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Helen McCarthy was first introduced to anime and manga in 1981. With no reference books in the English language on Japanese animation, she started to research an introductory guide using French, Italian, Spanish, and Asian sources. Since there was no awareness of Japanese pop culture in Britain, it took her over a decade to find a publisher for Anime! A Beginners Guide To Japanese Animation.

In 1991, still seeking a publisher, Helen co-founded the UK’s first professional anime magazine, Anime UK. The magazine won an international reputation – it was even on sale in Japan – and helped to create the market for her first book. She later edited Manga Mania magazine and has written over 100 articles for European, American, Japanese, and online publications, from Super Play magazine and Kyoto Journal to the Daily Telegraph Online. She’s delighted that other writers, designers, and artists started their professional careers on her magazines.

Since then, Helen has written a dozen more books, including works on anime and manga superstars Hayao Miyazaki, Osamu Tezuka, and Leiji Matsumoto. She is co-author of The Anime Encyclopedia, considered the pre-eminent research guide to the medium. She has also contributed to numerous academic works, and written more playful material – a manga cross-stitch guide, two how-to books on drawing, and the shortest, most picture-packed, and most colorful history of manga on the market. Her work has been published in eight languages including Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, and has won several international awards. 

After more than a decade of researching the history of cosplay from its earliest times to its explosion as a Japanese-inspired global contemporary art, Helen’s newest research interest is the history of British anime and manga fanzines. She loves their punk energy and diversity. 

She’s also been talking to audiences all over the UK about the art history of Studio Ghibli. What were the influences, were the influences, artistic, literary, industrial, political, and personal, out of which the studio’s unique style arose? Ohayocon will be the first US convention to experience this presentation.

Before the pandemic, Helen curated and presented a number of film seasons, and spoke at venues all over the world, ranging from public libraries and universities to exhibitions including the British Museum’s 2009/10 and 2015 manga exhibits and their 2019 blockbuster exhibition Manga! She loves introducing anime and manga to audiences of all ages, and during the pandemic, she presented to audiences online. She intends to continue working virtually, because it enables those who can’t be at an event to share in the excitement of anime and manga, but is delighted to be back to presenting in person.

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

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, YHWACH the Quincy King in BLEACH: The Thousand-Year Blood War!, 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.

RICHARD has voice-directed many games including:
ARKHAM ORIGINS, DEAD ISLAND: RIPTIDE, BLUE DRAGON, SHADOW HEARTS II, STAR OCEAN 2, 3, ASTELLIA, GIGANTIC X, ENEMY TERRITORY QUAKE WARS, UNREAL TOURNAMENT 3, JACKASS THE GAME, SMACKDOWN VS. RAW, and DEAD HEAD FRED

voice directed many shows including:
GHOST IN THE SHELL 2, ROBOTECH: SHADOW CHRONICLES, ALMOST HEROES, JUNGLE SHUFFLE, THE REEF, MONCHICHI, GRAND MASTER, NOEIN, DIGIMON, LUPIN THE III, GLITCH, FIGHTING SPIRIT, PATLABOR 3, ZENTRIX, AZUMI I & II, FEARLESS, BETTY BLUE, IRON MONKEY, VR TROOPERS, POWER RANGERS, UGLY BETTY WEBISODES, and OLD BOY to name a few.

He has voice acted in several big films including DEADPOOL 1 & 2, WARCRAFT, PLANET OF THE APES, X-MEN: FIRST CLASS,
CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER and RESIDENT EVIL 3 to name just a few.

On Camera, Richard has appeared in many shows, including: WAREHOUSE 13, MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN, COLUMBO, DIAGNOSIS MURDER, MATLOCK, CHEERS, DAYS OF OUR LIVES, GENERAL HOSPITAL, and a lead in the film ALTERED SPIRITS.
richardepcar.com
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Samantha Inoue Harte is a US Representative and Producer for Japanese anime studio GONZO K.K., which is best known for their work on Hellsing, Afro Samurai, Basilisk, Samurai7, Witchblade, Last Exile, and 80 other titles. GONZO also provides animation production support on shows including: Invincible, Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, One Piece, and One Punch Man and support to feature films including: Your Name, Redline, Evangelion 2.0, Batman: Gotham Knight, and to Studio Ghibli on films such as: Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo on the Cliff By the Sea, Tales from Earthsea, The Secret World of Arrietty and From Up On Poppy Hill. As a creator and producer, Samantha oversees the production of new anime, her work often includes: character design, budgeting, production scheduling, story development, scriptwriting, pitch deck development, animation production oversight, etc. She started her film career as a director’s assistant in 1997 at an animation studio in Texas where she did: cleanup, rough, keyframe, storyboards, and layouts on the King of the Hill pitch animation, Fox Animation’s Anastasia and Titan AE, for Dreamworks on projects including Prince Of Egypt, Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron, Disney’s Lilo & Stitch 2, Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights, and on Clerks Concurrent to being an animator, Samantha works as an actress and casting director in over 40 various Japanese anime dubbed into English and acted in various anime including: Gatchaman, Final Fantasy Unlimited, Trinity Blood, Negina, FairyTail, and Sakura Wars. She also became well known for her videogame voice work in games such as Wasteland 3, World of Warcraft, Pirate101, DC Comics’ DC Universe Online. Acting in videogames and anime, as well as being an animator, lead Samantha to be a “regular” for Mike Judges and for Robert Rodriguez in many of Troublemaker Studios features as both an actress and VFX artist. Her work can be seen in Alita Battle Angel, Predators, Sin City, Grindhouse: Planet Terror, Grind House: Death Proof, Idiocracy, Office Space, and Spy Kids Armageddon. Samantha’s reputation in the anime industry has lead companies such as Titmouse (on The Boys: Diabolical), Nickelodeon, and Disney to have Samantha act as consultant and writer on their Japanese anime productions

