Inoue Kikuko events

Inoue Kikuko events

Anime Expo 2001
2001.07.05 to 2001.07.07
report by Derrick Seeto


July 7:

Inoue-san had two events happen during Anime Expo on July 7th. First was a late afternoon event called "Meet the Guests". Members of our group were astoundingly lucky that morning. The information booth by the dealers room had about 20-30 of the tickets left, and only for $10.oo a ticket! We couldn't beleive it! So we bought some tickets and went to our first ever "Meet the Guests" at an anime convention. At these events, lucky fans have the opportunity to mingle with the con guests such as manga-ka Yuu Watase and seiyuu Kikuko Inoue. No autographs or photos or videotaping would be allowed.

Watase-sensei and Inoue-san both had extremely crowded tables as they were two of the most popular guests at the convention. Anime director Kunihiko Ikuhara and seiyuu Tomoko Kawakami did not attend this event. Neither did the seiyuu Takumi Yamazaki or past guests of honor Akira Kamiya.

It was sometime before we ourselves were able to work our way over to Kikuko's table. She was very bright and personable as usual. Nobody wanted to leave.

Kikuko had a transalator with her, as did many of the guests from Japan. We wanted to know if she had known about one of her biggest fans (who maintains the seiyuu database). In broken Japanese, my brother got out "A guy named Hitoshi Doi.." and immediately, she responded, "Ah! Doi-san! Hai, shite masu!" ("Ah! Doi-san! I know him!")

I just wanted to know two things at the time. So when the chance presented itself, I asked if she ever thought of making replicas of her Wendenyan doll for her fans and maybe distribute them with her next CD the way her Shiawase Tambourine came with a tambourine. Before the transalator started transalating, she pulled out Wendenyan as soon as I mentioned "Wendenyan". (It's such a cute little dog doll.) Her answer was that the idea never crossed her mind.

I also wanted to know if there would be new episodes of "Godzilla Kingdom" since new Godzilla movies were being made. Apparantely, there will be none. We din't really get to hear what other people were asking or what else she said. We had to make room for other people.

Later that night, Anime Expo held the annual cosplay constest. During the judges final decision, we were all treated to a special surprise! Even thought the show had lasted till 11pm, Kikuko suddenly came on stage to sing! The whole audience was wild with shock and joy! She sang only one song, from the "Aa! Megamisama" OAV; the opening song.


[Anime Expo 2001 event reports]

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seiyuu database
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