RE: AX98 Galactic Heroes Panel News
Califf, Jennifer (jcaliff@nsai-petro.com)
Tue, 14 Jul 1998 15:41:23 -0500
Okay, this has been sitting here for almost a week. I think it's time
for a response. Come on people, surely some of this is interesting to
you! ^_^
On Wednesday, July 08, 1998 11:52 PM, Walter Amos [SMTP:amos@sedl.org]
wrote:
>
> 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.
For me it was the BEST part of the weekend. And I don't mean that
lightly. It was THE BEST!! ^_^
>
> 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^
And since it is a personal goal of mine to begin building an LoGH cel
collection, I was VERY happy. ^_^ I'll be scanning my LoGH cels and
adding them to my cel gallery in the near future. He even signed the
Reinhart cel that I got. ^_^ Unfortunately, there were no cels of
Yang. *sigh* Oh, what I would give for a cel of Yang (though I expect
to get one in the next couple of months).
YANG! ^_^
>
> 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.
I also liked the room for the sake of the television screens and viewing
ease. Although I wouldn't ever expect to see as many fans of LoGH as
there were of FY. It just doesn't have the right type of mass-fan
appeal. It's too sophisticated for most American anime fans. ^_-
>
> First up was the new side story OVA, "A Billion Stars, A Billion
> Lights".
Which was a lot of fun, even without subtitles. I'm very glad you asked
for the synopses though. ^_^ It's so nice seeing all the main
characters alive and well in new stories.
>
> 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.
He also said that if they hadn't been able to recast Yang then they
would have had to cease production of the series (side stories). When
asked about the longevity of the series, he said that as long as the
fans continued to show interest they would hopefully continue the
series. He did say that they intended to follow Tanaka's work (that
virtually every line of dialogue in the series comes almost directly
from the texts).
He also said that they plan to release DVD sets of the earlier boxes,
and that the LD versions were going to go completely out of print. I
meant to ask for clarification as to whether he meant that they wouldn't
release future series on LD at all or if they were just going to stop
reprinting the earlier series, but I got flustered. ^^;;; I have a
problem with public speaking on stage with a microphone.
Another thing that was mentioned was that Mr. Tanaka is still writing
the LoGH side stories, but that he hasn't been working on them recently.
Apparently he's put LoGH and Arslan on hold (and is a little burned out
on LoGH) and is concentrating on Sohryuden (which has recently enjoyed a
surge of popularity thanks to the new cover art by CLAMP). But he said
there is actually a club (didn't he say it was a BBS?) started by his
secretary which is devoted to trying to encourage Mr. Tanaka to
concentrate on his writing. ^_^
If I think of anything else I'll write more later.
Jennifer
jcaliff@nsai-petro.com http://www.topher.net/~jcaliff/iserlohn.htm
"One of the mammals' evolutionary advantages was that they bore their
young alive. As research has conclusively shown, animals that bore
their young dead generally got nowhere."
-- _Science Made Stupid_ by Tom Weller