Inside Bold Matsuri 2023: A Celebration of Anime, Cosplay, and Community

Get ready for an unforgettable journey into the heart of Bold Matsuri 2023, a festival in Jacksonville Florida that celebrates the vibrant world of anime and cosplay. We're excited to give you an insider's look at this exciting event, packed with engaging conversations with the who's who of the industry, from vendors and cosplayers to revered voice actors. We'll pull back the curtain on anime art creation with several talented artists, prepare to get starstruck as we stroll amongst the glittering cosplaying community, and our conversations with voice actors will give you a peek into the inner workings of their fascinating craft.  

• Christopher - Kawaii Satori (1:30)
• Ivan - IvanPatch (4:10)
• Embertay - Cosplayer (6:18)
• SoupNinjaha - Cosplayer (8:00)
• Sailor Scouts and Mailor Scouts - Cosplayers (9:34)
• Greg Abbey - Voice Actor (12:10)
• Wayne Grayson - Voice Actor (15:02)
• Erik Kimerer - Voice Actor (17:10)
• Griffin Burns - Voice Actor (22:05)
• Brandon McInnis - Voice Actor (24:40)
• Ian Sinclair - Voice Actor (27:59)
• Robert McCollum - Voice Actor (31:44)
• Zeno Robinson - Voice Actor (40:20)

This episode is a vibrant celebration of the magic and camaraderie that anime and cosplay bring to our lives, and we couldn't have pulled this off without the amazing event organizers at Bold Matsuri and the extraordinarily talented Jack Drain, who allowed us the opportunity to take part in these live interviews. We hope you enjoy this episode and we will see you at next year's event!

🔻You can find all important links for the podcast over at https://linktr.ee/waitforitpodcast (which includes our brand new Patreon site!)🔺

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to your go-to source for entertainment.

Speaker 2 0:04

Wait for it Gaming. Wait for it Anime.

Speaker 3 0:08

Plus Ultra.

Speaker 1 0:11

Mr Eric Almighty and Phil the Filipino. Yeah, they've got you covered, and all you gotta do is Wait for it.

Speaker 4 0:35

Hey everyone, phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, here and welcome to a very special episode of the Wait for it podcast. Today's episode will contain interviews from vendors, cosplayers and voice actor guests that attended a bold Matsuri this past June 24th and 25th. This marked the third time we've partnered with Bold Matsuri and each and every single time it just gets better and better, and not just because of the guests and the vendors and the cosplayers, but because of you guys, because of all the new people we get to meet and old friends we get to run into. So we are so excited for you to hear the conversations we had with a number of people over that weekend. Shout out to Jack Drain, videographer extraordinaire, our very, very good friend, who sent us over this audio as well as put together all the videos that you guys have probably been seeing on our social media pages. So, without further ado, let's go ahead and jump into all of these wonderful conversations we had.

Speaker 4 1:30

Hey guys, phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, here with the Kawaisatori booth here at Bold Matsuri. Let everybody know a little bit about yourself what's your name and how long have you been doing this? What's?

Speaker 5 1:38

going on. Guys, my name is Christopher. We've been doing this. We actually just started the company back in November. We're actually two artists that work together, as me and my teacher, so I do most of the concepts. I start out the sketch very bad sketch my teacher finishes it and actually makes it amazing. So all this is like.

Speaker 5 1:54

He is so talented. He's been working for about 20 years and as soon as I've met him, I'm like, bro, me and you are going to take over this anime stuff and we've just been doing things that we're really passionate about. Like at every anime that we do, we really try to put a scene or try to create a memory of something that really changed us. When we watched anime, say like Cyberpunk, one piece is one of our favorite anime. So whenever we did one piece in our piece, we actually tried to put each one to be their personality. Nami is actually holding money and whatever you look at Luffy, he actually has as much of a Goldie Roger's smile as possible. We always try to do stuff like that. We also hire Zorro in a lot of our pieces. I'm honestly just excited to be here.

Speaker 4 2:40

Yeah, that's one of my favorite things about Shell's pieces is they are very unique. It's not necessarily something you see over and over again. It gets a little repetitious, especially when you go to a lot of conventions, so that's why I really really love y'all's work. As far as we've seen you guys obviously here are Bull, collective Con. What's, again, one of your favorite things about interacting with the convention goers?

Speaker 5 3:00

So, honestly, talking, one piece I honestly, people honestly, I'm not going to.

Speaker 4 3:05

Please don't try and convince me to watch one piece here.

Speaker 5 3:09

I would actually say that because, if it comes down to one piece, anyone who loves one piece is always trying to get that one person who hasn't watched one piece to watch one piece. And bro talking to people who haven't watched one piece trying to convince them. Or if you get the one piece fan, the people who's walking by it as Zorro they just want you to ask a question like who has the best laugh in one piece? Anyone will just like it starts like a 20-minute conversation with like the happiest people, so like that. And honestly, the cosplays always look great.

Speaker 4 3:36

Yeah, absolutely, the cosplay is my favorite part. Definitely. Well, listen, obviously you're really busy, so thanks for taking the time, and I'll let everybody know we're going to find you on social media, so I don't want to even follow you.

Speaker 5 3:46

So it's actually the Kawaii underscore setori on Instagram and then my teacher's going to be ddy underscore ozy and we, honestly, are running it Like I appreciate you actually got to talk to me.

Speaker 7 3:57

We've now met each other a couple times Exactly.

Speaker 5 4:00

Like we haven't got a minute to actually sit down. You handed me a mic. It's like super official.

Speaker 4 4:06

Well, thanks, just appreciate the time and yeah, we'll see you soon.

Speaker 5 4:08

Of course Thanks.

