News

Nostalgia Con Hosts Voice Actors Masako Nozawa, Toshio Furukawa

The Nostalgia Con's Instagram page announced on Tuesday that it will host voice actors Masako Nozawa and Toshio Furukawa, who voice Dragon Ball's Goku and Piccolo, respectively. Both will participate in a Dragon Ball Z panel tentatively scheduled for June 7 at 2:00 p.m. Furukawa will also sign autographs throughout the weekend, but the panel will be Nozawa's only public appearance during the event.

Nozawa first appeared in the oiriginal 1963 Astro Boy anime series. She then voiced the character Kitaro in the 1968 GeGeGe no Kitarō anime, and in the 1971 sequel. She returned in the franchise to voice the character of Medama Oyaji in the 2018 GeGeGe no Kitarō remake, and in the 2023 GeGeGe no Kitarō ~Kappa no Terraforming anime film. Since then, Nozawa has played several lead character roles in different anime series, but she is best known as the voice of Son Goku in the Dragon Ball series. Nozawa also holds the Guinness World Record for "voice actor who voiced the same character in a video game for the longest period" and "longest video game voice acting career," for her work as Dragon Ball's Goku.

Furukawa began his prolific voice acting career in 1974. He has voiced dozens of roles including Piccolo in Dragon Ball Z, Portgas D. Ace in One Piece, Kageroza Inaba in Bleach, Kai Shiden in Mobile Suit Gundam, Ataru Moroboshi in Urusei Yatsura, Shin in Fist of the North Star, Sakamoto in Maison Ikkoku, Asuma Shinohara in Patlabor, Leon McNichol in Bubblegum Crisis, Hawks Eye in Sailor Moon Super S, and Asura in Soul Eater.

The Nostalgia Con takes place in Anaheim, CA from June 6-8. This year's event will also host voice actors Romi Park, Junko Takeuchi, Mariya Ise, and Kujira.

The convention also takes place in San Antonio, Denver, Boise, Houston, Milwaukee, and New Orleans.

Sources: The Nostalgia Con's Instagram page, Toshio Furukawa's X/Twitter account