Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about my interviews! Here’s my brief talk with seiyuu Rie Tanaka (Chobits‘ Chii, Rozen Maiden’s Suigintou)– I wasn’t able to take the full time I was originally allotted but I still got a lot of good questions in. Enjoy!

Gia Manry: You’ve worked with a lot of seiyuu over the years, some of them muany times…are there any that you’re particularly close to or particularly enjoy working with?

Rie Tanaka: There are just so many friends among voice actors…lately Sakura Nogawa [GM note: Azumanga Daioh's Kaorin, Rozen Maiden's Hina-Ichigo], Yui Horie [GM note: Love Hina's Naru Narusegawa, Fruits Basket's Tohru Honda, Vampire Knight's Yuuki Cross].
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I’ve been so remiss that I forgot to do this for Anime Weekend Atlanta! But here’s the list of people I’ll be seeing and watching for New York Anime Fest this weekend:

INTERVIEWS:
- Rie Tanaka
- Hideyuki Kikuchi/Yoshitaka Amano/Kevin Leahy

Please! Give me questions for these! I want to know what YOU want to know. Here’s my interview with Kikuchi-sensei and mangaka Saiko Takaki, who is creating the manga adaptation of Vampire Hunter D– feel free to ask me to follow up on those or at least not retread them, yes? ;)

Companies:
- FUNimation (who will be announcing the Darker than Black cast)
- Bandai Entertainment (whose panel I will miss because I’ll be in the Anime Journalism Panel, but don’t worry, I’ll get that news ASAP afterwards)
- Vertical
- Media Blasters/Kitty Media
- Del Rey Manga
- Yen Press

Okay, so, let’s hear it guys: what questions do you have?

Sorry about the taller-than-usual image, but it just didn’t feel right to cut out the guy who’s probably the main character.

According to 4gamer, a new MMORPG is on its way to the small screens of Japan: Arad Senki (roughly “Record of the Arad War”), more commonly known as Dungeon & Fighter– its original name in Korean. It’s a beat-’em-up action MMORPG, apparently, and doesn’t appear to be too heavy on the plot, so expect the story to come largely from the production company, which is…Gonzo! (Maybe game developer Neople was impressed by Tower of Druaga?)

Anyway, the aforementioned story will take place on the continent of Arad, which has had a curse rain down on them for some time. The main character, Baron, suffers from the curse as well: his right arm is that of a demon. One day he stumbles upon a possessed sword named Roxy (Rokushii), and together they journey to try and end the curse– joined by a colorful cast of characters they meet on the way.

Here’s the cast (names standardly romanized since I have nothing official to go on, though I could make guesses)…

Baron - Takashi Kondou (Black Cat, Train Heartnet)
Ryunmei - Sakura Nogawa (Azumanga Daioh, Kaorin; Rozen Maiden, Hinaichigo)
Kabenshisu - Kenichi Suzumura (Gintama, Okita Sougo; Ichigo 100%, Junpei)
Ikushia - Ayumi Tsuji (Red Garden, Rose Sheedy; Sky Girls, Elise von Dietrich)
Jeda - Takaya Kuroda (Wolf’s Rain, Darcia)
Irubeku - Ryoutarou Okiayu (Bleach, Byakuya)
Hiria - Rie Tanaka (AzuDai, Yomi, and an upcoming NYAF guest!)
Harusen - Mitsuo Iwata (Initial D, Itsuki Takeuchi)
Rokushii - Akeno Watanabe (Code Geass, Viletta; Negima!?, Chachamaru)

It will be directed by Takahiro Ikezoe (who has directed episodes of Red Garden and Xam’d), with series composition by Kazuki Yamanobe (Onegai My Melody) and character design by Tomokatsu Nagasaku (animation director for Ookiku Furikabutte).

Sounds fun, no?

I know a number of you are excited for Rie Tanaka attending New York Anime Fest, and I just got a heads-up from the con: they’re going to have an early sit-down with Tanaka next week, during which time Peter Tatara will ask ten questions posited by fans on this post on the NYAF blog. Just leave your question in a comment and Tatara will sift through them and pick the questions to be asked.

Feel free to duplicate your questions here if you want; if they don’t get asked I’ll keep them handy for if I get a chance to sit down with her at the con myself. (But don’t forget to post them to this post first so Peter gets them!)

My questions all involve why she is so hot and also amazingly talented, and where she gets her cosplay outfits.

I wouldn’t exactly call myself someone who follows a lot of the seiyuu information, but there are a certain handful of them whose voices I’ve come to know and love– and one of those is Rie Tanaka, who rook up residence in my heart by playing the sarcastic, glasses-wielding, weight-obsessed Yomi in Azumanga Daioh, who is going to be a guest of honor at NYAF!

But god knows she’s been in something like every anime ever produced since then: Chii in Chobits, Lacus Clyne in Gundam SEED, Maria in Hayate the Combat Butler, Suigintou in Rozen Maiden, and the list goes on and on…this season she’s playing Minna-Dietlinde Wicke in Strike Witches.

And she’s not just a seiyuu; she’s an amazing singer and she has even worked sound production for a few series, such as Nodame Cantabile and the upcoming sci-fi drama Tytania. She’s written columns for Newtype and a few seiyuu magazines, and has also hosted several TV and radio programs.

…Excited? Me? What ever makes you think that? ♥