Speaker 4 4:12

What's up, guys? Phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, here at Bold Matsuri with Ivan Patch, one of the vendors here this weekend. Ivan, you know, obviously we've worked together quite a bit between the podcast and we see you at all of these. So great to see you All the time. What's one of your favorite things about returning to Bold Matsuri every year?

Speaker 3 4:28

Honestly, seeing everyone all over again Like I have a lot of like Jacksonville regulars that I always see and like you guys are part of that, so like it really makes the whole con for me. I'm always like excited to see everyone again. Honestly, it sounds cheesy as hell, but it's the absolute truth.

Speaker 4 4:42

Yeah, absolutely, yeah, definitely. And you know, obviously you talk to us about. One of your favorite things is getting to talk to the people that come up to your table about you know different anime. What's something when somebody comes up and they talk to you and you're like, oh, I can talk to them for hours. What is that top fandom you're most excited to talk about? Oh, okay.

Speaker 3 4:58

So there's two, and some people are looking at me like, oh my God, one piece is one of them, of course, I will talk about one piece nonstop, and then World. Trigger is just really underrated anime. So whenever people know what it is, I'm like freaking the hell out all the time, like all the time. And so, yeah, those are the two for sure, definitely.

Speaker 4 5:16

Yeah well, listen again, don't. Please do not try to convince me to watch one piece. I'm not gonna. I'm just gonna trigger every single person. You know what?

Speaker 3 5:23

I'm not even gonna try, I'm not even gonna try to argue about it, because there's some people who, like might help her. Who's always at cons with me? She never. She's like it's too long, I'm never gonna watch it, it's too many episodes. Whatever, I'm not gonna go through it. It's fine, but people will re-watch Naruto all the time. But you know it's fine. We've struck a nerve here with Ivan.

Speaker 4 5:42

It's a serious nerve. Yes, Well, Ivan, we thank you for taking the time. Let everybody know where they can find you on social media so they can keep up with you and then find out where you're gonna be next.

Speaker 3 5:50

So on social media, everything is always Ivan Patch. Underscore artists on Instagram, tiktok. I'm gonna be at InfinityCon in Tallahassee in a couple weeks and then MetroCon in Tampa in three weeks. So, yeah, so I'll make have a lot to prepare for. So, yeah, I'm excited, though I'm like a little nervous, but yeah, yeah, you'll be fine, you'll be all right.

Embertay

Speaker 4 6:10

You'll be all right, hardworking guy here. Well, thanks, ivan, for taking the time and we'll see you soon. Come here hug. And stop. Hey guys, phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, here at Bold Matt's Series and I'm here with the cosplayer, amber Tay Tay. How are you doing here this weekend? How's the day gone so far?

Speaker 10 6:27

I'm doing great. It was a great morning. We had a panel this morning and since then it's just everyone's been really nice to stop by.

Speaker 4 6:33

That's great, yeah, and the panel I heard was fantastic. What's some of your favorite things about getting to do that? Because you get cosplayers from all different levels. People are just starting out, people that are seasoned. What's, like, one of your favorite things about doing those panels?

Speaker 10 6:44

Panels are great because especially cosplayers on one panel, because no matter who's there or their experience level, you're going to learn something from them. Like I was saying earlier, there's always like 10 different ways to do something, so your way that you've been doing something might be different than someone else, so you just get to learn so much, whether you're like a panelist or in the audience.

Speaker 4 7:04

Yeah, absolutely, and you know what's one of your favorite things just about the convention in general. I mean Bold Matt's Series. This is year three here in this building and every single time you know there's something new. What's some of your favorite things about just coming back to the conventions and getting to interact with everybody?

Speaker 10 7:18

It's just talking about so nice and you don't have to like worry about how you like come off or like your interest or being judged at all, like the community is just so accepting and you can be whoever you are, or whoever you want to be and everyone's just like yeah you know, I'm down for that too.

Speaker 4 7:32

Right, one of my favorite things about coming to these is it's one of the only places you know where some people, you know some of these kids especially. They get to be like who they really want to be and you know they get that sense of community. So if you have never been to one of these conventions, definitely come out. So thanks for taking the time. Where can they find you on social media and everything else like that?

Speaker 10 7:48

I'm Ember Tay EMBRTAY on every social media platform.

SoupNinjaha

Speaker 4 7:53

There you go, super easy to find. Thanks, tay. Thank you, hey everybody. Phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, here at Bold Matt's Series and I am here with the cosplayer Supnan Jaha. How are you doing here today?

Speaker 11 8:06

I'm doing great. I'm super busy but super fun. I love to meet so many new people. I had tons of people come by today. I got to talk to them about all kinds of cosplay stuff. We talked like for like 15 minutes just about 3D printing, so that was cool.

Speaker 4 8:17

That's awesome, and you had a panel this morning. How did that go?

Speaker 11 8:20

The panel went great. We talked, we covered a lot of ground, went literally top to bottom about cosplay waves make up garment construction props and we answered a bunch of audience questions. That was great.

Speaker 4 8:31

Yeah, and you know one thing that's so great about you know you see people in all different levels of cosplay. So if somebody is a little hesitant, what would you tell them to? Just, you know, get out there and cosplay, you know, whatever it is that they want to do.

Speaker 11 8:44

I always say you let your passion drive you. That's what got me into cosplay. When I really fall in love with a character or series, I'm like the best way other than, of course, I do like illustrations stuff too but my favorite way to display the love for a character or for the fandom is to cosplay them. And on top of that I always say cosplays are fun. It's always fun. It's always like you always try really hard to get as close as you can to like reference or whatever character, but you always do what suits you, what you're comfortable with, and ultimately it's just as long as you have fun and you have a smile on your face, you're gonna look great.

Speaker 4 9:15

Yeah, make it your own, be comfortable. That's what I've gathered from a lot of cosplayers and you know, definitely take that, take that note. So thank you so much, and where can people find you as far as social media?

