 The site of
Sakura Con was this Doubletree Inn in Tukwila, just south of Seattle and
not far from the international airport. It was a small setting, the smallest
this author has seen in three years of attending conventions... |
 ...and the
size of the hotel meant limits on the number of people who attended. Around
500 people registered in advance, another 100 three-day passes were sold
quickly at the registration desk on the event's first day, and the number
of one-day memberships were limited. |
 Still. the
small size game Sakura con a comfortable feeling, which brought back familiar
convention faces such as these Officer Jenny costumers last seen at FanimeCon,
five weeks earlier... |
 ...and Jerry
Chu of Bandai, grinning over the success of his company's Gundam Wing serial
on the Cartoon Network. The ground-breaking cablecast of the company's
giant robot show led to a rush to buy Bandai's model kits, Chu said, adding
that it was difficult to keep the five variations of Gundams from the show
on store shelves. |
 More familiar
faces (from left to right): voice actors Tristan MacAvery, Doug Smith and
Tiffany Grant were at a wild audience-participation improv show on the
convention's first day. Grant was delighted to learn that more fans wanted
to eat lunch with her at the upcoming Project: A-Kon than any other guest. |
 New voices
also were on hand for Sakura Con. In the middle is Sandy Fox, who has taken
her voice acting talents (she's the newest voice for the classic character
Betty Boop) to anime roles in recent years. On the right is Lex Lang, who
specializes in duplicating celebrity voices when he's not voicing roles
in Ninja Cadets and Magic Knights Rayearth, and Rik "Otaking" Wall is on
the left, ushering the guests around the convention. |
 Here's a happy
family portrait from Sakura Con's final day: Tiffany Grant is in the middle,
surrounded by her sister on the left and her mother on the right. Mom and
sis live in the Seattle area (and Tiffany has four mothers!). |
