I LOVE THE WHOLE WORLD
I'm trying to figure out a way to tell this story so that everybody who reads this fully understands the significance of what just happened today. But I also kind of want to flail about it ridiculously. SO I'LL DO BOTH.
SD;LKFAJDS;LFAJS;DLFASHDF HOLY SHIT
I HUGGED J MICHAEL TATUM
I HUGGED JESUS MICHAEL TATUM
THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
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Okay. Time for the long version, the one in which I explain who this Jesus person is and why I love him so damn much.
For those not in the anime circle, Ouran High School Host Club is the story of a slightly gender-ambiguous girl who accidentally joins a sparkly group of high school boys in their eternal quest to flirt with the ladies of the school and make them happy. It's pretty much Japanese Big Time Rush. It's sparkly and ridiculous, and it's one of those things that doesn't take itself seriously at all, until suddenly you're taking it seriously and overanalyzing every single character and you love it so much it's a little bit debilitating. No seriously, I discovered this a couple years ago, and it basically predicted my entire relationship with BTR.
Which brings me to Kyoya Ootori. He's very pretty. He's also incredibly intelligent and incredibly cool. He has the biggest daddy issues of all time, he's part of one of my favorite emotionally codependent groups of teenagers, and he has a fascinating emotional arc. Also I'm in love with him. Get me in a Kyoya mood and I could write for days. If you've never seen the series, you should watch it for...well, for everybody, but especially for Kyoya. (If you want to watch it it's all on Hulu, but watch the dub instead of the sub - not that the sub is bad, just that I'm incredibly fond of the dub, and it involves J Michael Tatum.)
Ah, the English dub. What can I say about this dub? It was produced by Funimation, and I don't know if you know this but the group of people who work at Funimation are the most amazing people of all time, ever. They all go to cons and hold panels and tell hilarious stories about working together and hanging out together, and oh my god I love them so much. (Once you watch Ouran, one of the best things ever is the dub outtakes - it's basically audio proof of the voice actors goofing off and being amazing, and it's so freaking funny.) And J Michael Tatum, in particular, was the voice of Kyoya. He is...amazing. He's gay (and only slightly flamboyant about it), he loves Star Trek and Doctor Who, and he's the nicest, funniest, most interesting person in the world. If you go on YouTube and watch some of his panels, you'll see what I mean. And another thing about him - he 's incredibly talented, and has an incredible gasp of character. He's given a few very interesting details about Kyoya at cons, and I basically take his word as God's word. (For example, when I saw him at Anime Boston last year, he said that he believed that Kyoya was in love with Tamaki, but Tamaki wasn't in love with Kyoya - which, for one thing, oh my god someone involved in the show is publicly acknowledging slash, and for another thing, oh my god that was exactly what I was thinking.)
So for the past two days I was at Anime Boston, which is basically the Major Deal Anime Con for everybody in New England. On Friday lyricalecho and I saw his panel, and then we waited for almost two hours in line to get his autograph, only to get shut out when we were nearly at the front. Disappointed, convinced that we would never get to tell Jesus Michael Tatum that we had accepted him as our personal savior, we went home. But today we went back to the con - and we were in the dealer's room, basically a giant concrete-floored warehouse room filled wall to wall with merch booths. And suddenly we turned around, and, well, there he was.
The conversation was pretty short, but I don't think we made ourselves look too insane. We basically tried to explain to him what I just explained to you, how much we love Kyoya and what he did with the character, and he was sweet and amazing and told us about how he was a lot like Kyoya in high school, and how it's one of his favorite roles and he knew he wanted it the moment he read it. And then he hugged us. And then we forgot to ask for a picture. And then he walked away, and I let myself start giggling and hyperventilating to make up for the past few minutes of restraint.
OH MY GOD.
OH MY GOD.
SD;LKFAJDS;LFAJS;DLFASHDF HOLY SHIT
I HUGGED J MICHAEL TATUM
I HUGGED JESUS MICHAEL TATUM
THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
<33333333333333333333333333333333
Okay. Time for the long version, the one in which I explain who this Jesus person is and why I love him so damn much.
For those not in the anime circle, Ouran High School Host Club is the story of a slightly gender-ambiguous girl who accidentally joins a sparkly group of high school boys in their eternal quest to flirt with the ladies of the school and make them happy. It's pretty much Japanese Big Time Rush. It's sparkly and ridiculous, and it's one of those things that doesn't take itself seriously at all, until suddenly you're taking it seriously and overanalyzing every single character and you love it so much it's a little bit debilitating. No seriously, I discovered this a couple years ago, and it basically predicted my entire relationship with BTR.
Which brings me to Kyoya Ootori. He's very pretty. He's also incredibly intelligent and incredibly cool. He has the biggest daddy issues of all time, he's part of one of my favorite emotionally codependent groups of teenagers, and he has a fascinating emotional arc. Also I'm in love with him. Get me in a Kyoya mood and I could write for days. If you've never seen the series, you should watch it for...well, for everybody, but especially for Kyoya. (If you want to watch it it's all on Hulu, but watch the dub instead of the sub - not that the sub is bad, just that I'm incredibly fond of the dub, and it involves J Michael Tatum.)
Ah, the English dub. What can I say about this dub? It was produced by Funimation, and I don't know if you know this but the group of people who work at Funimation are the most amazing people of all time, ever. They all go to cons and hold panels and tell hilarious stories about working together and hanging out together, and oh my god I love them so much. (Once you watch Ouran, one of the best things ever is the dub outtakes - it's basically audio proof of the voice actors goofing off and being amazing, and it's so freaking funny.) And J Michael Tatum, in particular, was the voice of Kyoya. He is...amazing. He's gay (and only slightly flamboyant about it), he loves Star Trek and Doctor Who, and he's the nicest, funniest, most interesting person in the world. If you go on YouTube and watch some of his panels, you'll see what I mean. And another thing about him - he 's incredibly talented, and has an incredible gasp of character. He's given a few very interesting details about Kyoya at cons, and I basically take his word as God's word. (For example, when I saw him at Anime Boston last year, he said that he believed that Kyoya was in love with Tamaki, but Tamaki wasn't in love with Kyoya - which, for one thing, oh my god someone involved in the show is publicly acknowledging slash, and for another thing, oh my god that was exactly what I was thinking.)
So for the past two days I was at Anime Boston, which is basically the Major Deal Anime Con for everybody in New England. On Friday lyricalecho and I saw his panel, and then we waited for almost two hours in line to get his autograph, only to get shut out when we were nearly at the front. Disappointed, convinced that we would never get to tell Jesus Michael Tatum that we had accepted him as our personal savior, we went home. But today we went back to the con - and we were in the dealer's room, basically a giant concrete-floored warehouse room filled wall to wall with merch booths. And suddenly we turned around, and, well, there he was.
The conversation was pretty short, but I don't think we made ourselves look too insane. We basically tried to explain to him what I just explained to you, how much we love Kyoya and what he did with the character, and he was sweet and amazing and told us about how he was a lot like Kyoya in high school, and how it's one of his favorite roles and he knew he wanted it the moment he read it. And then he hugged us. And then we forgot to ask for a picture. And then he walked away, and I let myself start giggling and hyperventilating to make up for the past few minutes of restraint.
OH MY GOD.
OH MY GOD.