back as a boy
I woke up and had leftover pizza for breakfast. I finished packing everything and got into my Ritsuka outfit...the same one as Friday. A car service ride later, I was at the convention.
I went around the Dealer's Room...and picked up a Tokyo Babylon dvd. Unfortunately, no Junjou Romantica and Loveless stuff worth looking at. >.< I was catching a few more cosplays when I realized that my first and last panel for the day had already started.
Chiiii!
 Discovered animemiz at the front of the room and joined her. Tanaka-san spoke about doing a late, late, late night radio show. She enjoys working although it makes her really tired and she tries to keep really hyper. Her all time favorite character is Suginotou from Rozen Maiden. There isn't any particular seiyuu that she enjoys working with, but of course, she likes working with her seiyuu friends and they contribute to her performance. For example, Tanaka-san brings up Sawashiro Miyuki-san who is the seiyuu of Shinku in Rozen Maiden and them working with each other built up Sugintou's character. The differences between voicing in an anime and video game is that several seiyuu record together in anime and she records by herself when she is recording for a video game. She has imagine more about what other characters other say and act and work with the director more since she doesn't have someone else in the recording booth. Currently, she is playing Final Fantasy XI as Mithra, which is a feline type character. (Yay for nekos! ^.^)
Tanaka-san asked the audience who were gamers and who were the gamers in terms of internet gaming. *raises hands both times* She spoke about how when she was in school, she loves online gaming. *loud applause* Tanaka-san: *laughs* Why are you applauding? She speaks about the difficulties of finding time to playing or playing too much. As a seiyuu, she needs to study the script before the recording..shorter animes take a couple of hours while long series and video games take several days to go over. As an addict of the game, she plays on the train on the way to work. Me too! ^.^
When asked how she came up with the voice for Simca from Air Gear, she mentioned that she read about the original story, discuss with the director and imagine how this character would sound. Animemiz asked about difficult characters and Tanaka-san brought up Meer Campbell and Lacus Clyne from Gundam Seed Destiny. Lacus was difficult since she was not very realistic concerning her role in the story and Meer because she didn't show alot of emotions...always being gentle and nice. The story has alot of war and battles, but even when she is angry, she has to keep a certain style that is true to her character which was very difficult. Tanaka-san got alot of support from her director on these roles. About Tanaka's role as Bianchi on Reborn! and she mentions that she feels that the character is very feminine and girly. She took a moment to speak to her manager (I'm assuming it's her manager) before adding a piece of news: she will be playing another character on Reborn!. O.O At another question, she speaks about Yomi aka. Mizuhara Koyomi from Azumanga Daioh who is always concerned about her weight...but is still always eating snacks. She also felt that Kirie Fujo from Kara no Kyoukai was a very heavy character to protray since the backstory was very dark with a tragedy. However, the second time around (there was a second movie? *searches*) the character changed a bit to become more girlier.
 Tanaka-san mentioned that there was more Chi then Lacus cosplays. She wonders about that...but I can easily explain that Lacus' outfits are alot harder to make. ^^; Tanaka-san did several character voices, one of my favs being Lacus. What brought on an onslaught of photographs and fulfilled every fans' dreams was when the manager handed Tanaka-san...a pink haro! *click goes the camera* Someone gave Tanaka-san a Lacus plushie. *more clicks of cameras* Kawaii! Another fangirl moment: she sang an a bit from 'Shizuka na Yoru ni' accapella. Standing ovation. So beautiful!
More giveaways in t-shirts (which are small so the interpreter quipped that we can put it on our pillows, ^^;) cellphone straps, and cds. I actual won round one and lost afterwards. ^^;
Autograph session was afterwards. Animemiz got a limited edition, fanclub-in-Japan-only pen for being among the first 20 to get the Tanaka Rie autograph ticket that morning. Yay for animemiz! To keep the autograph room clear, there was a no picture policy...even for press. >.< I'm not sure if this occured for Amano-sensei, but wherever Tanaka-san goes, there is an entourage around her...a wall of ppl, bodyguards perhaps. ^.^ Sugoi! *camera flashes* Tanaka-san signed my Gravitation dvd vol. 2 as the seiyuu for Usami Ayaka. When she saw the dvd, she smiled and called it a classic. She wrote 'arigatou' in hirigana as well. ^.^
More Swaile please!
After the signing, I headed into the Dealer's Room again. Attracted by the crowd, I noted that Brad Swaile was signing again at the Bandai booth. Of course, autograph tickets were already given out. I hopped on the line anyway and got another Gundam Seed poster signed by him. Swaile was so awesome that even though he was suppose to stop signing at a certain time (and Steve Blum arrived for his signing,) he decided to stay for the fans. They moved him to another table and continued signing. O.O Since I saw that he drew a haro on someone's poster, I asked for one as well. Kawaii! After getting my second poster, I decided to forgo the Steve Blum signing. Afterall, Soubi appeared and needed Ritsuka. ^.^
just a moment longer
My last rounds of the Dealer's Room only brought up some awesome cosplays...including a Heero (Gundam Wing) that was 1)a guy, 2)cut just like him, 3)a guy, 4)actually in spandex shorts! *nosebleeds* Of course I asked for his picture. ^.^ By that time, Doraemon appeared (after going to church ^.^) and we found ourselves in the thick of a Bandai giveaway. People chant 'Bandai! Bandai!' for free plushies and t-shirts that were thrown into the crowd. Mob mentality with the pull for free stuff. ^^; It was awesome and I joined in but unfortunately didn't get a t-shirt but a few of the small plushies. (They had some big plushies too.) I still don't recognize it yet, but I'll figure it out. The posters and cards were given away, just not thrown into the crowd. ^.^ During one of the throwing things, I found a pair of goggles. Doraemon and I brought it to the lost and found before heading to the Closing Ceremonies just in time for the hallcosplay winners.
