Jimmy Chan <jimmyc@genesisnetwork.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> A Tenchi Muyo panel was held on 1996.06.30 as part of Anime Expo '96.  The
> panel included Japanese and American voice actors as well as production
> staff.  Featured guests were Orikasa Ai and Takada Yumi, the Japanese voice
> actresses for the characters Ryoko and Aeka.  The emcee of the event was one
> Jeff Okamoto.
> 

Ai-chan and Yumi-chan were great!  And thank you so very much, Pioneer, for
bringing the seiyuu over, and more, letting us take so many shots of the
seiyuu!  yay!  I'm in love!  

But back to reality....

My thoughts on the event:

* Orikasa Ai looks absolutely stunning in her green kimono.  She was 
  also wearing geta (Japanese wooden sandals)

* Orikasa Ai is much better looking in real life than in pictures.
  In fact, I'd say she's quite lovely.

* Takada Yumi did not get quite as much attention from the crowd as did 
  Orikasa Ai.  Yumi-chan was also somewhat quiet during the interview session.
 
* Takada Yumi is also quite pretty, but very thin.

* I first saw the seiyuu as they walked past us to get to the convention hall.
  I was waiting in line with Yuchou, and belatedly realized that they were
  they were Ai-san and Yumi-san.  By the time I'd whipped out my camera,
  they'd gone out of range! (;_;)  But wait, god must have been smiling,
  'cos Ai-san and Yumi-san turned around, and walked back past us!
  (the other door to the hall was locked).  I took 1 picture of Yumi-san,
  and tried to get one of Ai-san, but my flash refused to work!  I'd 
  forgotten to load a fresh battery for my flash!  Kenny no baka!  (;_;)

* There were 2 picture sessions, one before the event, and another after.
  The translator tried to stop people from using their flashes, but 
  noone paid any attention to him (^_^)  The second picture session wasn't
  an official one, but what happened is that they allowed people to take
  pictures as the seiyuu were signing autographs.  I hope my photos came
  out well...


> The event started late, so people had a chance to photograph the voice
> actors before they took the stage.  Takada Yumi wore a blue short-sleeved
> shirt with butterfly and ladybug designs and white pants.  Her hair was up
> in two bundles, one on each side.  Orikasa Ai had her hair tied in a bun and
> she wore a full kimono!  The kimono was blue-green and had dragonfly designs
> on it.
> 

Ai-san wore a gold obi.

> After the guests were introduced, Ai said in English, "Hello!" to great
> applause.  Then she moaned "Oooh, Tenchi!" to screams from the crowd.  After
> the noise died down, the question and answer session began.
> 

Interestingly, Ai's voice sounds very different from Ryoko.  She also sounds
very playful and humorous.

> 
> I think the question asked was if the actresses were required to do both
> singing and voice acting.
> 
> Ai: Seiyuu singing is recent...  Please buy my CD!
> The American Ryoko said that she didn't have a good voice for singing.  But,
> Ai complemented her on her voice.  Someone suggested a Karaoke contest.
> Ai: I'll take her on anytime! 
> 

According to Orikasa Ai, her second CD will be coming out sometime this year.
Also, she said that nowadays it's quite normal for seiyuu to also release
song albums.

> 
> How did you become a voice actor?
> 
> Yumi: I wanted to be a DJ.
> Ai: God came down to my pillow side and said, "YOU will become a voice actor."
> 

I believe that was "pool side" and not "pillow side".

There was also a question about how much control the Japanese seiyuu 
had during the production of Tenchi Muyou.  Ai and Yumi answered that
they regularly have fights with the director, but recently, they have
been winning their fights!  

> Some tidbits from the event:
> Ai will be on the Tenchi Movie CD coming out in July and she will have her
> own album out sometime in Autumn.  There will be a new Bubble Gum Crisis
> series coming out.
>

The Tenchi movie features Tenchi's mum, and time travel.  Any more would be
spoilers.  The movie is done in AC3 and the surround sound effects are 
actually quite good.  The movie is quite nice too - I managed to get in to
the subtitled showing.  I think Megumi Hayashibara plays Tenchi's mother.
 
> 
> You needed to have your name drawn in a raffle to get an autograph.  I
> didn't get picked.  Since I had nothing better to do, I hung around the
> autograph area watching all the lucky people get autographs from Yumi and
> Ai.  A security goon was also there practicing his crowd control techniques
> on three people.  Unfortunately for me, rushing off to weekend classes
> before going to the Expo, I forgot my camera.  So now I have nothing to
> remember this event by except my own hastily scribbled notes.  I hope the
> notes were helpful to somebody.
> 

Alan Takahashi, Yuchou Hu, and I all got tickets!  (Lucky!)  I even managed to
say a couple of words in Japanese to Ai-san and Yumi-san! (Double Lucky!)
I remember watching Ai-san sign her autograph on my "Tenchi LD Live" LD,
and in a daze, I said (in a relatively calm voice, I think) "Kiree na 
kakikata desu ne" ("you have really nice handwriting").  I have no idea
why I said that.  I think my OS overloaded and forced me to think about
non-important things in order to avoid a total crash (^_^;;;)

BTW, Orikasa Ai has now overtaken Hisakawa Aya in my top 3 list.


--
Kenny Toh, ktoh@td2cad.intel.com  
The biggest Mitsuishi Kotono fan in the west!
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