Report: Anime Milwaukee 2026

Once again, I attended this year’s Anime Milwaukee event, this time not only as a press member, but also as a panelist.

Thursday

As is usually the case for Milwaukee events, I took a bus rather than driving to the city from Madison. This time, I purchased a ticket from Jefferson Lines (who runs services from the Twin Cities to Milwaukee each day), only to find out that the bus was running roughly an hour behind schedule, forcing me to wait on the UW-Madison campus for a while. All that said, the rest of the trip was pretty ordinary.

Friday

I went to the press office in the morning to pick up my pass. I had mistakenly believed I had press sessions that morning (in reality, they were Saturday and Sunday), so that left me time to attend a pair of Pokémon trivia panels-one that got volunteers from the audience, another via Kahoot, both interesting. After those, I proceeded to do some shopping in the vendor hall, and that evening I attended a “Cooking With Pokémon” (exactly what you think) panel, then returned to my hotel room.

Saturday

This morning I actually did have an interview-in this case with Dani Chambers (Shelly’s voice in Pokémon Masters). This was originally supposed to be a single roundtable session where outlets would take turns asking questions, but instead we were each given 10 minutes to conduct separate interviews. This makes editing easier, so the change was fine by me.

The afternoon was fairly crowded, with a Smash Ultimate tournament at 2, Nintendo cosplay photoshoot at 3, and an interview with Dorthy and Tom Fahn (who were wonderful) at 4. While I was able to get cosplay photos, the Smash Ultimate tournament had ended before I could get back following the interview session, but those are the types of tradeoffs that happen at these events.

At 7:15 PM, I started my panel on restoring media with machine learning (slides). Attendance was sparse (15-20) people, but given the niche subject, not surprising. Despite the erratic wi-fi at the convention center, I was able to demo the audio aspect of my presentation just fine. Afterwards, one of the attendees talked to me, having realized they knew me from high school, which was an interesting surprise.

Sunday

After taking care of two interviews (Xanthe Huynh and Felecia Angelle), I used my remaining time at the convention to attend panels on diversity in anime (which has improved, but still has a ways to go), and an introduction to paneling at conventions. The bus ride home (this time on Badger Bus) was relatively uneventful.

Overall

My convention experience was exceptionally smooth this year, despite participating from multiple angles. AMKE has made good use of the additional space added to the Baird Center, which is reflected in the larger number of panels at this year’s event. I can definitely recommend it as a well-run event.

Other Notes:

-There was a wonderful display of Kimono at the show, where I was able to attend a presentation on the history of the art form.
-The best meal I had in Milwaukee was likely from Zebb’s Restaurant (watch the staples on the bag, though!), from which I ordered a custom omelet and banana bread:

Press access was provided for this event.

Report: Pokémon Pinball Media Day @ Stern Pinball

Earlier this month, Stern Pinball announced their long-rumored Pokémon-themed table. Having been following this rumor for over a year, I sent a request to their press team to see if I could get into their media day on February 11^th. They got back to me quickly, and with a bit of paperwork, I was signed up to go.

Travel

I decided I didn’t want to do four hours of driving in one day, so I drove down to Elk Grove Village (the suburb just outside of O’Hare where Stern is located) and checked into a hotel for the night. I ate dinner at a restaurant in Des Plaines called “Chicago Sushi”, which despite its generic name actually had the best Japanese food I’ve tasted since my 2023 trip to Japan.

Arriving at the Event

The following morning, I picked up a small breakfast and headed over to Stern’s headquarters and factory. I was curious to find out how much of the audience came from the pinball media and how much came from a Pokémon perspective. It seems like I might have been the only Pokémon-focused outlet, though some of the others had a fair degree of knowledge of the franchise.

First, a Presentation

We (there were a few dozen attendees at the event) were brought into the “Cheetah” meeting room to watch a presentation (no recording allowed) that explained the company, a bit about the Pokémon property (a number of folks were genuinely surprised it had more revenue than the next four highest-grossing properties combined), and showed some video footage of the table.

Touring the Factory

A portion of us (likely ones that hadn’t been to the factory before), including myself, opted to go on a tour of Stern’s machine factory. No recording/photography was allowed here either, but we did get to see all the parts that go into physically building a machine, visible and hidden. The guide also made a point to mention where some of the parts come from, including those from Wisconsin and other nearby states.