Speaker 11 9:25

All of my socials are at SNPJaha, often with an underscore after that. But yeah, I'm Sophie. Thank you so much.

Sailor Scouts and Mailor Scouts

Speaker 4 9:31

Thanks, sophie. What's up y'all? Phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, with the Wave 4 podcast, here at Bold Matsuri, here with the Sailor and Mailer scout Subjax. How y'all doing today? How has the weekend gone so far for all of you?

Speaker 9 9:46

Good, it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 4 9:48

Yeah, got into interact with a lot of people and you know this is like the second or third time we've gotten to work together, so it's always great to see you guys. What's one of your favorite things about coming out to Bold Matsuri specifically?

Speaker 7 9:59

For me, it's just kind of interacting with everyone as they're walking around. We saw some really cute kids in cosplay and that always warms my heart. We saw two little Sailor Moons and I'm like, oh, and of course we have our little Sailor Moon and taking a nap in the back so Living the dream. That's what makes me happy, so Buying a bunch of stuff, I think my favorite thing about Bold Matsuri is the fact that.

Speaker 9 10:21

So, if you didn't know, the Mailer Scouts actually didn't exist until today, so this is actually our debut. No longer will we, as the boyfriends and husbands of the Sailor Scouts, sit behind the desk while everybody's doing their panels.

Speaker 1 10:33

You will be the ones that get featured at conventions.

Speaker 4 10:36

That's right, we are going to take over.

Speaker 1 10:37

Next time it's going to be you guys not going to even be the Sailor.

Speaker 8 10:39

Scouts, that's right.

Speaker 4 10:42

Well, that's awesome, you know. One great thing you know again about y'all being here is you get to interact with people that maybe have never cosplayed before. So what is something you would tell somebody who is a little hesitant and, you know, maybe they're a little nervous about getting into cosplay? What would you tell them?

Speaker 1 10:56

I would. I would just say just go out and just have fun, do it, don't matter what the haters say.

Speaker 9 11:05

I was going to say, for sure, one of the things to do is do it, because the biggest hurdle that you're going to do is just doing a cosplay. Doesn't matter if you bought the whole thing, doesn't matter if you made the whole thing, doesn't matter if it's good or bad. Just go do it and have fun with it and then eventually maybe you can start doing your own thing, building on it becoming better, you know.

Speaker 3 11:25

Also I want to thank you.

Speaker 1 11:26

It doesn't matter if you don't look exactly like the character. It's not just skin tone. Or like your size, it doesn't matter. You're just dressing up and having fun.

Speaker 4 11:34

Yeah, absolutely so. We thank you guys so much and we can't wait to see what's next for you. Where is the easiest place to keep up with the Sailor, and the newly formed Sailor Scouts as well, on social media?

Speaker 7 11:44

Well, the Sailor Scouts we of course have at Instagram and Facebook, sailor Scouts at Jacksonville. On Facebook, sailor Scouts Jack. Instagram and my wonderful husband has created the Sailor Scouts Jacks.

Speaker 3 11:55

Hey.

Speaker 7 11:56

So you can work. They're tagged in our Instagram as well, so we'll stay connected, even though they talk trash about us on their Instagram.

Greg Abbey

Speaker 4 12:04

There we go well. Thank you all so much and enjoy the rest of the weekend. Thank you, no-transcript.

Speaker 13 12:11

Eric from the Way For it podcast here with Greg Abbey. You have been a part of so many amazing franchises I mean, just look at the resume behind us. I want to ask you how has it been going to these conventions and seeing fans, old and new, really getting into Yu-Gi-Oh for the first time or it being so important to their childhood? What has that been like for you?

Speaker 14 12:31

I mean it's been an amazing experience. I've only been doing this for about a year. I did my first one last year and it's amazing to have it. It's always been a great community. I think that's been one of the special things about Yu-Gi-Oh in particular for me. Just because I was on the original in 5Ds, I feel like for a lot of the fans not all of them, but some of the fans that could maybe not find a place and other places of you know, whether it's high school or just in life found their community in Yu-Gi-Oh. That's just a really special thing when people come to the table and you can tell it's something that meant so much to them, which is something you don't think about. I mean, now it's 20 years on that the show's been in existence and just to have those moments with fans has been amazing.

Speaker 13 13:21

Absolutely, and you know when we're kind of talking about you coming to these conventions and seeing all of these people, is there any particular character you know, outside of just Yu-Gi-Oh, any character that you're surprised to see so many people come up to you and talk about?

Speaker 14 13:36

I mean, for me it's usually Yu-Sai or Raphael and most of the conventions are anime, so it's definitely mostly Yu-Sai is the main thing and Stardust Dragon was his card, so I signed a ton of Stardust Dragon, but yeah, so it's usually the three main characters I played, which is Raphael from the Turtles, tristan or Yu-Sai.

Speaker 13 13:54

Yeah, absolutely. And again, with some of the things that you've gone over with with fans and discussed with them, what is the one thing you would tell your fan base that these characters represent you the most of? So, if you have one definable feature that all of these characters share, and if you can't pick one, what is the biggest definable feature from these characters that represent you?

Speaker 14 14:17

Tristan has amazing hair so I always try to do it. Does it look all right? Today it looks great. Raphael has anger issues. I wouldn't say I have anger issues but ironically, the day I auditioned for that, I had just had an argument with my then-girlfriend-now-wife. I brought that in. So I have a little bit of rage in me. You might not think it, but I do. I mean for Yu-Sai. What I love about him is he's always in command. He's kind of cool. I aspire to that, not that I am. I can play it out in an anime character. So those would be the qualities.

Speaker 13 14:50

That's amazing. Greg Abbey, everybody, both Matt Suri, here in Jacksonville. We've had a hell of a time. Make sure to make your way out to the next one. And, greg, thank you so much. Thanks, man. I appreciate it Awesome, thank you.

