AniRevo 2016 Report
Anime Revolution this year was another fun-filled, wallet-sucking weekend of autographs, merchandise and panels! I cosplayed all three days, but I'd say maybe 40-50% of attendees were in costume... maybe 50% of those were anime-related? There wasn't anything that blew my mind except maybe Yugene Fay. Honorable mentions to this cute kid who dressed up as Saitama from OPM and Princess Serenity + her daughter as chibi + her baby. Although, there were some pretty good costumes from Western franchises like Dragon Age, Zootopia... and games & shows I don't play/watch XD At least there were a few Kurapikas...and more people doing D.Grayman. There were so few people from the same series I was doing -_-
Guests whose panels I talk about
Seki Toshihiko
Ayumi Fujimura
Paku Romi
Takeshi Takadera
Sugar & Carlos
Day 1
SInce it was a Friday, Day 1 was relatively quiet. I arrived in the early afternoon and took my chances with badge pick-up. To my surprise, there were only 2 people in the line! What made the difference must've been the extended badge pick-up times on Day 0. 10 minutes later, I was happily in the vendors hall. The set-up was a little different last year, they had the entrance to the room on the farther end of the hallway and the exit at the closer end... which I didn't really appreciate. They also moved the autographs to the exit side and I thought this change was pretty good since the lines were more easily controlled.
Nothing too surprising about the vendor's hall this time around. Half was filled with those delicious fan drawn posters and goods, while the other half was mostly overpriced merchandise and clothing/accessories (and of course they have a Miku itasha on the floor as well). Today was basically 'autograph day' for me, so I didn't do much shopping. However, since I didn't have anything with Pitou on it for Fujimura Ayumi to sign (why is there so little merchandise from this arc?!), I bought a volume of the manga which had a bit of Pitou up in the top. For $10, Viz should really have done better and fixed those awkward phrases, missed grammar mistakes and abundance of ugly typesetting bubble shapes -_-
The autograph lines were pretty reasonable. Obviously longer for the JP guests, but the English voice actors also had decent lines (even if you had to pay $20/person for the latter... at least they were lax with the 1 item limit ^^). 3 hours later, I walked out with Seki Toshihiko on a volume of Saiyuki (and a handshake), Fujimura Ayumi on Pitou, and Paku Romi on FMA (next to Vic's~).
On to Fujimura's panel!
It was pretty quiet, maybe 30 people attended her Q&A this day. There weren't that many people lining up to ask questions, so I felt obligated to keep going XD She was really cute and friendly in person, but probably pretty nervous since she had a hard time remembering lines when people requested unspecified ones. A lot of questions and requests were from Kaichou wa Maid-sama, some from Kill la Kill and some from HxH pretty much all me. My favorite part was when she answered about the atmosphere of the studio for HxH. Most of her scenes were serious and emotionally charged so it was pretty solemn in the studio. There were times when the seiyuus were all crying so much that they had to stop recording, especially with Gon and Killua. my poor babies Also she gave us a live "Dr Blythe" and "Terpsichora" but she apologized after because it may not have sounded right without knowing the real situation. I still thought it was really good! I just wish I had more lines from Pitou memorized >_< I would've loved to hear something "-nya~ " HxH was also one of her childhood favorites so she was really happy to have been a part of it ^^ She's also not playing Pokemon Go yet! When asked which Norn guy's her favorite, she said Akito <3 She didn't give us any -nya but we got some ika stuff from Ika musume >_<
Day 2
Saturday was a lot busier! I started the day off with a panel held by my favorite childhood tv hosts, Sugar and Carlos from The Zone. This probably doesn't mean much to people outside of Canada who didn't grow up with them introducing shows and doing crazy things, but they were still really fun people with great chemistry together ^^ Sugar has the cutest voice ever and I loved her as Chibimoon and Ming Ming in the dubs for Sailormoon and Beyblade. It was great seeing them do a classic Zone introduction to their panel and watch some of their old clips. They also talked about the audition process and their secrets to not aging at all (must've been the water they were given at work).
