Anime Festival Takes Over Downtown Tulsa

A festival celebrating Japanese entertainment and history is happening right now in downtown Tulsa.

"Tokyo In Tulsa" is all about the anime.

“Anime is Japanese animation,” Uriah Davis said.

That's the simple explanation, Davis, says.

“Now it's more of a cultural lifestyle,” he said. “You do what you love and it's kind of a thing, this is all kind of a labor of love for that.”

Tokyo in Tulsa is sort of like comic-con.

A big part is dressing as your favorite character without worrying what anyone thinks.

“No one judges,” Talon Evans said.  

Many con-goers spend countless hours creating their own, unique and intricate costumes.

“This is a fishing pole,” Chelsey Hines said. “This is a real knife handle and this is a meat baster.”

In Tokyo In Tulsa's first year, about a thousand people attended. This is the 10th year and it's expected to be the biggest yet with 10,000 people expected this weekend.

There are art, clothing and even wig vendors.

Plus bands, guest speakers and anime voice actors, like Rachel Messer, who grew up in Catoosa.

TNT peaked her interest in the industry.

“Tokyo In Tulsa was the first convention I ever came to as an attendee,” voice actress Rachel Messer said.

She's now well-known in the gaming and anime world, she plays several characters in the show 'Midnight Mares."

“I get to be the bully now... kind of character,” Messer. “And then there's the mother character and she's very proper and formal and she's also kind of like a goddess mare, so she's very formal in how she speaks.