Voice actor J. Michael Tatum will be a guest at Otakon 2024. He appears in a number of popular anime titles.
Cast as Rikichi in 2005’s “Samurai 7,” Tatum’s inexplicable luck has held long enough to see his flag hoisted on a slew of dream roles, most notably Kyoya Otori in “Ouran High School Host Club”; suave, demonic Sebastian Michaelis in “Black Butler”; Tomoe from “Kamisama Kiss”; and Okarin Rintarou from “Steins;Gate.”
More recently, Tatum can be heard in the epic “My Hero Academia” as Teyna Iida; Louis in “Fire Emblem: Engage”; Moran in “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor”; and Cid in “Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth.”
Other characters he’s played include: Eneru in “One Piece,” Ryosuke Takahashi in “Initial D,” Kraft Lawrence in “Spice and Wolf,” Zarbon in “Dragon Ball Z Kai,” Scar in “Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood,” Acnologia in “Fairy Tale,” and Erwin Smith in “Attack on Titan.” His videogame credits include Sir Hammerlock from the “Borderlands” franchise, Julius Kresnik from “Tales of Xillia 2,” Mr. Foster from “Killing Floor 2,” Kelvin and Pendles from “Battleborn,” a slew of characters from “SMITE,” August Wallenstein from “Tales of Luminaria,” and many, many more.
Otakon 2024 will be held from August 2 to August 4 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
Voice actor J. Michael Tatum will be a guest atOtakon 2023, according to Otakorp Inc. His notable roles include characters from “My Hero Academia,” “Ouran High School Host Club,” “Black Butler” and “Steins;Gate.”
Nurtured on anime classics from the tender age of “Star Blazers,” this reclusive actor/writer spent more years than he cares to remember in what might charitably be called free-fall before landing, mostly by accident, smack dab on the industry of his dreams.
Cast as Rikichi in 2005’s “Samurai 7,” Tatum’s inexplicable luck has held long enough to see his flag hoisted on a slew of dream roles, most notably Kyoya Otori in “Ouran High School Host Club”; suave, demonic Sebastian Michaelis in “Black Butler”; Tomoe from “Kamisama Kiss”; and Okarin Rintarou from “Steins;Gate.” More recently, Tatum can be heard in the epic “My Hero Academia” as Teyna Iida; Louis in “Fire Emblem: Engage”; and Moran in “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.” Other characters he’s played include: Eneru in “One Piece”; Ryosuke Takahashi in “Initial D”; Kraft Lawrence in “Spice and Wolf”; Zarbon in “Dragon Ball Z Kai”; Scar in “Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood”; Acnologia in “Fairy Tale”; and Erwin Smith in “Attack on Titan.”
His videogame credits include Sir Hammerlock from the “Borderlands” franchise; Julius Kresnik from “Tales of Xillia 2”; Mr. Foster from “Killing Floor 2”; Kelvin and Pendles from “Battleborn”; fifteen playable characters from “SMITE”; and August Wallenstein from “Tales of Luminaria.”
Ever the workaholic, Tatum is currently burning the midnight oil on a number of exciting projects due for release later this year. He also co-hosts “Ghoul Intentions,” a spooky podcast dedicated to creeping you out.
Otakon 2023 will be held from July 28 to July 30 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
Following the November 2021 announcement of upcoming releases from Yen Audio at Anime NYC, Yen Press has announced the narrators for these new audiobook adaptations of beloved light novel series.
Spice and Wolf Vol. 1 will be narrated by J. Michael Tatum. J. Michael Tatum is an actor, writer, ADR director, and adaptive scriptwriter. Nurtured by anime classics, Tatum has lent his voice to several popular anime franchises over the years. After being cast as Rikichi in 2005’s Samurai 7, Tatum was able to attain a slew of dream roles, most notably Kyoya Ootori in Ouran High School Host Club, suave, demonic Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler, France in the Hetalia franchise, Tomoe in Kamisama Kiss, and the equal parts maniacal and vulnerable Rintarou Okabe from Steins;Gate. Recently, he can be heard in the epic My Hero Academia as Tenya Iida. Most relevantly, he also played Kraft Lawrence in the 2009 anime adaptation of Spice and Wolf. The Spice and Wolf Vol. 1 audiobook is scheduled to release on March 15, 2022.
Fans of the iconic light novel series are sure to be thrilled with this casting, especially on the heels of the recent announcement by creator Isuna Hasekura of a new Spice and Wolf anime after nearly thirteen years since the airing of Spice and Wolf Season 2.
So I’m a Spider, So What! Vol. 1 will be narrated by Caitlin Kelly. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Caitlin Kelly got started in voice acting in Tokyo, Japan. She fell in love with narrating audiobooks in New York. She has recorded over 250 titles and won Earphone Awards, SOVAS, and Audie nominations for her work. Kelly loves working in all genres but usually finds herself in fantasy worlds, notably narrating Holly Black’s Folk of the Air series. Caitlin currently lives in Tokyo with her husband and daughter. The So I’m a Spider, So What! Vol.1 audiobook is scheduled to release on April 12, 2022.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai Vol. 1 will be narrated by Andrew Grace. Andrew Grace is a Los Angeles–based, multi-racial, SAG-AFTRA actor. He recently completed work on an upcoming series for Showtime and another for the CW. He has lent his voice to The Summit of the Gods and The Journalist on Netflix, as well as other exciting projects premiering mid-2022. On stage he played the lead role in Cupid and the End of Love,his original stage play, which ran for over six months including at the Hollywood Fringe Festival (2019). Grace can also be seen in numerous commercials for brands such as Apple, Verizon, and Intel. In his free time, Grace enjoys writing stage plays and indie folk records, and shooting abstract photography. Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai Vol. 1 is scheduled to release on June 14, 2022.
