No Pink Spandex Behind-the-Scenes: Zenkaikon 2009

I will start by saying that this convention appearance from NPS was not planned. It was going to be Anime Expo, Anime Festival Orlando, and that was it! But then fellow Production Assistant Jessica wanted to go and have company with her, and since it was only a few hours drive from us, I said sure! Shoot a little Power Rangers panel, shoot a little Eyeshine concert, and that’s it! Or so I thought.

Zenkaikon 2009 was a two-day con (November 7-8), and it was jammed packed with events if you were a Johnny Yong Bosch fan alone! Trust me, I fell asleep a couple times just out of pure exhaustion. Ok, that part was my fault for not sleeping the Friday night before, lol. But the staff really had Johnny doing some panel or concert or autograph session every hour on Saturday. It was a bit intense because Robert Axelrod (Voice of Lord Zedd) was also a guest, and his events/panels kept conflicting with Johnny’s.

Not only was there a Power Rangers panel, but there was an Eyeshine panel, two Eyeshine concerts, two autograph sessions, a Bleach panel (basically a JYB panel), and more things that weren’t on the program that I heard offhand. Did I mention that they planned Axelrod’s panel at the same time as opening ceremonies? I didn’t? Yeah, they did. They also planned the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie” screening at the same time as the Power Rangers panel. They also planned Axelrod’s panel “So You Wanna Be a Voice Over Star” at the same time as Johnny’s autograph session, which, by the way, was a never-ending line and his autograph session had to extend into two hours. YEAH. THEY DID. But I digress.

The good stuff started at the Power Rangers panel. While we were waiting for the previous panel to end by the door, Johnny stood by us to wait as well. Then the fans on the line started whipping out their cameras, and one fan asked for Johnny to morph with his morpher. Just pretend there’s a picture here showing Johnny morphing with fans.

Robert Axelrod and Johnny Yong Bosch answering questions at Power Rangers Panel.
(Picture courtesy: Jessica Steinberg)

As for the actual panel, this is the first time that Johnny and Axelrod were on a panel together, and they talked about how many cons they’ve been to in the past and never met up. Many of the typical questions came up, but one fan asked if Johnny or Axelrod knew about a second Power Morphicon was going to be planned (and if so, when and where). Axelrod said that there’s a second one happening, but he didn’t know when and didn’t know where. And then Johnny spilled that he wasn’t invited. Cue outcry.

Eyeshine Q&A
(Picture courtesy: Jessica Steinberg)

Right after the Power Rangers panel came the Eyeshine Q&A. Johnny mentioned that although it was an Eyeshine Q&A, if asking about Power Rangers or anime will get people to stick around, by all means ask, lol! People did, but it was mostly questions about the band, so that hour filled out nicely. One tidbit that Johnny mentioned was that he currently keeps in contact with Jason David Frank and that Jason will be in an MMA fight in February. Hopefully he won’t get injured again and it’ll happen this time!

Johnny Yong Bosch Autograph Session

By this time, Johnny was very happy that someone with a more-than-decent video camera was taping his events at the convention, so the NPS crew went into the autograph session and taped some more. Caught a couple of Power Ranger fans getting stuff signed, including one fan who actually drew Johnny a picture of Adam in the black ranger suit anime style. It’s actually really cool, and another PR fan there was cool with her MMPR t-shirt (shown above). So I approve! Everyone else, BAD FORM. How dare they go to an anime convention, go up to an anime voice actor, and then ask him to sign anime-related merchandise? The NERVE of these people!

Eyeshine at sound check.
(Picture courtesy: Jessica Steinberg)

My main concern was recording the sound properly, because this wasn’t the first time I’ve recorded these guys. Youmacon 2005 had decent video, but terrible audio. Had to get it right this time, and let’s just say that I’m so thankful that they were doing a concert again on Sunday, lol! Learned quickly what not to do!

Sunday afternoon Eyeshine concert.

After being incredibly tired Saturday, Sunday was a breeze. Although, it started early. I was told that a podcast had a panel and they were going to interview Johnny and the guys, so we went…at 9:30am. They started really late anyway, and the band didn’t get there until 10ish to do the interview, so it wasn’t so bad. Axelrod was there to be interviewed as well, so that was nice. The guys interviewing the guests were really…off though. I mean, they were ok, but it just seems as if they didn’t know what to ask, and even with the Eyeshine interview, they lucked into a really good story about Maurice (drummer) bleeding on the drums at one performance they did back in 2007. No seriously, Maurice was using someone else’s drum kit to play, cut himself while playing, and by the end of the set, there was blood all over the drum heads. Wonderful parting gift.

Then the encore concert came around, and was packed with people. Easily 3 times the size of the Saturday concert. The nice surprise was that one of the fans played with them on a track, and that was cool. I mean, if I got to jam with my favorite band, hello! Awesomeness!

The Ins and Outs of ADR Writing with Robert Axelrod.
(Picture courtesy: Jessica Steinberg)

Our last event was to catch a bit of the ADR Writing panel. It was cool because Axelrod was using Power Ranger examples to explain how an ADR script is written and what to look out for. It was informative! And any excuse for him to use the Lord Zedd voice is good times by me!

And that’s it! Thanks to Jessica for helping me out and taking most of the behind-the-scenes pictures, and thanks to the Zenkaikon staff. Footage of the convention is coming very soon. At least this’ll be something to tie you over with the lack of RPM episodes. Remember, if you’d like to see us cover more convention, feel free to donate! (And request for more rangers to go to East Coast conventions!)

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