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Answerman - Is It Intimidating For Japanese Guests To Visit American Conventions?


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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5525
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:09 pm Reply with quote
You do not get that many seiyuu though do you? In the last few years I can only recall Megumi Han, which was most likely due to how big Hunter X Hunter was. There was another with both the JP and Funimation voices for Goku, but I think that was a fair few years ago.Which other ones ahve their been?
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Octonian
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Joined: 07 Jul 2011
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:40 pm Reply with quote
Minori Chihara was a guest at the NYC Anime Festival in 2010. She did a Q&A, a signing session (which sadly I didn't get to), introduced a screening of "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya" and held a concert. So far as I could tell she seemed to be having a great time.
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Mune



Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Minnesota
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:53 pm Reply with quote
I could about imagine the horrible jetlag. Travelling is a pain for most, and adding in more stressful scenarios do not help. That being said, I have seen seiyuu visit the more secluded places in the US. Though, it is rarer. This also could be the case because of the language barrier in those more secluded places. Not many speak Japanese in places like the midwest compared to coastal areas, especially the west coast. There might be a fear of anti-Japanese sentiments because of the past(WWII).

However, the plus sides about going to those secluded places are that there are generally less people and more space.

I hope seiyuu try travelling throughout the US more often.
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Triltaison



Joined: 03 Jul 2011
Posts: 800
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 1:19 pm Reply with quote
MarshalBanana wrote:
You do not get that many seiyuu though do you?


It depends on the convention and whether they have good ties back in Japan. Anime Weekend Atlanta is my regular con, and they usually have a few seiyuu each year. They tend to theme by getting a few guests relating to a particular show that's popular, so there's been DBZ or Naruto themed cons with seiyuu that are known for other notable roles in other series that appeal across generations (like Kazuhiko Inoue's involvement in Naruto, Cyborg 009, and Natsume's Book of Friends). I've met and got autographs from Toshio Furukawa and Nobutoshi Canna there.
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xchampion



Joined: 21 Jan 2009
Posts: 370
Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 2:23 pm Reply with quote
I live in idaho and attend a convention in Boise every year named Anime Oasis. They get at least one Japanese Guest every year. It's usually a voice actor or singer with ties to anime. This year it's Dead Lift Lolita. I had never heard of them before but that usually the case. In the last few years some japanese guests have been Mika Kobayashi, Yuu Asakawa, Ai Meada. The organizer told me the process is pretty crazy and very nerve wracking to say the least. All mainly for the reasons Justin mentioned in his answer.
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
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Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 2:36 pm Reply with quote
When Shinichiro Watanabe visited London for a convention some years ago, he revealed via his interpreter that alongside the usual sightseeing, he had watched the Michael Jackson musical as part of his stay.
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Asrialys



Joined: 12 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 5:10 pm Reply with quote
Unless it was somehow scripted, I wonder how awkward it was for the ladies of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya when Johnny Yong Bosch seemingly threw a small fit and tossed his script into the air during their event at Anime Expo 2007...

I forget what happened that led to that...
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Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 5:21 pm Reply with quote
Wouldn't it be better if ANN could get a Japanese person to help with the answerman? Because a lot of questions involve Japanese culture.
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twilightmidna



Joined: 28 Nov 2012
Posts: 16
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 5:37 pm Reply with quote
MarshalBanana wrote:
You do not get that many seiyuu though do you? In the last few years I can only recall Megumi Han, which was most likely due to how big Hunter X Hunter was. There was another with both the JP and Funimation voices for Goku, but I think that was a fair few years ago.Which other ones ahve their been?


I know that SakuraCon in Seattle had Sumi Shimamoto 2 or 3 years ago who was the voice of Nausicaa in Nausicaa of the valley of the wind and Clarisse in The castle of Cagliostro
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kotomikun



Joined: 06 May 2013
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 5:47 pm Reply with quote
MarshalBanana wrote:
You do not get that many seiyuu though do you?


Er... I'd guess the majority of Japanese guests at American conventions are seiyuu, actually. Maybe not at AX, which seems to favor executives and such, but everywhere else. Fanime has already announced two seiyuu for this year. Actors are the most popular type of guest, regardless of where they're from, and convention-planners are surely aware of that. Many cons rarely have Japanese guests at all, though, because of the additional expense and complications.
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Ouran High School Dropout



Joined: 28 Jun 2015
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Location: Somewhere in Massachusetts, USA
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 6:25 pm Reply with quote
At Anime Boston, we have our share of Japanese production staff, but the real "specialty" seems to be Japanese musical groups.

For anyone interested, here's a link for all guests at Anime Boston since the convention opened in 2003:

http://www.animeboston.com/guests/guest_listing/
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#hiros7039



Joined: 09 Feb 2017
Posts: 31
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 7:48 pm Reply with quote
Or mention any comparison to elsewhere in the world like France or elsewhere in western Europe.
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Compelled to Reply



Joined: 14 Jan 2017
Posts: 358
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:10 pm Reply with quote
Mune wrote:
I could about imagine the horrible jetlag. Travelling is a pain for most, and adding in more stressful scenarios do not help. That being said, I have seen seiyuu visit the more secluded places in the US. Though, it is rarer. This also could be the case because of the language barrier in those more secluded places. Not many speak Japanese in places like the midwest compared to coastal areas, especially the west coast. There might be a fear of anti-Japanese sentiments because of the past(WWII).

Um, no. Being invited as a foreign guest implies animosity from over seventy-five years ago isn't prevalent anymore, even if you live in a vacuum. Honestly, some of you people talk about the Japanese like they're animals or aliens. The West has a lot more in common with Japan compared to certain countries in the Middle East and Latin America, and their mass number of immigrants. Mutual language difficulty is really the only issue.

Still, going off what Justin said, it is common for foreigners, such as the Japanese, to believe stereotypes about America. For example, from the 1980s, New York City as a high-crime dirty place, when in fact it's safe and relatively clean. Another stereotype which came out of the Cold War which the Soviet Union argued to try and discredit us, is that the South is full of black people hanging from trees like fruits. Oh, and did I mention guns? As for other countries, there's a phenomenon called "Paris syndrome" that many Japanese people experience when believing Paris is a fashionable and romantic place, when in fact it's dirty and chaotic. From our perspective, I bet a lot of you believe Tokyo is a high-tech futuristic metropolis as depicted in Akira, and/or a neon light orgy of love hotels and vending machines, but neither are the case.
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:54 pm Reply with quote
Compelled to Reply wrote:

Still, going off what Justin said, it is common for foreigners, such as the Japanese, to believe stereotypes about America. For example, from the 1980s, New York City as a high-crime dirty place, when in fact it's safe and relatively clean. Another stereotype which came out of the Cold War which the Soviet Union argued to try and discredit us, is that the South is full of black people hanging from trees like fruits.



....New York was in fact a dangerous place back from the 70's to like the early 90's the crack epidemic that would crop up in the 80's definitely didn't make things better regarding the image of cleanliness. Whereas the last time a black guy got lynched was in 1998 with the murder of James Byrd Jr. so while the practice wasn't happening regularly towards the end of the last century the fact that they were still happening at all and that late isn't really something that you can simply downplay either.

In short those stereotypes unfortunately have a degree of truth to them.


Last edited by BadNewsBlues on Mon Mar 05, 2018 9:11 pm; edited 4 times in total
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Compelled to Reply



Joined: 14 Jan 2017
Posts: 358
PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 9:01 pm Reply with quote
The second one was. The fact they're outdated is the whole point.
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