Animazement Closing Ceremonies

Animazement has come to a close, and as fitting as it sounds, here are the closing ceremonies with the Dragon Ball voice actors.

Yes, this post is almost two months after the actual closing ceremonies occurred, but I’ve been busy with the Spanish translation of my book, moving to New York City, and a lot more. Better late than never!

A Rare Moment in History

Here is the transcribed audio of the closing ceremonies.

I only transcribed the Dragon Ball related parts of the audio. If you like, you can listen to the rest.

Masako Nozawa: This was my first time coming to North Carolina. It was a wonderful and very happy occasion to be here.

This time I came riding an airplane and it took a while, but next time I’ll be riding on kinto’un, so it’ll be pretty much instantaneous.

Thank you all so much!

Ryusei Nakao: These were wonderful days, and this Animazement was especially memorable, having very special volunteers, and Masako Nozawa and many other esteemed guests. The three days went by in a very fast way. I’d especially like to thank everyone who made this possible, Yoshimi, the volunteers, and the staff of Animazement. Thank you.

Toshio Furukawa: I had a very fun time here at Animazement. It was very meaningful. And just as Ryusei Nakao said, having the other wonderful guests, such as Ms. Nozawa, and Yuko from New York, made it a very memorable Animazement. If possible I’d be very happy to come back again next year. Thank you.

Yuko Minaguchi: Thank you very much. Currently I am studying English in New York, and the reason for this is that I was at a convention six years ago and it really motivated me to want to be able to talk with everyone. I think I was a little bit successful this time. I’ll study harder and get more fluent in English, and when I go back to Japan I’ll take on more work so I’ll have the resources to come back again to Animazement. Thank you!

Kara Edwards: I think this is my sixth time to Animazement, I’m not sure anymore. I love this convention, there’s a reason I come here – The fans of North Carolina, I love the Carolina’s. This staff is second to none, and I say it every time I’m here but I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Yoshimi and everyone who works here, they are so good to us. They work so hard. I want to say a special thank you to all of the translators. To say that we worked them like yo-yo’s is the biggest understatement ever. Because in such a frenzied desire to communicate, I was grabbing anybody and everybody, “Say this! Tell them this!”

On a personal note… I am going to get through this, I have cried on every panel I have gone to. On a personal note I have dreamed of this for 13 years. Dragon Ball Z was my first paid job as a voice actor.

These people have influenced my life and affected my life in ways I don’t think I can properly express. They’ve become lifelong friends, and will be my friends forever.

I cannot thank Animazement enough, the fans enough, every person on this stage enough, for giving me a weekend that, I just need my brain to last for eternity so that I never forget a single moment of it. It really, truly meant that much to me. So thank you.

Kyle Hebert: I go to a lot of con’s, and I gotta say every year the magic is truly here, you guys, the staff behind the scenes, the guests on stage. The magic really hit home this weekend, for Sean, Kara, and myself, especially with the Dragon Ball panel this year, this unbelievable career high point.

The profound effect of getting to meet the seiyu from the show that launched all our careers. There’s no way to communicate how cool that is. Truly.

I’m sure you saw it on our faces, those that were at the panel yesterday, and I’m sure there are uploads on YouTube of the panel of us doing the group kamehameha together and everything. You don’t get to recreate that at just any old con, it happened here at the best one, Animazement. So thank you so much for having me again.

Sean Schemmel: I don’t know how to follow that, but I agree with both of my colleagues and friends here. Normally I’m a very talkative person, as many of you know. By the way, if you missed the Dragon Ball Z panel and you were at Animazement, heh, that was dumb, hehe. Sorry, Toshi. You missed history. That might not ever happen again in animation history, ever.

Toshi: I had a panel at the same time!

Sean Schemmel: He’s dedicated! He’s dedicated, that’s good. So if you skipped Toshi’s panel, that was smart.

Audience: *Laughter*

Sean Schemmel:

I can’t express enough how much this is like an awesome genki dama, spirit bomb, for me, except I’m keeping the bomb. All of your energy, particularly of our Japanese guests.

A lifelong dream, well not a lifelong because I didn’t start doing Goku until I was 30, but a career dream for me to meet Masako Nozawa and the rest of the Japanese guests. It is the most authentic, if you love anime this is the most authentic it’s going to get short of going to Japan yourself.

The operative word in Animazement I always thought was ‘anime,’ but now it’s ‘amazing,’ ‘amazement.’ It’s just the absolute most amazing convention, I will always come back. I want to give a big hats off to Yoshimi for getting me out here. She’s in charge of all of this, she has worked her tail off to make all this happen, the American guests, the Japanese guests, bringing this all together. She has essentially created this historical event by doing this, and all the staff at Animazement that support her. Unbelievable. Until you go to a bunch of other con’s I don’t know if you’ll appreciate this, and I hope you do, I certainly do and I’ve been to a ton of them.

From the bottom of my heart I thank all of you. I’m deeply honored and humbled to share the stage with the living legends of Japanese animation and anime. Thank you so much.

Coming to a Close

For those who weren’t able to attend, I hope that my series of posts on Animazement helped bring the magic of the moment to you.

It was definitely a rare event. Not only with all of the Dragon Ball voice actors, but for the group of fans from across the United States that went to see them.

For example, here is a group picture with a lot of the members of the kanzenshuu.com forum, the largest and longest lasting Dragon Ball site in English.