Guests

• Special Guests
  • Rica Matsumoto
• Cosplay Guests
  
  • World Cosplay Summit Organiser
  • Team Australia 2010 - Asham and Mel
  • Team Singapore 2009 - Andrea Tan and Jill Ho
  • Team Australia 2009 - Tsubaki-chan
  • Other Cosplay Guests
• Panelists
  • Dr Mio Bryce
  • Dr Rebecca Suter
  • James Kelly
  • Ben Patterson
  • Amy Plumb
  • DJ shino and Yumi Nakamura (Wasabi)
  • Bianca McKay
  • Jay Lee (Oneart Studio)

Special Guests

Rica Matsumoto

Rica Matsumoto is Animania Festival’s Guest of Honour. She is a voice actress (Seiyuu) and singer, well known for being the voice of Satoshi (Ash Ketchum) and singer of the opening themes from Pokémon.
Learn more about Rica on her website and Wikipedia article.

Rica Matsumoto Signing sessions
Sunday 10:30am-11:15am, 1:45pm-2:15pm, 3:30pm-4:15pm, 4:45pm-5:30pm
at the Animania Merchandise stall.
Please bring items to sign. Cost $15.

Rica Matsumoto Live! - Sunday 2.30pm-3pm on the Main Stage
Rica Matsumoto Seminar - Sunday 12pm-1pm on the Chibi Stage

Cosplay Guests

World Cosplay Summit Organiser

One of the organisers from World Cosplay Summit will be attending Animania Festival, guest judging both the Australian WCS Preliminary Finals and the Cosplay Competition. You can meet the WCS organiser at the Team Australia Report

WCS Finals - Saturday 2pm-3pm on the Main Stage
WCS 2010 Australia Team Report and Performances - Sunday 1pm-2:30pm on the Main Stage

Team Australia 2010 - Asham and Mel
 

Asham and Mel have just come back from Japan, representing Australia in the World Cosplay Summit. They have many stories to tell about their experiences in Japan and will perform their championship skit in English during Animania. They will also be judging the Australian WCS Preliminary Finals, to select their successors.

Catch Team Australia 2010 at the following events:
WCS Finals - Saturday 2pm-3pm on the Main Stage
WCS 2010 Australia Team Report and Performances - Sunday 1pm-2:30pm on the Main Stage

Team Singapore 2009 - Andrea Tan and Jill Ho

Andrea and Jill won the WCS Finals in Singapore in 2009. Jill was a guest at Animania last year who performed on the main stage. She's back with her partner and they will perform again on stage for us! Andrea and Jill will be judging the WCS Finals and the Cosplay Competition.

Catch Team Singapore 2009 at the following events:
WCS Finals - Saturday 2pm-3pm on the Main Stage
Special Cosplay Guest Performances - Saturday 3pm-3:30pm on the Main Stage

Team Australia 2009 - Tsubaki-chan

Tsubaki-chan is one of the two cosplayers who first competed for Australia in World Cosplay Summit. She's back at Animania as a guest judge the WCS Finals and perform a special skit with Will (a WCS Australia Finalist), on the main stage.

Catch Tsubaki-chan at the following events:
Cosplay Skit Panel - Saturday 12pm-12:30pm on the Chibi Stage
WCS Finals - Saturday 2pm-3pm on the Main Stage
Special Cosplay Guest Performances - Saturday 3pm-3:30pm on the Main Stage

Other Cosplay Guests

Widya Santoso - WCS/Cosplay judge extraordinaire
Luke Hill (Zerebin) -  WCS judge and panellist
Will (Ameno Kitarou) -  Cosplay judge and panellist
Hexlord - Cosplay Photographer from Malaysia and panellist
Suri - Cosplay Judge
Robyn (Seishinkibou) - panellist
KrisEz and Beethy - Cosplay Photographers and panellists

Panelists

Dr Mio Bryce
Head of Japanese Studies, Macquarie University

Mio has a wide range of interests in Japanese language (classical and modern), literature, history and manga/anime and has developed and taught four manga related units: “JPN123: Japan‘s Contemporary Culture through Manga”, “JPN223: Manga and Representation of Identity”, “JPN323: Manga: Global Imagery” and “JPN815: Manga and Anime”.

Her particular interest is in historical, socio-cultural and psychological issues depicted in fiction. She is involved in interdisciplinary research into youth cultures and has established a manga/anime research group, in conjunction with the English Department at Macquarie University. As a part of the group, she and her colleagues and students have formed a small research manga/anime group and currently, supported by MJS Centre, working on Manga/Anime Research Resource Website (to be established later this year). If you are interested in the group and/or the website, please feel free to email her.

