Gotta Love Voice Actors

I love anime, a lot. Now, that means that I usually watch it as it comes out and with english subtitles rather than with english voiced dubbed over it. However, the first anime I ever really loved to the point of intense fandom (and still love to this day) is Gundam Wing. It wasn’t long after that when Cartoon Network started airing anime on the Adult Swim time frame and I started watching shows like Inuyasha (and why Inuyasha was on Adult Swim is beyond me…).

That was when I realized that once you became a voice actor, you were in for the long haul, and you worked a whole bunch of jobs with the same people. Seriously, Inuyasha was like a Gundam Wing voice actor reunion that added Richard Ian Cox for good measure. It was pretty cool to hear all the same voices for characters I loved (and Duo Maxwell=Kouga, Trowa Barton=Miroku, and Treize Kushrenada=Sesshomaru is just AWESOME).

I had the awesome fortune to sit in on a really cool Inuyasha panel at Katsucon with Richard Ian Cox and Kirby Marrow (Inuyasha and Trowa/Miroku, repectively). They were two really cool guys. Hysterical, really, even if it was a little weird hearing voices I associated with different faces (albeit animated ones). However, it was really bad ass when they decided to dub over an episode of Inuyasha with the two of them doing ALL of the voices… and changing the lines considerably. The next year at Katsucon there was a panel with just Richard Ian Cox. We got him to speak French… in the Inuyasha voice. And he was quite amused by the fact that one person in my group was dressed as a giant squirrel. He was REALLY amused when he realized she was a FLYING squirrel.

And no, I don’t know why I use Richard Ian Cox’s full name. I do it when I talk, too. Though, I guess it is kind of unfortunate to have the name Dick Cox…

All of this blathering is leading to a new revelation. I just saw the English dubbing of Gundam 00 for the first time. It’s like Gundam Wing plus Inuyasha as far as voice actors. And I LOVE it. While Lockon Stratos is my favorite character (its a REALLY close race between a few characters with this show), I still love that I can pick out my favorite voice actors among the others. And way to go Brad Swaile for landing the role of Setsuna F. Seiei (Quatre Rebarba Winner of Gundam Wing). And Scott McNeil… you make a great villain. I don’t particularly like the character Ali Al-Saachez (the reasons are VERY obvious to those of you that have seen the show… especially the end of season 1), but I still love you.

Oh, and apparently, all my favorite voice actors (that have migrated from Gundam Wing, to Inuyasha, to Gundam 00) also have a habit of doing Barbie movies. Really guys… BARBIE?

I was going to list off my favorite voice actors and the characters they’ve done that I have discovered for myself. Then I realized that I completely forgot a show, and also owe Brad Swaile more props. Deathnote also has a few of the Gundam Wing guys (which they will always be known to me as), including Brad as Raito Yagami (or “Light,” but really…) and Brain Drummand (Zech Merquise) as Ryuk.  Now I can’t even begin to list the awesomeness that is their characters, but I will still list them.

Brad Swaile, Brian Drummond, Kirby Morrow, Mark Hildreth, Scott McNeil, David Kaye, Richard Ian Cox, Lisa Ann Beley, and for good measure, Greg Ayres. Greg may not be in the shows I mentioned, but he’s still a bad ass voice actor in a bunch of other really good animes.

You guys are awesome. Keep doing what you do. I promise to keep watching.

The Mighty Otakon Adventure

Well, I just got back from Otakon 09, and it was BAD ASS. There wasn’t much to do in the way of panels and shows, but we more than made up for it with Steampunk awesomeness. I went with Karen, Chessy, and Greg, but we met up with J-Chan and Jeff while we were there. Get ready for the Otakon run down:

Thursday we actually left D-Town later than we had wanted, but for good reasons. We hung around, kitten proofed Karen’s room, got last minute outfit issues resolved, and then we trekked out into the woods for photos. Karen and I were in long coats… it was very hot outside >_<. We didn’t go too far though, and we got some pretty cool fly by the seat of your pants photos. We actually have to get together for planned ones…

