Report by Gundam Enigma

April 23, 2003

When I finally arrived at the hotel around 9:00 AM, I was greeted
right of the bat by an overweight Sailor Scout. Being my first con, this
left me with a bad first impression. However, after registering, I
began to wander about and coincidentally met up with Ron Ferrara Lord Satorious) right off the bat. Never having met before, I only knew him by his Samurai costume.

We then bee lined to the Panel room to meet Hiroki Kanno. I was
getting autographs for Machineman, and Ron had a hard-to-find RahXephon character book he wanted signed. We talked about extremely random mecha info while in line, and Ron joked about how he put a down payment on a RahXephon piece he had purchased the day before. They let people in three at a time, and when we got in the woman with Ron's sketch was there. Despite ranting by a slightly irate Xellos, Ron scored an autograph from Kanno on both, while I had him autograph my Program Book, which had RahXephon on the cover.

Next we went to the main event hall to meet Scott McNeil, voice actor
of Duo Maxwell, Waspinator, Silverbolt, Dinobot, Rattrap, the mechanic on the shuttle from Char's Counterattack, and many other works over his career that stretches back to 1987. It took a little while for him to arrive thanks to a late plane. However, that didn't phase his attitude. He came in with cheers abound, making the entire stay worth the price for admission. After a couple of impersonations, he began taking questions. The girls in
front of me didn't ask much; besides hugs, that is, which he gladly gave.
When I was up, I asked about any future Gundam works, specifically on
Zeta Gundam. He tried to crack a joke about not knowing about Zeta
Gundam, and received a wave of boos in reply. Making up for it, he did
inform us that he would not be on Zeta Gundam, but is working on a new
G.I. Joe series (he showed off in the voice that he was playing Destro)
and will be the villain of the new Scooby Doo movie. I wonder if he
realized that despite not telling us the name of said villain, that if we
see him on screen we know the end already. His normal voice is very
similar to Duo's, but enjoyed randomly changing them. He was asked how it was to have conversations with himself, and he replied that they're a
lot like the conversations he often has in his head. He did do a couple
of lines for Rattrap and Dinobot, however. They also asked him his
ideas of Yaoi, and while not saying anything against homosexuals, that
"Heero had never been any more than a good friend to me." The crowd
repeatedly asked him to do Duo lines, and one obese Wing-fan shocked
everyone by diving on stage and giving him a paper filled with his most famous lines. They also asked him about David Kaye (Treize Khushrenada, Megatron, Sesshoumaru) and he told them that although his lead voices sound similar, he plays parts you can't even guess, and thus lives up to his "Man of a Thousand Voices" proclamation.

The question of Relena Peacecraft was also brought up, and he attempted a neutral position with "Relena Peacecraft was always a perfect gentleman to me." Later he was also asked about playing "Duo in a sexy voice." He had a hard time getting that one across, saying if Duo wanted to sound sexy he'd change his voice anyhow. But he ended up with the interesting line "C'mon man roll over you're hoggin the pillow!" which ripped the crowd into a frenzy. Someone brought up how Kirby Morrow (Trowa Barton and Miroku) had made a surprise appearance at the Anime Who's Line the day before and bashed on Scott a bit, and Scott said he'd have his revenge. The last big question was on censorship, and he stated that .".censorship is obscene to the art of anime." He commented on horrible dubs such as Cardcaptors and Escaflowne, and made the note that on FOX and WB and the like they have a rule where they cannot say "What the" due to implications. When all was said and done he mentioned being around for the Wing-Boy reunion, and went to the back for a picture with all the Duos.

After that Ron and I explored a bit. I picked up a The O MSiA, and we
went down to the gameroom. Despite many games being played, we spent our time playing Versus Mode on the original Mario Bros. on Super Mario All-Stars. We left there 'early' to get to the Hiroki Kanno interview,
and caught some of the Anime on DVD panel. The main part from that
came from Chris Beveridge noting that 1) they are fighting to get Legend of the Galactic Heroes on DVD, and 2) with A.D. Vision, Pioneer, and Bandai all there, the con would be used to discuss who would take rights on Anime on DVD. They also gave out free DVDs for those who asked questions.

Next came Hiroki Kanno. He is the character designer on RahXephon,
and has done character work on Cowboy Bebop, Yu Yu Hakusho and Fushigi Yugi. In my personal opinion, Kanno shouldn't have been there. ADV pulled him here to a small audience who hasn't seen most of the series (only the 1st DVD is out) and made him miss the opening of RahXephon the Movie that had been the day before. However, he did answer questions, despite both audience and Kanno not really impressing either side. He was asked about the symbolism between the red and blue between Ayato and Quon despite their races, and he said that there was no symbolism and that it was coincidence. He mentioned a RahXephon video game in the works (multiple times... some idiots asked the same question over again) and his influences from Toshihiro Kawamoto. He said he loves designing cute girls, such as Megumi and the 14-year-old Haruka on the movie. He told us that designers are always restricted by directors, so they're never exactly what they really imagined. The most trouble this came from was Reika on RahXephon. He also said that all learning done in the world of art is done from practical experiences, and you go to art school only because you need to be able to say that you did. He disappointed me when asked about computerizing animation to hand-drawn work. RahXephon was done completely on computer, and he didn't seem to care for the old ways. He said that computer artwork is simple and still evolving, which may excite some and upset others.

After that Ron and I went back up for me to get an autograph for a
friend from Tiffany Grant. We moved back and forth from there, until we
stopped in the Game Room to assemble The O. We chatted with a couple
who were assembling the Rick Dom Master Grade. From there, Ron and I
said our farewells, and after he left I decided to check out the A.D.
Vision panel. However, the line for it stretched across the span of the
hotel's second floor, so I switched gears to go back to the Sunrise
booth. I snatched a Cowboy Bebop t-shirt, ogled some Gundam kits, and then left the con at 4:00 PM.

Being my first con, there wasn't anything I wasn't ready for, but
plenty that surprised me none the less. Such as:

-3 Inuyashas (all had sucky Tetsaigas).
-Too many fat Sailor Scouts.
-A very skimpy Sailor Star Soldier (that hung out in the foyer for all
to ogle over).
-A Nanako (or Kurumi, or other random nurse) girl who Kanno couldn't
look straight at.
-Lots of Duo Maxwells, all female.
-Cowboy Bebop's Ed, played by a guy.
-Cowboy Bebop's Jet Black in his ISSP uniform.
-A load of Final Fantasy.
-Lupin and Goemon.
-Slayers galore, but no Naga.
-Some Naruto characters, who were of the highest quality.
-One person made a massive club of fiberglass. I don't know what anime
it was, exactly.

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