[Cons] Anime Central 2014 on a roll with Guest Announcements

Anime Central is still a couple of months away, but they've been busy in the announcement department as of late. Last month they announced that musical guest angela would be performing at this year's convention, but there's also been a few voice actors that have been announced in the meantime as well!

So, now that I'm done slacking off, here's the full rundown of guests so far!

Up until now, only four guests have been announced, but it's still quite a lot to get through here. Thankfully the lovely PR folks at ACEN have done the hard work for me, with all the research and all, so lets sit back and enjoy their fine handy work, shall we?

First up on the list? Crispin Freeman.

Crispin has been a voice actor, director and script adapter who's been portraying characters in animation and video games since 1997.

He's worked on a myriad of anime shows including Hellsing, Naruto, Ghost in the Shell, The Big O, Final Fantasy: Advent Children, Wolf's Rain, Witch Hunter Robin, Chobits, Blood+, Last Exile, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Slayers, The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Durarara & Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle" and "Ponyo".

In the world of video games he's played Superman, Iron Man, Dr. Manhattan, Legolas, as well as Will Turner from Pirates of the Caribbean. He plays the Male Wizard in Diablo III, Helios the Sun God in God of War III and both Breakdown and Grimlock in Transformers: War for Cybertron. He's been in high profile Japanese games such as Xenosaga, Final Fantasy, White Knight Chronicles and Metal Gear Solid.

In American animation, he's voiced characters in the Spectacular Spider-man series where he played Electro as well as the show Wolverine and the X-men where he played Multiple Man. He's currently playing Speedy and Red Arrow in the DC animated series Young Justice.

Next up on the list? The one, the only, Helen McCarthy. Seriously, if you haven't had the chance to meet her or see any of her panels, you don't want to miss on this fireball of energy.

She's baaack... No, it's not Tangina; it's Helen McCarthy, and she's back for another dose of Anime Central in 2014! More knowledgeable than any otaku on manga, anime, and Japanese pop culture at large, we at Anime Central instantly fell in love with her, and you will, too! If you didn't catch her at ACen in 2013, make sure you stop by to see her this year!

Helen McCarthy loves conventions; this year she celebrates four decades of congoing since the first British Star Trek Convention in 1974. Her first American convention was Boskone in 1977, where she looked her most ladylike in long gloves and pearls at the Regency tea dance. Her first anime convention was ANIME DAY, the first British anime convention, in 1991, and her first U.S. anime conventions were Anime America and Anime Expo in 1994.

She first encountered Japanese popular culture in Europe in 1981. There was no book on anime in English, so she set out to write one. She's now had ten non-fiction books published, with two more to come in 2014/5, and has lectured and led workshops on three of the seven continents. As her years advance she also makes mini-Long Walks to the Cursed Earth of Britain's small towns, taking the Law of Anime and Manga to places most Americans have never heard of, like Scunthorpe.

Her convention presentations have been described as "a fire hose of information" - at a charity night for survivors of the 2011 Japanese earthquake she presented the entire history of manga in pechakucha format, 20 slides in 6 minutes and 40 seconds. This inspired her forthcoming book for Ilex Press, A Brief History of Manga, which is slightly longer but just as concentrated.

She and Jonathan Clements have just finished updating and revising their epic work The Anime Encyclopedia, reviled and ripped off in equal measure by Internet pundits around the globe. Her novel is still being read and she's pitching short stories, most of which get pitched right back. She also makes embroidery and poetry, and is working on more of both for the 2014 World Science Fiction Convention, which takes place in London in August.

So if you spot someone small, loud and British around the convention, stop her and say hello. You will survive the experience, but you will never look at little old ladies in quite the same way again.

Next we've got Travis Williangham. I can't say that I've ever been to a convention at the same time as them, but there's lots of those people out there in the voice acting world these days.

Travis Willingham has amassed over 200 roles in anime, video games, and original animation projects. He is most widely known in the world of anime as Roy Mustang in the Fullmetal Alchemist series. Other credits include Naruto, Bleach, Tiger & Bunny, D.Gray-Man, Mushishi, Ouran Host Club, and One Piece, as well as Marvel’s X-Men and Iron Man anime series.

You can hear Travis as Thor in Marvel’s hit original series Ultimate Spider-Man, as the Hulk and Human Torch in The Super Hero Squad Show, and in Avengers Assemble series on Disney XD. He also voices King Roland II in Disney Jr’s new series Sofia the First. Other shows include Fishhooks, The Legend of Korra, HULK and the Agents of Smash, and Phineas and Ferb. JUST ANNOUNCED: Travis will be playing Knuckles the Echidna in both the Sonic Boom television series and video game.

Some of his video game titles include InFamous: Second Son, GTA V, KNACK,  The Last of Us, Ratchet & Clank, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Halo 4, Lego: Batman 2, Skylanders: Giants, Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops I & II, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Transformers: Dark of the Moon/War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron, Catherine, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Street Fighter 4.

His film work includes Secondhand Lions, Ray, Friday Night Lights, Prison A-Go-Go,The Guardian, and A Perfect Getaway.

And last, but certainly not least, Laura Bailey!

Laura Bailey got her start playing Kid Trunks in the hit series Dragonball Z. Since then, she’s gone on to provide voices in countless animated series. Some of her most popular anime roles include: Tohru Honda inFruits Basket, Lust in Fullmetal Alchemist, Shin in Shin Chan, Halibel in Bleach, and Anko in Naruto.

Laura’s certainly made her mark in the video game world as well, giving life to Abigail "Fetch" Walker in InFamous: Second Son, Serah Farron in Final Fantasy 13, Helena Harper in Resident Evil: 6, Charlotte in KNACK, Mira in Lost Planet 3, Lady Comstock in Bioshock Infinite, Female Boss in Saints Row IV, Kira Carsen in Star Wars: The Old Republic, Rise in Persona 4, Harley Quinn in Lego Batman 2, Jaina Proudmoore in World of Warcraft, the Boss in Saints Row the Third, the title role in Catherine, and over a hundred others!

Her most recent projects have Laura playing Black Widow in Avengers Assemble, a new Marvel cartoon series, Dawnstar in JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time, and Lagoona Blue in the ghoultastic Monster High. Check out www.lizardbee.com for her full list of credits!

And there ya have it, all of the guests that have been announced for this year's Anime Central. For more information about the convention, head on over to their official website for pre-registration, dates, directions and tons more about the con itself.

We're not sure if we're going to be able to make it out for the convention this year, but we're holding out hope that things do work out for us to be able to. Stay tuned for more news from the con and hopefully a whole lot more in the next couple of months!

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