Girl with rare birthmark meets anime ‘twin’ at GalaxyCon after viral Tiktok
By Tom George
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RALEIGH, North Carolina (WTVD) — In a sea of colorful costumes at Raleigh’s GalaxyCon, 4-year-old Winry Hall stands out just for being herself.
No cosplay needed to dress like her favorite anime character, Shoto Todoroki.
Her parents were fans of Shoto’s anime My Hero Academia for years, and when Winry was born with a rare congenital mole, they couldn’t help but notice the resemblance.
The rare benign mole is cosmetic and covers much of her face.
“One this size is almost one in a million, it’s pretty rare,” said Winry’s mom, Nicole.
It’s why they always wanted to make sure she grew up appreciating what makes her unique.
A video went viral on TikTok, gaining millions of views earlier this year, with Winry lighting up with excitement when her mom finally found a Shoto plushie at their local store.
“It’s pretty crazy knowing 10 times the population of your town has seen it. More than that, it’s insane,” Nicole said.
The video also grabbed the attention of GalaxyCon, and as luck would have it, the English-speaking voice of Shoto, David Matranga, was in Raleigh.
Winry was able to take her first-ever flight with the whole family from Missouri to RDU, all for this moment. She got a chance to meet a hero, and for David, it’s a moment he never expected as a voice actor from dubbing over a Japanese show.
“You’re doing it kind of in a vacuum, you don’t know how it’s being received, always you don’t know as you’re doing it what the impact will be, so when you have something as direct as this, it’s really special,” Matranga said.
And just like the show, where Shoto’s friends make him realize being a hero isn’t based on how you look, for Winry, a real-life anime plot twist of her own, getting to fast forward right to the best part.
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