By the time we actually got to Baltimore, we showed up at the Sheridan, only to find out it wasn’t the hotel we were registered in (silly Karen). But, our actual hotel, the Hilton, was only a block or so away, and also connected to the Convention Center by a nice air conditioned sky walk. We dropped our crap, parked the car at a cheap parking garage up the road a little ways and then got in line to get our Pre-Reg tags. It only took us about an hour to get through the line, which is pretty damned good, but Chessy’s limit break was approaching critical from all the bad cosplay/impractical whorish clothing.

Friday we all slept in. We were just having too much fun all cuddling in our ONE king size bed (really, there wasn’t much to do on Friday, at least not until the afternoon… and Karen steals covers). We headed over for the For Tax Reasons panel, and it was fucking hilarious. I actually have to go through and watch all their stuff. We spent a good amount of time in the Dealer’s room and Artist Alley scoping out stuff to buy. I got a Lockon Stratos phone charm for my new phone, a Duo Maxwell poster, and a Noah poster from Dina (who I had no idea was supposed to be there, so I geeked out). I took about 8 photos… all con, and they were all on Friday. I also got the girls to watch Baccano! They were showing the whole damned series (including the three extra episodes). But only 1-8 on Friday. We saw the first few and wandered.

By the time Greg got into Baltimore on Friday, and we got his crap into the room and his car parked, the registration lines were closed. We missed Dubbers After Dark *pout*. I really wanted to see Crispin Freeman. We were going to play Rock Band with Matt and his crew from the Otakon Staff, but we ended up just hanging for a bit.

Saturday we got up early and donned our Steampunk gear. We got Greg to the Pre-Reg line, and then made it about 2 feet before we were stopped for photos. It was awesome! We also got interviewed by an online off-shoot of MTV. We walked around for a while, hit Artist Alley and the Dealer’s room with Greg, and watched the AMV contest. We wandered so much, that I missed the Crispin Freeman autograph session and BOTH of the Q&A sessions for him (;_;)! Oh well, our egos got stroked a lot that day. After a quick nap Matt joined up with us again for D Grayman and the Saturday Night Fan Parodies. We crashed after that.

Sunday we got up way earlier than I wanted to, but there was a Steampunk photoshoot, so we got all our gear on again and showed up. And for being one of the first groups there, plus being AWESOME, we got our photos taken by EuroBeat King!! If you don’t know who that is, he’s only the GREATEST cosplay photographer, and he has a profile on Cosplay.com. We got group shots and individual ones ^^. The collective group of Steampunkers was pretty awesome, and we got some great group shots. We all exchanged info to keep up with one another and potentially collaberate. After the photos we ate, changed, finished packing, and headed the hell home. I got home early enough to hang out with Phil for a little bit, which just rounded out my awesome weekend ^^.

Now I have to find a job… which Matt might be able to help me with, so cross your fingers people!

Also, this weekend was such an ego stroker, that I was inspired to make The Ananhet website for our Steampunk group, so I’ll be keeping whoever the hell reads this updated on that. And I’ll also find where all the pictures taken of our Steampunk ended up and post links for everyone.

The Woes of Job Hunting

Need a job? Too bad. There aren’t any left. Trust me, I’ve looked.

No, really, the job market isn’t quite that bad. Unfortunately, for a fresh college graduate in a popular field (Graphic/Website Design) its getting REALLY tight when it comes to looking for jobs. I actually signed up with a job agency called the BOSS Group and they have these nifty things call Creative Connects.

Creative Connects

Apparently they gather at the happy hours in Philadelphia. I’m not sure if they do this in other cities (though I’m sure they probably do), and this event was at the Alfa Bar, which is a really nifty place. The room they had it in, however, was tiny. VERY tiny…

Not surprisingly, more people are looking for jobs than employees, so it was an hour or so of, “Hi, my name is [insert name here]. I used to work for [insert company here]. