Joseph Riggs wrote:
> A group of us met briefly today (Saturday) at Anime Expo.  Present were 
> Kutani, Alan, Shin, Ryoko-chan, and myself.  Alan brought along the OVA 3 
> promotional disc, and we all took the opportunity to watch it.
>  
> 
> Afterwards, some of us headed over to the Funimation panel.  There we ran 
> into Peter Gray.  The panel had some of the people from Studio Pierot (Yu Yu 
> Hakushu) as guests, so over half the panel time devolved into one of the 
> Funimation people asking the Studio Pierot people a bunch of questions...

I got a picture of those of us who attended the Funimation panel; junior
got those of us who met in the Hilton lobby.
http://homepage.mac.com/azabaro/ax2003_at_funi_panel.jpg
 From left to right:
Junior
Kuuta's friend whose name I don't remember but who almost blew Kuuta's cover
Kuuta himself, with a haircut
Peter's friend Brian, who I know from the Caltech Anime Society
Peter Gray

The Funimation guy who kept asking questions was Justin Cook, the voice 
director for Yu Yu Hakusho, as well as the voice for Yusuke (no, he 
didn't cast himself). He's also a big YYH fan; according to an interview 
in one of the first few issues of the US Shonen Jump he's had all the 
YYH tankoubons for some time...

Now, it's nice knowing that a real fan is directing the English voice 
acting for a show; you know he's not going to screw things up just to 
make his job easier. OTOH, it can make for a very...focused Q&A, and if 
you don't care about the questions getting asked, well...

> 
> *sigh*
> 
> Things got so bad that Kutani left before it was over.

Hey, they were on a schedule, remember? Kuuta wanted to make sure his 
friend saw the end of FLCL, after all. If I'd known it was going to be 
that bad, I might've done the same.

FWIW, Justin Cook did seem to be cool about hanging out with YYH fans 
afterwards to talk about the show.

Alan Zabaro