Anime Expo 2004 Report (Rady)

Seki Tomokazu's first appearance in the US.

Rejoice!! Rejoice!! I met Seki-san! But the reason for this page is to report my account of hearing/seeing/meeting him ^_^ Glory be...
Before I start actually, I have to credit my friend SaraMichiru for notes from her friend's experience and report as well as keeping tab of mine because I can't remember what happens to me.. So thanks a bunch! Now onto the good stuff...

~~~ <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 ~~~

Friday

So the first official day of Anime Expo was Friday. Seki *should* have been at the opening ceremonies, but perhaps due to flight difficulties or another, he wasn't able to make it. However, he did send a video clip apologizing, noting that he'd be "fashionably late." ::laughs:: I missed the opening ceremonies, but as he wasn't there either, no loss. ^^

Saturday

Next day! Saturday. My friend Mollie, a fellow Seki fan, told me in the afternoon that later in the evening, there would be a guest reception over at the Hilton, and tickets were 5 dollars each. I would have paid, but Mollie was so generous to have bought my ticket before even telling me! ::HUG!:: I went and bought a ticket for my friend ACX as well (who, sadly, is not a Seki fan) and then waited...

Time came, and my roommates and their friends and I headed over to the 5th floor of the Hilton, and, not so surpringly, there was the longest line ever winded inside the hotel corridors in front of the guest rooms. We waited for what seemed like an eternity, and one of our roommates exclaimed that they saw Seki walk past the opposite side of the hall! With orange hair! ::GASP:: Our wait wasn't boring anyhow, our roommates were rather entertaining, many of which were Weiss Kreuz cosplayers too.

The line finally moved, and we went into the open terrace of the hotel and... there was Seki, among many of Anime Expo 2004's guests of honor, sitting at one of the many tables, already surrounded by quite a bit of people (upon entry, jeez!) and was chatting jovially while the translator nodded away and translated for the table's occupants. (By the way, THANK YOU VERY MUCH to Ms. Translator that day, I didn't get to thank you for your service and I hope someone did! Because I'm sure I'm not the only fan who was VERY grateful that there was a translator for Seki!!) I sat at my table, beginning to tremble at the very thought that I was within such a close radius of Seki-san!

When everybody was assembled into the terrace, I noticed that there actually weren't that many people there, perhaps a lot of people didn't know there was a guest reception going on, or I'm sure they would have been there, too.

Where shall I begin, he definitely had the bleached, orange-blond hair, kind of like Souma Kyou in Fruits Basket. We did find out later on (at the panel the next day actually) that he was recently cast in a theatrical production where he played the role of a cat ^^. Sadly, he also concluded that he's allergic to cats although he likes them, and gave us the sweetest imitation sniffle! But I digress, that's the next day, back to the reception..

There were a LOT of people swarming over his table despite the AX staff telling everybody to sit down at respective tables and wait for rotation. I maintained my behaviour and waited my turn, and actually got a chance to sit with and ask the other guests about their career!! That was such a great experience! And then, finally, I got to Seki's table...

I had to sit down quickly because, I'm not kidding, the fans there were SO competitive and (might I critique) impolite at snatching seats away from other people like musical chairs. One girl was nice enough to lend me her seat because she said she had sat down already, and thank you for that, whoever you are out there. ^_^ I was shaking like a leaf from my chest down, sitting merely 3 seats away from my favorite actor and singer in the world, and having him occasionally glance at me! *_* Faint. But as I'm relieved I didn't *actually* faint.

I got to ask him a few questions, although originally Ms. Translator tried to vary the questions among different people, but most people were too engaged at watching/staring at Seki-san to even come up with questions I suppose. ::laugh::

The first question I asked inquiring whether he would release another solo CD album, as he has released 3 previously, because I'm really hoping he would (and that I'm totally supportive!!) He answered politely that he sees himself as an actor first, and that he doesn't really think much of himself as a singer, to which everybody and myself nearly dropped our jaws and sighed "aww" because that's just too modest!! He also mentioned that he's currently very busy (and I find out why.. that busy, busy man) and that there's also a lot of "business" to deal with in producing another solo album. He mentions that it takes a lot of energy to put together, and that currently he does not have enough, but he would love to make another one if I (and everybody) would be willing to wait. ::melt:: Okay. I nearly died at that moment. Of course I would wait, I responded and nodded, but the translator did not interpret that (why would she anyway, frivolous me lol) but I think Seki-san got the point. ^_^! I did not get to ask another question while I was seated there, but upon rotation (which seemed to come by on SUCH SWIFT WINGS) I extended out my hand for a handshake (instead of a hug, because as much as I would love to hug this man, it's too informal and uncomfortable for me, and I'm sure for him as well), and he obliged and smiled at me. (I actually have a whole account on this, but I'll spare the readers here of my insane moment of a lifetime. If you really want to know though, you can email me :P.)

I was very impressed with his professionality and his calmness amongst such crazy American fans. He really is an awesome man, don't you agree?

