One of the things folk don’t realise about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe until they get there is that the festival fills up every available performance space in the city for the duration. If you can squeeze some chairs and a sound system into a room, then you have a venue. Anime-Zing! squeezes a crowd of fans into a karaoke booth to thrill audiences with anime-themed fun, mostly centred around its hosts, who are voice actors.
Highly experienced and incredibly talented performers Soness Stevens and Jonah Hagans invite colleagues from the world of voice acting to present a series of panel show-style games for a mixed crowd of anime fans, young families and the overly curious. Though the hosts are from the USA (though one of them mostly lives in Japan), the show also takes its time to showcase local talent, inviting voice actors from Scotland and the rest of the UK. This means, rather brilliantly, that a lot of the guests on this show are more familiar with British children’s TV shows than you’d expect. After all, UK voice actors are more likely to be known for their work on Numberjacks and Shaun The Sheep than Dragon Ball Z.
The overall vibe felt very much like the panel of a local anime convention, though one that had removed all trace of mainstream and more popular anime in favour of art and animation from local artists.
Panels like this are always a fun way to pass the time, as well as a good way for folks to get acquainted with the skill required to do voiceover work. The venue, alas, really lets the show down, as does a lack of preparedness, leading to cues getting lost and audiences becoming confused. A good idea for a show, just one that needs a bit more planning and a better budget.
Find out show details here, and learn about future shows here.
Editorial note: 18/08/2025 – Order of atrribution changed. Speculation on nature of selected animation removed.
