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Toycon Convention Hosts Artist Yoshitaka Amano, Actress Reiko Chiba
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Philippine convention Toycon announced during its Toycon Summer Prelude event on Saturday that its main convention will host artist Yoshitaka Amano and actress Reiko Chiba.
The convention will take place at the SMX Convention Center on June 12 to 14.
Amano is most well known for his contributions to Vampire Hunter D and the Final Fantasy series, as well as his collaboration with English graphic novelist Neil Gaiman on Sandman: The Dream Hunters. He has been in the anime industry since he was 15, when he joined the veteran studio Tatsunoko Production, and has contributed to many anime and video game projects.
GIBIATE PROJECT, a global IP development group that includes Amano, developed the Gibiate series. The group announced the anime at Anime Expo 2019. The anime premiered in July 2020. Amano also drew the character designs for the Exception Netflix anime, which debuted in October 2022.
Chiba is perhaps best known for her role as Mei/Ptera Ranger in the Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger tokusatsu show, which was adapted by Saban Entertainment into the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers show. The character of Ptera Ranger was reworked into Kimberly Ann Hart/Pink Ranger. When the show was itself dubbed back into Japanese, Chiba also voiced Kimberly/Pink Ranger in the dub. Chiba also performed the theme song for SNK's Fatal Fury Special anime, played herself in a cameo appearance in the Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture anime, and voiced Nakoruru in the Samurai Shodown: The Motion Picture anime.