After another rotation, I managed to work up myself to ask him for a picture in between rotations. ACX took my picture with him and that pretty much made my life's mission complete. I notice that his shirt had the word Drive and some.. lines on it.. which made me curious as to whether they were lyrics to his song Drive or not. I love the song Drive, which is the first track on his 3rd solo album, "MA Mind," infinitely but did not have the lyrics to it (I'm Japanese-illiterate) so during the next Q&A talk at the table, I managed to ask him about his shirt in relation to his song, and whether that song is significant to him in any manner. I concluded asking if he would be willing to sing me the first two lines (which are sung a capella in the song). Seki-san answered pleasantly that Drive is one of the few songs he actually wrote for the CD (which made me melt, it's the top 2 favourites of his songs, besides Kimi ga Iru, which i heard he also sung a bit at the reception), but he said he could not remember the lyrics to it and looked at me questioningly. So I spoke the two lines to him, to save myself from any embarrassment, and besides I was paranoid about getting the words right myself. After that, he nodded and mmhmm'd at me and asked how the melody went because he forgot that too. Well so much for saving myself from embarassing myself in front of all these Seki fans, I did end up singing those two lines to him, and BOY was that unnerving. Not only were a LOT of other fans staring at me while I sung (and I'm not a singer!), but Seki-san himself was listening and paying attention to me sing! A moment after I finished, he cleared his throat, closed his eyes, and sung it right back to me. And. My heart burst. That was the most thrilling moment ever I must admit. The crowd applauded at Seki's brief yet beautiful performance, which by the way, sounded exactly like the recording but with the beautiful live quality to it, and I... well, I was trying to recover. ^_^;;; I really felt like "Shindemo Ii" even though by that time he seemed to have forgotten about me and was waiting for the translator to give him his next question. Sigh. That was definitely a moment of a lifetime. Moving on..

I regret that I don't have a very detailed listing of the questions and answers during the reception, as I, as mentioned above, was seriously having a massive shock attack.

A lot of fans asked him to do different voices, as despite the factor that he must have been really tired from his plane trip, Seki-san complied to nearly everything. He shouted out various attack phrases, voices in his hyperactive roles as Shindou Shuuichi (Gravitation) and Chichiri (Fushigi Yuugi), and just cute turn-of-phrases in general. That man was an absolute crowd charmer. Everybody came out of the reception pleased, and that included people who weren't even his fans (like ACX).

He also received some gifts from the crowd, and even though most of us weren't prepared, he still got quite a few, one of which was my friend Mollie's homemade buknuk!! She wrote and signed it to him. Kwee. He was also constantly hugging a teddy bear that was given to him, and even made it talk and wave at various occasions lol.

I recorded an odd part of the conversation on my cell phone, something about him liking the movie "Back to the Future"..... that was odd, and I don't know what the question was really. So no further comment.

The last question I managed to ask on Saturday was the stupidest question in the world, but ACX made me do it (blame! lol). I asked him whether his voice for Dee Laytner in the FAKE OVA is his natural voice or not, which, as I already knew the answer, was no because he had been talking naturally/casually the entire time and his Dee voice is obviously in a slightly lower register with a more intended "coolness" to it. Stupid question. I must have looked stupid to even ask that.

Sorry that this is out of order, but I don't remember everything in sequence. Some people asked him about how he felt about voicing characters involved with shounen-ai or yaoi, and he responded somewhere along the lines that lately it's becoming embarrassing because it's like people are digging into his personal life. Hm. Take that as you will, but I don't want to express my opinion on this matter. Someone else asked about how he felt about working with his fellow seiyuu coworkers, and I'm not sure if this was pertaining to the question regarding shounen-ai/yaoi topics, but he said something about not Koyasu Takehito because he's like a brother to him. I'm not 100% accurate on this paragraph summary here, but that's what I gathered.

Sunday

Okay! Next day! SUNDAY! The day of the Seki Tomokazu panel! Waiting in line was insane. No pun intended. I was dressed as Mitsurugi from Soul Calibur II and taped down, so I had difficulty breathing normally during the panel, but I'm still alive. ^_^

When Seki appeared in front of the room at the panel, the crowd roared and clapped in excitement. The atmosphere was so tense yet energetic I think even Seki felt pressured. ^_^; That would have been probably why when one of the questions requesting him to sing something for us was asked, Seki pretended to cough and responded that he thinks he caught pneumonia suddenly. Aww. Disappointment, but we understood. I'm sure everybody thinks he's the cutest guy out there anyway! More onto why...

Now to list off things he did or responded to during the panel, and I can definitely say these will not be in any particular order except what I can remember.

Seki did a lot of voice bits, shout attacks, and just cute noises in general throughout the panel, ranging from different character voices to simply "anoooo~~."