Dr Rebecca Suter
Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of Sydney

Rebecca Suter’s main research interest is in modern Japanese literature and comparative literature. Her first book, The Japanization of Modernity, focuses on contemporary Japanese writer Murakami Haruki, particularly on his role as a cultural mediator between Japan and the United States, as well as on his use of meta-fictional techniques. She is currently working on issues of translation and cross-cultural representation between Asia and the West, concentrating on the phenomenon of the “Japanization” of Western culture and the way it challenges current views of colonialism, postcolonialism and globalization. Before coming to Sydney, she has taught Japanese modern literature at Harvard University and at Brown University. She also works as a translator of manga, and has translated works by Shinohara Chie, Anno Moyoko, Miuchi Suzue, Asano Inio, Kitoh Mohiro, Katayama Kyoichi, Matsumoto Taiyô, and Unita Yumi, among others.

Amy Plumb
PhD candidate, Macquarie University

Spawned in the eighties, Amy grew up watching shows 'Astroboy,' unaware of the Japanese origin. It was not until the tween years that a recognition of anime happened after an older cousin sat her down and made her watch 'Akira,' which made absolutely no sense at the time and continues to not make sense. Anime seemed to fade out of existence except for the occasional movie like 'Ghost in the Shell' and 'Ninja Scroll,' as well as random re-viewings of 'Akira.' It was not until 2004, when her best friend made her read her first manga, 'Naruto,' that a new otaku was born. Amy's BA majoring in Ancient History swiftly became Japanese, enrolling in all units she possibly could relating to Japanese language and culture. Having completed all three anime related units, a research unit with a focus on Japanese mythology in anime, and Honours in the field of Boy-Love manga, Amy has continued this love of anime academia as a PhD candidate at Macquarie University, and a participant in Dr Mio Bryce's Manga Research Group. Amy's PhD research is about Japanese religion, mythology, and the supernatural in anime and manga. Outside of uni, Amy's life consists of squealing at cute things, sleeping excessively, wishing she was a ninja, searching for cats and other fluffy creatures, collecting purple things and spending an unhealthy amount of time in front of a computer screen.

James Kelly
Primary School Teacher, Graduate of Macquarie University

James Kelly, 23, was an enthusiastic presenter in last year's Insight series. During his studies at Macquarie University studying Primary Education, he was a member of the Manga Research Group, a website aimed at bringing together students, fans, and teachers around the academics of anime and manga. Since childhood, manga and anime have always inspired him, with his earliest memory being Astro Boy. However, his passion for anime and manga grew surprisingly from within the video game culture. The anime stylised games such as "Lunar: Silver Star Story" and "Evil Zone" have inspired him to look further into this ever-growing Japanese contemporary culture.

His study has opened his eyes to the reality of manga and anime in Japan - not only is anime and manga a growing culture (with its own sub-cultures such as "cute" or kawaii culture) but also as a way for many artists to express themselves within the contemporary Japanese society on issues including identity, the status of women or even the transitory. At the moment, he is developing programs and lesson plans that implement the anime culture into classroom teaching, expanding his research on "teaching with unrecognised tools - utilising Japanese popular culture into cross curricular classroom teaching".

Ben Patterson
Former President of Japanese Animation, University of Western Sydney (JAUWS)
 
Ben Patterson, 24, is a digital artist, Visual Arts teacher in training at the University of Western Sydney and a former President of the UWS anime club, JAUWS, the oldest student-based anime society in Sydney.

DJ shino and Yumi Nakamura (Wasabi)

"Wasabi" is a unique Japanese group based in Sydney that helps promote cultural exchange between Australia and Japan through the media.
 
The radio show “Wasabi”  broadcasts on BondiFM (88.0MHz) every Friday from 12:00pm till 2:00pm. You can tune in to hear DJ Shino play Japanese music, including underground music by artists such as DJ Krush and Nujabes.
 
"Wasabi" also have a blog which they update on a Japanese information website. Yumi Nakamura is the current blogger and she gets more than 1,000 access hits with each update. Wasabi Blog
 
Since 2009 "Wasabi" have been filming Animania and reporting on this exciting Japanese event to the Japanese community in Sydney through their filming with Japanese subtitles.
 
DJ shino and Yumi from "Wasabi" will be showing their latest film and teaching you some Japanese at this year's Animania Festival Sydney Weekend!

Bianca McKay
Graduate of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) - Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Arts (International Studies)

Bianca first became acquainted with anime when there was only 150 pokemon and Piccolo was actually considered a bad-ass... times have changed. Due to her growing interest in anime and Japanese culture, she majored in Japan for her International Studies degree which included a year studying and living abroad in the prefecture of Okinawa (if you don't know the place, think Karate Kid).

With a year to perfect the language, she can now say "I'm sorry, I don't understand" in Japanese very fluently. But more importantly, she can also say "How much is this?"

Jay Lee
Oneart Studio

Jay has been a commercial illustration/comic artist for over 13 years, including 15 years experience teaching in one of the top colleges for illustration in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Apart from teaching, Jay also works very closely, as a freelance illustrator, with art directors from renowned advertising agencies including Leo Burnett, Ogilvy & Mather, Euro RSCG, Bates, Batey Ads in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Some of the illustrations that Jay worked on for clients include Fuji Xerox Printers Australia, Singapore Airlines, Twisties, and Nestle. He has also worked with film directors in Australia in producing storyboards.