Speaker 4 15:03

Hey guys, phil Smith, AKA Philip Filipino, here at Bold Matt Suri in Jacksonville, florida, with Wayne Grayson. Wayne, how is Jacksonville treating you so far, so far so good.

Speaker 8 15:11

I've been inside all day, but I'm away from the humidity so I dig that.

Speaker 4 15:14

Exactly, we definitely don't want any of that in here. We always love seeing voice actors here at the conventions. What's one of your favorite things? I get to interact with people, because I assume with your character work, you get to meet also younger fans that are just getting introduced, but also legacy fans like myself who have been following this character as far as Joey Wheeler since I was in elementary school. Ok, now if you won't, sorry, it's appropriate.

Speaker 8 15:40

It's always great to come to these and see people who grew up watching the show. I never get tired of hearing how it made people's childhood. I would just do it like tough times. It's always good because we do these shows and we do them, record them. Walk away we don't know where it's going to end up, what impact it's going to have. When you go to these conventions, you hear these stories. Really it's to our hearts, it makes us feel good.

Speaker 4 15:58

Yeah, definitely, and again, with the character and a show that was just so complex. I think a lot of people maybe have this predestined notion that it's a cartoon. It can't really be that deep. What would you say to those people that haven't given it a chance?

Speaker 8 16:15

Watch it first of all because it's primarily a show about a card game, but there are really really important messages that are being taught in the show. I wouldn't know going in there, I had no idea that Joey's going to evolve in such a staunch ally. It's such a great advocate for his friends, believing in yourself, finding ways to overcome adversity. These are things that I did not know when I got the role. That would happen, and it's another side benefit because, yeah, it's a cartoon but it has meaning and it has depth and it affects people really, really profoundly in a nice emotional way.

Speaker 4 16:44

Great answer. I love that, Wayne. Thank you so much for taking the time. Please let everybody know where they can find you, whether it be on social media or any projects you want to plug. I'm still doing.

Speaker 8 16:51

Yu-Gi-Oh. It keeps going on. It keeps chucking along. I'm also doing Prince of Tennis fairly regularly. I just finished Trudy Honey. There's lots of anime coming out there. To find it. If you know where to look, I am at the Real Wayne Grayson on Instagram. Check me out. I go there every once and again.

Erik Kimerer

Speaker 4 17:07

There you go. Thanks so much, Wayne. Hi buddy, hey guys. Phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, here at Voldemort, Surrey, Day 2 with Eric めてuptas特別forriel. How was? I know you had a little bit of a rough time getting into the convention, but how did the rest of the day go as far as day one?

Speaker 2 17:25

Day one was amazing. We had a really good Demon Slayer panel, a lot of amazing questions, and it was really fun to be there alongside some people that I actually haven't met yet. Honestly, here at conventions are where a lot of us voice actors meet for the first time, because we're often recording one at a time individually. So being able to interact with Alex and Griffin and Zeno and everybody for the first time ever on a panel, it was really fun. Everybody here has just been so nice.

Speaker 4 17:51

Great, great. That's really crazy, because I was telling this to Zeno your characters are together all the time, but you guys aren't really together all the time, so you get to hang out with not only the fans but also essentially your coworkers. So I'm sure that's probably pretty cool.

Speaker 8 18:05

Yeah, it's really fun.

Speaker 4 18:08

What was it about? Just coming to conventions in general that? Just what's one of your favorite things about coming to stuff like this? Because a lot of these people that come here it's one of the only places where they get to meet other like-minded fans such as themselves. And what's some of your favorite things about them?

Speaker 2 18:23

That's pretty much. It is the like-mindedness and being able to hold long conversations about things that would normally get people walking away at parties, Right, right yeah.

Speaker 4 18:34

I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, exactly, I have no idea what is it about. Because anime, specifically, I think, is a very special genre. You know, I think a lot of people that are unfamiliar with it will group it in with cartoons and other type of animation and, again, all that type of stuff is fantastic as well. You know that as far as that medium. But what is it about? Anime do you think is specific and what makes it a really, really special storytelling genre?

Speaker 2 19:03

I think I mean there's a couple of answers I can come up with this For one it was really the only storytelling genre that was really getting exported out of Japan. Right, and without the budget to do the big Hollywood stuff. A lot of the efforts in their storytelling were sunk into these shows and that really shows. Yeah, it's just really high quality. Not cartoon, sorry, guys, not cartoon, right. So there's that. But then also, I'm a big wrestling fan.

Speaker 4 19:34

Yeah same.

Speaker 2 19:36

I love WWE, aew. All that Anime I feel has the same kind of appeal. You look at Dragon Ball Z and it's wrestling, it's posturing promos yeah, I love the promos, yeah the promos, and all building up to this big main event. So a lot of anime is like that. It's got the same kind of psychology. I feel is wrestling in terms of hyping big crossovers or matches or stuff like that.

Speaker 4 20:06

It feels like it's done when it's done in the house, and not to poo-poo on what Disney or Pixar, whatever they do. But all these things, all these projects are broken up amongst so many people. But then again, a lot of these projects, as far as anime goes, they're all done within a secular group of people and then they get out to the voice actors, which again essentially becomes a little family within itself. So I think that's what it is. I think we both can agree that at least Roman Reigns promos don't go as long as Dragon Ball Z episodes. He would take that opportunity, I think, if he had the chance. Eric, you have a panel here later today, super excited for that. Let everybody know where they can find you on social media and any projects you're working on All right.

Speaker 2 20:47

well, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram at E-KIMER E-K-I-M-E-R-E-R. I'm also streaming on Twitch at Eric Kimmerer and that's Eric with a K, by the way and projects I'm working on right now. Well, we have Demon Slayer Season 3 currently airing, and I get my little seasonal open eye cameo, thankfully, as far as.