Spice and Wolf
Story by Isuna Hasekura
The life of a traveling merchant is a lonely one, a fact with which Kraft Lawrence is well acquainted. Wandering from town to town with just his horse, cart, and whatever wares have come his way, the peddler has pretty well settled into his routine—that is, until the night Lawrence finds a wolf goddess asleep in his cart. Taking the form of a fetching girl with wolf ears and a tail, Holo has wearied of tending to harvests in the countryside and strikes up a bargain with the merchant to lend him the cunning of “Holo the Wisewolf” to increase his profits in exchange for taking her along on his travels. What kind of businessman could turn down such an offer? Lawrence soon learns, though, that having an ancient goddess as a traveling companion can be a bit of a mixed blessing. Will this wolf girl turn out to be too wild to tame?
So I’m a Spider, So What!
Story by Okina Baba and Tsukasa Kiryu
I used to be a normal high school girl but in the blink of an eye, I woke up in a place I’ve never seen before and—and I was reborn as a spider?! How could something that’s nothing more than a tiny spider (that’s me) possibly survive in literally the worst dungeon ever? Are there no rules? There should be some rules! Who the hell is responsible for this? SHOW YOUR FACE!
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
Story by Hajime Kamoshida
Bunny girls do not live in libraries. This is simply common sense. And yet, that’s exactly where Sakuta finds one in the wild. More bewildering is who the bunny girl is: Mai Sakurajima, a girl one year older than Sakuta, famous at their school for her acting career even though she’s currently on break. To top it all off, it seems like no one else in the library can see Mai at all, no matter what she does or…wears. Wanting to find out more about this mystery and maybe get a little closer to this beautiful upperclassman in the process, Sakuta launches an investigation to discover why an unforgettable bunny girl keeps becoming totally invisible.
Prolific voice actor, writer and ADR director J. Michael Tatum will return to Otakon for the third time, appearing at the 2015 convention. Some of his best-known work includes his voice acting on “Ouran High School Host Club,” “Black Butler” and “Steins;Gate.” He will also voice Rei in the upcoming Funimation dub of “Free! Eternal Summer.”
Discovered by Funimation ADR director Christopher Bevins, who cast him as Rikichi in 2005’s
“Samurai 7,” Tatum has since been featured as Kyoya Otori in the hit English language dub of “Ouran High School Host Club”; as suave, demonic Sebastian Michaelis in “Black Butler”; and as the equal parts maniacal/vulnerable Okarin Rintarou from “Steins;Gate.” Other characters he’s inhabited include: Doumeki in “XXXHolic”; Jiro Mochizuki in “Black Blood Brothers”; Isaac Dian in “Baccano!”; Both God Eneru and Dalton in the new dub of “One Piece”; Komui Lee in “D-Gray Man”; Dororo in “Sgt. Frog”; the titular loveable savage of “Heroic Age”; Ryosuke Takahashi in “Initial D”; Lawrence Kraft in “Spice and Wolf”; Zarbon in “Dragon Ball Z Kai”; Scar in “Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood”; and Sir Hammerlock in the videogame juggernaut “Borderlands 2.” In addition, he did vocal work for “Romeo X Juliet,” “Speed Grapher,” “Trinity Blood,” “Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple,” “Black Cat,” “Nabari no Ou,” “Ghost Hunt,” “School Rumble,” “The Tower of Druaga,” “Aquarion,” “Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles,” “Shuffle,” “Shigurui,” “Glass Fleet,”
“Mushishi,” “Soul Eater,” along with feature-length films such as “Vexille,” “Summer Wars,” and “Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker,” among many others.
In late 2007, he branched out into ADR directing and adaptive scriptwriting for Funimatio. His ADR directing credits to date include “Aquarion,” “Jyu-oh-Sei,” “Romeo X Juliet,” “Big Windup,” “Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne” and “Shikabane Hime (Corpse Princess),” while his writing credits include substantial work on “Ouran High School Host Club,” “Heroic Age,” “Initial D,” “Blassreiter,” “Ga Rei: Zero,” “Hero Tales,” “Legend of the Legendary Heroes,” “Fractale,” “Deadman Wonderland,” “Steins;Gate” and “Dragon Ball Z Kai.”
In early 2010 he teamed up with Terri Doty and Stephen Hoff to launch “That Anime Show,” a web-based chat show.
Otakon 2015 will be held July 24-26 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, MD. Otakon 2015 is celebrating fairy tales, folk stories, myths, and legends. Keep your eyes out for content, artwork, and guests with connections to their theme.