Sometime during the beginning of the panel, a few people would shout out for him to "MARRY ME!" and he laughed, responding, "Sure I'll marry all of you! ^_^" We laughed in return, and boy were some of us happy. XD

I guess I'm just lucky, because despite having 3 questions answered at the guest reception the day before, one of my written questions got answered during the panel as well. My question was, in between doing live action roles and being cast as a voice actor, which route does he enjoy more? He answered that he enjoys doing both live actions and voice acting because they both have their unique qualities. Doing both "jobs" act as a balancing factor for his sanity, because if he only did one, it would be odd. He also mentioned somewhere that he participates in about 3 theatrical (live performance) productions per year, and we all know he does many voice acting roles scattered throughout. Aww, now that's what I wanted to know. ^_^ <3 Along the lines of that topic, Seki also mentioned that he enjoys voicing CD dramatic roles more than anime roles because they allow more time for him to speak at his own pace, adjust, and interrupt others (lol), rather than having to focus so much on making sure the lines spoken match up with the animation of anime roles.

I didn't manage to catch the name of his favourite actor (and voice actor?) but he does say he learned how to shout attack phrases from emulating him. See role models are great! Look how far Seki got! He did a few phrases for the audience while answering this question too.

Someone at the panel asked him about making another solo album as well, and Seki responded again that he sees himself foremost as an actor and doesn't think much of himself as a singer (which elicited the same response as the reception, but oh was this man honest and even sad to say so! I totally disagree - because I think he's an absolutely fabulous singer), and then he concluded that it'd be easier for him if we would buy his albums that are out already! That made me laugh, then nearly cry because I had forgotten to bring a single CD for him to autograph. T_T!

One question regarding how he practices his voice acting led to an amusing answer. He replied that he practices by standing in front of a glass wall in front of a building, and singing at it, hoping that one day his voice will shatter the glass. Eventually one day, a homeless man approached him and told him he would stab him if he didn't go away, so he stopped. On the note of his interesting behaviour, when he walks to work, everyday he likes to pretend to be a different character type, but he does it discreetly hoping nobody can tell. Mafia-Seki or Seki-being-pursued? Hmmm...

Random notes on his personal life: He does have his driving license now, and has two cars: a blue Nissan and an El Dorado. He also continues to smoke because it's the reason he maintains that beautiful voice of his. "Ooooh.." we responded to the question, and Seki responded the same before answering. He said he tried to quit once, but because he needs to retain his voice, he couldn't. Hmmm.. Let's not all start smoking now. ::laughs::

Back to voice acting. Seki likes all of the voice acting roles he does, because they all have some integral part in their character in which he could relate to and express through his acting. However, there are roles that are slightly more difficult than others, such as Hidaka Ken from Weiss Kreuz (and Gluhen) because he's such an emotionally complex character (pain and suffering!) and Chichiri from Fushigi Yuugi because he has so many different and quick character changes that he has to change from one voice to another in a split second amount of time. Exhausting, I'm sure, as he said he would prefer voicing sad characters over hyperactive characters, and maybe Shindou Shuuichi (Gravitation) is one of them.. His favourite voice actor to play against is Hisakawa Aya as Souma Yuki (Fruits Basket) because Yuki gets all the attention over his character Souma Kyou. He also particularly notes that his favourite 'romantic' role is Shouji Toukarin in "You're Under Arrest" because after completion of the anime, the voice actor playing his character's romantic partner wrote him a letter saying "Thanks for a lovely romance." Seki also mentions that he feels lonely and sad when his character dies, such as in Gundam series where death comes quick and sudden. He says that he fears coming to work everyday because his character could get killed off, and usually the main indicating factor is if that character will die in the next episode is when he gets more speaking parts and a long speech. (I think he spoiled a series for me right there...)

What is his favourite anime character in terms of the character design, personality, etc? He answered Takahashi Keisuke from Initial D. ^_^ Woohoo! And his favourite song that he had to sing? The second opening theme for Anime Tenchou, he says. Woohoo again! I think that song is Second Ignition!, and if it is, I have the single and ripped it for your listening pleasure. Go to the goodies page after reading to download.. and do support this beautiful man and buy his cds!! Really!!

And for ending teasers.. when asked about the Weiss Kreuz series, he complied and said he will ask Koyasu Takehito to make another... so... does that mean Weiss Side B might become an anime? Last thing, he lured us on an ending saying that he's currently working on a series sequel that he's sure everyone of us loves, but it's a secret! Only time will tell...

Ahh, the panel lasted over an hour, which was longer than expected, and well, you can imagine how the autograph line looked like. LONG LONG LONG. And stupid me forgot to bring something to get autographed, but thankfully ACX brought my little Keisuke (initial D) toy car for me ::glomps!:: I got that signed! ^_^ The marker he was signing with smells strongly of soy sauce... and I think Seki thought I was Japanese because I was dressed like one. He said something to me and, I could not understand for the life of me!

On Monday, apparently there was an additional signing session, but nobody would go with me. Not even other Seki fans. What has the world come to??? Hm.. can't complain though.

OKAY! That's it! If you actually put up with this entire long transcript/rant page of mine, I'll burden you with one more line of credits. Thanks to SaraMichiru once again for note-taking for me and also from her friend who went to the Seki panel. Thanks to Mollie for being a fellow fan and sharing in the excitement of the whole event with me. Last but not least, thanks to ACX for putting up with us (me in particular) during this Seki insanity and for bringjng my toy car. ^_^ Whatever I forgot to mention, I love you all too. And now I'm speechless. =X (Finally, eh?)

~~~+++~~~ Written by Rady.