Seki Toshihiko:
Seki-san had 2 panels this day and I came in a bit late for the first one. At least I got to catch "Ore sanjou" from Den-O's Momotaros. Poor guy had a raspy throat after all the loud shouting line requests >_< A lot of rabid Saiyuki fans craving more of Sanzo before the new series is out, so we got to hear a lot about his thoughts on Sanzo and Konzen. He gave us a few famous lines like "My only ally is myself" and "Nothing will change if you die, but if you live, there's a chance they will." and a lot of mantras/chanting! Apparently, the production team made up sutras for the franchise because it'd be bad to copy them from real sutras ^^ Sanzo's such a continuing role for him with all the drama cds etc that even though it's been so long since the start of the series, he's never lost the character. (but he said Hirota Hiroaki forgets how to do Gojyou the day after XD) He also brought up a free talk with the 4 of them when Hoshi Souichirou decided to make nigiri sushi for them... live at the recording booth. It was apparently pretty awful and he recommends you eat from professionals only! And he sang one of Sanzo's character songs LIVE! OMG! (he apologized profusely because he thought it wasn't any good and there wasn't music in the background, but I thought it was quite the treat) I was also super happy when I gave him an "Osu" and he replied with one back and the action ^^ Probably, the most questions were about Naruto (unsurprisingly)... even though Iruka-sensei is a pretty minor character. It was cool he gave us a line though! Apparently, Iruka repeats one of the lines he says in the first episode of Naruto in the last one :D You could really see the difference in experience between his panel and Fujimura's though. His answers always included something interesting or a funny story!
Paku Romi +Ayumi Fujimura Live recording with Takadera Takeshi as sound director
This was an interesting panel where Paku Romi and Fujimura Ayumi recorded lines for 3 scenes live and Takadera-san gave feedback. It was great seeing them in action before our very eyes, and what a difference it made when feedback was given by the sound director! He would give specific instructions on expressing more of xxx expression because the character is feeling xxx or her relationship to xx character is this so change the tone to match that. I actually picked out a few of those myself so it's great that he knows what the audience is expecting to hear and what will make the work really great. (I didn't care much for the anime they recorded there, but he's been in charge of quite of a few of the series I like! Thumbs up!) Though I was kinda disappointed that (in this scene anyways) the seiyuu didn't actually do the "gulp" sound themselves when swallowing, it was an added SE. When asked what they thought about Takadera-san, Fujimura gave the good girl answer (since they were right next to him) and Paku-san said that she suspects under his smile, he's actually really angry when they make mistakes! Poor Fujimura said she was so nervous, she tripped on the stairs coming off the stage XD
Fujimura + Takadera Takeshi
So Saturday's panel was a bit fuller. Still, mostly Kaichou, Kill and Gundam Unicorn. When asked about adlib, she said she actually does quite a lot. And Takdera added he likes it when voice actors improvise some lines as the character. (Apparently, English dubs don't have the same freedom with adlibs, as the script is strictly fit to match lip flaps.) No HxH discussion at this panel at all! She did a confession as Iwase from Bakuman though, that was pretty nice to see live. Since Takadera was at this panel too, some people asked him about his work- like if he's jealous that the voice actors get all the popularity. He said he's happy if they're popular, and that sound directors have their own ranking in the industry. If their work is popular, then their name rises. When asked about the new D-Grayman he's in charge of, he said he didn't do the first season so it's probably a little different. I'm sorry, I boycotted because they changed voice actors And someone asked if Shirobako is true and he said some of it but not all of it XD Then they answered a question about weird happenings in the recording studio and he mentioned a haunted studio (cuz ghosts like to go to those kind of places -> static etc) Apparently, one of their staff has a strong spiritual sense and she'll never go into that room! Fujimura's like, waittt which studio is that?!!!