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A bisexually lit version of the classic OHAYOCON logo with vertical CRTV lines.

 

Ohayocon was founded in 2001 and has gone on to become the largest and most beloved Japanese culture and anime convention in the state of Ohio. What is unique and wholly special about Ohayocon is its makeup of passionate fans who come together to create not only a magical weekend with memories that are cherished for a lifetime but a community that is a welcoming safe space for all. Even just saying the name “Ohayocon” to anyone who has ever attended, elicits immediate mental images of stunning costumes, engaging panels, competitive gaming tournaments, vibrant screenings, hallways overflowing with smiles and laughter, and chosen family.

Ohayocon returned in person to Columbus, Ohio in 2022 and while it was a successful event in many regards, it was not without a myriad of challenges. As fandom saw conventions throughout North America cease operations, Ohayocon president Melissa Phelps sought a way to ensure that the beloved annual gathering could grow and thrive for decades to come even after she passed the baton. To do so, Ohayocon has made the transition from being a for-profit single weekend convention to a year-round non-profit entity known as the Cultural Exchange Society, Inc (CESI). Very little will change for the attendees of Ohayocon, but for the organization and convention as a whole the changes will be overwhelmingly positive! It will allow for the organization to receive grants to strengthen offerings, have sponsors and donors to support the mission, and to engage our community to keep that Ohayocon feeling going all year long.

Since the beginning, the backbone of Ohayocon has always been our volunteers, an ever-evolving group of experts and enthusiasts who come together to provide an exceptional experience for all of Ohayocon. We simply could not and would not be Ohayocon without them. Yet for too long, Ohayocon has overworked and underappreciated some of our most loyal volunteers simply due to the sheer volume of tasks and responsibilities. With the shift to a nonprofit status, CESI is elated that we will be able to bring on full time and seasonal staff that are paid and valued, independent contractors, provide stipends to key Senior Leadership Team volunteers, in addition to offering all of our phenomenal volunteers the perks and accommodations that they know and love to ensure that all of their time, talent, and treasure is valued.

In this exciting transition, CESI has planned to retire three unpaid positions and bring on an Executive Director, Convention Director, Attendee Experience Manager, and Volunteer Coordinator to ensure the convention’s continued success and CESI’s growth to a year-round institution. Any and all Ohayocon volunteers are encouraged to apply for these positions when they are posted to our website later this month. To aid in the transition and allow better board oversight, Melissa Phelps will be stepping down from the board and stepping into CESI’s first ever Executive Director role, allowing her to better pass the baton to the next generation of Ohayocon staff. While this position will provide direct support to CESI’s premiere program Ohayocon, the Executive Director will be primarily tasked with the year-round success of CESI beyond the annual convention.

Contrary to misinformation swirling online, NO volunteers or members of the Senior Leadership Team have been fired from Ohayocon and only three positions have been dissolved in the organizational chart shift. All past volunteers are invited to return for 2024, as Ohayocon would simply cease to exist without them. While CESI would love its Ohayocon volunteers to have the ability to unionize, National and Ohio State Labor Laws prevent unpaid volunteers of any kind from forming a union. As such, no Ohayocon union has ever or could ever exist, and no “union busting” has or even could take place. CESI encourages its volunteers to communicate to them all of their needs, wants, hopes, dreams, fears, and aspirations through individual correspondance or collective bargaining. Additional rumors of a “hostile takeover” from Phelps are not only untrue, but impossible as Phelps was and has been in charge of the event and cannot take it over from herself. As planned, Phelps has stepped down from the CESI Board of Directors to allow for greater oversight and organizational stewardship. To fill the board seat vacated by Phelps, CESI will be holding an election wherein volunteers will be able to elect representation to join the professionals on the Board of Directors to allow greater integration and transparency. CESI encourages all interested volunteers to stay tuned to our website for more details this month.

While those fabrications are simply not based in any reality, there is a rumor online that contains some truths, and that is regarding the Ohayocon logo. A well meaning volunteer, concerned with the similarities with Ohayocon’s longtime cross artwork and its similarities to that of the Red Cross, submitted our logo to them for review. The Red Cross determined that the logo was in fact too close to their trademarked Red Cross Emblem. As such, an agreement was made with the Red Cross in April of 2023 to shift Ohayocon’s logo’s color to shade of blue to avoid any further issues. Since then, a cyberpunk theme was proposed for Ohayocon 2024, and our longtime artists and designers at Studio Capsule set out to craft new annual art and a refreshed logo. A different well meaning volunteer crafted their own logo in the meantime and despite being instructed not to be the CESI Board of Directors, asked for approval from their peers and began posting it online. Unfortunately their wonderful design bares too close a resemblance to the logo of Sakura Color Products and its use would open CESI up to a potential second logo lawsuit in less than a year. Out of respect for Sakura of America and their 100+ year history, we must kindly ask that the interim sakura blossom logo be not used moving forward.

