Claire Schultz | Staff Writer
Last weekend, the “Anime Crossroads” convention was held at the Wyndham Indianapolis East Hotel. There were panels, a dealers room, shopping opportunities, and guests such as J. Michael Tatum (Sebastian Michaelis from Black Butler, Teyna Iida from My Hero Academia), Lauren Landa (Nora from Noragami, Annie Leonhardt from Attack on Titan) and Brandon McInnis (Sohnosuke Izayoi from Danganropa, Samon Gokuu from Nanbaka).
Attendees, including several CG students, were able to play games, listen to guest speakers and talk about pop culture with other fans. There were a variety of different panels for fans to attend such as “Canines in Pop Culture”, “Name that Anime Tune” and “RWBY: BINGO”.
“Most of the panels I went to involved voice actors that I am familiar with compared to other panels that are run by random inexperienced people,” junior Leslie Luong said.
Though some panels were run by con attendees, several are run by special guests, like J. Michael Tatum, an anime voice actor, and “Lauren’s Disney Lip Sync with Guests” which featured a variety of different famous people in the Anime community.
The convention featured a shopping center that sold items that couldn’t be bought anywhere else, so buying merchandise and supporting local artists was a must for many of the attendees.
“At conventions, I love going through Artist’s Alley. This is where most of the artists sell prints, stickers, buttons and other creations, so I always want to go through that area to see what’s there,” senior Michelle Poe said.
Meeting voice actors is also a huge attraction at conventions, some lines to meet them being hours long.
“Going in, there wasn’t anyone in particular that I wanted to meet. I always enjoy meeting voice actors, but no one, in particular, had captured my attention for Anime Crossroads,” Poe said. “When I got there, however, I found out that Lauren Landa voiced Robin in ‘Fire Emblem Awakening’, and then I was very excited to meet her.”
Cosplay was also a large part of the convention. Cosplay is dressing up as a character from a movie, video game or TV show. Even if you don’t cosplay, as it is expensive and requires more preparation before a convention, you can always get your picture taken with cosplayers.
Although Anime Crossroads already happened, Indianapolis is hosting a variety of different pop culture conventions coming up this summer. IndyPopCon is happening June 8-10, and Indiana Comic Con is happening Aug. 30 to Sept. 1.