Paku Romi
Holy moly her energy is great! She would give a big "HI" to everyone who came up to the mike and then a "THANK YOU" shout after their question. She also involved the person a lot in some cases (like if asked for a line that's a reply, she would have the person play the other role, and she even asked someone to sing!) Someone asked her what kind of voice she'd use for older Hitsugaya and she dropped her voice and did a sexy tone~ Lots of awesome line requests, mostly from FMA, some from Bleach (none from HxH) and then the others were a minority. She covered all the classic Ed lines (don't call me short etc) and then did a Winry proposal, told us her favorite arc (she likes when they're on the island training), and she actually likes season xxx better than Bxxxxxhood. There were some Mamo fans who asked her thoughts on him to which she replied he's "uzai" and he's the silliest person she's worked with XD She really went all out to answer questions, and her panel went overtime 15min. Really great spirit and lots of fanservice! For the more romantic lines, she would sometimes do them by her translator's ear >///<
The meet and greet was a little odd. It was set up in a "speed dating" fashion where you and 3-4 other people had 5minutes with a guest and then you had to rotate. I have to say, the English guests, especially Sugar and Carlos, were super accomodating and real people people. They really tried to get to know you and shared a lot about themselves. And give free hugs Most of them joked around and brought up crazier topics like their 'WTF Japan' experiences in the booth, weird roles, and their escapades during the night (that didn't actually happen, but still, I was free to ship whatever I wanted). With the JP guests, it was generally a little more one-sided I love you and I'm a huge fan pls do xxx and xxx Paku Romi was super cool though, I feel like there was the most conversation with her, as she fangirled with us over her roles and how much I cried over Pakunoda's death. She also gave us one of Ken Ichijouji's lines when someone requested. D'awww wormmon *sniffle* Kz/ livetune was also pretty chill, I guess since there was less of a pedestal with this crowd, we just talked about food and everyday topics (I think the only song of his I really love is Last Night Good Night...I'm more a Kaito/Gakupo/Gumi person >_<)
Day 3
Paku Romi
The people that looked after her when she was newer were Hayashibara Megumi and Minami Takayama~~ When asked who from nana she'd marry, she said Takumi XD There was also a request for a reply to Shikamaru's proposal or date (it was pretty funny at first because the person said Morikubo proposed to Temari and she was like why would he do that, what happened?!) Anyway, then she asked the person to play Shikamaru and ask her on a date, but rather than saying 'no' like in the series, she said yes<3 Again lots of FMA questions, but Ed is her favorite character too, so why not I guess. Oh she also like Loran, her first male character. Apparently, it took quite a while for her to create her male voice for the first time!
Voice actor coaching - Takadera Takeshi
This was actually pretty fun since it was Yowapeda. Four talented attendees got scripts beforehand for Onoda, Makishima, Miki and Toudou. At the panel, there was a live reading, then Takadera would give feedback and then the actors would fix it. At the end, he chose the best! The girl who played for Onoda was amazing! If they ever dubbed Yowapeda, I seriously hope she gets the role. The other roles are a bit harder to play too (like who can capture Morikubo's Makishima like he can? Or even Kakki's Toudou!) Anyway, serious respect for sound directors now.
Seki Toshihiko
Poor guy's throat was given the run yesterday, so he didn't do as much shouting today. Still got some Kill la Kill, Gundam and Den-O shouting. He did a Yusa Kouji impression from Den-O too which was pretty funny. The funniest story was when someone asked about his experience on Flyover Canada (Paku-san told us that he rode it and she was jealous) He thought the attraction was just looking at the pictures and history of Canada in the room before the ride since they kept him in there for so long XD And then when they led him out of the room and sat him down he was like 'huh?' When they buckled him in, it finally clicked!
The fruits of my three days!
Guests whose panels I talk about
Seki Toshihiko
Ayumi Fujimura
Paku Romi
Takeshi Takadera
Sugar & Carlos
Day 1
SInce it was a Friday, Day 1 was relatively quiet. I arrived in the early afternoon and took my chances with badge pick-up. To my surprise, there were only 2 people in the line! What made the difference must've been the extended badge pick-up times on Day 0. 10 minutes later, I was happily in the vendors hall. The set-up was a little different last year, they had the entrance to the room on the farther end of the hallway and the exit at the closer end... which I didn't really appreciate. They also moved the autographs to the exit side and I thought this change was pretty good since the lines were more easily controlled.
Nothing too surprising about the vendor's hall this time around. Half was filled with those delicious fan drawn posters and goods, while the other half was mostly overpriced merchandise and clothing/accessories (and of course they have a Miku itasha on the floor as well). Today was basically 'autograph day' for me, so I didn't do much shopping. However, since I didn't have anything with Pitou on it for Fujimura Ayumi to sign (why is there so little merchandise from this arc?!), I bought a volume of the manga which had a bit of Pitou up in the top. For $10, Viz should really have done better and fixed those awkward phrases, missed grammar mistakes and abundance of ugly typesetting bubble shapes -_-
The autograph lines were pretty reasonable. Obviously longer for the JP guests, but the English voice actors also had decent lines (even if you had to pay $20/person for the latter... at least they were lax with the 1 item limit ^^). 3 hours later, I walked out with Seki Toshihiko on a volume of Saiyuki (and a handshake), Fujimura Ayumi on Pitou, and Paku Romi on FMA (next to Vic's~).
On to Fujimura's panel!
