The New York Anime Festival is an annual anime convention held at the Jacob K. Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan. It features exclusive and extensive anime screenings, guests from America and Japan, manga, cosplay, video games, live-action Japanese cinema, fashion, food, and the cultural treasures that gave birth to Japanese pop culture.

This year, admin TSS_Killer had the privilege to attend the convention as part of the press. Below is information from the "Voice Acting 201: The Voices" panel held on Saturday, September 26, 2009 from 2:45-03:45 PM.

The "Voice Acting 201: The Voices" panel explained how voice actors create voices and instructed attendees on how to do the same. Famous English Dub Pokémon voice actors Rachael Lillis, Veronica Taylor and Tom Wayland were on hand. Misako Takashima aka Misako Rocks! and Jamie Mcgonnigal were also on hand for the panel.



An anime charity auction was held at the end of the panel in honor of the late Maddie Baustein who was the voice actor of Meowth for many seasons of the English dub of Pokémon. The winner, or in this case the winners, would have the opportunity to audition for Tom Wayland. The auction surpassed all expectations finally ending with two victors both willing to pay $5000USD for 'the opportunity of a lifetime' to participate in an audition and feedback session.

A video from the auction is available here. The video does contain foul language. Viewer discretion is advised.