Otakon 2026: Wrap

On request, I’m going to write up my panel notes for the two Fuurin panels. But first, a “quick” recap.

So from my POV, Otakon 2026 is the 27th Otakon I have attended. It is the 10th year in DC. I heard the attendance has hit its highest ever at over 47K (warm bodies). This year the music guests were the usual FF orchestra troupe, the usual K-pop acts, and an indie rock concert (cover bands and similar). It’s a choice, unfortunately it’s also a change I’m indifferent to, at least I do want to see some indie rock acts but not enough to skip out on the bountiful number of seiyuu-related programming at Otakon.

I am pretty sure Otakon 2026 has the highest number of seiyuu guests at Otaokn ever. It definitely also has the largest number of autograph sessions where you can get one from a seiyuu. And thanks to using digital registration you don’t have to camp any of them, at least not in any meaningful sense. As a result I scored an autograph from 12 different individual voice actors. Most of them were brought to Otakon to promote some show, so they were part of the autograph session from the guests for that show. This included the New Magic Knight Rayearth anime (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Rumi Okubo), Bookworm (Yuka Iguchi), Chiramume (Shogo Sakata), Overgeared (Tatsumaru Tachibana), Romelia War Chronicle (Yuna Nemoto), Trigun Stampede (Chika Ayamori), and Roll Over and Die (Ayaka Nanase, Machico). There were other anime titles that brought their teams and I wasn’t able to go to those due to conflicts: World’s Strongest Rearguard (no seiyuu), Kaiju Girl Caramelise (no seiyuu), Tougen Anki (Kazuki Ura, Shogo Sakata), Ghost in the Shell (2026) (no seiyuu), The World Is Dancing (Simba Tuchiya), and Kagurabachi (no seiyuu). I might be missing a few? Apologies if I did.

Anyways, this is as if we took the Anime Japan-style of AX loadout and repurposed it for Otakon, in Otakon style. Everyone got their day in the panel rooms, their autograph sessions, and the usual panel content US con goers are familiar with, and it was good because you didn’t need to do much if any camping. This is all on top of “actual convention seiyuu guests” Ryotaro Okiayu, Kenji Nojima (both Aoni), and of course Ayaka Fukuhara (Across). To put things into perspective, an average Otakon with those 3 would already be an good meal for someone like myself.

In historical terms, at least for as long as I’ve been tracking North American anime cons, this is likely the only time we’ve had a bounty this large in terms of voice actors giving out free autographs. I personally have gotten 13 (one repeat) autographs, and since I don’t have any actual recorded data to go by, the only thing that could exceed it is during some of the older Anime Expo days when a lot of companies also brought their cast members for autographs. In terms of actual seiyuu attendance Anime Expo even this year brought about as many, so this isn’t something so extraordinary. It is just extraordinary that it is happening outside of a completely corporate anime convention like AX or ANYC, and other than Otakon I can’t imagine another convention could have handled it this well.

Which is to say everything turned out well, nothing got too sweaty, and we had over FOURTY SEVEN THOUSAND people. If there was an example of how things should be done at anime cons for planning for JP guests and autographs, Otakon 2026 is it. Technology is a force multiplier. Small cons under 30k have no excuse anymore to sweat jam your autograph sessions and block them from guest panels! Invest in your attendee’s time and experience! We don’t go to cons to stay in lines! Sometimes I feel like I’m like Myne when it comes to this aspect of cons.

On Saturday, August 1, Ayaka Fukuhara (Fuurin henceforth) held a panel titled “Welcome to Ayaka Fukuhara’s World!” and is her general information panel about her as a VA. It is run by a MC/interpreter whose name I forget, but it is the same women who did the MC for Sora Tokui last year if I recall correctly. Panel 1 was a big room for her, but it was Saturday and who knows? I think the room was about 20-30% full. Below are my notes that I cleaned up and filled in at certain parts. I don’t have everything so there are some gaps and (?) to denote them. And for this piece and the second panel, there will be some errors or omissions, please feel free to correct in the comments.

Panel MC first inform us about the photography rules, no video or photos except “photo time” at the end.

• After intro and walking up to stage, we go through the usual formalities:
  • First time in DC
  • Seeing and happy that people enjoying themselves
  • Enjoying DC’s historical building and museums
  • Looking for chex mix [this is a continuation of what happened after Acen]

She actually outright recommended stuff to do in Japan, such as visiting the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno. Compared it to the Museum of Natural History in DC.

The meat of the panel is in her deck which she started to go through.