It was pretty quiet, maybe 30 people attended her Q&A this day. There weren't that many people lining up to ask questions, so I felt obligated to keep going XD She was really cute and friendly in person, but probably pretty nervous since she had a hard time remembering lines when people requested unspecified ones. A lot of questions and requests were from Kaichou wa Maid-sama, some from Kill la Kill and some from HxH pretty much all me. My favorite part was when she answered about the atmosphere of the studio for HxH. Most of her scenes were serious and emotionally charged so it was pretty solemn in the studio. There were times when the seiyuus were all crying so much that they had to stop recording, especially with Gon and Killua. my poor babies Also she gave us a live "Dr Blythe" and "Terpsichora" but she apologized after because it may not have sounded right without knowing the real situation. I still thought it was really good! I just wish I had more lines from Pitou memorized >_< I would've loved to hear something "-nya~ " HxH was also one of her childhood favorites so she was really happy to have been a part of it ^^ She's also not playing Pokemon Go yet! When asked which Norn guy's her favorite, she said Akito <3 She didn't give us any -nya but we got some ika stuff from Ika musume >_<
Day 2
Saturday was a lot busier! I started the day off with a panel held by my favorite childhood tv hosts, Sugar and Carlos from The Zone. This probably doesn't mean much to people outside of Canada who didn't grow up with them introducing shows and doing crazy things, but they were still really fun people with great chemistry together ^^ Sugar has the cutest voice ever and I loved her as Chibimoon and Ming Ming in the dubs for Sailormoon and Beyblade. It was great seeing them do a classic Zone introduction to their panel and watch some of their old clips. They also talked about the audition process and their secrets to not aging at all (must've been the water they were given at work).
Seki Toshihiko:
Seki-san had 2 panels this day and I came in a bit late for the first one. At least I got to catch "Ore sanjou" from Den-O's Momotaros. Poor guy had a raspy throat after all the loud shouting line requests >_< A lot of rabid Saiyuki fans craving more of Sanzo before the new series is out, so we got to hear a lot about his thoughts on Sanzo and Konzen. He gave us a few famous lines like "My only ally is myself" and "Nothing will change if you die, but if you live, there's a chance they will." and a lot of mantras/chanting! Apparently, the production team made up sutras for the franchise because it'd be bad to copy them from real sutras ^^ Sanzo's such a continuing role for him with all the drama cds etc that even though it's been so long since the start of the series, he's never lost the character. (but he said Hirota Hiroaki forgets how to do Gojyou the day after XD) He also brought up a free talk with the 4 of them when Hoshi Souichirou decided to make nigiri sushi for them... live at the recording booth. It was apparently pretty awful and he recommends you eat from professionals only! And he sang one of Sanzo's character songs LIVE! OMG! (he apologized profusely because he thought it wasn't any good and there wasn't music in the background, but I thought it was quite the treat) I was also super happy when I gave him an "Osu" and he replied with one back and the action ^^ Probably, the most questions were about Naruto (unsurprisingly)... even though Iruka-sensei is a pretty minor character. It was cool he gave us a line though! Apparently, Iruka repeats one of the lines he says in the first episode of Naruto in the last one :D You could really see the difference in experience between his panel and Fujimura's though. His answers always included something interesting or a funny story!
Paku Romi +Ayumi Fujimura Live recording with Takadera Takeshi as sound director
This was an interesting panel where Paku Romi and Fujimura Ayumi recorded lines for 3 scenes live and Takadera-san gave feedback. It was great seeing them in action before our very eyes, and what a difference it made when feedback was given by the sound director! He would give specific instructions on expressing more of xxx expression because the character is feeling xxx or her relationship to xx character is this so change the tone to match that. I actually picked out a few of those myself so it's great that he knows what the audience is expecting to hear and what will make the work really great. (I didn't care much for the anime they recorded there, but he's been in charge of quite of a few of the series I like! Thumbs up!) Though I was kinda disappointed that (in this scene anyways) the seiyuu didn't actually do the "gulp" sound themselves when swallowing, it was an added SE. When asked what they thought about Takadera-san, Fujimura gave the good girl answer (since they were right next to him) and Paku-san said that she suspects under his smile, he's actually really angry when they make mistakes! Poor Fujimura said she was so nervous, she tripped on the stairs coming off the stage XD
Fujimura + Takadera Takeshi
So Saturday's panel was a bit fuller. Still, mostly Kaichou, Kill and Gundam Unicorn. When asked about adlib, she said she actually does quite a lot. And Takdera added he likes it when voice actors improvise some lines as the character. (Apparently, English dubs don't have the same freedom with adlibs, as the script is strictly fit to match lip flaps.) No HxH discussion at this panel at all! She did a confession as Iwase from Bakuman though, that was pretty nice to see live. Since Takadera was at this panel too, some people asked him about his work- like if he's jealous that the voice actors get all the popularity. He said he's happy if they're popular, and that sound directors have their own ranking in the industry. If their work is popular, then their name rises. When asked about the new D-Grayman he's in charge of, he said he didn't do the first season so it's probably a little different. I'm sorry, I boycotted because they changed voice actors And someone asked if Shirobako is true and he said some of it but not all of it XD Then they answered a question about weird happenings in the recording studio and he mentioned a haunted studio (cuz ghosts like to go to those kind of places -> static etc) Apparently, one of their staff has a strong spiritual sense and she'll never go into that room! Fujimura's like, waittt which studio is that?!!!
