Interviewing the Fonz, er, Fahns at Anime Milwaukee 2026

At this year's Anime Milwaukee, I had a chance to interview Dorothy and Tom Fahn, asking them abut their careers across multiple pop culture franchises:

Looking for just a bite?

A press pass was provided for this event.

Report: Side Events at Pokémon NAIC 2026

For the third (and apparently final) time, New Orleans hosted the North American Internationals for Pokémon. As usual, I spent most of my time playing in side events away from the main action. How did that go?

Thursday

Getting to New Orleans involved flying as usual, albeit via a different route than previous years. Instead of flying American via Charlotte and Dallas, I went through O’Hare on United both ways (it was a little odd connecting through an airport I had stayed near the weekend before). I did watch a few episodes of Pokémon Journeys, which I was surprised to find on the IFE. After arriving in New Orleans, I took a ride to my hotel, grabbed a meal at local restaurant Cochon.

Friday

I started my side event experience with a TCG Build-and-Battle, which was a nice experience (especially since I‘ve purposely avoided playing in local prereleases to give space to others),  even if my deck was given little help from the boosters. After a TCG raid or two, I took part in a Chaos Cup, which was made extra interesting when the judge made us play Malamar-style for the third and final round. With side events closed for the day, I headed back to the hotel and ordered food from Oceana Grill.

Saturday

After realizing I had brought the wrong wig for my “Ringo Starr as a Pokémon Trainer” costume, I headed to the convention center and participated in a TCG Raid (I got by with a little help from my friends), then prepared for my Pokémon Center slot. Having spent a fair bit on apparel at the previous weekend’s Go Fest, I decided to focus on other merchandise, including a costume-appropriate Dragonair ring.

Later that afternoon, I participated in a TCG Pocket event, where I actually managed to win a match (admittedly, the 5-heads Misty helped a lot in game two), though I could have done better in the third round with a bit more thought. We did have an issue where there was a long delay between round one and two due to an issue with one of the matches needing its result fixed. Afterwards, I went back to the hotel room and ordered from Daisy Mae’s (no website available).

Sunday

I was getting tired at this point, but I managed to don my Michael Hutchence costume and participate in a few Ditto pack drafts (of course) to close out the weekend. Having collected over 400 tickets over the weekend, I picked up a Detective Pikachu plush (tied to the movie, not the games), some Gen 4 Starter socks, and some packs for the next TCG event at Pegasus Games. Dinner came from Fiery Crab.

Monday

My flight out of New Orleans was at 6:30 am, so I got up around 4:15 (scarfing some leftovers from Fiery Crab) and got a ride to the airport. I decided to peruse the device-based IFE on the flight to O’Hare, and was surprised to find the Detective Pikachu movie on there (it wasn’t on the seat-back screens). The film definitely still holds up. Otherwise, the trip back home was relatively uneventful (a nice change from Anaheim last year).

Overall

As you may have guessed from my summary, side events were extremely smooth this time around, with the issue I mentioned during the TCG Pocket tournament being the only significant issue I encountered. It was really nice that side events were clearly not an afterthought here.

Other Notes:

-I did purchase a pass for the Go Scavenger Hunt, but lost my stamp card, so that’s why that wasn’t included in the report, though I did take some time to play it.
-With the announcement that next year’s NAIC event will be in Chicago, I’m starting to feel really spoiled.
-RK9’s feature to allow match reporting from the website is really convenient and I hope it gets expanded.
-While I had plenty of great food this weekend, the best was probably the Cajun pasta I had from Oceana Grill:

Report: Pokémon Go Fest Chicago-2026

As if having a pinball table and a field museum exhibit wasn’t enough, Chicago was also blessed with a Go Fest for Pokémon’s 30th anniversary. Having attended one in Las Vegas back in 2023, I was fairly certain this would not be a repeat of the disastrous 2017 event, but it remained to be seen how well it would go.

Friday

Like in 2017, I decided it would be better to stay near O’Hare airport and take the Blue Line (which runs 24/7) into the city, as it cuts down on highway travel, and saves on hotel costs. Unlike in 2017, I took a bus instead of driving myself. Other than the bus being quite late (traffic in Madison was a bit heavier than usual, it seemed), the trip went without much of note occurring.

Saturday

My park time slot was in the afternoon, so after sleeping in a bit and getting breakfast, I put on my “Michael Hutchence as a Pokémon Trainer” costume and hopped on the Blue Line. This trip was rather unpleasant, as the cars were very crowded due to the large number of folks headed to Pokémon Go Fest and a soccer game around this time. CTA really should have been running the maximum number of cars on these trains during this time, if at all possible.

After walking a few blocks (I had forgotten to look up exactly where the entrances to the event were), I entered the park area via Jackson Boulevard, then consulted a map to see where things were in the park. After wandering for a bit, I headed over to the merch pickup spot, only to find that the line was incredibly long. I decided I should come back later, and got started completing objectives in the various areas of the event, and meeting with other fans of the franchise.

In terms of mechanics, I had a great deal of trouble completing the tasks that required spinning stops and gyms, as I still had an excessive number of items from the level switchover. Eventually I had to start throwing away Max Potions so I could finally finish those tasks.

When the time came to battle Mega Mewtwo, I was instructed to head to the North area of the event. This was a bit confusing in the UI since the relevant gyms appeared on the map, then disappeared, but I managed to get to the right place (conveniently near a Team Mystic assembly area), and participate in both the X and Y versions of the event. I did have some visual oddities where the battle (especially the first with over one thousand participants) didn’t really animate on my phone screen, leading me to be confused as to whether things were working.

