Guests are listed in order of their presentations.

As executive editor of Anime News Network, Lynzee Loveridge has the unique position of knowing what’s tracking with the critics and with viewers in the anime fandom. Her 10 years of experience covering anime news includes interviewing popular creators like Bisco Hatori and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, investigating difficult topics within the industry, and hosting the ANN After Show live podcast on YouTube. Outside of work, she’s just a magical girl living in a Junji Ito world.

Azuki is a new digital manga service offering hundreds of manga chapters soon after they hit stores in Japan, officially licensed and in high quality. The service will launch on June 28, 2021 on Web, iOS, and Android and will offer content for both free and subscription users.

Titles available at launch include worldwide hits like Attack on Titan, Tokyo Revengers, and Fairy Tail, as well as critical darlings like Land of the Lustrous and Chihayafuru.

Fusing together inspirations from club, EDM, and anime culture, Obi-Wan offers a unique performance energy that keeps people moving. Whether it is club, house and trap, or DnB and psytrance, there is something for everyone at Obi-Wan’s Sets.

Helen McCarthy has been researching and writing about Japanese popular culture since 1981. After a decade hearing that there was “no interest in that sort of thing” she founded a magazine, Anime UK, to disprove the claim. Her first book was published just over a year later, and she’s been writing about anime, manga and Japan ever since. Her work has been translated into Chinese, French, Italian and Korean.

Some of her books are A Brief History of Manga, The Art of Osamu Tezuka: The God of Manga, and Leiji Matsumoto: Essays on the Manga and Anime Legend.

Erica holds a Masters Degree in Library Science and a B.A. in Comparative Literature, andis a full-time researcher for a Fortune 100 company. She has lectured at dozens of conventions and presented at film festivals, notably the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. She has participated in an academic lecture series at MIT, University of Illinois, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Harvard University, Kanagawa University, and others.

Erica has written about Yuri for Japanese literary journal Eureka,  Animerica magazine, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund,  Dark Horse, and contributed to Forbes, Slate, Huffington Post, Hooded Utilitarian, and The Mary Sue online. She has written news and event reports, interviews Yuri creators and reviews Yuri anime, manga and related media on her blog Okazu since 2002.

Takimoto is best know for his novel Welcome to the NHK, which was adapted into a manga series in 2004 and an anime in 2006. He recently released a short story sequel to the best-selling series called Rebuild of Welcome to the NHK.

His first novel, Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge was adapted into a manga series and later a live-action film in 2008.

Currently he is working on a manga called ISEKAI NANPA ~ Hitting on Elves, Nekomimi Girls, and Loli Dragons as an Unemployed Hikikomori ~