Paku Romi
Holy moly her energy is great! She would give a big "HI" to everyone who came up to the mike and then a "THANK YOU" shout after their question. She also involved the person a lot in some cases (like if asked for a line that's a reply, she would have the person play the other role, and she even asked someone to sing!) Someone asked her what kind of voice she'd use for older Hitsugaya and she dropped her voice and did a sexy tone~ Lots of awesome line requests, mostly from FMA, some from Bleach (none from HxH) and then the others were a minority. She covered all the classic Ed lines (don't call me short etc) and then did a Winry proposal, told us her favorite arc (she likes when they're on the island training), and she actually likes season xxx better than Bxxxxxhood. There were some Mamo fans who asked her thoughts on him to which she replied he's "uzai" and he's the silliest person she's worked with XD She really went all out to answer questions, and her panel went overtime 15min. Really great spirit and lots of fanservice! For the more romantic lines, she would sometimes do them by her translator's ear >///<
The meet and greet was a little odd. It was set up in a "speed dating" fashion where you and 3-4 other people had 5minutes with a guest and then you had to rotate. I have to say, the English guests, especially Sugar and Carlos, were super accomodating and real people people. They really tried to get to know you and shared a lot about themselves. And give free hugs Most of them joked around and brought up crazier topics like their 'WTF Japan' experiences in the booth, weird roles, and their escapades during the night (that didn't actually happen, but still, I was free to ship whatever I wanted). With the JP guests, it was generally a little more one-sided I love you and I'm a huge fan pls do xxx and xxx Paku Romi was super cool though, I feel like there was the most conversation with her, as she fangirled with us over her roles and how much I cried over Pakunoda's death. She also gave us one of Ken Ichijouji's lines when someone requested. D'awww wormmon *sniffle* Kz/ livetune was also pretty chill, I guess since there was less of a pedestal with this crowd, we just talked about food and everyday topics (I think the only song of his I really love is Last Night Good Night...I'm more a Kaito/Gakupo/Gumi person >_<)
Day 3
Paku Romi
The people that looked after her when she was newer were Hayashibara Megumi and Minami Takayama~~ When asked who from nana she'd marry, she said Takumi XD There was also a request for a reply to Shikamaru's proposal or date (it was pretty funny at first because the person said Morikubo proposed to Temari and she was like why would he do that, what happened?!) Anyway, then she asked the person to play Shikamaru and ask her on a date, but rather than saying 'no' like in the series, she said yes<3 Again lots of FMA questions, but Ed is her favorite character too, so why not I guess. Oh she also like Loran, her first male character. Apparently, it took quite a while for her to create her male voice for the first time!
Voice actor coaching - Takadera Takeshi
This was actually pretty fun since it was Yowapeda. Four talented attendees got scripts beforehand for Onoda, Makishima, Miki and Toudou. At the panel, there was a live reading, then Takadera would give feedback and then the actors would fix it. At the end, he chose the best! The girl who played for Onoda was amazing! If they ever dubbed Yowapeda, I seriously hope she gets the role. The other roles are a bit harder to play too (like who can capture Morikubo's Makishima like he can? Or even Kakki's Toudou!) Anyway, serious respect for sound directors now.
Seki Toshihiko
Poor guy's throat was given the run yesterday, so he didn't do as much shouting today. Still got some Kill la Kill, Gundam and Den-O shouting. He did a Yusa Kouji impression from Den-O too which was pretty funny. The funniest story was when someone asked about his experience on Flyover Canada (Paku-san told us that he rode it and she was jealous) He thought the attraction was just looking at the pictures and history of Canada in the room before the ride since they kept him in there for so long XD And then when they led him out of the room and sat him down he was like 'huh?' When they buckled him in, it finally clicked!
The fruits of my three days!
