Kawaii-Kon 2014

This year was a little more special than the previous events, as Kawaii-Kon celebrated their 10 year anniversary. They also stepped up their game, to now occupy all three floors of the convention center. Kawaii-Kon 2014 was held from April 4 - 6. The following article covers what events I have seen.

Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony follows the same pattern as before, first an opening scene that uses a scene from a popular show, this year is Avatar: The Last Airbender, and dubbing over that to include a funny, witty dialogue. Then, they show a music video with a mash of different anime clips, and fans screaming in support of their favorite shows. After the video presentation, we are welcomed by different emcees who introduced all of the special guests, then close with a performance. This year's special guests were:

Ayumi Fujimura Tetsuya Kakihara Horonobu Kageyama Yoko Ishida Masako Nozawa Misako Aoki Michael Sinterniklaas Stephanie Sheh Vic Mignogna

Janet Varney Jim Cummings Quinton Flynn Richard Horvitz Leah Rose Nicki Rapp Lisle Wilkerson EMKE

The crowd was also surprised by a greeting from Vocaloid singer, Hatsune Miku, who then proceeded with an impromptu performance.

I highly encourage anyone to look up the opening video on YouTube, there are a good amount of contributors.

Special Guest Panels

Seiyu (Japanese voice actors), were the main focus in this year's guest Q&A panels. Ayumi Fujimura and Tetsuya Kakihara, had their own individual Q&A panel, so fans can get to know them better. Special guest, Lisle Wilkerson did a great job as a Japanese translator. They were also joined by Stephanie Sheh and Michael Sinterniklass to promote Gundam Unicorn's release of episode 7 in America, where the secret of Laplace's Box will finally be revealed. Stephanie and Fujimura-san are the voice of Audrey Burne, while Kakihara-san and Michael provide the voice for Angelo Sauper. The crowd reactions were very positive, and the panel certainly had a fun time interacting with everyone.

Misako Nozawa was also on hand for her own panel. She is mostly known for being the voice of Son Goku in the Dragon Ball franchise as well as Son Gohan, Bardock, Son Goten, Vegetto, and Gotenks. Her secret to voice acting is to immediately look at the drawing of a character she's portraying then naturally develop a tone that will perfectly match the character's physical and psychological presence. Misako Nozawa was very kind and positive-minded. While closing her Q&A panel, she taught everyone how to do the Kamehameha.

Unfortunately, there was a lack of Q&A panels for the other American voice actors. Vic Mignongna did have his own Star Trek screening and "Behind the Mic" segment in a separate room, but that's all. I would of loved to see Richard Horvitz and Jim Cummings have their own hour block to talk about their career, or do something special besides signing autographs.

Concerts

Kawaii-Kon scheduled one concert for three days, under different show times. Vocaloids headlined Friday and EMKE performed on Sunday.


The concert on Saturday included performances by Horonobu Kageyama and Yoko Ishida. Both singers are reknown for their popular soundtracks tied into past popular Anime Shows. Yoko Ishida sang the song from Sailor Moon, and Horonobu Kageyama closed the concert with his song from Dragon Ball Z. I was one of those people that screamed, "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA!" along with Kageyama-san.

Dealers Room & Artist Alley


The dealers room and artist alley moved downstairs in a large exhibit hall (Kamehameha II), which was well deserved and very convenient. There were lots to see and many figures to buy, if you're a collector. There weren't many Kaiju figures this year, in fact I bought the only Kaiju related merchandise inside, which happened to be an S.H. MonsterArts Kiryu. I was really happy for that discovery. There were a lot of Gundam models, figma, and S.H. Figuarts toys though. S.H. Figuarts Mighty Morphin Power Rangers toys were the most common figures offered by many vendors. A buyer could literally complete one whole set of these figures, after stopping by all of the booths that sold them.

Autograph Session

Added to my collection is a good amount of autographs from the voice actors I wanted to meet:  Masako Nozawa, Ayumi Fujimura, Tetsuya Kakihara, Richard Horvitz, and Jim Cummings. Despite my best efforts to calm myself, I always get star struck. My hands tend to shake and I get choked up. Worse, I can stutter when trying to say something simple. Yet, I still pulled myself together and accomplished my goal. The guests were really kind and an honor to meet in person.

Other Exhibits

All of the original exhibits were there, such as, the Table Top, Video Game, and Video/Theater Rooms. The Table Top room are for kon goers, who are into various card games and Warhammer 40,000. The Video Games room hosted free console games for everyone to play, as well as a Pokemon X & Y Tournament. Kon goers, who were looking to relax as they watch various anime movies, shows, and other videos, checked in Kawaii-Kon's multiple Video rooms. My friends and I personally enjoyed the screening of MST3K Gamera vs. Gaos, this show is just timeless, and personally recommeded to anyone, who hasn't seen it yet.



Cosplayers

Of course, what would Kawaii-Kon be without some cool, creative cosplayers. The most trendy costume to wear was a guard from the show Attack on Titan.



Although there were less Q&A panels and fan-related events to include other voice actors this year, I still had a good time, especially with my friends. Most of this satisfaction comes of the amount of goodies I brought back home, which will be mentioned later. I congratulate Kawaii-Kon for their 10th year anniversary, and thank you for the memories!