Kawakami Tomoko events Anime Expo 2001
July 5: Opening CeremoniesSeiyuu Kawakami Tomoko appeared in front of an excited crowd during the opening ceremonies of Anime Expo (www.anime-expo.org), along with Kikuko Inoue, Akira Kamiya, and Takumi Yamazaki to do a live dubbing session. The clip was from a new anime called "Galaxy Angel" from Broccoli. Everyone loved it. Inoue did the older female charachter Forte. Kawakami was Milfie I think.
July 6: Two Panels in One dayKawakami-san appeared in front of fans in a summer Yukata that day. She was extrememly bright and energetic.During the panel with Ikuhara, I got to ask Kawakami-san about the spriit/youkai in the house of her grandparents. It was mentioned on Gainax's English page. What was asked was how did she know her house was haunted and how'd she know it was a warrior youkai? Her first reaction was laughter. How did we American fans find out about that? (Because we read the english edition of Gainax's web page. Also, we're fans. We just find out.) She said that she never really saw the spirit herself, but her grandparents have. (It's their house.) She remembers hearing some squeaking noises and asking her grandmother what the noise was. Her reply was "Look! It's walking!" They described it as a Samurai walking around in armor. Aside from questions, American fans just wanted to hear Kawakami say quotes from her famous charachters like Utena from "Shoujo Kakumei Utena" and Chiriko from "Fushigi Yuugi". She even said a few of those quotes in English! ("I LOVE Yusuke!") At the end of the event, everyone was allowed to line up to get autographs from Kunihiko Ikuhara and Kawakami-san. But the session was cut short when Viz had to take over the room for their scheduled panel. We got to see Kawakami-san again that same day. She was with new American seiyuu Diana Kou. (Kou was cosplaying as Noelle from Tenshi Ni Narumon.) Both did the voices of Noelle for Tenshi Ni Narumon, being released subtitled and dubbed in America by Synch Point and Digital Manga. Both seiyuu did their Noelle voices for the crowd. At one point, they both started to say "Where's Yusuke/ Yusuke doko des ka?" (Yusuke is the main protagonist in Tenshi Ni Narumon) Then they saw a Yusuke cosplayer near the front row and started pointing at him; "Ah! Yusuke!". We were all laughing so hard. The cosplayer was sort of embarassed by the attention. This time, a second line for autographs was formed outside the room after a prize raffle was given. Winners got copies of Tenshi Ni Narumon signed by the Noelle seiyuu. That autograph line was cut short though, because the area had to be cleared out in preparation for a wedding. Not too many fans were happy at having to move out because a non-Anime Expo event was encroaching in on their opportunity. Kawakami-san went back to Japan the next day on July 7.
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