Speaker 4 21:09

I've seen.

Speaker 2 21:11

I just finished wrapping Season 2 of Don't Toy with Me, miss Nogatoro, which is a really fun rom-com. I really enjoy it. It's not for everybody, but I find the humor in all of it. And then I just was in Mashel Magic and Muscles, which just aired on Country Roll.

Speaker 4 21:31

Yeah, I think that's the limit of what I can talk about. There you go. Yeah, it's a lot of. What day is it? What month is it? What can I discuss?

Speaker 2 21:40

Oh, and I mean this was a while ago, but hopefully just a hype for the next part, the Grudge of Edinburgh. The Seven Deadly Sins movie. Part one is on Netflix. We released that last year and hopefully part two should be coming sometime this year. I'm not sure exactly when, but I hope so. Yeah.

Griffin Burns

Speaker 4 21:56

There you go. Make sure you follow Eric again where all those places are at and see him at a convention near you, hopefully, hopefully. Thanks, eric, thank you hey everybody.

Speaker 13 22:06

Eric, from the Way For A Podcast here I'm here with Griffin Burns. You're going to see amazing characters that we have here, none other than the Miss Tashira for Season 3 of Demon Slayer. We got to hear from you in our panels here at Bolt Matzuri and I know you're just starting to dub the role. I wanted to ask what are some of the things you're looking forward to with what you know about this character, and what can audiences expect from your performance?

Speaker 16 22:33

Well, there's a lot going on. You're going to see Moichiro be kind of cold, kind of cool and also standoff-ish, kind of off-putting to maybe some people. But you're going to find that you're going to fall in love with him because he does have a big heart and he's also just a straight-up badass who saves the day. So I'm really excited. I'm finally I'm not sitting on the bench anymore with one line. I got a bunch of lines this season, so I'm really excited to be a part of Season 3.

Speaker 13 23:00

Yeah, fantastic, I know when you're getting cast at the Hishiera. Everyone's wondering when is my turn? Totally, when is my Wengoku, my Tengen moment?

Speaker 16 23:08

It's my turn now, finally.

Speaker 13 23:10

This is the time. Yeah, and that's not the only great character you play. One of my personal favorites from you is Canute oh yeah from.

Speaker 7 23:16

The.

Speaker 16 23:17

Lensaga what?

Speaker 13 23:18

has it been like going into that world and that role, and what is that character meant to you?

Speaker 16 23:22

That one's a tough one because we see Knut in season one as a young prince he's not yet developed and then over season two he becomes a king. So I had to change sort of my voice print. He literally sounds older, but he also the way I perform him. He's just more mature and more confident. He's also more evil. He's the main bad guy really. But that's been a real journey and I like being able to test my acting abilities. It's a very emotional show so I'm just super pleased to be a part of it.

Speaker 13 23:59

Yeah, absolutely. And one final question for you, because again we've had a long day here on day two, so many people you've interacted with. I want to ask you on a personal level is there a non-anime character that you kind of look to for your performances, or just something that really has impacted your personality that we might not know?

Speaker 16 24:17

I'm a huge fan of King of the Hill. I love god. Dang it, bobby. I'm gonna hoop your ass. So, that's what. I don't know if I'm drawing it for any of my work, but if they think it's funny.

Speaker 13 24:28

I don't know if we hear a hate kill If you hear that voice and demon slayer, then you know where it came from. That's amazing. Griffin Burns, everybody. Bold Matsuri will be here next year.

Speaker 4 24:41

Hey guys, phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, here at Bold Matsuri day two with Brandon McInnes, and Brandon we're here on day two. How was day one of Bold Matsuri Day?

Speaker 1 24:50

one was amazing. So many people here. It's really wonderful. I think there's something really special about Florida Conds. I don't know. I've been doing this for a long time. I'm going to, I think, like 26 conventions this year. Yeah, and there's something magical about Florida Convention culture. I don't know what it is, but I love doing concerts.

Speaker 4 25:05

It's all the Disney magic that, like sprinkles, that blows its way north. Yeah, jacksonville sign actually says Jacksonville, two hours from Disney.

Speaker 7 25:13

So I think that's what that's what it is, so you almost made it, but it's okay.

Speaker 4 25:17

We're almost obviously having a great time here in Jacksonville. How was the panel that you, that you participated?

Speaker 1 25:22

in yesterday. Oh, the panel was great, demon Slayer panel yesterday. I mean, demon Slayer is huge right, and so it was wonderful to see all the enthusiasm and I was the only demon on the panel.

Speaker 7 25:33

Everyone else was Hashira, so I felt very you know, I was.

Speaker 4 25:36

I was isolated. Yeah, what do you think it is about? I like to ask this question to everybody here what do you think you know again, you kind of touched on it already what makes the just the convention atmosphere so special?

Speaker 1 25:48

I think it's the camaraderie between the fans, and I'm very lucky I'm in a special place because I get to talk to people and like nerd out over all these shows that I'm a fan of as well, and so I think it's just fandom as a culture.

Speaker 4 26:01

Yeah right, what do you think what is fandom to you? What do you think what is fandom to me?

Speaker 1 26:08

I think fandom to me is is belonging, right, you can come from any background, any upbringing, anything, and if you like the same show, you have something in common, right you know. So I think, especially in today's day and age, it's so important to find ways to relate to people, and so I think fandom is super, super important.

Speaker 4 26:26

Yeah, absolutely, and again getting to be here you know we talked about it as we've done these interviews it's a lot, it's a, you know, a kind of an opportunity where people who are able to find a sense of community, you know they find people that they have similar interest in, and that's always really really great as well. So how else or what else are you up to as far as whatever you're working on or what you can talk about?

