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RICHARD EPCAR 

Legendary Actor RICHARD EPCAR – Gamepur’s VOICE ACTOR OF THE YEAR is one of the hardest working men in show business, having voiced over 1,200 characters in Games, Animation and Anime.

Now voicing YHWACH the Quincy King in Bleach The Thousand Year Blood War!

Best known as:

RAIDEN in MORTAL KOMBAT,

The JOKER in several Batman games including INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US (Fighting Game of the Year!) and MORTAL KOMBAT 11 (Fighting Game of the Year!)

ANSEM in KINGDOM HEARTS,

JOSEPH JOESTAR in JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE,

BATOU in GHOST IN THE SHELL,

JIGEN in LUPIN the THIRD,

AKUMA in STREET FIGHTER V,

SANDMAN in MARVEL ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 3 and The BRIGADIER GENERAL in DAEMON X MACHINA!

Voted one of the Top 20 Video Game Voice Actors of all Time and Top 20 Anime Actors of all time by IMDB! And Gamepur’s Top Ten Video Game Voice Actors of all time!

Starting out in ROBOTECH, you’ve heard him in LEGEND OF KORRA, LUPIN THE THIRD, BATMAN UNLIMITED, BLEACH, BOBOBO-BOBOBO, ONE PUNCH MAN, MEGLOBOX, POKEMON GENERATIONS as Giovanni, & POKEMON MASTERS, DRAGON BALL SUPER, BERSERK, BACK STREET GIRLS, DURARARA, SIRIUS THE JAEGER, DIVE OLLY DIVE, MARVEL DISK WARS, GORMITI, COPPELION, PATEMA INVERTED, PEABODY & SHERMAN, ASTERIK WAR, BLOOD LAD, MONSTER, NARUTO, TRANSFORMERS, KENSHIN, SAO II, GTO, A LULL IN THE SEA, STITCH & AI, HUNTERXHUNTER, GUNDAM, MACROSS, DC SUPER FRIENDS, CYBER SOLIDER 009, LUCKY STAR, DIGIMON, 7 DEADLY SINS, X-MEN, GUNDAM UNICORN, BABYLON 5, DETECTIVE CONAN and POWER RANGERS to name a few!      

He’s also in tons of games including:

SKYRIM, WARHAMMER, GRANBLUE, BLADE 2, LINEAGE 2, ELEX 2, OVERSTRIKE, BRAVELY DEFAULT, FINAL FANTASY as Gaius and Ilberd, SAINTS ROW, MAFIA III, ARKHAM ORIGINS, PERSONA 5, INFINITE CRISIS as the Joker, CALL OF DUTY-ADVANCED WARFARE, MAD MAX, 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: EMPIRE AT WAR, STAR WARS: OLD REPUBLIC, TRANSFORMERS, MONSTER HUNTER WORLD, X-COM, COMMAND & CONQUER, DEAD OR ALIVE 3-D, STARCRAFT as Dark Templar, DEAD SPACE, XENOSAGA as Ziggy, MARVEL HEROS, WORLD OF WARCRAFT, SMITE, SPEC OPS, LEAGUE OF LEGENDS as Xin Zhao, NARUTO,  COWBOY BEBOP, SAMURAI WARRIORS, BLUE DRAGON, STAR OCEAN, XENOSAGA, SPLINTER CELL, GUILTY GEARS, .HACK, MEDAL OF HONOR, GHOST RECON, BATON KAITOS ORIGINS, SPACE SEIGE, SPEC-OPS, BAYONETTA, SOULCALIBUR VI,  CATHERINE, TEKKEN, ACE COMBAT, MODNATION RACERS, and RESIDENT EVIL.

RichardEpcar.com

Guest Announcement: MINT NeKO

MINT, the designer of MINT NeKO, was born in Shimane in 1984.

After graduating Bunka Fashion College, he became an assistant designer of h.NAOTO and made his debut as a designer of Sixh. in 2006.

While part of a fashion duet with the brand Sixh., MINT has created his own line called MINT NeKO. MINT NeKO uses oriental silhouettes inspired by mode style with cat character graphics. There are actually more than 250 original kitty characters that are created and used in the garments.

MINT has created cats to collaborate in the world of fashion. MINT has collaborated with many Japanese artists and is becoming one of the leading young designers in Japan.

