10 October 2015 was an amazingly epic day at Osaka-jo hall, where the MBS (Mainichi Broadcasting System) Anime Festival 2015 was held. Participating animes at the event were big names like; “Mobile Suit Gundam 00”, “Code Geass: Lelouch of the rebellion”, “Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler)”, “Durarara!!”, as well as “Haikyuu!!” With surprise cast appearances by many popular voice actors, live performances by famous artists, the audience was certainly blown away.

MBS Anime Fest is an event that only takes place once every 10 years, and this time it was held at Osaka-jo hall. It is a three-day a music event, with the second day being the “Music Festival”. There were also 120 live-viewing locations all over Japan, with over 15,000 people watching!

Code Geass: Lelouch of the rebellion
FLOW was the opening artist of the event, bringing the song, “COLORS”, the nostalgic opening song of “Code Geass: Lelouch of the rebellion”. Of course, the two main casts of the anime, “Jun Fukuyama (as Lelouch), and Takahiro Sakurai (as Suzaku) did a live dubbing of the most memorable scenes in the anime, in which Jun Fukuyama was moved to tears after. That was not the end, as secret guest ALI PROJECT appeared to bring the anime’s ending songs, “Yuukyou Seishunka“ and “Waga Routashi Aku no hana”.

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Jun Fukuyama
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Takahiro Sakurai

 

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FLOW
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Photo taken from a tweet by Keigo from FLOW
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ALI PROJECT

Kuroshitsuji

Next up was “Kuroshitsuji”, where Daisuke Ono (who plays Sebastian) began the segment with a monologue. To the audience’s utter delight, Maaya Sakamoto (who plays Ciel) appeared as a surprise guest, sending the crowd roaring. The pair also did some live dubbing as master and servant, and at the end, it was announced that a Kuroshitsuji anime movie was in the making!

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Maaya Sakamoto
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Daisuke Ono

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As if this event had not enough surprises already, SID appeared to present to the crowd, two opening songs for the anime, “Monochrome kiss” and “ENAMEL”.

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SID

Durarara!!

The band, “OKAMOTO’S” appeared on stage, singing the opening song for “Durarara!!x2 Shou,” after voice actor Toshiyuki Toyonaga (who plays Mikado Ryuugamine) started the Durarara!! segment with a monologue. Toyonaga, together with co-stars Mamoru Miyano (as Masaomi Kida) and Daisuke Ono (as Shizuo Heiwajima) did a live dubbing of the anime, in which Daisuke Ono shouted, “Izaaayaaaaa!!” and you’ve guessed it, Hiroshi Kamiya (as Izaya Orihara) appeared on stage as another surprise guest! This sent the crowded roaring again. Toshiyuki Toyonaga impressed the audience with his vocals when he performed the opening song for “Durarara!!x2 Ten”, “Day you laugh”.

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Toshiyuki Toyonaga
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Hiroshi Kamiya
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OKAMOTO’S
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Toshiyuki Toyonaga

Haikyuu!!

For the “Haikyuu!!” segment, Kaito Ishikawa (who voices Tobio Kageyama) and Ayumu Murase (who voices Shouyo Hinata) also had a live dubbing showcase. At the end of the skit, they brought out the passion in the scene by shouting out their lines without their microphones on!

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Ayumu Murase
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Kaito Ishikawa

Of course, the “Haikyuu!!” segment will not be complete without a performance of their uplifting opening song, “Imagination” by yet another special guest appearance by SPYAIR!

Mobile Suit Gundam 00

Last but not least, it was time for the “Gundam 00” segment. Mamoru Miyano (who voiced Setsuna F. Seiei), Hiroshi Kamiya (who voiced Tieria Erde), came on stage for the live dubbing session, bringing in the series atmosphere that is “Gundam 00”. But what is a live dubbing session with only two of the four Gundam Meisters? Hiroyuki Yoshino (who voiced Allelujah Haptism), and Shinichiro Miki (who voiced Lockon Stratos) joined the two on stage, after saying their famous lines from the anime. The event sure ended with a bang, with such an amazing cast line up!

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Mamoru Miyano

 

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Hiroshi Kamiya
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Shinichiro Miki
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Hiroyuki Yoshino

After the emotional moments during the “Gundam 00” stage, most people would think that the MBS Anime Festival had come to a close. However, a roulette flipping through anime titles, started running on the screens. It stopped at none other than the hit series, “Gintama”! TV Tokyo had hijacked the MBS Anime Festival by bringing the cast from “Gintama”! Tomokazu Sugita (as Gintoki), Daisuke Sakaguchi (as Shinpachi), and Kugimiya Rie(as Kagura) acted out a few famous scenes from the anime, complete with Gintama-like gags and jokes. SPYAIR appeared for the second time to perform “Samurai Heart (Some like it hot!), one of the ending themes from “Gintama”.

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SPYAIR

It was indeed a fun-filled, as well as emotional event for not only the fans, but also the voice actors who participated in the event. All of them gathered together once again on stage for the closing ceremony, and led the audience to shout, “MBS Anime Fest!” as confetti shot into the air across the hall. It was definitely a memorable experience for everyone who attended MBS Anime Festival!

Credits:

http://www.pashplus.jp/event/anime/1857/

http://www.animate.tv/news/details.php?id=1444487885