The “Pinball Alley” Room

After the tour, we were led into a room that had all three versions (Pro, Premium, and Limited Edition) of the Pokémon table (as well as a few other recent Stern releases). After a round or two, some of the folks who worked on the table (including co-designers Jack Danger and George Gomez) gave a talk/Q&A about the table and some of its features. You can see a brief excerpt here:

That Afternoon

Following lunch, we were each given some time to play the Premium version of the table to get footage of it. It was a bit odd since the sound (except for the replay sound effect) were turned off, but I used it to gather some b-roll footage of the table that you should see in some upcoming videos. Afterwards, I conducted an audio interview with some of the team members, played a bit more, and then ate dinner and went home.

What About the Table Itself?

I figured you might be looking for that. I’ll preface my comments by stating that while I have a fair amount of experience with both virtual and real-world pinball, I do not consider myself an expert in either field. That being said, I very much enjoyed the atmosphere and mechanics of the table. The combination of anime footage, art, and voiceovers gives the table a natural feel and identity, distinct from other pinball machines. The mechanics, while standard things seen in other tables, felt very natural and were enjoyable to activate. I really did enjoy playing it a lot, though I will need to play it again once the Insider Connect collection feature goes live to make a full evaluation.

Other Notes About the Table:

-While all three versions of the table have physical Pikachu, Meowth, and Poké Ball ornaments, the Pikachu and Poké Ball ones only move on the Premium and Limited Edition models.
-There appear to be 182 Pokémon in the game at launch, including most (if not all) of generation one, with a few from later generations (Lucario has a light on the board, and Hopip came up in the grassy area several times).
-Voice acting is provided by Ted Lewis (Giovanni and the battle announcer), Ikue Ootani (Pikachu), James Carter Cathcart (Meowth-audio was sourced from his work on the anime, presumably in part due to his passing last year), and Roger Parsons (the announcer). There also seems to be a Pokédex voice, which I am unable to identify.
-The table will not be localized for other languages, so the graphics, text, and voices will be in English in other territories.
-The table was primarily handled by the Pokémon Company (Japan and International), with little to no involvement from Game Freak or Nintendo. This may explain why it (apparently) didn’t show up in the data extracted from Game Freak in 2024.
-The GBC and GBA games didn’t seem like a major point of inspiration for those on the Stern side, however it’s clear from some of the product features (catching, traveling between areas, etc.) that they were steered in that direction, or that those aspects came up organically.

Overall

I really enjoyed my time at this event, and look forward to playing the table again in the wild. It was also fun to bounce questions off the employees and other attendees. The employees indicated that The Pokémon Company had extended plans for the table, which I hope come to fruition.

Want to Play the Table Yourself?

The table will be shown at the upcoming Texas Pinball Festival in March, and will likely be at the Midwest Gaming Classic in April. The Stern employees I talked to also seemed to be interested in bringing the table to major Pokémon events later this year. Locally, keep an eye on Pinball Map, as tables should start going to retail locations in the next few weeks.

Press access was provided for this event.

Livestream: Pokémon Pinball Ruby/Sapphire (and more?)

In anticipation of the upcoming physical Pokémon-themed pinball table, I livestreamed some gameplay of Pokémon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire for the GBA. Learn more about this game, and pinball in general:

Livestream: Discussing the Music of Pokémon Masters EX w/Pikapi Podcast

Since its release in 2019, Pokémon Masters EX has accumulated a large amount of musical material, ranging from original music to game remixes to anime content. Anne from Pikapi Podcast helps me sort through this mobile game's long history: 

Excerpt: Mig's Rock Star Audition

In this excerpt, Mig Ayesa describes his initial audition for Rock Star: INXS in London. Listen in and find out who he ran into:

 

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 81-Twin Cities Con 2025/Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon Music

The first segment (0:50-9:26) is a pair of interviews from Twin Cities Con 2025*, where I got a chance to talk to the winner of the Smash Ultimate tournament, and interview a video game musician.bg

The second segment (10:29-45:14) is a discussion of the music of Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon for the 3DS. This entry in the sub-series has a massive amount of content, and the soundtrack is no exception. Anne from Pikapi Podcast joins me to cover it, including a game discussion after the outro:

*A press pass was provided for this event.

Links:
Twin Cities Con
Brian Koenig
Pikapi Podcast

Slow Scan TV Information:
SSTV audio an be decoded by a variety of software:
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iOS
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Wikipedia

Twin Cities Con 2025: Smash Ultimate Tournament Winner

At this year's Twin Cities Con in Minneapolis, MN, I had the opportunity to interview Caiden "GrizHawk" Stores, the winner of the Super Smash Bros Ultimate tournament. Listen in and find out more about what it was like:

A press pass was provided for this event.