2013 was a very good year for me both as a fan and collector. The museum experienced substantial growth, greatly facilitated by my meeting Yuko online. As a fan, I was able to accomplish two of my lifelong ambitions: meeting Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and Yuko Miyamura.
Briefly, here are the highlights in chronological order:
What would top such a great year would be a trip to Japan. Also in December, I booked a spot on Pacset Tours' Third Impact tour which will kick off next October. After years off procrastinating and making excuses about a Japan trip, I'm committed and couldn't think of a better way to do it.
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September 2, Monday There was an Eva photo op in the morning with the dub cast which I had been advised to get in line for at 9:30 and was thus the second person in line. Everyone but Spencer was there by 10:30 and he ended up being a half hour late, but it went quickly. It was $7 to get the photo printed out but the first person who did so managed to get his for free due to communication issues. Wasn't happy with my take so I was able to get a retake and get it signed, freeing up a signing spot for later. To fill in some time I hit up the Women in the Anime Industry panel. Grant, Bailey, and Winn-Lee were supposed to be presenting but with Winn-Lee out and Bailey a no show it was just Grant and became a mix of Q&A about working in the industry and Eva. Q: Who was the biggest celebrity that you've worked with. A: The biggest anime celebrity was Carl Macek. I read an essay by Miyamura and met her about 5 1/2 years ago which I was very excited about and we became good friends. Q: How do you feel about revisiting Asuka all these years later? A: It's been interesting and doesn't seem that long ago. I feel that the character is a part of myself. As for the time has passed, it's been 14 years and tricky to get around the old vs. new Asuka since she's now an adult. (I was cringing at this since it crossed into 3.0 spoilerland.) Q: What are the most interesting things in your collection? A: I have: an Eva toaster from Akihabara, mini fridge, Eva-02 watch, 17" Asuka figures, custom plug suit I haven't worn in a while, custom bobble head, macrame Hello Kitty doll. Q: In The Little Red Haired Girl you talk about your collection but didn't mention what your favorites are, what are they? (my question) A: That was done around 2004.(the guy who owns the red Mustang with the Eva-02 license plate that appears at the end was at the con also). A Nerv keychain from Miyamura that yells Anta baka! The most expensive figures I have, the kubricks, an ultra poseable Eva-02, a big vinyl figure that I got in Australia. Q: How do you feel about all the new merchandise that has been released over the years and with Rebuild? (my question) A: I haven't been able to keep up with the new stuff. Q: What is the the biggest misconception that you've come across about voice acting? (my question) A: That we make a lot of money. I'm sure I spent many more times on Asuka stuff than I have playing the role. Q: Have you kept on top of the Eva manga? A: I have read the other manga. Both are separate story lines. Following the panel I went to what was left of the Spencer and Swasey signing and had the former sign a shitajiki with all three of the pilots. He gave me the option of manning Shinji up or not and as I told him to do whatever he wanted, doodled glasses, a mustache, and beard. Had Grant sign two shitajiki at the following signing and Kevin helped me out by having her sign a third. After he pointed out that one of the badges was done by someone in artist alley, we tracked down the artist who had a single print left but I didn't care for it too much (it was the half Shinji/Eva-01). There was another one who did the full event badge design, the pilots in the classroom, that we were able to find although she was out of large prints and only had 5 x 7s left. I got her card as she was going to expand the scene to include Mari and Kaworu but it wouldn't be ready until Taiyou Con in January. After this was my final panel of the con, US vs Japan. Grant, Spencer, and Miyamura discussed the differences between voice acting in both countries. The final con event was the Miyamura signing at 4. Again thanks to Kevin's help I was able to get the two shitajiki signed that Grant had earlier signed, and as the latter had added some comments in English, Miyamura added the equivalents in Japanese. The final thing I was able to get her to sign was the film cel holder for the UK special edition of Battle Royale, as