Toronto’s Anime North 2019 brings thousands of fans together
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Friday, May 31, 2019
Many thousands of anime and manga fans descended on the Toronto Congress Centre for Anime North, a fan-run convention launched in 1997. Spread between four venues over three days, May 24 to 26, the event featured J-pop maid idols, voice actors, writers, and more. Wikinews attended.
Despite the ample indoor spaces, the parking lot of the Centre is also a hub of activity, with cosplayers posing for photos. Attendees were sent running for cover on Saturday, as heavy rains and a severe thunderstorm warning put a damper on festivities.
The event is organized by a massive team of volunteers, and known for its specialized programming for fans, by fans. On the night of May 25, for example, attendees could catch “Pokemon Biology”, “Kimono Obi Tying”, and “Underappreciated Sports Anime/Manga.”
US voice actor Alexis Tipton marveled at the growth of the anime industry in the last decade. “Back when I was going as a fan, there wasn’t as much anime, so it was easier to know about everything,” Tipton observed during a question and answer session. “I’m so overwhelmed by how much there is.”
Tipton held a panel on her career, dubbing anime for US distribution company Funimation Entertainment. While many anime voice actors weren’t fans going into the industry, Tipton recalled going to anime conventions with her friends during middle school and high school. Once she was an invited guest, Tipton recalls realizing “oh, I’m not here to just have fun, I’m here to work; I have a set schedule and I can’t just, like, you know, go do what I want.”
Early in her career, Tipton was cast as a voice for My Bride is a Mermaid, a role that required singing. Then just 19 years old, she looked at the role as a “chance to face my demons,” having questioned her abilities for years. “I was in an extremely competitive [singing musical theatre] program in high school. I had started working at Funimation when I was 19, so I was just barely in college. And so those scars were still like, really fresh. I had a lot of competition and people would find what your perceived weakness was, or what your actual weakness was in the program, and they would take advantage of it. And so I had people trying to make me feel like I couldn’t sing my way out of a paper bag, and then I would get so nervous when I would sing that I couldn’t support my notes, and so it would just prove them right.”
Tipton was devastated when she got a sinus infection, the week of the audition. “This director doesn’t know me, I haven’t worked with him, he’s going to think that this is what I sound like,” she recalls thinking. “I don’t know if I had a shot to begin with, but now I really don’t have a shot.” She was thrilled when she was cast.
Another voice actor, Lauren Landa, would list Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus as dream roles, when asked at conventions. She was given a chance to audition for the characters years later, when Vizmedia dubbed the first two seasons of Sailor Moon. When she was cast, “I swear to you, I was speechless,” she told an audience at her Q&A session.
Cosplay model and professional singer Jillea attended the Saturday of the convention dressed as Pokemon species Charizard. Wikinews spoke with her by email, after the event:
((WN)) What got you into cosplay modelling?
- Jillea: My love for cosplay started with the community, what started as a fun hobby I would do periodically quickly became a huge part of my life, and the reason for that being how amazing the cosplay community embraced me and my work. I’ve always been a creative person, so getting to make my costumes and have people say ‘oh my gosh, I love that character!!’ got me hooked right away. They’re just my people, what can I say, they really make me feel welcomed and I love them for it.
((WN)) How did you choose Charizard?
- J: I’m a 90’s baby so you could say I’m a bit of a Pokémon OG! I had a Game Boy as a kid and my very first purchase was Pokémon Red, solely based on how cool Charizard looked on the cover. Charizard has always been my favourite Pokémon and I can’t resist a challenging cosplay… and the nostalgia!
((WN)) What was your favourite part of Anime North?
- J: This was my very first time attending Anime North and I was blown away! The booths were incredible and unique, every time I turned around I was seeing something different I’ve never seen at a convention before. Everything was easy to access and I even made use of the Cosplay Recharge station that literally saved the day with their hot glue! Extremely friendly environment it will not be my last time back for sure.
Wikinews?’ Nick Moreau photographed the event.
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Fate series cosplay photoshoot
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Voice actor Lauren Landa
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YouTuber Lovely Lor
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Pokeball sculptures
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Overcast weather didn’t stop dancing in the parking lot
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A group of cosplayers perform a choreographed dance.
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Socialist Ségolène Royal launches campaign for French presidency
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Saturday, November 18, 2006File:Segolene royal.jpg
Royal is now a leading candidate to succeed Jacques Chirac in May 2007. She was elected yesterday by over 100,000 activists after a moderate, and some say Blairite, campaign.
In the early hours of Friday morning, the result of a vote by members of the French Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste, PS) was announced, with centrist Ségolène Royal leading the poll to become their candidate in next year’s election for President of the Republic.
While many parties contest the presidential elections, the winner is expected to be an official candidate of one of the two main parties, the Socialists and the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Speaking on French television tonight, François Hollande, leader of the PS and Royal’s partner, announced a party recruitment drive to reinforce Royal’s campaign against the larger UMP.
Royal spent Friday in her home town of Melle, Deux-Sèvres, where she addressed the world’s press, and spoke with supporters, before returning to Paris.
The selection has kept columnists and editorial writers busy. In her Friday press conference, she spoke directly to the French people; her words, “Gather, mobilise, ask what you can do for your country,” reminding John Lichfield (The Independent, London) of John F. Kennedy. The Manchester Guardian’s Martin Kettle used Royal’s success as an opportunity to criticise Tony Blair for appearing to back Nicolas Sarkozy of the UMP.
The UMP, the leading conservative party, plans to select its candidate in January. This is the first French presidential campaign where the party candidates are selected by a ballot of the mass membership.
French presidential elections traditionally involve a number of candidates (last elections in 2002 saw the French people choosing between 16 candidates.) One of the questions is now the ability of Royal to unite the French left. Traditionally, parties on the parliamentarian left (MDC, Les Verts, Parti Radical de Gauche, Parti Communiste) have been involved in a number of coalitions, most recently before the 2002 elections. Unity in government does not reflect in the polls as the governing majority was represented by four candidates in 2002: Lionel Jospin (PS), Robert Hue (PC), Noël Mamère (Les Verts), Jean-Pierre Chevènement (MDC). The division of the left in the first round of the elections in 2002 is one of the given explanations for the surprise second round opposing Jean-Marie Le Pen (FN) and Jacques Chirac.
France is a parliamentary democracy, where the President is the Head of State, but independent of both the National Assembly (legislature) and the executive, which is led by the Prime Minister. The presidency is a high profile and influential role, currently filled by conservative-aligned veteran statesman, Jacques Chirac, whose second term expires in May 2007.