1. Slide 1: Hello
2. Slide 2: 4 roles she decided to highlight
   Rin from IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls, Tina from Rock Lady, Taro from Captain Tsubasa, Seeking the Pearl from Umamusume
3. Slide 3: Explaination of her actual work:
   Anime recording
   JP dub of foreign works
   Game voice over
   Radio shows
   Concert in cosplay
   About 8 hr a day, early shift (10am start) or late shift (1pm start)
   Been a seiyuu for 14yrs now with Cinderella Girls being Fuurin’s debut work
4. Slide 4: Prep work for stage shows – it shows 3 photos of the below
   Guitar playing (For fake band in Umamusume)
   Stretching before the show
   Eye and face makeup instructions to better copy a character (Seeking the Pearl in this case)
5. Slide 5: Works inspiring her to become a seiyuu
   Yuyu Hakusho
   Hunter x Hunter
   Kuroshitsuji
   Totoro and other Ghibli works
   She first listened to Hunter x Hunter radio at 6th grade and got interested in how the main character voices were so different than their roles. Also just liked that radio’s chemistry.
   Learned basic voice training from VHS lesson from 81produce with famous actors (Masako Nozawa etc) using her new years money in 6th grade.
6. Last parts: Getting into an agency
   During her audition she did an one person skit for a famous scene from Evangelion and one manager liked it. It showed off her uniqueness in a serious situation.

At this point she demonstrated what she meant by a one person skit, using the scene from Totoro where Mei is catching susuwatari. She acted and said all the lines in English even. Everyone’s reaction was lol. It was her first time doing it in English, she said afterwards.

After that we went into panel Q&A with audience. People were asked to line up in the middle of the room in front of the microphone.

• Q1. How was voicing and auditioning for Rin, who was the start of Cinderella Girls which is a large and long-running work.
  • At the time things were just starting and being Rin wasn’t marked as a big deal. For big and impressive IPs the auditions usually are preset in terms of what you sing, but not for Rin.
• Q2 Please tell a funny story from pamphlet shoot. The person produces a pamphlet and showed it to her. [I couldn’t see it.]
  • It was an old concert pamphlet, and the photoshoot outfit was not provided. She had to find a blue outfit. Coordinated with other cast members in order to match.
• Q3 Asked about her experience at Acen.
  • Producers smile the same everywhere. Assuring to see it.
• Q4 Asked to suggest more museums in Japan
  • Roppongi Mori Arts Center Gallery, modern art rotating exhibition. Some pop culture stuff.
• Q5 What she did to train for singing
  • Training using power inhailing. Need to be careful of ear pressure. Also back muscle training. Review book and films to expand what she can prepare her roles.
• Q6 How big uma became
  • Never expected of course. Ishihara reached out to her for audition chance. She was told specifically how to act as Pearl: Not stuck up, look at people in the eye and do a thing (?)
• Q7 For Girls’ Frontline, how was it like to play G11 and RO635?
  • Everyone sounds so different, and also G11 and RO635. Depends on her condition of the day, they change recording order. The story is heavy and needs more energy to play than usual.
• Q8 Who would she personally cosplay not for work?
  • Tifa (FF7)
• Q9 [I asked this] What’s your approach to SNS?
  • I don’t try to be smart on SNS. The idea is to post something fun for everyone. And also food pics because everyone enjoys those.

At the end of Q&A part, Fuurin performed her audition-winning skit, which is from Eva 2.0 when Shinji rescues Ayanami. This time it is in Japanese. It was greeted with applause.

Photo time! She sat on stage and posed for everyone to photograph. It seems there is no restriction to what we can do with the photo as none was given. After this time, she asked us to gather to take a group photo. After that, she went back to stage and gave some parting words, and the audience sent her off with applause.

===

On Sunday, August 2, Fuurin held a panel titled “Voice Actor Nutrition and Training Interactive Panel” and is about her tips for training her own body, voice, strength and keeping things nutritious. I believe she wrote a blog post sometime in earlier this year which reflects similar material as presented at the panel. It is run by the same MC/interpreter whose name I forget, that ran the last Fuurin panel. This time we were in Panel 5, which is one of the panel rooms on the ground level in the middle building. This room filled up maybe half or so, which is pretty decent for a Sunday AM panel. Below are my notes that I cleaned up and filled in at certain parts. Same disclaimers apply, feel free to comment for corrections and omissions.

To get down to it, we went to the slide right away after introductions and greetings.

Slide 1 – to keep in shape for costumes
Goal is to prevent blood sugar spikes
Adequate protein intake – she made a comment on how she had Starbucks egg white breakfast in DC and they don’t have that, it’s a good example
Eating rice during the day – get tryptophan, which helps you sleep and be sated.
Adequate vitamin intake – fish oil etc. Best to get from actual food, but suppliment if you can’t.
Healthy fat intake – for example, fish oil, flax seed oil (she drinks it in tomato juice)
Now she talks about how she studied nutrition in college and is a registered dietitian after passing the certification exam.
Usually, people who have that degree work at a nursing home or school to make food, or at corporations to make various food products.
When she was recording Rin’s first solo, Never Say Never, it was right before the exam. She was literally studying during the recording downtimes.