Speaker 1 26:49

What I can talk about well um, right now, dr Stone season three is airing on SlimebleDub on Crunchyroll and on Toonami. That's exciting. I've voiced Gen in that, the mentalist, and what else? Oh, black Clover, which had a Black Clover movie come out. I've voiced Finroll, one of the Black Bulls, in that, and that just came out on Netflix, so so check it out.

Speaker 4 27:10

Awesome, well, I just want to tell you, brandon, as I've been preparing for the convention you know I always like to do my research and everybody and then in my research I found your proposal video to Michael and it is guys, you gotta go watch this thing on YouTube. It's adorable, it is fantastic.

Speaker 7 27:24

So just wanted to let you know that I saw that because, it's amazing, it worked very hard on it.

Speaker 5 27:28

I was so nervous.

Speaker 4 27:30

Yeah, I bet, I bet, and but yeah, let everyone you also where they can find you on social media so they can keep up with everything.

Speaker 1 27:36

Oh yeah, yeah. You can find me on social media brand mickey bran mci pretty much everything like tiktok, instagram, what else? Twitter and I also do covers, song covers on Spotify. So if you just look up, my name. Brandon McInnis on Spotify or YouTube. You can check them out there. You go.

Speaker 4 27:55

thanks so much for your time, brandon Alright, absolutely thank you.

Speaker 13 28:00

We're here for the Way For A Podcast here, with none other than Ian Sinclair. Hi, you're excited, I'm super excited, super excited. Now listen, I saw a lot of energy when we started here, because I've been hearing the Brooke laugh. I know you can do better than that, ian. How you doing.

Speaker 15 28:15

I'm testing the limits of like how much of the person Mike is picking up on me at the very loud room Wow, that is really good, okay. So when I do these cons, I always kind of have to be in the top part of my voice because you can hear me better. If I'm up here and I'm going hi, what if I talk at you like this? It's a lot harder too, so I don't get to be in this part of my range of cons with you.

Speaker 13 28:34

Well, you know what? It's funny that you mentioned that. So we had the one piece Q&A and you were full, full energy.

Speaker 15 28:40

Yeah that's one piece.

Speaker 13 28:41

It's one piece. I'm not going to take all that from you. I actually want to ask you the hard hitting question, because these energetic characters you're charismatic, no, he's charming. I can tell that that's what you bring out of your personality with those characters. You're sweet. Tsukasa yes, you've got a couple of these characters. Kuro-no, yes, what do you bring out of yourself to do those deeper characters?

Speaker 15 29:03

Honestly, every single character. If you want to do them justice, you need to find the kernel of truth of humanity for each of them. You have dozens of sides to yourself. How you talk to your grandma is different than how you talk to your dog, to your kid, you know. Find the kernel of truth of you angry, you feeling betrayed, you feeling whatever, and you can source the voice from there. And if you started a kernel of truth, everything is nice and authentic out of it. So you just pick different sides of your personality.

Speaker 13 29:33

Yeah, and back to the fun side of things. You were the narrator for Kaguya Zama. I like you. I like you. It's my favorite part of one of my favorite series. What is it like being in the booth recording those? Because you seem like you're having a blast just seeing what's happening in the show.

Speaker 15 29:49

Well, one of my great pleasures is that I wanted you guys to think that I was improvising. I wasn't, but y'all think so, and so that is deeply flattering to hear you ask that thing?

Speaker 13 30:00

Yeah, absolutely, and of course, I have to ask the one piece question. Yes, somebody out there watching this is wondering why they should watch one piece 60 seconds or less. Why should they do that?

Speaker 15 30:11

I know why they don't make a thousand episodes of things that aren't good. You've heard probably from dozens of your friends, that you should watch it. I don't know why you're not trusting them on that. You can get through about three episodes in an hour. If you skip the outros and intros it doesn't take as long as everybody says it does the longest I've ever heard somebody say it was two years and they took a big break with it. Put it on a night before you go to bed and, trust me, you'll get through it really fast. It's great. It's the most soul piece of fiction in history and I don't know really any other fandom that says that it gets better and better from the beginning, and it's. It is always just getting more and more epic, which is what the one piece fandom says. Across the board, it's kind of worth it.

Speaker 13 30:52

As someone who just started his one piece journey not too long ago, I concurred how long ago. When was that? I started?

Speaker 15 31:00

year and a half ago, and how far are you?

Speaker 13 31:02

I am at Alabasta.

Speaker 15 31:05

Some people take longer than others, and that's okay. It's a beautiful, fun journey. No, but if you do have the opportunity to get in on something that the fandom really loves, if you can be there when they do reveal the one piece, that that is going to be the most epic moment in anime history. That's over probably 30 years of build-up at that point. So if you can be a part of that, it's going to be historic, which is why I'm going back through and reading the manga, so every I will be completely caught up on both by the time we all finish.

Robert McCollum

Speaker 13 31:37

It'll be great, you're not going to want to miss out on this. Ian Sinclair, everybody, thank you so much for giving us the time. Hey guys, my name is Eric from the Way For A Podcast. Oh, you have your own microphone?

Speaker 12 31:48

I do, I don't have to hand him a microphone because he's got his own. That's how technology works.

Speaker 13 31:52

That is how technology works Robert McCollum here and, of course, an amazing resume behind us, rob. We've gotten to talk a couple of times here today, and so I wanted to get personal with you. Reiner is one of my favorite attack on Titan characters and I'd be remiss to start there, because the episode that you play, and probably the biggest scene, is that speech before the reveal on the wall, and I wanted to ask you personally about that. I know you get to hear a lot of questions about Reiner. So, starting there, what was it like making that scene and getting the magic in that scene? And did you expect the reception? Because I feel like a lot of people look at that scene as one of the moments that made attack on Titan huge, in my opinion at least.

