Time to branch out: Comic Con organizer sets Cape Anime Con dates

For the last five years, Cape Comic Con co-organizer and Cape Championship Wrestling promoter Ken Murphy said he has wanted to branch out from the norm. So after months of planning, the beginning stages of the first Cape Anime Con are sprouting.

The convention is set for Sept. 21 and 22 at the Arena Building in Cape Girardeau.

“There will be a familiarity to some of the people that attend Cape Anime Con, so I don’t want them to see Cape Anime Con come along right on the heels of Cape Comic Con,” Murphy said by phone Saturday.

Murphy said Cape Comic Con has solidified itself in the area. The convention will celebrate 15 years in 2020.

Anime — Japanese and Japanese-inspired animation — is a popular art form for middle school, high school and college-aged kids, Murphy said, adding he hopes for 1,200 attendees at the event.

Though still in planning mode, one special guest is confirmed according to Murphy: voice actor Jason Liebrecht.

Liebrecht has voiced for numerous English versions of Japanese anime series and video games including Lavi and the Millennium Earl in the “D.Gray-man” series, Syaoran in “Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle” and Cardcaptor Sakura, Rob Lucci in the Funimation dub of “One Piece” and Tapion in “Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon.”

Many professional voice actors work at Texas-based Funimation Productions, and it’s also where Murphy said he met Liebrecht.

Without revealing the rest of the guest lineup, Murphy said the convention will feature

individuals who are professionals in the world of creating the art, voice acting or animation.

Since the beginning of Cape Comic Con, Murphy said he wanted it to be the parent event or home event of subsequent events, adding Cape Championship Wrestling is a branch of Comic Con that has evolved “quite a bit” over the years.

The addition of Cape Anime Con may have looked like a surprise to some, he said, “but it really wasn’t.”

And he said anime seemed to be “the first, best fit.”

“We are definitely on our second generation,” Murphy said. “I think it’s going to be a lot of fun seeing my friends I’ve met in this community and known for 20 years, who are now in their mid-30s and bringing their kids to the anime show.”

Murphy said jokingly, “In the 1970s, the only anime I knew of was ‘Speed Racer.’”

Anime-inspired card game tournaments and video game tournaments, a scavenger hunt, costume contest, Q&A panel and anime-related workshops also will be part of the convention, according to Murphy.

“We like to provide some originality as well,” he said. “We think that it’s the genre that will create the originality.”

Murphy added, “We’re new at this, but we also feel like we have a foundation and a track record to where we understand how to build it out and create a day or two of entertainment.”

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