AX2005 - Seki Tomokazu panel report - part 1

Compiled by Sachiko

Dedication: To all Seki Tomokazu fans out there ^_^

In further details, we have compiled a script, hopefully as accurate and precise as possible based on what we have recorded, on the Seki Tomokazu panel on July 2, 2005 at AnimeExpo2005. It took place at 2 PM that day with Crispin Freeman as host of the panel, and it lasted for an hour. For the first half of it, Mr. Freeman asked the initiating questions, and the second half was fan questions. A wonderful thank you to the translator at the panel for translating Seki's answers! Seki's answers here are words from the translator, but modified into first person.

NOTE: While we tried to get the wording as close as possible, not all the answers will be word-for-word accurate. Also, while the dialogues may sound bland here, rest assure that during the whole panel, Seki and everyone were definitely happy and smiling :)

Please DO NOT distribute content without permission and without credits.

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Freeman: Greetings everyone! You are all here to see him *hand motion to Seki*!

*crowds cheer*

Freeman: I am honored to be one of the moderator for the Tomokazu Seki panel, and I'm very happy to be here. And I have a couple few announcements I have to get through..

[Announcements about Cellphone and Pagers]

Freeman: We're going to have people getting up asking questions, and you can go to that microphone over there *points to center* And we're going to make a line there. Please ask only one question, so others can have their chances to ask theirs. no personal questions. If you have words or admirations for our seiyuu, which we all have, keep them short and simple. And please let's keep the questions respectful and no questions about personal life. That's not appropriate.

*crowds "awww"*

Translator: you can ask about Crispin's personal life.

*crowds laugh*

Freeman: Alright, now with that out of the way, let's have a nice welcome for Seki-san!

*crowds cheer*

Seki: Minna-san, konnichiwa, Seki Tomokazu desu.

Japanese fans: Nihongo kara da yo!! (We're from Japan!!)

Seki: Oh~ Same as me!

*crowds cheer*

Seki: Eh... today, I arrived, but I will be leaving tomorrow.

*crowds go awww*

Seki: Eh, but despite the fact that I will only be here for a short while, since I enjoyed the company of AX last year, I found a little time in the busy schedule to come here. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

*crowds cheer*

Freeman: Thank you so much for coming again, Seki. And I know for me, it is a personal honor, because it was actually your work in Escaflowne that inspired me to be a voice actor. So I want to personally thank you.

Seki: OOOO~! *shakes hands with Freeman*

Freeman: Again, it's an honor to be moderating for you. Uhm, my question is, was Escaflowne one of the first projects that you did?

Seki: Hai, etou...it was very early in my career, in my 3rd year in voice acting, and it is the 2nd time I played a main character after G Gundam. And one of the reason why is because Escaflowne had the same staff as G Gundam, and they wanted to keep it flowing.

Freeman: Gotcha.. and yes, I'm familiar with playing the same character over and over again.

*crowds laugh*

Freeman: So uh, did you always want to be a voice actor since you were young or did you start out another direction?

Seki: Overall, I've been inspired to act in general, not just voice acting, but I feel that voice acting is the most fitting routine out of all acting. And by the time I was graduating from elementary school, the 6th graders write their hopes and dreams etc in their yearbook, and I wrote, "When I grow up, I want to be a voice actor!"

Freeman: When I was six years old, my father told me always to stop watching those damn cartoons.

Seki: *laughs* Me too.

*crowds cheer*

Freeman: Now uh, I actually saw the behind-the-scenes of the Escaflowne Cafe.

Seki: Oh~ ah those are some bitter memories there.

*crowds laugh*

Freeman: You had the contacts and the uh... mascara. *crowds go "whoa"* But it seems like you guys have a lot of fun, were you excited to play Van?

Seki: It was a lot of fun, but there was a lot of struggling as well since it was really early in my career, because I had a very strict sound director of the series, who'd say, "I don't need you to act 70% give-me-all-or-nothing".

*crowds go awww and Seki fake-tear as well*

Freeman: so you learned a lot from that.

Seki: Sou desu ne.. ano... *nods, crowds laugh* since it was so early in the career that there was always something to learn, and there was nothing that was unnecessary, so I would try to absorb every little detail about acting. But sometimes it is too much and I couldn't digest everything to learn, and somteimes I want to say, "I'm too scared to face the staff, so I don't want to go today".

*crowds and Seki laugh*

Freeman: I understand. So uhm, which character do you feel most satisfying?

Seki: I feel proud about every character, but one of the smoothest recording I've ever had was a recording with Chichiri of Fushigi Yugi. And what happen was that there was an episode where there's a conversation between two of the characters for an entire 15 minute segment, which is half of the episode. The first take is basically where they run through the whole entire 15 minutes in one shot, and then basically go back later to do the retakes. And that one time with the two characters, there was only one take and had no need for any retakes. It was the first of many times, over the decade of acting, where there was no need for retakes. And I felt that I could act that high quality piece of work, so that was the most fulfilling and smooth role I've done.

Freeman: Very nice... you've been in so many acts, has your approach in acting change any time? Like, do you approach a character differently now than when you had before?

Seki: Hmm... I'm trying not to think too much of the past in acting. In the case of Escaflowne, the movie was created 3 or 4 years after the series, and I felt like I couldn't approach the movie the same way I could in the series. In the TV series, I was not an experienced voice actor, and Van was an inexperienced king, so there was a slight intervation between myself and the character. Now, experience basically lost its permissibility, I felt slightly pressured on the approach. But one of my mentors said, "What you lost throughout the years already is what you no longer need, so basically this is what you have now; do the best and what you think is good at present instead of what you thought was good in the past". So I no longer really look at what's in the past and look forward at once in the present.

Freeman: Awesome... uhm, what other types of acting do you do outside of voice acting?

Seki: Etou... there are actually many small acting groups and 200-capacity theatres, and I'm involved in one of such groups. It ranges from action to comedy, old-age Japan to current days. Once in a while, I do one of those sentai (Power Rangers-type) shows.

Freeman: So you know kungfu.

*crowds laugh*

Seki: Japanese sword dash, yes.

Freeman: Kendo?

Seki: *nods* Hai.

Freeman: It's amazing that you flew here to see everyone here just for one day, and it's obvious that you seem to really appreciate the American fans here. What's it like, the difference between Japanese fans and American fans?

Seki: Ooo, well, the overall impression of the American fans is that they are very happy and enthusiastic and tends to overact to everything I say. But I get a lot of energy just by interacting with them.

*crowds awww*

Freeman: Was last year the first time you came to AnimeExpo?

Seki: Hai.

Freeman: Did you expect the reception you got or were you surprised?

Seki: I didn't expect anything like this before because since I was only working in the Japanese industry, I didn't really expect 1) people to actually know my work, 2) love my work, and 3) love it so much that he [referring to Freeman] would become a voice actor. And it really inspires me to do well on future works.

*crowds cheer*