Ohayocon 2024 will take place January 19-21, 2024 at the Hyatt Regency Columbus & Greater Columbus Convention Center. This will be the second Ohayocon presented by parent organization CESI and our first with paid and valued staff in addition to our phenomenal volunteers who will continue to receive the perks and accommodations that they know and love and then some to ensure that all of their time, talent, and treasure is valued. We invite back tens of thousands of attendees and hundreds of volunteers to continue to form this remarkable convention and join us in not only spreading the joy of japanese culture and anime to Columbus, Ohio and beyond, but being a part of a decades old community of artists and enthusiasts, gamers and geeks, fans and funseekers, masqueraders and music lovers, and above all else passionate persons. Ohayocon is for everyone and CESI will continue to work with all of our dedicated volunteers to ensure that it is around for decades to come.

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Hello everyone and welcome to September! We’re excited to give you all a number of updates!

We are proud to announce our official new logo!

Did you know there are Cherry Blossoms that bloom in the wintertime? This modern design symbolizes traditional Japanese culture and the spirit of rebirth — just like Ohayocon, your signifier of a whole new year of convention fun! Join us as we embrace this exciting change and look forward to 2024 and beyond!

Ohayocon 24 Guest Announcements!

Check out our newly announced fan guests, voice actors and industry speakers who will be attending Ohayocon 24!

Indie Gaming Showcase Applications are Open!

If you’re interested in applying, please visit our Indie Gaming Showcase Exhibitor page for more information.

Upcoming Deadlines:

Panel applications close 10/31/23 — apply here

New Volunteer Applications close 12/31/23 — apply here

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We’re less than half a year from Ohayocon 24 and we are SO excited! Check out our newest updates about Ohayocon 24 below:

  • Our Hyatt Regency Hotel Block is now officially open! Use group code G-OC24 to reserve your spot, or head to this link to complete your booking.
  • Pre-Registration is still live! Our best pre-reg pricing of the year ends in just three hours! Tomorrow’s pricing will increase to $65 for the full weekend and remain at that price until the end of August. Register Here.
  • Panel applications are still open! Potential panelists have until October 31st to submit their panels for Ohayocon 24. Submit a panel here.

Be on the lookout for more updates from us soon!

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We at Ohayocon are pleased to provide important updates to our mask and vaccination policies for our upcoming event. As the COVID-19 situation evolves and vaccination rates increase, Ohayocon has decided to remove both the mask mandate and vaccination requirement for all attendees. We strongly encourage all participants who are able to get vaccinated to prioritize the safety and well-being of our community.

With the removal of the mask mandate, attendees will have the freedom to choose whether to wear masks or not. While masks will not be obligatory, we wholeheartedly recommend continued usage as a responsible precaution. While we’re no longer requiring masks or vaccinations, we urge our attendees to make informed decisions and consider the well-being of others during the convention.

Furthermore, Ohayocon remains committed to fostering a respectful and inclusive environment for everyone. Harassing fellow convention attendees regarding their vaccination status or mask choices will be considered a violation of our harassment policy, leading to appropriate consequences.

As always, Ohayocon will implement enhanced cleaning and sanitation measures to maintain a safe and enjoyable environment for all participants.

For the latest event updates and guidelines, please visit our website and follow our social media channels.

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Mark your calendars and don your high-tech shades, because we’re thrilled to announce that Ohayocon 24 will be held from January 19th to 21st! Our grand adventure begins with a mind-blowing kickoff party on January 18th exclusively for our pre-registered attendees. Get ready to dive headfirst into a world of thrilling technology, glitchy holograms, and rebellious fashion choices, because the theme for Ohayocon 24 is none other than CYBERPUNK!

But wait, there’s more! We’ve just cracked open the vaults, and Panel Applications and Vendor Applications are now LIVE! If you’ve got knowledge to share or goods to peddle that belong in the world of tomorrow, we want to hear from you.

Vendors please apply for our 2024 Dealer’s Room here.

Panelists please apply here.

Stay plugged into our website and social channels for more updates on registration, hotel blocks, guest announcements, and mind-boggling surprises coming soon!

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Ohayocon is seeking a Director of Volunteer Services to join its growing team. The Director of Volunteer Services will be responsible for developing and implementing strategies to recruit, train, manage and retain volunteers to support the Ohayocon event. This is a full-time position.

A full description of the role is available here.

Interested applicants: please email ConventionDirector@Ohayocon.org with subject, “Volunteer Services Director Application.” Include information about your convention experience, work experience, and relevant education. A formal résumé would be welcome.

Applications close Saturday April 22nd, 2023.