her character in that film is on it. I made it back to PHX on time but my flight to SFO was delayed, so I didn't get home until 12:30 AM, in bed by 1, and back to work the next day, arising just after 6. Was it all worth it? Hell yes! Here is everything that I got signed. The only new things I picked up were the car decals, signed photos, Comic Anthology, and Marmalade Boy art book. September 1, Sunday I had time to kill before the first session of the Nerv Cafe at noon. Ran into Kevin and found that he had also opted for the Nerv Cafe, so we browsed the dealers. One was selling several Eva crane figures, but I held off on buying any after learning that it cost 100-200 Y for a try at winning them. We got in line for the first cafe session around 11:45 and had another wait before it got started around 12:15. The first session was moderately full and we sat a table with three other folks from the area. Mostly it was talking with a light snack of a slice of cake and some fruit. There were several Eva cosplayers but aside from bringing us the snacks and water, they didn't interact with the attendees much. At the end of the event they got on stage and posed for photos. As you can see below, the Rei cosplayer stayed in character the entire time. I had high hopes for the event but it wasn't worth it for $10 and I saw on the con forum that the second session was less well attended and more awkward. Although it was explained that the con was limited to serving the hotel's marked up food, I still couldn't recommend it. I next hit up the second Spike Spencer signing at 1 but he was a no show. Next was the panel Putting Words in Asuka's Mouth - Writing for Dubs. The description had Greenfield, Grant, and Miyamura down but it was just Grant and Greenfield since the topic was dubs. I stuck around anyway and it was an interesting discussion. After the panel I headed back to the dealer hall for the 3:00 signing with Miyamura, Swasey, and Spencer and discovered that a photo op with Miyamura had been squeezed in which could be had for $20. I had thought that she would be part of the Eva photo op on Monday morning but this would be of the dub cast only so I decided to spring for it today and take another one the next day when I would be wearing my third Asuka shirt, the one I wanted for the photo. It took three takes until I could get a photo with Miyamura that I liked as I was tensing up when the pictures were taken, but she was very cool about it. Now because Spencer had flaked at his 1:00 signing, everyone who had wanted to see him then was in line at 3. I had him and Swasey sign a shikishi that I planned to have the rest of the Eva dub cast sign. As I had taken a photo with Miyamura that counted as a +1 item so I also had her sign a second shikishi for someone else who was helping get me Sumi Shimamoto's autograph from SacAnime, which was going on that same weekend. Me and Rich lined up again for a second attempt but were told when it got close to the hour that the line was being cut so we stepped out. However I found out after from Kevin that although the time was up, the last several people in line were allowed to get their items signed, so we missed our chance. Grant and Greenfield were signing at 4:30, at the same time as Miyamura's Seiyu Class. I opted to get the signing in first and had her sign my multi-cast shikishi and the shitajiki and got Greenfield's sig on the former. Did not end up going to the Seiyu Class when Rich checked it out and reported that they were doing voice exercises. Next up was the second Eva panel at 6. There I found a guy with the biggest Eva dakimakura I've ever seen at over 4' long, although I doubt its authenticity. Here are my notes from the panel: Tiffany Grant (TG), Spike Spencer (SS), Matt Greenfield (MG), John Swasey (JS), Yuko Miyamura (YM), Amanda Winn-Lee (AWL) The panel began with playback of a video that Winn-Lee recorded to apologize for not attending, which is also on Saboten's Facebook page. Q: What did you like the least about your character? (My question. Being unfamiliar with the dub I excluded Greenfield from this, but didn't know that he had done Hyuga and the Eva growls, so Grant called me out a little for this omission.) TG: Asuka's not in the first 7 episodes. SS: The screaming. JS: The haircut. YM: She's bad at cooking. MG: Having something inside you. Q: How did you get the role? YM: I auditioned in 1994...