A novice winner was an Ion Fortuna (Trinity Blood) cosplayer with one of the best Ion cosplays. O.O Everyone was impressed with her as novice. Another winner was Nunnelly from Code Geass with a working wheelchair. She was wheeled to the stage, but she stood up to accept her award. ^.^
The closing ceremonies marked the end of the convention. Diana-chan and I hung out on the first floor waiting for my car service to arrive and contemplating whether or not we should go to the After Party. It was suppose to be an easy yes, but both of us was exhausted and I was wary about traveling back and forth from midtown to Chinatown to Penn Station. <.<; Admist our decision making, a Code Geass photoshoot was underway and I caught a few shots with Diana-chan's camera. (My memory card was filled. ^^;) Diana-chan and I took some headshots too...ano, self-pic taking which made our heads large. ^.^
one more thing
I basically fell asleep on the way back to GL's place, cementing the idea that I was tired and needed rest. I changed into a t-shirt (not caring that my bandages show at the collar) and with wig still on (since I have wig hair and didn't want to shower until I got home,) I headed for Penn station. The remanents of the convention was still in the city: I found a Lucky Star cosplayer at the subyway buying a metrocard and various ppl with NYAF badges still around their necks. I was smiling at them but they probably thought I was nuts...though I did have a bag from Aurora publishings (from Otakon) with me. ^^;
afterthoughts
This convention was not very heavy in terms of activities. I only had one or two panels that I really wanted to hit each day (except for Friday with 4 panels since there was the 2 yaoi ones at the end) and even with the autograph sessions going back-to-back, it wasn't a big deal since each wait was less then an hour. I don't regret getting the VIP badge again since I love not having to worry about getting tickets for signings and the lines for VIPs is much shorter.
Tanaka-san loves to say 'Thank you!' and her voice is so cute. Amano-san speaks with his eyes usually casted down or closed in thought. I didn't go to any of the concerts but here alot of them in the background. Like the Bandai booth, Funimation also had signings at their booth but I didn't find out about their guest list until I got to the convention. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to look up the voice cast so I didn't realize that Jason Liebrecht (Alfons Heiderich, Fullmetal Alchemist movie) and Brina Palencia (Nina Tucker, Fullmetal Alchemist) was there. >.< I don't know who else, but I guess my quest to get all of FMA's autographs will have to wait.
Annoying point one of this con was actually the screams of 'Yaoi!' by girls and 'Yuri!' by guys in the background. Even when I was in the panel rooms, I could hear them. Annoying point two was getting paddled by a random fangirl on sunday. O.o It was not a major hit, but it did smack my butt. Strange how my two annoying points have to do with yaoi-type moments...but I do have my limit. I know the fangirls mean well, but I hope they don't do anything extreme. Like get the paddle banned from NYAF. <.<; FYI, yaoi fans, please ask if you're going to slap anyone with a yaoi paddle.
The masquerade was amazing in terms of costume and content since alot of them was in the competition for the WCS. Some people were complaining about Uncle Yo 'participating' or 'interfering' in the background of the skits. You can see him in the Death Note skit...(which I later confirmed that the ppl in the skit asked him to do those things) as well as the 'Memories' and Bleath skit (that I didn't link to) among others. From what I can see from the audience, he seems to be trying to get things out of the way in terms of props...but that may not have been wise since the performers may put something somewhere for a reason. I guess a note in the future will be best to not touch things. ^^; Otherwise, I always thought he was a great MC.
Here is a bunch of licenses that I'm interested in. Yen Press has licensed Hero Tales by Arakawa Hiromu-sensei. Del Rey will have TSUBASA Character Guide 2 out in the summer 2009 (it'll have color pages and guide exclusive art) and xxxHOLiC: Another Holic novel by NISIOISIN is coming out October 28...which is soon! O.O Funimation has the rights to the Mushishi live action movie (which I hear is totally hot) Ouran Highschool Host Club seems to be confirmed for tv. Yay! Funi also has the castlist for Darker then Black with Jason Liebrecht as Hei and Brina Palencia as Yin (which was why they were at the convention.) Bandai Entertainment has the Gurren Lagann manga so yay for GL fans! ^.^
As a light con, it was wonderful. Didn't buy much but that's alright. Cons are just an excuse for me to spoil myself with something new. ^.^ I enjoyed myself thoroughly and had fun hanging out with Diana-chan and etc. Until next time!
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