It’s the premier anime convention in all of West Texas and it’s returning next week for another weekend-long event.
From July 29-31, this year’s Midessanime will take place at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, bringing in thousands of anime lovers and numerous voice actors to Odessa.
The event will feature a cosplay contest, live action role play, Q and A sessions with celebrity anime voice actors as well and shopping.
Last year’s Midessanime was the inaugural event and the success from last summer has led to a slightly bigger convention this year.
“It’s going to be bigger,” Owner of Fandom Events and Odessa Anime Josh Wilson said. “The cool thing about the Odessa Marriott is that the big meeting space is on the second floor. Last year, it was on the first floor because I didn’t know what the turnout would be so this year, everything is on the second floor. I definitely want to emphasize that to fans. We’ll have signage all over the convention.”
As far as the schedule goes, everything will be about the same as last year, Wilson said.
The doors will open at noon July 29 for VIPs and at 12:30 for general admission. On July 30 and 31, doors will open at 10 a.m. for VIPs and 10:30 a.m. for general admission.
Many well-known voice actors and actresses from various anime shows will be in attendance.
“We’re bringing in some of the best A-list voice actors in the nation,” Wilson said. “People from some of the most current and vintage anime ever. We have everyone from My Hero Academia to Pokemon to Naruto and Demon Slayer. We have voice actors. These people have no business being in Odessa but we are flying them in so that anime fans from the Permian Basin and West Texas can meet them.”
Among the voice actors that will be at the convention will be Sean Chiplock, a Los Angeles-based voice actor who mostly does video games and anime.
“He’s been in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and My Hero Academia,” Wilson said. “He’s one of the main characters in the world’s most popular mobile game called Genshin Impact. I think there’s 60 million people playing that game at any time. He voices one of the main characters.”
Aaron Dismuke is another, who is well known for the role of Alphonse Elric in the show Fullmetal Alchemist.
“He’s a super cool guy,” Wilson said. “He got into voice acting pretty young. Anybody who’s been watching anime knows what FMA is. He’s the young brother who gets embodied in the suit of armour. That was his breakout role. He voices the main character. It’s a fantastic role.”
Anime fans in attendance will get to see a rare appearance from Tom Gibis who Wilson mentioned does not make too many anime convention appearances.
Gibis is best known as the voice of Shikamaru Nara from Naruto.
“He doesn’t do the convention circuit very much so we’re really fortunate to have him come out because he’s super choosy about where he comes to,” Wilson said. “He doesn’t need the fame. He’s a fan-favorite.”
Sarah Natochenny, who has voiced Ash Ketchum in the English dub of Pokemon since 2006, will also be in attendance.
“When people think of Ash Ketchum and the character, that’s Sarah,” Wilson said. “She’s been in a lot of other stuff too. She’s voiced a lot of the stuff for Pokemon.”
Japanese rock star Kazha will be performing at the convention as well.
“That’s one of the things I’m excited about,” Wilson said. “She’s a music ambassador from Japan. She travels all over the country, performing her own original music for after parties. Sometimes she’ll bust a metal version of the Naruto theme song. The fans go crazy over that. She has a huge following.”
The convention will also include a Neko Squared Maid Café.
“It’s the longest running maid café in the nation,” Wilson said. “They’re called neko, which is Japanese for cat. There’s a lot of cat references throughout. They’re a nationally known maid café and they also have no business being in Odessa. But they’ll be at the hotel and they’ll be putting on wonderful shows and performances.”
A comedy and improv group called Take One Improv will also perform at the convention.
“They are Dallas-Fort Worth’s biggest comedy group,” Wilson said. “They’re so big, they also have a group in Oklahoma City and they’re coming back from last year. They put on hilarious skits. It’s like ‘Who’s Line Is It Anyway?’ but it’s anime so it’s geek, nerdy references. You might get a Pokemon reference or Fallout reference or X-Men. It’s stuff the demographic can relate to.”
Last year’s event brought in around 1,600 people in attendance.
“We intentionally put on smaller anime conventions,” Wilson said. “As comic cons and anime cons have exploded in the last 8-10 years, some of them have gotten enormous and you miss that connection when you’re just standing in line, like at some expos you might be standing in line for hours just to meet someone. You miss out on everything else. You kind of waste your whole day and you don’t make those connections like you do at a smaller event. That’s kind of our focus. It’s not going to 10,000 people at an anime convention in Odessa. We’re not trying to do that.”
If you go
- What: Midessanime.
- When: July 29-31.
- Where: Odessa Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.
- Where to purchase tickets: tinyurl.com/mvzc6vfk
