Jiro Ando

In 2017, Ando joined animation studio Orange Ltd. as a production manager, transitioning from a background in design. With prior experience in production management on projects like “Land of The Lustrous” and “Sunshower short film,” Ando swiftly ascended to the role of producer in “THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS 8 Year Anniversary Project Spin-off!” As a producer at Orange, Ando has …

Yoshihiro Watanabe

Yoshihiro Watanabe is a producer at animation studio Orange Ltd. He is currently working on TRIGUN STAMPEDE and BEASTARS as business producer and creatively producing other unannounced projects at Orange. Watanabe grew up in America but after college, for some weird fate, began working for studio Madhouse Inc.  After leaving Madhouse, Watanabe became a freelance producer / coordinator and worked …

Akira Yoshiyasu

Akira Yoshiyasu is a representative director of QREAZY Co., Ltd.  He started producing CG for anime and games in 1998 and has been active as a CG director since around 2003.  He has served as a 3DCG director for anime works like One Piece: The Cursed Holy Sword, Air: The Movie, Zatch Bell! Attack of Mechavulcan, Wave!! Surfing Yappe!!, and …

Genga-chan

Genga-chan as she’s known, is the very first key animator that is training through the Animator Supporters New Animator Training Program. If you’re interested in her training progress, you can view it through our videos on the Animator Dormitory YouTube channel. At the convention, Genga-chan will go over some of the layouts that she’s drawn for the Animator Supporters project.

Eric Zheng

Eric Zheng is a Japanese-English translator specializing in subtitles. His translations have been used both on-screen and as an intermediate language by Crunchyroll, Aniplus, Bushiroad, COVER Corporation, anime conventions (including Animazement), and other organizations. His less successful ventures include an online anime merchandise store and a Japanese film distribution company. In his free time, he interprets for guests at anime …

Don McLaughlin

Don McLaughlin is a semi-retired faculty member of West Virginia University.  During his more than forty years at West Virginia University he has served as a teacher, administrator, computer systems manager, and leader in the virtual environments lab in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.  He currently teaches courses in artificial intelligence and computer graphics.  In the …

Pamela Winfield

Pamela D. Winfield is Professor of Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at Elon University in NC. She is the author of Icons and Iconoclasm in Japanese Buddhism: Kūkai and Dōgen on the Art of Enlightenment (Oxford University Press, 2013) which won the AAS-SEC Book Prize in 2015. She is also the co-editor (with Steven Heine) of Zen …

Hiroaki Kawakami and Hitomi Uehara

Hiroaki Kawakami and Hitomi Uehara are attorneys who have worked together for 10 years.  They are attorneys for the elderly with dementia, helping to manage property and proceed with contracts under family court supervision.  They are also solicitors who work with inheritance and the drafting of wills.  Kawakami is the president (since 2010) and Uehara is the vice president of …

Kaizan Nitta

Kaizan Nitta was born on Okinoerabu Island, a remote island which is part of Kagoshima’s Amami archipelago. Just north of Okinawa, Okinoerabu is rooted in the Okinawan culture along with that of the other Ryukyu Islands.  Here he learned to play the sanshin, a stringed instrument local to the Okinawan and Amami islands, from Tomiyasu Okita.  In 2000, Kaizan became …

Hakusui Ogiyama

Since 2007, Hakusui Ogiyama has been studying Kinshin-ryu Satsuma Biwa under Osaka-based Kinshin-ryu biwa player Teisui Nakano.  Hakusui specializes in the heroic performance and narration of the Satsuma Biwa, which draws on Samurai traditions. In addition to traditional classical music, she also uses modern Japanese to tell all kinds of new stories. This is called “Otogi Biwa,”which she uses to …