(same story she told yesterday about casting) JS: I had gained a reputation for being able to do different voices and was able to capture Gendo's voice. SS: Amanda introduced me to anime and ADV. I had auditioned for the role 4 times. TG: Matt did the Eva units and Hyuga. MG: I did secondary characters as early on I had to fill in. We bounced around a lot with who to cast as who. Tiffany was typecast for Asuka and she spoke German. Q: Pacific Rim vs. Eva? MG: Eva beat it at the box office. Q: What was the hardest do do in 2.0? A (unsure who answered): Had to relearn the character as they're different. Q: Do you keep mementos of the characters you've played? TG: My Eva collection is mostly Asuka. SS: No. Js: Gendo underwear. YM: I have this hat that Asuka wears in 3.0 (she was wearing it) and a Hello Kitty x Eva shirt I got from Tiffany. At this point Spencer called Winn-Lee and got her on the line so she took some questions. JS: I got into anime through AWL's husband. Q: What is your favorite thing about Rei? AWL: She never bothered to explain herself and just does whatever. Q: A lot of VAs tend to keep the same range after they finish recording, does this happen to you? AWL: I would get out of character when I leave the booth, snap out of the role ASAP. Q: How do the clones know what happened to the prior versions of Rei? AWL: Biological implementation. My answer: There's no Misaka Network. Q: What was going through your mind when you came up with baloney pony? AWL: It was outtakes. Q: What do you think of Asuka being hotter than Rei? AWL: ... Back to general questions. Q: Does Asuka really like Shinji? TG: Are you stupid? YM: No. Q: What was your reaction when you heard about Rebuild? MG: Anno getting paid. SS and TG: Getting paid. YM: A happy ending but it hasn't happened yet. I wasn't happy with the EoE ending. Shinji and Kaworu married. Q: How often do you get approached about Battle Royale? YM: Lots of people in Australia ask about it. SS: I worked on it, did 3 characters (not true). Q: How does it feel to do the Gendo pose? JS: I love it for many reasons. You can't see his mouth, so it makes recording easy. He feels that everyone is a child and not up to him. Matt is like Gendo, he was committed to Eva. Q: What was the funniest thing that happened while dubbing? TG: The kissing scene between Shinji and Asuka. I nearly drowned myself by gargling and laughing at the same time. MG: Around Episode 20 we recorded the Rei sex tape: 20 minutes of silence, then "Are you finished?" SS: When Shinji does his thing in Asuka's hospital room, you can see the lower silhouette. JS: Nothing. YM: The strangling scene (acted out with Grant). Q: Do you have any ideas about 4.0? YM: No. Q: How do you feel about the new direction that the movies have taen? TG: Not sure yet. MG: Hard to say. SS: I agree with them. JS: Not our role to decide, we follow the creator's lead. YM: I never knew how close Shinji and Kaworu were, didn't realize they were such good friends. Q: What is your favorite thing about Asuka? TG: She's not afraid to tell people what she thinks an is very confident. Q: What are your thoughts about Anno? TG: He's probably creepy. MG: I met him once. Very. A lot of where Eva comes from is derived from Ultraman. SS: I don't know. YM: He's an otaku. Q: How do you unwind? TG: Thai or Japanese food. MG: Not to go home and watch anime. SS: Red wine, good food, hot sex with the fiancee. JS: I'd like to do that with your fiancee. YM: Asuka is really a part of my personality and it comes out into my personal life. Q: Did you get the whole arc when you did the TV series? MG: I told the actors what their characters thought they knew to make sure people were in the moment. JS: It's not so important as we have to know what the Japanese did an almost doesn't matter what the story is. We listen to what they did and give it a full performance. You're not getting the whole gist of the story when recording. We will do what the director tells us. Q: Did the series get emotionally scary for you? TG: Several times. MG: When Shinji falls on a naked Rei. SS: Some scenes with Shinji when I initially got into the character, after a while I got used to it. JS: Not so much, it's a very straight thing. YM: When Asuka realized her mom was with her. Q: How did you feel when Asuka was cut from the team? TG: Disappointed. When she was cut it removed her reason for being. Otaku Closet was right after the panel and recalling what had happened the prior night, me and Kevin postponed dinner until after we hit it up first. I came across a Rei swimsuit figure but hesitated to buy it for $15 right then. I decided to look around at everyone else and come back to offer $14 if it was still available. However when I returned there was a group of folks from the Eva panel at