After the event shut down at 6 pm, I exited the park and used the Blue Line to returned to my hotel, a trip that was considerably less crowded. I took this opportunity to talk to other attendees and get their thoughts. They seem to have been relatively pleased with how the event had gone, much like myself.

Sunday

I had added on Sunday as a city-wide day, but ended staying on the west side of the city, with the intention of visiting several used video game stores. The first one I visited was “Game Over”, a small, tightly packed store on Fullerton Avenue. I ended up purchasing a copy of Hybrid Heaven for the N64 and Lethal Enforcers for the Super Nintendo.

The second location I visited was “Videogames Then & Now”, a larger location technically located in the suburb of Harwood Heights. This was a larger shop with a wider selection, including a number of pre-NES titles, books, and more. After acquiring Jet Force Gemini and a GameCube controller extension cable, I got a small bite to eat at the nearby gyro restaurant.

During the course of the day, I obviously made sure to complete more tasks in Go. In addition to getting my first Mudbray and Cursola, I took part in some Gigantamax Raids while I was waiting for or riding on buses. Since a third store (which I had thought would be open) was closed until Tuesday, I took that as a sign it was time to head out, and I went back to the hotel, then to the O’Hare multi-modal facility, and got on a bus back to Madison.

Conclusion

I had a great time at this year’s Go Fest event, certainly better than the disaster that was in 2017, and much more in line with my experience in Vegas in 2023. I very much recommend taking advantage of one of these events should there be an opportunity in your area.

Other Notes

-Towards the end of the park event, I found myself next to a young woman in a wheelchair. I asked her if she had encountered any issues, and she told me she was unable to enter the Team Go Rocket area due to the topography and a lack of walkways. Since I couldn’t remember, I asked her if the sign-up had any place where you could note the need for disabilities or accommodations, and according to her it does not. I think this is something that should be asked during sign up, even if it’s only used for statistical purposes.

-This is another “I would have understood if I looked closer” thing, but it was confusing to me that both the park and the city were divided into zones with different objectives and whatnot. When I saw the name “Investigation Zone”, I assumed that referred to the Team Go Rocket area of the park, and only on closer inspection did I finally figure things out.

-This was my first time wearing my Michael Hutchence cosplay outside for an extended period. Surprisingly, I was even able to wear the fake leather jacket most of the time-as long as I stayed in the shade-but it did feel good to remove the jacket and wig after the park event. As usual, it was fun to get people to try and guess who I was dressed up as.

-My best meal of the weekend came from Nonna Silvia’s, an Italian restaurant where I ordered this gnocchi dish:

Poke Press Digest Podcast: Episode 82-Discussing the music of "Pokemon Go"

Anne from Pikapi Podcast joins me to discuss the music of Pokémon Go, a mobile game you’ve probably heard of. In its nearly ten years of existence, it’s managed to incorporate an interesting range of tunes, from main game remixes to…Ed Sheeran? In any event, as usual, there’s a game discussion after the outro:

Links:
Pikapi Podcast

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

Livestream: Discussing the music of "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" w/Pikapi Podcast

The latest Smash Bros. game adds new characters and modes, but also plenty of new music. Anne from Pikapi Podcast joins me to talk about this soundtrack:

 

A Message from Ditto's Trainer?

 

Ditto Inside

Adapted from “Devil Inside” by INXS

New lyrics by Steven “Pokepress” Reich 

Here come the trainer

With the look in their eye

Raised imposters

To mess with your mind

Making movements

Faster than mine

Makes you wonder

How it hasn’t been tried

(Hasn’t been tried)

Makes you wonder

Wonder, wonder

[Well] here come the leader

With the look in their eye

Fearing nothing

Defending pride

Trading those blows

Trading those kicks

Givin’ their all

Until the other one gives

Ditto inside

The Ditto inside

Ev’ry single one of us

The Ditto inside

Ditto inside

Ditto inside

Ev’ry single one of us

The Ditto inside

Here come the town

With the look in its eye

Outcome uncertain

A certain delight

Look at the faces

Watchin’ for the tells

It's hard to believe

It can be done so well

(done so well)

The Ditto inside

The Ditto inside

Ev’ry single one of us

The Ditto inside

Ditto inside

The Ditto inside

Ev’ry single one of us

The Ditto inside

Well here comes the victor

With the look in their eye

Used impostors

To break through the line

Wielded weapons

Sharper than knives

Makes you wonder

When another one tries

Ditto inside

The Ditto inside

Ev’ry single one of us

The Ditto inside

[The] Ditto inside

[The] Ditto inside

Ev’ry single one of us

The Ditto inside

Ditto inside

The Ditto inside

Ev’ry single one of us

The Ditto inside

[The] Ditto inside

[The] Ditto inside

Ev’ry single one of us

The Ditto inside

The Ditto inside!

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

Oh, oh oh...

The Ditto inside!

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

Dani Chambers Talks Playing Shelly in Pokemon Masters (Anime Milwaukee 2026)

At this year's Anime Milwaukee, I haid an opportunity to interview Dani Chambers, who voices Shelly in Pokemon Masters EX. Watch and find out how she got and approached the role:

Press access was provided for this event.

Felecia Angelle (Anime Milwaukee 2026)

At this year's Anime Milwaukee convention, I got to interview Felecia Angelle, who has had a number of voice acting roles, including in Pokémon Horizions:

Press access was provided for this event.

Xanthe Hunyh Explains Ann and Maushold (Anime Milwaukee 2026)

At this year's Anime Milwaukee, I was able to talk to Xanthe Hunyh about the variety of roles she's played in Pokemon, including Evolutions, Masters, and Horizons: 

Press access was provided for this event.

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: