tickets, it's all about the tickets
Otakon this year initiated a ticket system for autographs. A limited number (like 25) of tickets is given out to people attending the panel. How do you get one? By standing in line very early. Wonderful concept, just difficult to pull off when the panels I want to attend are back to back. >.<;
Where all gamers go before the gamathon in the video game room.
After breakfast of tuna sandwich and getting dressed in my Asuca Hayashi cosplay, I went to meet both oneechans who were at the 'Overclocked Remix' panel. OCR is an online site that remixes video game music, even old school ones like 'Mario'. ^.^ Apparently, there is some singing as well since one of the female panelist starts singing one of the songs (in English.) It was beautiful and I hope to find the song online. ^-^ Before the wonderful solo, they played a 'Name that tune' game with Paulio vs. Shawnic, a play on names of competitors with the teams Mario and Sonic. I was on the Sonic side and he was getting his butt kicked by Mario. ^^; I forgot who won, but it was fun watching/listening to them. The first clip featured? Tetris. ^.^
Hiatus explained
I left the panel around 11:30am and headed to the end of the Michihiko Suwa-san and Kodama Kenji-san panel. (Pic left to right respectively.) Christine-neechan came with me, but left soon after. They worked together on many works for years. The 2-3 year hiatus of Kodama-san was explained by Suwa-san. Paraphrasing Suwa-san: 'When I contacted Kenji, I thought he was working on something important. But then I discovered that he was playing video games.' ^.^ Kodama-san's explanation of the importance of playing games was that it was research. Although he wasn't planning on transitioning from anime to video games, he could incorporate what he learns from games into his anime. Sugoi! ^_^ At the end of the panel, I got a ticket for the signing. ^.^
She is not Japanese?!?
The next panel was for Jennifer Sekiguchi, who also won Best Actress in comedy at the American Anime Awards. ^.^ Besides asking questions about the plethora of voices she did, she also talked about how she got into voice acting and her many aliases. *clears throat* Her undergrad studies were in computer programming, but she didn't want to be a programmer. She wanted to be an acter so she worked on some unreleased cds by company Digital Manga. She later got into anime production by becoming one of the heads for Digital Manga. Since she didn't want to develope a rep for voicing animes that she herself produce, she created the name 'Jennifer Sekiguchi' as her voice actress handle. Her real name? Stephanie Sheh. She is actually Taiwanese. O.O When she asked for Taiwanese ppl in the audience, I of course raised my hand and some of us called out random Taiwanese words. Her phrase was 'eat rice' while mine was 'I'm hungry.' ^.^ lol
She commented on the craziness of some of her characters (mainly Guu from Hare and Guu, as well as the sterness of Silmeria from the game 'Valkyrie Profile.' Someone asked her to say 'Nibelung Valesti' from the game, but she couldn't. ^^; Jennifer explained that the recording of the attacks were all done at the end of recording sessions and some were done in just one take. I assume just trying to pronounce the phrase is hard enough without having to shout the phrase 'Nibelung Valesti'. ^^; Jennifer also remarked that she felt Silmeria was so bossy in the game. 'Go talk to him! Just do it!' lol
After the panel, I went up to ask how she got her Japanese last name. Marriage? Citizenship? Turns out, she gave it to herself. O.o Her last name in Chinese is 'Sheh' like stone, which is 'seki' in Japanese. 'Guchi' means voice (or mouth according to Theresa-neechan) so a rough translation would be 'Stone voice actor' in reference to herself. ^.^ Sugoi!
signings break
The Aaron Dismuke panel was cancelled. *cries* I went ahead to the autograph area. I made it for the end of the Kodama and Suwa signing and got them to sign on my Detective Conan pic. I told them I grew up watching Detective Conan. ^-^ I forgot whom, but one of them asked if I was from Inuyasha. I laughed and told them I was cosplaying a Japanese singer. They said I looked nice. ^.^
Even though some said that there were no tickets at the Jennifer Sekiguchi panel, some still got tickets. O.o The line was not incredibly long so I stuck around. Theresa-neechan was ahead of me and she told me that she wanted to ask if Jennifer wanted her 'Grandia III' fmv recordings. But she didn't get the nerve to do it, so I asked for her. ^.^ I told Jennifer that I met Talisan Jaffe earlier in the year and gave him the fmvs for 'Valkyrie Porfile: Silmeria' made by my godsister. I then asked if she wanted 'Grandia III' and she happily accepted the proposal. She told us to give it to people at the Bandai booth since they were the ones that sponsered her appearance at Otakon. ^.^
Noto Mamiko: Focus Panel
 It was already past 3pm when I arrived at the Noto Mamiko-san panel. (The outside line for Seki Tomokazu-san was already looong. That panel was right after Noto-san's.) She did her Esther Blanchett voice from Trinity Blood, 'Shimp-sama!' among others. She comments about Esther's line, 'I remember saying that line over and over again in many episodes.' When asked which seiyuu she looks up to as her senpai, Noto-san responded with Seki-san, Yumi Touma-san and Satsuki Yukino-san. 'There are so many more. I respect all of my seniors.' ^.^ When someone asks her to imitate Seki Tomokazu-san, she goes 'No way! That's so terrifying to even contemplate. *laughs* I can't imagine what he'd say to me.' Someone inquired about her voicing a slug, Katsuyu in Inuyasha. Noto-san: "Yeah, I played the slug. A big slug. I remember pondering for a long time, 'How do I portray a slug?'" Translator: "How do you portray a slug?" Noto-san: "The director said to me, 'Don't think of yourself as a slug. Imagine yourself as an angel.'" lol Youtube clips below.
Seki Tomokazu: Focus Panel
Seki Tomokazu's panel was afterwards and as people was getting into their seats, Seki-san took some voice requests to 'warm up his vocal chords'. My fav. was Kamui from X, which was 'Fuuuuumaaaaa!' *fangirl squeal* Second fav was of course, Chichiri from Fushigi Yuugi. 'Na no da!' After every single request, there would be screams from fans (*ahem* me included) and Seki-san would raise both arms and exclaim 'Thank you! Thank you!' to the crowds. lol ^-^ He did that several times during the panels too. Yes, he deserves to be basked in praise from his beloved fans. ^.^ He sang a bit from 'Shindemo Ii,' one of his songs from Weiss Kruez.
When asked which seiyuus he usually has 'man to man' talks with, he mentioned Miki Shinichiro-san *fangirl squeal* and Yamaguchi Kappei-san. Another seiyuu type question was who Seki-san thinks is the most talented seiyuu. Seki-san: '...You mean... besides myself!?' *laughs* He mentioned the the late Yamada Yasuo-san and as for female seiyuus, Noto Mamiko-san. Seki-san added, 'And I'm not saying that just because she's here at Otakon too.' ^.^ He mentioned that roles like Touya from CCS affected him personally since he has no siblings. 'I was very touched to be able to play a role like Touya who is always there to care for a little sister.' *awww* Someone asked if he is embarrassed about doing yaoi roles (especially now that he is married.) Seki-san: 'Yes, it is embarrassing. Though since now that I have a long term role on Doraemon as Suneo, I can't do any more yaoi.' lol ^.^ Awesomeness occured at the end of the panel when a girl cosplaying as Saber (Fate Stay Night) requested Gilgamesh's line "I am the King of Kings, and Saber, you are the King's property." Seki-san ended the panel with this line and directed it towards that girl: *Seki-san points at girl* "Saber, omae wa ore no onna da!" *fangirl screams* Lucky!