the seller and one of them got the figure. After dinner we walked through the closet again and I made another rare find, the Eva doujin compilation Comic Anthology 2 which came out in 1996. At the time it seemed semi-official as it mentioned Gainax on the publication page although the seller described it as a doujin, so I so picked it up for $3. I found out after checking E-Mono that it's legit. August 31, Saturday I had a 6:30 AM flight and tried to sleep early but the excitement didn't help so I ended up with about 4.5 hours of sleep when I got up at 4 AM. After a heavy breakfast I got to SFO after 5 and stayed awake the whole time, arriving at PHX around 8:30. From here I took a Supershuttle to the Renaissance Glendale and got there after 9. I got a text message from my roommates informing that they would be coming in a little later than their original ETA by 10 so I waited in the lobby and people watched the attendees and cosplayers arriving. After I stepped outside to talk to one of the valets about local places to eat, none other than Charles Barkley stepped out of the hotel and I was able to be photographed with him while he waited for his car to be brought around. My roommates arrived around 11:30 and after getting our keys, I dropped my stuff off in the room and got my badge, an Eva design by Pixelduhst. However I had to exchange it for a VIP badge which had a Danganronpa design. As time was short and I wanted to be on time for the first signing at 1 (Amanda Winn-Lee, Spike Spencer, John Swasey), I had granola bars for lunch, the first of several such meals. Winn-Lee wasn't present and I didn't find out until after the signing that she had canceled. I also learned that for those unused to signing shikishi that smaller sized ones will probably work better they didn't fill them up the way a Japanese guest might, which has to do with writing vertically. I spotted Tiffany Grant at the signing although she wasn't signing yet and we talked about our respective Eva shirts. As I had some time until the next signing at 3 (Grant and Matt Greenfield), I wound up at the ADR Direction and Production panel, which was by none other than Greenfield himself. I asked about the live action movie and what its status was. Greenfield explained that it had been greenlit and was going into production with a major Hollywood studio lining up a director. However the lawyers discovered that the rights weren't clear. Anno took them with him when he left Gainax and they're now owned by King Records. At the Grant/Greenfield signing Grant brought a whole bunch of Eva stuff with her that she was selling and took 10 minutes to set it all up: DVDs, Newtype magazines, car decals, and even unused Platinum DVD boxes. There were a lot of people in line so I was late for the Miyamura panel, which was at the same time. I had Grant sign a poster that I was also going to have Miyamura cosign and told Greenfield that I wasn't sure how he would react to my movie question. He replied that he has gotten asked about it so many times and they were so close to getting it. Miyamura's panel was her talking about specific aspects of Eva and not a back and forth Q&A as I had expected. Here are my notes:
After the panel ended the audience helped sing happy birthday for Miyamura's daughter, who came in carrying her son. Her husband did not attend the con. My final panel of the day was the Eva cast group panel. Here are my notes: Tiffany Grant (TG), Spike Spencer (SS), Matt Greenfield (MG), John Swasey (JS), Yuko Miyamura (YM) Q: How did you feel when you heard about Rebuild? (my question) TG/SS: It was new work and we would get paid. YM: Excited. Everyone else: Generally positive. Q: Have you seen Pacific Rim? A: No one has. Q: What is your favorite line from the series? TG: Are you stupid? MG: Gendo - It's hot. SS: Can't say, there are kids in the room (someone let their 2 year old run around in front and wouldn't keep him quiet so about half the time he was noisy). JS: (does a Gendo impersonation) Mmmm. Q: What was your favorite fight scene? TG: Eva-02 vs. the Eva-05 series. MG: Eva-02 vs. Gaghiel. SS: Not sure but it might be in 2.22. YM: The finale of Eva-01 and Eva-02 vs. Israfel. Q: Who do you feel Shinji should end up with? TG: I'd say Mari but I don't like her. SS: Misato. JS: Gendo (more of a non-answer). YM: Kaworu. Q: If you were in the same room with your character and giving them therapy, what would you do? TG: Asuka is perfect. SS: ...