The 2024 Little Rock Anime Fest attracts voice actors, artists, cosplayers, and furries

Little Rock, Arkansas – Little Rock Anime Fest, the younger sibling of Arkansas Comic Con, took place over the weekend at the Statehouse Convention Center.

“It’s a great environment, everyone’s a nerd here” said attendee Keely Todd.

Anime fans from all across the Natural State came to the convention to meet celebrities, voice actors, and cosplayers.

“Just seeing the people all dressed up, it really brings me joy” said Latosha Walker, Todd’s friend.

Among the notable attendees were the voice actors from Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. series, Samantha Kelly as Princess Peach and Kenny James as Bowser.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s five fans or 50,000 fans, I like meeting fans,” said James.

Aside from getting to know famous visitors, spectators may take part in discussions, don costumes, and peruse a wide range of merchants offering books, art, merchandise, and props.

“There’s so much creativity going on, there’s writers, artists, actors,” said Kelly.

Also attending as special guests were Alejandro Saab, who did voice work for the newly released “Persona 3 Reload” videogame and Neil Kaplan, who voiced Madara Uchiha in “Naruto Shippuden” and Optimus Prime in “Transformers: Robots in Disguise.”

“It’s been fun! I’ve met a lot of cool fans, gotten to meet a different collection of folks that like different properties” Saab said.

“It’s an awful lot of fun and and very humbling to meet all the wonderful fans here in Little Rock” Kaplan agreed.

The third Little Rock Anime Fest took place in the state capital of Arkansas this year.

“It’s a celebration of that one thing that we all love that takes us back, it’s a nostalgia thing…the cartoons.” said emcee Joey Mills.

“It’s definitely exciting to see that there is a lot of interest in this here in our state” said Star Wars cosplayer Zackary Valentine.