Anime Boston 2026 Announces Monica Rial, Blake Shephard, and Members of Hololive EN and ID as Guests of Honor

Guests of Honor set to Appear at the Northeast's Largest Anime Convention

BOSTON — Anime Boston, the largest anime convention in New England, announced that Monica Rial, Blake Shepard, and members of VTuber Groups Hololive EN and Hololive ID will be appearing at Anime Boston at the Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Mass, on April 3rd through 5th, 2026.

Monica Rial has been working in the anime industry for almost 30 years and she is currently listed as the most prolific anime voice actor in the US. She has lent her voice to over 600 anime, including Kayano in Assassination Classroom; Yuu Yutani in Bad Girl; Mey Rin in Black Butler; Mereoleona, Nero, and Secré in Black Clover; Niko in Call of the Night; Sakura in Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card, and many more.

Blake Shepard is a voice actor with over a decade's worth of industry experience. Among many shows and commercials, he can be heard in Knights of the Zodiac, Saint Seiya, Food Wars!, DARLING in the FRANXX, ReLIFE, and more. Blake has also provided The Anime Network with original animation, along with promos and bumpers for the network. His company, Dynosaur Productions, focuses on original content and new technologies. His new project, Robot Girl Chronicles, is currently in production.

Despite her looks, Ninomae Ina'nis is actually a priestess of the Ancient Ones. One day, she picked up a strange book and then started to gain the power of controlling tentacles. To her, tentacles are just a part of her ordinary life; it has never been a big deal for her. However, her girly mind does want to get them dressed up and stay pretty. After gaining power, she started hearing Ancient Whispers and Revelations. Hence, she began her VTuber activities to deliver random sanity checks on humanity, as an ordinary girl.

IRyS is a Nephilim who was once the embodiment of hope back in "The Paradise". While she has left to set off on an adventure, she continues to deliver hope through her lyrics and songs, with determination in her voice.She also bears the precarious and unstable dual nature of a half-demon and half-angel; this phenomenon can be observed on rare occasions, in the form of the most unpredictably surprising comments from IRyS herself. Bewildering those around her is but another unexpected charm of her duality.

Vestia Zeta is the mysterious 7th recruit of The Secret Archive Unit that has a full license to collect virtual data. Despite her being a promising rookie, who is also known as "Codename V.7", she turns clumsy when things are not going exactly according to the manual. It was initially a lonely mission to infiltrate the virtual world, but now she had found comfort here. Will this mission end up leading her to a new destiny instead...?

Formed from the crystallization of all forms of human emotion, Koseki Bijou is "The Jewel of Emotions." Over years and years, emotions of beauty and filth alike have woven into her under immense pressure, resulting in an unmatched brilliance. Her ancient, mystic brilliance caused strife between the masses of the greedy, who fought over ownership of her. This led to her being imprisoned in secrecy, far from the reach of humans. It seems as though when she encounters people, and particularly their good emotions, her radiance shines even brighter.

With a deep love of song, Nerissa Ravencroft is "The Demon of Sound." Her powerful love turned into a dark power that inhabited her singing, giving her music the potential to drive the entire world mad. The gods, fearful of her beautiful voice, decided to seal her away for eternity, but this did not seal away her desire to sing for others. While she was sealed away, she came across Japanese otaku culture, and is currently fascinated by idol songs and penlights. Maybe her life imprisonment wasn't all that bad...

About Anime Boston: Anime Boston is an annual three-day Japanese animation convention held in Boston, Mass. Anime Boston 2026 is scheduled for Friday, April 3rd through Sunday, April 5th at the Hynes Convention Center and Sheraton Boston Hotel. More information about Anime Boston can be found at http://www.animeboston.com.

About New England Anime Society, Inc.: The New England Anime Society was founded in 2001. Based in Massachusetts, The New England Anime Society, Inc. is parent organization of Anime Boston and is dedicated to furthering public education and understanding of the Japanese language and culture through visual and written media. More information about The New England Anime Society is available at http://www.neanime.org.