There was a long line to get into Guest of Honor Iizuka Mayumi's panel, as this was to be the only day of her appearance at AX. One hundred fifty attendees packed into Live Programming room 2 late Saturday afternoon to hear the voice actress talk about her experiences voicing the roles of such famous characters as Kasumi from POKÉMON and Sakuya from TENCHI IN TOKYO. Of special note, photography of any sort was not allowed at the panel.
The panel started off with the viewing of two video clips showing Iizuka at work. The first clip was from POKÉMON and the second clip was from TENCHI IN TOKYO. In the middle of the panel, another video clip of one of Iizuka's music videos was played and it was here that we learned that she also has a singing career and is just ready to release a CD in Japan.
Iizuka sat in the middle seat of the table at the front of the room and was flanked by two posters bearing her depiction hanging down from the ceiling. Not surprisingly for a female voice talent with a singing career, Iizuka is a cute girl with a bubbly disposition. She has a wide smile with noticeable dimples, round cheeks, long hair that flips outward at the ends and long thin bangs in front that come down to her eyebrows. She wore a cute summer dress that day with a necklace of white beads. Because photography was not allowed, this dutiful reporter took the liberty to create an "artist's rendition" of Ms. Iizuka, so you, the faithful reader, might know how she appeared (to me at least) that day.
As with most panels, this one was conducted as Question and Answer with the crowd.

Perhaps cliché, but one of the early questions asked was:
Q: Is this your first time to America, and what are your impressions?

Iizuka Mayumi: Yes, this is my first time to America and everything is so big! I thought it would be hotter here, but the weather like this is not bad. I'll just play around some and before going home.

Q: What was your first anime role?

IM: My first role was Tsuneko from OMOIDE PORO PORO. I was in my first year of middle school when I got that role.

Q: Do you have a favorite character that's you've played?

IM: No, I'd have to say I've liked all the characters I've played.

Q: Which anime character would you say most represents yourself?

IM: Probably Kasumi from POKÉMON. When I was auditioning for the role, the director told me to just be myself. So I did and I wound up getting the role. So I suppose that Kasumi is most like myself.

Q: What was it like to play two characters (Yukari and Princess Millerna) in ESCAFLOWNE?

IM: Well, since the two characters were very different, it wasn't too difficult.

Q: For POKÉMON is it much of a challenge to play a character that only says its own name? (Note: Iizuka plays the Pokémon Pipi, the Japanese version of Clefairy.)

IM: Pokémon are the same as human characters in the sense that they want to express emotions, too. For Pipi, this is only one sound "Pi" so it is very challenging. But then, seeing how the other voice talents handle the other 150 or so Pokémon, I got to see how they do it.

Q: What inspired you to become a voice actress?

IM: I've been acting since I was 3 years old! My dream was to become an actress. But since I did the role in OMOIDE PORO PORO, I've seen that there are other ways of acting so since then, I've been interested in other forms of expression, such as singing and voice acting.

Q: What is your current show and what about your future?

IM: POKÉMON will probably go on for a very long time still, so I'll be doing that. And then there's my album that will be released in Japan soon and I'll do a concert in Japan right afterward. But now that I've come to the USA, I'd wish very much that I could do a concert here.

And with this last comment, the panel ran out of time and ended. Iizuka left first and then everyone else was allowed to adjourn. An attendee from Cerritos, CA, told me that he came to see Iizuka because of her role as Yukari from ESCAFLOWNE. "Seeing her here is a big experience. This was the first time I had heard of her album and [after hearing and seeing the video clip] I thought it was neat."