Speaker 12 32:33

Yeah, it changed a lot of things. I will say Mike McFarland, who is our director for the English dub of attack on Titan, has done an amazing job all the way through, and the reason I mean there are some shows that I absolutely agree with. People like, yes, watch this up, but he took so much care and effort to get the dub, to make the dub its own stand alone, really strong thing. And this was one of the cases. First of all, he just said I don't want you to watch, I don't want you to read the manga, I don't want you to know what's coming, I want all the surprises that the audience has to do with your character are also surprises for you.

Speaker 12 33:07

And when we got to that scene and he said we're just going to watch it once, all the way through, we'll watch it in the Japanese first to kind of get the sense of it. And so I'm reading the subtitles and I'm following along and I'm like wait, what Did he Wait? What? So like Bertolt's reaction is exactly my reaction in the booth, like wait, did he just Wait? So I'm and he's, and I knew nothing. I knew nothing about this and it was freaked out both by the information and by the weird way that it was delivered.

Speaker 13 33:37

Funny enough, it's one of my favorite things about that whole episode is just how deadpan. Yeah, no, that's he's. He's a closet. I'm the armored, I'm right there.

Speaker 12 33:45

We need to go. Obviously, you're going to come with me, right, let's go. We're good though, right, yeah, like we're still buds, yeah, yeah, and I was so and he just Mike said like watch, let's watch the Japanese again. Give it nothing, yeah, put nothing on it, because he is dissociating with it. And then later, in later episodes, you see how far that dissociation is gone and how much he's really not connecting it. But that was the first hint of like okay, he's done a lot of things and they are messing with his mind right now, because he just thought this was all going to go down. Fine, yeah, and BearTol's looking at him like, are you serious? What Are you serious? That's, you just did that. He's like yeah, no, it's cool, come on, we're going to go. Yeah, yeah, I loved it.

Speaker 12 34:28

That's also where I realized, like I had already figured out that there was much more to Reiner than meets the eye, only because people freaked out when I got cast on it and started talking about it on Twitter and all these things, and I'm like this dude's got like five lines in season one. Why does anybody care about Ryan? Oh, oh, okay, pretty big, there may be something more, yeah, but it was great and Alpha was just thought it was a nice gift for Mike to give me. They're like no, we're not going to tell you anything until it happens. And then you think, okay, I know what this guy's about. He's the traitor, he's going to be the villain of the piece and knowing that we're going to get to get four more seasons of backstory and heart-wrenching emotional yeah, this is a gift that keeps on giving, because every time you think you're done with finding out something new about Reiner, the show gives you another level and another thing to it. So it's been fantastic.

Speaker 13 35:12

Yeah, and you've gotten to experience kind of that change in the character, both for Reiner and then Stain in Micro Academia. You know we talked about Reiner and how important it was for you in the panel yesterday, about how important it was to show exactly what he was experiencing, especially from your background. You're like just kind of that bipolar-ness that he has. Did you have something like that with Stain, especially with the all-might is worthy speech? Was there anything you had to pull out of on a personal level or did you really just have to invest in the just tenacity that that character had?

Speaker 12 35:43

I think the main thing for good question? I think the main thing for Stain is his unwavering commitment. He's made his decision for better or worse. He actually knows it's bad, like he says, and then he's like, oh, I'm totally a monster, but these guys are worse. I'm committed, here's what I'm doing. This is the road I'm going down. So Reiner is constantly questioning everything. Stain questions nothing, at least in the beginning. Now we're going to see some shades of Stain in the new no spoilers, but there might be a Stain return. If you've caught up with him.

Speaker 13 36:17

He's been locked up for a little bit.

Speaker 12 36:19

But you have some time to think yeah, exactly. And you're frozen for two to three years. We don't even know how long it is. But yeah, no, stain is very much a. This is what I'm doing and I'm not going to window dress it at all. I'm not dressing it up for anybody else and I'm not going to do it for you bad guys or you good guys or anybody. I'm just going to be who I am. I wish Reiner had that kind of clarity. I wish I had that kind of clarity.

Speaker 12 36:41

I mean, I hope I would make better choices, but I would love to be that confident about anything that I was doing.

Speaker 13 36:45

Exactly, absolutely. And my last question for you this is again on something that I know you very well from is terror and resonance. Superzaki is one of my favorite performances that you do. I was just very curious, you know what? What was it like getting cash for that role? And if you can think far back to that recording, like what made that role different than the ones that you're known for the most?

Speaker 12 37:07

Well, that's was was Chris Bevin's directed that show, who I'd worked with many, many times, and he's one of the directors that was at Funimation for years and years and years and was was known for picking people for things that were different than they'd done before, like if you were a superhero, young, thriving guy, I'm going to have you be evil villain, low, gravelly guy over here because I want to see if you can do it Like challenging people in those ways. So he'd have me be like 80 year old Odonobanaga in Drifters and then come back and be. But this guy he knew when he saw this character like anyone. That's like. I have a long line of anime characters that have something in their mouth all the time, whether it is a cigarette, or in Soul Eater he's got Mephune, he's got the twig in his mouth, pipes, any kind of character that has something hanging on their mouth. For some reason, everyone at Funimation goes oh that's, that's a Robb character.

Speaker 13 38:04

We should do that. It's like a Robb character.

Speaker 12 38:06

So, yeah, he's got a cigarette and he's stubble the whole time. I love that character. That show is deep and and asks interesting questions, which is one of the things I love about anime. Same reason I love Psycho Pass, yeah. So this is another show with a character who has a cigarette dangling from his mouth, a lot of time.

Speaker 12 38:20

There's a theme here. There is a theme If you want to look up characters with things in their mouth and one eyed characters. I may be at the top of the list of crunchy rolls in Absolutely the list.