Slide 2 – Nutrition for healthy voice 
Vitamin A C E
Protein intake 
Manuka Honey – helps immunity 
Regular hydration – help rinse also any bacteria/virus in throat

Slide 3
3 pictures of her meals (home made) that fits the requirements.
Nikujaga
Rice and mackerel mazegohan
Yasai Agenidashi (can be eaten chilled)
She talks about how her grandma ran a small inn and had worked there to learn cooking when she was young.
She also gave a story about how she went to a supermarket after recording and ran into coworkers with a big bag of vegetables, which slightly embarrassed her having to explain.

Slide 4 – protect your throat with olive oil
Spoonful of olive oil help protect throat
– Oleocanthal is the active ingredient
During dry season
When infection is a concern 
Before smoky stage performance (fog machine smoke)

Slide 5 – Make sure your olive oil:
EVOO
Cold pressed
Organic and pesticide free
Award winning
Dark glass bottle
Properly store in a cool dark place
Note: Avoid using olive oil if your throat is already irritated 
Consult your healthcare provider before use if you have any concerns

Slide 6 – Strength training for vocal health
Your vocal cords are supported by muscles!
Relying only on your vocal cords can lead to vocal strain and injury
Strength training is essential!
However, improper training or excessive muscle tension can reduce vocal resonance 
Muscles can act as both accelerator or blocker

Slide 7 – Muscle/strength training
Train the lats in moderation 
Lats support the rib cage, gives better control and good posture 
Helps with long line and louder stage voice 
Helps with posture for stage and photos
Row exercise for chest and arm muscle
Avoid building muscle on traps so only engage lats
Avoid overtraining the chest muscle – too much chest muscle may restrict vocal resonance 
Chest muscle is used normally and don’t need extra exercise for itself
Strengthen the deep core muscles
The trans versus abdominis and pelvic floor muscles are the keys – Great for both beautiful voice and beautiful legs
Planks for trans versus abdominis
She would watch video and listen music while planking 
For pelvic muscle helps with breathing, use abduction machine

The interactive part of the panel began after this. It was to demo an exercise. She got off the stage and sat in a chair prepared in advance up front.

Sit legs closed, place fists between legs. The fists are side by side, about 3 fingers thick from the knee in her case, you can find a good spot for yourself, it will vary from person to person.

The exercise begins by pushing your fists again the inside of your thighs trying to open them, and push your thighs against that force while clinching the butt, while sitting upright.

This was a demo and, uh, she was making some sounds which I think is just acting in good fun. We were all called to do this. She said she was doing this on her commute on the train. Each set is about 2 to 3 minutes.(?)

After the demo we moved to Q&A.This time we raised our hands and was picked.

• Q1 How she deals with mental fortitude against failure from auditions etc?
  • Analyze why she failed and find ways to improve result next time.
  • Talk to family and friends to support and get help
• Q2 Has she shared these advice to coworkers
  • Yes, some people. Sometimes people come over for food at her place.
  • Train with coworkers also
  • Story about Hasshi, she doesn’t like avocado but likes Fuurin’s avocado salad. So this is one way Fuurin’s skills helped her.
• Q3 Dealing with congestion while voice acting
  • If it’s too bad need to rest and reschedule, such as bad hay fever.
  • If it’s mild, clear out your nose first, then use a lot of vics vapor dilute in hot water and smell it, but it’s not recommended 

Last part, photo time, again with her first then as a group. Then she gave some parting words and we cheered as she walked off stage.

PS. I just want to say this year was amazing when it comes to autographs from seiyuu at Otakon. Otakon brought half the industry, first of all, then many of the brought seiyuu to promote their one or two projects. And while there was the usual focus on light novels, there were the usual big titles like Trigger’s stuff and Ghost in the Shell from BNFW. And arguably things like Overgeared and Rayearth.

This means I got an overwhelming amount of autographs in just one weekend. And Otakon doesn’t really go on much on Sunday, as by 3pm everything ended basically. I didn’t spend all day in the autograph area either, as I tried to hit as many of these seiyuu panel as I could. With so few days of the event and with so many guests, it’s invariable I can’t see everything I want. For example I wanted to thank EnJoh Toe about working with Itou Project but that chance never came. Can’t be helped I guess. Still, this was an impressive haul. On the note of EnJoh Toe, I also want to write more about the two very different light novel authors at the con, between Chiramune’s and Romelia’s. Maybe later.

PPS. Food wise, again, maybe avoid STK, but I had a nice steak there. Also it was quite empty. Yard House in DC isn’t that good versus the LA Live one. Nothing new here, other than it’s still a good place to booze it up. The only two notable discovery is that Love, Makoto is a Resy restaurant and Wiseguy pizza is the NYC type style place I want, which is about 15 minutes away on foot from the Marriot Courtyard by the con.