku the monkey-king. The Eighties saw the publication of Schodt’s “Manga! Manga!” and the appearance of consumer VCRs that could play Japanese tapes, and that settled it. His search to examine the media of manga and anime, and the culture that gave rise to them, led to his 2002 book “Anime Explosion” (2nd edition 2014) and “A Gathering of Spirits: Japan’s Ghost Story Tradition” (2011). Drazen has served on the Editorial Board of the Mechademia journal, and has lectured at venues from Yaoi-con in San Francisco to Anime Central in Chicago to Armageddicon in Columbus; he was also the Emcee at the Smithsonian Institution’s 2006 Anime Marathon.