Anime convention season is well underway. Conventions are an excellent way for fans to meet, greet and interact with some of the most beloved voice actors in the anime industry.
To honor the season of convention hopping, here’s a look at a forgotten YouTube web series, CONfessionals, which describes some of the craziness that occurs at anime conventions.
The Synopsis of CONfessionals
CONfessionals is a Kickstarter-funded project created and starred by some of the most popular voice actors in English dubbed anime, including Cherami Leigh (Sword Art Online), Bryce Papenbrook (Attack on Titan) and J Michael Tatum (My Hero Academia). The mockumentary web series premiered in 2017 on YouTube as a five-episode parody highlighting not only the insane antics that happen at conventions but also some of the issues in the anime industry.
In the series, Rileigh Star (Cherami Leigh) and her twin brother Reese Babbinflock (Bryce Papenbrook) make an appearance at a fictitious anime convention TexarcAnime. They hope to meet Cash Jackson (David Vincent) so that they can headline the popular anime convention, GigantiCon. However, their dreams may come to a halt when Rileigh’s acting rival, K Mickey Malcolm (J Michael Tatum) is also set to appear at the same convention.
CONfessionals Mixes Comedy and Commentary About the Anime Industry
The web series has a good combination of comedy and commentary about anime fans and voice actors. The series exposes some of the crazy actions that fans do to see their favorite voice actors. For example, one of the characters, Dawson (Carson Nicely), is a stalker fan of Rileigh Star. Dawson shows his creepiness by making a Rileigh doll using her real hair, and he’s a know-it-all about Rileigh’s life. Although Dawson is an exaggerated version of an anime fan, viewers can’t deny that there are fans like him out there.
The series also showcases some of the stigmas that people may have about voice actors and celebrities in general. Cherami Leigh and J Michael Tatum do a fantastic job playing roles as egotistical and selfish celebrities. Rileigh Star and K Mickey Malcolm believe that they are the best at their acting crafts and deserve to be paid more significantly for their guest star appearances at conventions. Even though it appears that the characters, Rileigh Star and K Mickey Malcolm, are undeserving of a big paycheck due to their rotten personalities, the characters expose a dark issue in the anime industry: voice actors receive low pay for their work. The series does not pose a solution to this problem, but the actors make their audiences aware of the hard work they put into their craft and not getting the pay they deserve.
However, even though some serious issues are circulating in the anime industry, the series says a lot about the importance of anime conventions. In the last episode, Rileigh Star’s twin brother, Reese Babbinflock, reminds the convention crowd and the viewers about why anime conventions are important. Conventions allow fans to share their love for anime and for voice actors to give back to the fans for their support.
CONfessionals is an underrated and long-forgotten web series. Its lack of popularity may be because the series premiered closely before the pandemic, and soon after, conventions were at a standstill. Now that anime conventions are slowly popping up again, fans may eventually get the Season 2 that CONfessionals deserves and which was hinted at the end of the last episode.