Madman Anime Festival 2016 is fast approaching, with September 3 and 4 locked in as the Melbourne dates. There have been several new updates released today that have me so keen on this year’s lineup, so here’s a bit of a summary of the highlights announced:
One Punch Man
ONE PUNCH MAN was the huge breakthrough hit of 2015 and MAF is going to be bringing it to us in 2016! Attending will be director Shingo Natsume and voice actor Makoto Furukawa (Saitama), visiting Australia for the first time to meet fans. With dedicated panels, events from the series, this is something you cannot miss out on! Natsume has become one of the current most popular figures in the anime world and has been involved in some pretty amazing titles, such as Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos and Space Dandy.
Sword Art Online
Sword Art Online rose to popularity as a standout in the field of Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) animes. Tomohiko Ito, the director of this phenominal series is coming to Madman Anime Festival!! Ito assisted with the creation of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, and directed one of my favorite series, Erased. Amongst other things, he will be speaking about his experience working on the upcoming Sword Art Online movie, Ordinal Scale, due to be released in 2017.
Tokyo Ghoul
For the first time ever in Australia Madman Anime Festival will showcase the Tokyo Ghoul Art Exhibition! Feast your eyes on original storyboards, sketches, character settings and more of this gory thriller straight from the production studio to you!
Special Guest Stars: Christina Vee and Tiffany Grant
Cristina Vee is a voice actress from Los Angeles, CA. Since getting her first large anime roles in 2007, Cristina has voiced over 100 characters in both animation and video games. Anime fans know her Mio Akiyama in K-ON!, Homura Akemi in Madoka Magica, Morgiana in Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Cubone (and others) in Pokemon Origins and Riruka Dokugamine in Bleach. She was recently announced as the new voice of Sailor Mars in her favorite show, Sailor Moon, and Hawk from Seven Deadly Sins is also one of Cristina’s voices.
Tiffany Grant is also going to be attending Madman Anime Festival. Best known as Asuka from Evangelion, Tiffany has been working in anime since 1994. She has 1600+ voice credits including Azumanga Daioh, Full Metal Alchemist, Maburaho, Tears to Tiara, The Wallflower and Fairy Tale (The Movie). Ms. Grant wrote English dubbing scripts for TV series such as Infinite Stratos, AH! My Goddess 2 and Den-Noh Coil.
Madman National Cosplay Championship
Madman Anime Festival will also host the Victorian preliminary round of the Madman National Cosplay Championship. Now in its 8th year, the Madman National Cosplay Championship is Australia’s premiere cosplay contest. The winner of the Victorian preliminary round will go on to the final event at Supanova Expo Brisbane in November.
For more info on the Festival, head on over to the official hub which can be found here. Viv and I are already making plans for this one, so we hope to see you all there!!
About the Author
Jakob Quilligan
Jake hails from Bendigo where his console of choice is the PS4, closely followed by the Nintendo 3DS. Anime and volunteering tend to keep him occupied, though his staffy/ rotty/ husky cross named Iris keeps him busy first and foremost.
