Consul-General Fukushima attended the opening ceremony of Anime Matsuri 2019 (June 14, 2019)
2019/7/3
(Photos: Quy Tran Photography)
Consul-General Fukushima attended the opening ceremony for Anime Matsuri 2019, which was held from June 13th to 16th in Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center.
Anime Matsuri is in its 13th year and has become one of the largest Anime conventions in North America thanks to the enthusiastic support of local fans of Japanese pop-culture. Anime Matsuri filled the entire convention center for 4 days and featured Anime and Cosplay related booths along with activities such as workshops, concerts, and panel discussions. The event was very successful, and many attendees in cosplay enjoyed its festivities until late into the evening.
At the opening ceremony, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner arrived in costume as a character from Dragon Ball Z and expressed his appreciation to the event’s organizer, Deniece Leigh, as well as the event’s staff for contributing to Houston’s prominence as an international city that welcomes diversity. Consul-General Fukushima then expressed his gratitude that Houston and its citizens had come to accept and celebrate Japanese pop-culture with creativity and respect.
One of the highlights of Anime Matsuri 2019 was the Godzilla Store Tokyo booth. This was the first time that the Tokyo-based store has a presence outside of Japan which was arranged courtesy of Toho Co. Ltd. The booth featured an exhibition with materials from the long history of Godzilla films, including the most recent Hollywood-production “Godzilla: King of the Monsters”. Godzilla is one of the defining creations of Japanese pop culture whose popularity also runs deep here in Texas!