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SHINTARO INOKAWA

Shintaro Inokawa is a Unit Director. His roles include Animation Director, Unit Director, and Storyboards for the animation works of Eight Bit Co., Ltd. He’s known as “a hero in a pinch” for his high speed and high-quality work.

His most recent works are “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Scarlet Bond”, the “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime” Series, and “BLUE LOCK”.

Manga Library Staff

Manga Library is looking for people who love manga and have great customer service skills. While we’d love to have people who can read Japanese, it’s not necessary to help us out! You’ll be helping set up the library on Thursday, helping attendees check in their bags at the library and reshelving manga after it’s been read during the convention, and taking the library down on Sunday.

Manga Library Staff Requirements:

  • Work at least 16 hours over the course of the convention, including Thursday set-up
  • Be on time to all assigned shifts.
  • Be responsible and helpful
  • Able to stand and walk for your shift 
  • Able to lift up to 35 pounds 

Not required, but helpful: 

  • Customer service experience
  • Knowledge of manga series and manga genres
  • Some knowledge/proficiency with written Japanese 

If you are interested, please email manga.library@sakuracon.org

Xander Mobus

Xander Mobus is a voice over actor from LA.

You might know his work from anime and video games including Persona 5 as The Protagonist, Super Smash Bros as Ren Amamiya, Street Fighter V, Soul Calibur VI, One Punch Man, Mob Psycho 100, Hunter x Hunter, Detective Pikachu, Erased, Boruto, Boruto’s Dad (aka Naruto), Rising of the Shield Hero, Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Warriors, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, Beyblade Burst Turbo, B: The Beginning, Blue Exorcist and many more!

Guest Announcement: ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D

Vocalist/Guitar: SHiNNOSUKE
Base: RYOTA
Drum: U
Guitarist : Yu-SaySupport
Drum: ICCAN

The four-piece band based in Shibuya exploded onto the music scene in June 2010 with their very first single, “Complication.” The single quickly reached number one in downloadable tracks, ranked 11th on the Oricon Weekly ranking, and was featured as the opening theme for the animated series “Durarara!!” ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D went on to have songs featured in the anime series Bleach with “song for…” and “IN MY WORLD,” the second opening theme for Blue Exorcist.

ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D attracts Rock and J-Pop fans through their unique sound which includes Rock, Punk, and Emo. They have performed for their fans over 100 times in a single year and every time, the audience was hungry for more.

In 2011 the band collaborated with the creators of Durarara!! to release their first album “DRRROOKiEZ!! ・ ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D respect for DRRR!!” featuring “DROP,” the opening theme for the PSP game Durarara!! 3-way Standoff.

The band is gathering attention from Anime industries as well. In 2012 the band collaborated with Animate, the largest retailer of anime, games, and manga in Japan, on their NicoNico Live channel,“ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D TV.

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YOSHIHIRO WATANABE

Watanabe is a producer at animation studio Orange Ltd. Watanabe is currently working on TRIGUN STAMPEDE and BEASTARS as business producer and as creative producer of yet-unannounced projects at Orange.

Watanabe grew up in America but after college, by some weird twist of fate, began working for studio Madhouse Inc.. After leaving Madhouse, Watanabe became a freelance producer/coordinator and worked closely with studio P.A.WORKS. He has been a Producer for works including Eccentric Family, 2 and the League of Legends Commercial: New Journey.

Guest Announcement: STEVE BLUM

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 (now approaching 400!) 

Most recently, he appeared on the Emmy award-winning Transformers: Prime, playing the iconic, deadly and sometimes delusional Decepticon “Starscream.” Also as “Devil Dinosaur” on HULK: Agents of SMASH, “Sub-Zero,” “Reptile and “Bo’Rai Cho” in Mortal Combat X, several characters on Wabbit, Ultimate Spider Man, Ben 10: Omniverse, The Regular Show, Doc McStuffins, Uncle Grandpa, Wander over Yonder, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tenkai Knights, and as the terrifying anti-bender “Amon” on the hit series Avatar: The Legend of Korra!

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Guest Announcement: MARY ELIZABETH MCGLYNN

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 Geass, 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. She recurs on Geek & Sundry’s Critical Role as Zahra Hydris, a tiefling warlock.

Mary is directing Penn Zero: Part Time Hero for Disney XD, starring Thomas Middleditch, Adam Devine, Alfred Molina and Larry Wilmore. She also directed Naruto Shippuden. She has directed the six Naruto movies, Naruto and Naruto Shippuden (the series), for which she received the 2008 SPJA award for best director.

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