Speaker 13 38:30

Well, robb, you've been such a pleasure. Thank you so much for taking the time out. I do want to definitely mention one of the great things that you're doing here in Pride Month. What does this mean to you? Let us know a little bit about this initiative you're here for.

Speaker 12 38:41

Well, so my son is trans and I, with everything that's going on politically in Florida, you know I don't necessarily think this is the place to to necessarily beat your politics in the world, but at the same time I'm like, what do we do about Florida? And he said well, personally, definitely don't boycott it. These anime fans are not the ones they're the ones being impacted by this.

Speaker 12 39:03

Don't abandon them. So he found a charity called the Southern the campaign for Southern Equality that has been working for LGTBQ in the South for many, many years, but now they've gotten taken a really active role with what's happening in the trans community and are providing medical transport fees for people that need to leave the state to go get their medical care now because it's been outlawed by the Florida law that said it was for only to protect children, but it actually protects. Cut out the availability for all adults of any age, no matter what they told you.

Speaker 12 39:34

So those people are having to travel out of state to get their medical and so this is a fund that helps them pay for that and find and arrange the travel and that sort of thing. So we donate 15% of everything that we earn and then we're encouraging other people to get on and find out about them, because, a it's Pride Month and B that's a community that is very involved in the anime world. I've had a bunch of people come up that have said it's so great just to see this kind of representation and see it called out in a public forum like this. And yeah, so it's been. Really it's been great.

Speaker 13 40:02

I absolutely love that and, again, this is something that in the anime community is all about embracing people for all of their differences and I hope we can bring a little bit of that anime community to the rest of the world and I'm glad that Rob is here to definitely have this initiative. Thank you so much, rob, it's been a pleasure. I really appreciate it, and Robert McCullum, everybody.

Zeno Robinson

Speaker 4 40:19

Thank you for watching what's up guys. Phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, here with the Wave 4 podcast at Bulb Matt Surrey, here in Jacksonville, florida. You remember it right? Yeah, yeah, here with Zeno Robinson and everybody in his line. Can we show them? Can we show them, yeah?

Speaker 6 40:35

shut up. That was beautiful.

Speaker 4 40:40

And Zeno, you were saying this is your first time in Jacksonville Florida. How was everybody shooting you so far?

Speaker 6 40:44

Pretty well. Everyone in the family has been really nice and really sweet survivors, so it's pretty cool.

Speaker 4 40:49

So off of a panel. How did that go with everybody as far as the Q&A.

Speaker 6 40:52

It was cool. It was Demon Slayer. You know, alex Lee is my boy, my brother, right there, so it's always fun. We don't do a lot of cons together, but when we do, it's always a good time and I always love seeing him and Griffin and Brandon and Brandon's really sweet and he's really cool. It's always good seeing him and Griffin's amazing and very talented, and Eric Kimmerer, who's also incredibly talented, and so it's really cool. I'm just surrounded by a bunch of inspiring people.

Speaker 4 41:18

You hear that a lot. It's so crazy because obviously your characters are together all the time, but you guys don't get together all the time. So is that maybe one of your favorite things just getting to see your friends and your coworkers?

Speaker 6 41:27

Yeah, and getting to meet the people who are behind you. I'll watch the things that we do back because I have to judge myself harshly on everything that I do and I'll be like, wow, wherever that person was, it was really incredible. And getting to meet them and hear how they approach their artistry, especially Brandon, I love the way he said something in the panel. It was just the tonates of his, you know the vocal. It's something really like wow.

Speaker 6 41:50

Every once in a while something just hits you like, oh wow, that was incredible, this man is, he's about it, yeah.

Speaker 4 41:55

Absolutely Well, zeno. We don't want to keep your people waiting. Just let everybody know where they can find you on social media or any of the projects you're working on. Yeah and yeah, we'll let you get back to it.

Speaker 6 42:02

Cool. Yeah, you can find me on social media everywhere at Childish Gamzino. Sometimes there's an underscore in between Childish and.

Speaker 6 42:08

Gamzino. So there's that. Of course it's been announced. But ZOM 100, the bucket list of the dead anime is coming to Netflix, the dub starting in July. I play the lead character, akira, and that he's a kid who you know. The zombie apocalypse happens and he builds a bucket list to things he wants to do before he becomes a zombie. He was working this job. That was kind of like another way of being a zombie to like, you know, corporations and capitalism, and so the zombie apocalypse kind of frees him to do whatever he wants, so he makes it work. There's that, and of course there's Persona 3 Reload, a remake of the Persona 3 series, and I you know they changed the voice cast for the remake and I played Junpei Yuri in the game. So Persona 3 is one of my favorite in the series. It's my personal favorite, and so I played it the OG so I'm really excited to jump into it again.

Speaker 4 43:01

Fantastic Xenu. We can't wait to hang out with you for the rest of the weekend. Thanks for taking the time. Give it up for Xenu. Everybody, I love you all. All right, everyone. Thanks so much for checking out this episode. We hope that you enjoyed those conversations as much as we had recording them. We hope to bring you more content like this and more conversations in the future, and we hope to see you at our next event, which will be Brick City Anime Festival, february 10th and 11th in Ocala, florida, and, of course, at next year's Bullde Mat series, which will be June 22nd and 23rd 2024.

Speaker 4 43:34

If you're looking for all the rest of our content, make sure you check out the Link Tree link in the show notes. Below. You'll find all of our social media pages, as well as our Patreon. If you feel like supporting the show a little bit extra and you're in the market for extra content, like our Patreon Briar gets, it will get you early access to episodes as well as video content that you will not see anywhere else. But that's it for today's episode. Folks, I am Phil Smith, aka Phil the Filipino, and for my co-host, mr Eric Almighty. Do not forget. We release new episodes every Monday and Wednesday with additional content found on our TikTok page, and all you have to do is wait for it.

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