(couldn't get it) then bitch slap him. JS: Ask Gendo what is wrong with you? He's a lost cause. YM: Can't say anything due to 3.0. Q: What attracted you to Asuka? TG: Her personality, which I can relate to. Only knew about her after I was cast. YM: Her positive attitude, looking forward to living life every day, can relate to the character. Q: What scene made you go WTF? TG: The last episode. MG: The Sea of Dirac. SS: Shinji in Asuka's hospital room. YM: When Eva-02 was eaten. Q: What don't you have in your collection that you wish you did? TG: The full scale figures, although I have a lot of figures. I also have a fridge, toaster. Want to get more Hello Kitty stuff. Q: Why is Asuka so competitive with Shinji? TG: Her nature, she wants to be the best. YM: I agree. MG: She's afraid she couldn't beat Rei. Q: Have you been to the Eva cafe in Japan? YM: They have a Shinji cocktail which sucks. Q: Was it hard for you to portray Shinji due to your personality? SS: It's a role. Q: Were there changes that you made to your character that stayed in? SS: A lot. TG: In Magma Diver. MG: For Spike's role. JS: When you get into a role you want to say in it. I try to stay in the role as much as possible as it's important to honor what Gendo's seiyu brought to the character. YM: There were changes in the script due to localization. I did quite a lot of ad libbing, e.g. Asuka's last line in EoE. MG: We really took advantage of the alternate universe (SS, TG, Winn-Lee), e.g. the riding his baloney pony line, which has been translated into French and German. Q: Do you look into the symbolism of the series? TG: When I was working on it not so much but more towards the end or after it finished. SS: No. MG: I knew the ending but had to make sure the actors didn't color their performances by knowing what was actually going on, so I told them what their character knew was going on. So they got a whole lot of BS. YM: I didn't know as we didn't have the script. Anno would respond with rhetorical questions. Q: How did you get to work on Rebuild? MG: I offered to do it but had issues due to my position. I don't think it's the same Eva and it's good to have different people due to this change. TG: The producer Mike (Mike McFarland) appreciated the idea that the previous actors had worked on it and had seen the original series. SS: It was different due to the changes in technology. Both Mike and Matt want to do the best job possible. JS: Working with both is great. Funi was very deliberate with casting. Some prior actors worked, some didn't. They respected Eva's roots. MG: When we licensed it, Eva wasn't known. Mike inherited a juggernaut. The final question was someone requesting that Grant do her get in the damn robot, Shinji! line. The final signing of the day was after this panel and was supposed to be Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, and Miyamura. I found someone in line I had just met last week at Japan Expo, Kevin, who I had told about Saboten Con and he had booked last minute and flew out. It turned out that Willingham and Bailey didn't show so it was just Miyamura signing. On top of that, all of us VIP members discovered that one of our privileges was priority for signings, so we got to go first and were allowed to reenter the general line again. First I asked Miyamura to sign a shikishi and requested that she sign as Asuka so she added Anta Baka. Using the relining up method I was able to get my 2 posters signed. I would have kept doing this but no one else got in line after 45 minutes so the signing ended early. I also met this guy who flew in from Kansas, Rich, who is about the same age as me, and I think he was the one who mentioned evamonkey.com. I had checked out the dealer's hall during the day and the Eva pickings were very slim, which was a surprise. The vendors really missed out by not stocking up as much as they could have. People even resorted to having this artwork by Pixelduhst (who designed the Eva classroom badge) and another Asuka/Rei print signed. I did run into Tatsu Hobby, who was at JX last week and who had supplied the Eva-05 LM HG model kit, the only piece of Eva merch I bought there, and the guy recognized me. Despite having packed a storage container in my luggage I was wary of picking up something like a model kit that could get damaged. After dinner me and Kevin checked out the swap meet, AKA Otaku Closet, and discovered that I had missed the chance to get an unopened Platinum box for $4. I made the mistake of checking out Club Sabo, which was a Gainax-themed waitress cafe, although the only Eva cosplayer was a Rei. I only stayed for an hour before returning to my room as it had been a long day. |
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