After spending time at the Apple Kissa Stage, all three of us went to the Voice Acting 201 panel. New York Anime Fest's schedule had a voice acting related workshop held each day. Because Julia, Jared, and I were active in online voice acting, we thought this might be educational.

The panel was hosted by Rachel Lillis (Jesse in Pokemon) and Veronica Taylor (Ash in Pokemon), and Jamie McGonnigal (Barry in Pokemon). Misako Rocks, a local artist, also provided her artistic skills to the panel. At first, I was quite confused as to why we needed an artist in the panel. The panelists explained that the focus of today's lesson was how to create original characters because at times, at an audition, you have to come up with character voices on the spot. Misako drew her original characters. This workshop started out with vocal warm ups and a few demonstrations by the popular voice actors.

Later on in the panel, Tom Wayland (ADR director for Pokemon) showed up to answer questions and talk about creating characters. I thought this panel was presented very well. They really kept it at a 201 level. I have attended a few voice acting panels in the past, but those were on the basics and breaking in. Voice Acting 201 was very interactive and allowed me to develop creating characters at will.

Though it was really tough to get a hold of her at the end of the panel, we took a shot with Veronica Taylor, the Ash we know and love from childhood.

We also met a few aspiring voice actors at the panel - Crystal and Joshua. It was really interesting meeting them because they knew about the FLAVA days. For those of you who do not know, FLAVA was an old voice acting forum from the early 2000s that I used to frequent before moving to the Bay Area.

Julia was kind enough to take photos of our Phantom Quest Corps cosplay. The setting of Jacob Javits seemed cosmopolitan enough for this ghost busting anime set in urban Tokyo. We relied on Julia's keen eye for getting the right angles and right framing. Thanks a bunch, Julia!

Of course, cosplay photographers are allowed to have fun on the set. In between shots, Julia took some MySpace style photos of herself.

Everyone was getting ready for the big cosplay show later that night - Yume Cosplay Cup. The grand prize would be an all expense paid trip to Japan and $1,000 to the winning cosplay duo. Much like the Anime Music Video contest, the show would run into the late evening and therfore, missing our shuttle. Again, the last shuttle out is at 8:00PM. Julia could not stay too long either because she wanted to get home before dark.

We parted ways with the new friends we met. It was nice to spend a day with one of our California friends who is now a New Yorker. It was also nice to talk to fellow aspiring voice actors and getting a feel of what the market is like in the Big Apple.

Jared and I boarded our shuttle at around 5:30PM. We had tickets to the new West Side Story playing at The Palace theater. I changed out of Ayaka Kisaragi. Besides, I heard that we were in for a chance of rain later that evening. So, I bundled up into something warm. On our way to the 42nd Street station, we ran into a few cosplayers at Penn Station. Looks like a few of the kids were starting to head home before 8:00PM.

West Side Story was amazing. Jared came in with low expecations, not knowing what to make of integrating Spanish into the songs by the Sharks side, but the inclusion made the story much more believeable and realistic. The choreography was very top notch as well. Though we had understudies for Maria and Anita, they were absolutely amazing. Though I have seen the movie many times before (and done costuming for San Francisco State's production and sang Maria's part in a Sonoma State Broadway revue), this production really brought tears in my eyes. By the time we got out of the show, it was raining.

We were also hungry for dinner. Thankfully, the restaurants in Times Square are still open after 11:00PM. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe museum. Then we went to Applebees for some dinner. For whatever reason, the radio at Applebees must be synced to our minds because song after song represented our feelings towards each other very nicely.

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