fangirling and signing lines
It was during the Seki-san panel that someone sat next to me and asked, "Are you from New York?" I turned, stared and replied, "Yes, I am." Who is this girl? Why does she look so familiar? "Are you, Pearl's friend?" O.O "You are Jilly!" lol Turns out Jilly and her friend, Linda sat beside me. Afterwards, we went to the Noto Mamiko-san signing together. The one thing I can say about Linda is that she is the antithesis of Jilly: Linda has my hyperness x10 and Jilly has a quietness that rivals Pearl-chan's. I'm not kidding. ^-^ Noto-san signed my vol. 1 Loveless dvd. ^.^ *fangirl squeal* I bow my head to Linda since her 'squees' are at a much higher pitch then mine. ^.^
The Seki-san line was tooo long for me to get on, not to mentioned they were not allowing anyone else on it. The same went for the Vic Mignonga and Aaron Dismuke's line. ^^; I gave up and went to the Dealer's room.
dealer's room and more signing lines
 Aaron! So close, yet so far.... When I arrived at the Dealer's room, Chris Bevins and Jamie Marchi was signing at the Funimation booth. At this time, the Vic and Aaron signing line (which is after the Chris and Jamie signing) has already began and like upstairs, it was loooooong. They also capped it. >.<; I got Chris and Jamie to sign my FMA cast pic. Chris was an unnamed 'rich old man' and Jamie was Rick. Since it was not the official autograph signing (by Otakon) I gave them both pocky. ^.^
I picked up some free stuff as well as found the Loveless butterfly clips set that I was looking for. I bargained down a dollar and bought them. Yay! ^.^ I found the Paradise Kiss butterfly dangly that I already have on my cell. I was considering buying another one (in case my current one gets lost,) but decided not to buy it since the price was $18. O.O
I kept on going back to the Funimation booth since they said that they might open the line for more people for Vic and Aaron. At the end, I couldn't get on the line, but I asked (very nicely) if the end-of-the-line-staff person can help me get a signature. He declined. "They're not even signing for staff right now." I accepted saying, "I understand, but wanted to try asking anyway." ^-^ I stuck around hoping to ask for an autograph after they were done. After a while, the staff person walked over to me and said 'okay'. "You look so sad standing there." *puppy eyes* ^^; I discreetly handed my FMA limited edition dvd case to him (he mistakenly thought it was a book ^^;) and I watched him hand it to Aaron. I was literally jumping for joy when he returned it to me. I offered pocky, but he refused. At this time, Vic and Aaron was done and Aaron quickly disappeared. X.x I got to speak to Vic and introduced myself as 'the girl who lent them the keyboard at SBU.' ^.^ I asked about the possibility of a Sunday service (like what he always do at conventions.) He said that at that time, he wasn't sure.
dinner and yaoi
I went back to the hotel for some dinner, shower and changed into regular clothes. Christine-neechan presented me with...a Death Note notebook with an L necklace. O.O Yay! I have a Death Note! *laughs manaicaly and hugs oneechan* At about 9pm, Christine-neechan and I went to watch Gakuen Heaven 1-4. She liked the anime and I promised to provide the rest of the episodes. *makes list* ^.^ She left afterwards, but I stayed to watch I Shall Never Return. Everyone kept on laughing when the dancing scenes came up. The anime certainly showed it's age. A Jem (yes, Jem) cosplayer and I started talking afterwards and we went to the 'Putting the "Man" back in "Manga"' panel which spoke about the Gekiga movement in Japan.
 This is for you, Pearl-chan! ^.^ In short, Gekiga is a drawing style that depicts nudity, rape and violence and other manly things in manga. Interesting concept but I left soon afterwards. *yawn* Too tired to think about history of the Gekiga movement that late at night. ^^; I hopped over to the rave and walked around, then to the Otacafe for some late night karaoke. I listened to some songs and left after someone starting to sing L'arc's song, 'Lover Boy'. Oh yeah, someone sang 'Bartender' from Bartender in accapella. Totally, awesome. ^-^
Before I left the convention center, I discovered a Nuriko cosplayer from above. I went down and asked, Me: 'Are you X's friend?' Him: 'No...' Me: 'Then you must be Tim's friend. I met you at AnimeNEXT during the rave.' ^.^ lol It was interesting to bump into someone from 2 weeks ago. I took his pic and headed back to the hotel. After looking over the schedule for tomorrow, I crawled into the blanket and slept. -.-Zzz
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