AX98 Galactic Heroes Panel News
Walter Amos (amos@sedl.org)
Wed, 8 Jul 1998 23:51:36 -0500 (CDT)
Greetings all! Below is my capsule review of the information and news
presented at the Anime Expo 98 Galactic Heroes panel, presented by Mr.
Kikukawa (sorry can't remember first name), one of the producers of the
LoGH anime along with Masatoshi Tahara (who last came to Anime Expo
93). First off let me note that Mr. Kikukawa was not an "official"
Guest of Honor at the con, so his name was not widely featured in the
program material nor was he mentioned at the opening ceremony. I
gather that this was by his wish, however I feel it is a bit unjust -
he deserves the same recognition as some of the other guests, not to
mention that the lack of publicity might mean that LGH fans could miss
his cool panel.
And a cool panel it was, too, for a variety of reasons. Probably one
of the coolest of the con. Particularly nice was that the panel
scheduled after his, with Mr. Kitakubo (from Production IG) was merged
with a later panel, so we at the LGH panel were able to stay nearly a
full extra hour to ask questions! Also Mr. Kikukawa brought along a
tape of the premiere of the new LGH side-story OVA "A Billion Stars, A
Billion Lights". This tape hasn't been released in Japan, so we at AX
were the first to see it outside the animators!! And possibly best of
all, he brought a number of LGH posters and cels, and everyone at the
panel who asked a question got one!! ^o^
I personally will confess to a minor bit of irritation at the start of
the panel, though not resulting from anything Mr. Kikukawa did. His
panel was scheduled in the same hall immediately following the main
panel of the con's most popular guest, Ms. Yuu Watase, creator of
Fushigi Yuugi. As such her panel was packed with hundreds of people,
but when it was over and time for Mr. Kikukawa's to start, almost all
filed out leaving only a mere 20 or so left in the huge hall. I
personally felt embarassed that this dramatically conveyed the relative
popularity of LGH in the US. But the upside was that this meant the
discussion was more close and personal, feeling like a small fan get
together and less like a formal panel.
First up was the new side story OVA, "A Billion Stars, A Billion
Lights". Later, in response to a question from me, Mr. Kikukawa gave a
short explanation of the story: The video is set early on during
Reinhard's early career with the army. His ship is in a fleet
commanded by the very old Count Grimshausen (sp?). The Count is
doddering, senile, and incompetent as a commander, and everyone knows
it. Including the Count himself. The Count's special ability is not
to let anything faze or upset him, as is readily evident in the space
battle he participates in, which he nearly sleeps though! However the
Count retains his power and influence because he knows every dark
secret of every major figure in the Empire. He comes to recognize
Reinhard's ambition, and ultimately gives Reinhard this information,
aiding Reinhard's rise to power.
Following the video was the question and answer session, and what
follows are random notes resulting from audience questions:
Following my comment about the brilliance of the scene in the 2nd
series where Iserlohn and Geiersburg Fortresses battle one another and
the use of gravitational tidal forces to manipulate their liquid armor,
Mr. Kikukawa noted that this armor is a feature of the anime and isn't
in the original books. In the books the fortresses are described more
like the big battle station from "you know where". ^_- The liquid
armor idea apparently originated from a discussion between producer
Tahara and the series mecha designer early on in the planning. And at
that time they realized the possibility that with liquid surfaces tidal
forces would play a role.
A new voice actor for the part of Yang Wen-Li has been selected. Since
the passing of Mr. Kei Tomiyama, the original voice actor from the OVAs
(also known as the voice of Susumu Kodai in "Space Battleship Yamato"),
there has been a hope to find another actor up to the role. Over 70
actors were auditioned for the part, including both seiyuu (anime voice
actors) and actual theater actors. The voice chosen is that of Hozumi
Gouda, the seiyuu who played Kiriko Cuvie in "Votoms" (thanks Hitoshi
Doi's Seiyuu Database!) His first recording session for the role will
be this Friday (July 10) according to Mr. Kikukawa.
In response to questions about the danger of losing other LGH voice
actors, Mr. Kikuawa noted the age of some of the seiyuu. In addition
to Tomiyama, the seiyuu for Imperial Prime Minister Lichtenlade passed
away as well. And Goroh Naya, the voice actor for Admiral Merkatz, may
not be able to use his voice much more.
In discussion of the possibilities of English adaptation of LGH,
Kikukawa noted that Mr. Tanaka's contract states that in any
adaptation no names of characters can be changed without his approval.
This clause was inserted since Mr. Tanaka is aware of how Hayao
Miyazaki's film "Nausicaa" was adapted into English as "Warriors of the
Wind" and all the character names were changed.
Mr. Kikukawa observed that if LGH is licensed in the USA, he would
prefer it to be done in the same way that the story came about in
Japan, namely with the translation of Mr. Tanaka's original novels
appearing first, then the animation, followed by things like video game
adaptations. This way American fans could enjoy the series the same
way the Japanese did.
As a final note, regarding science fiction generally, I found it
interesting that Mr. Kikukawa told us that Mr. Tanaka wrote the
afterword to the Japanese edition of Issac Asimov's "Foundation"! On a
personal note this was exciting to me since Foundation was the first
great SF novel I read and got me interested in SF literature. To have
a connection between my favorite SF novel and favorite SF anime this
way is just cool.
==============================================================================
"Zu jeder Zeit, an jeder (sic) Ort, bleibt das Tun | Walter Amos
der Menschen das gleiche..." - Galactic Heroes II | amos@sedl.org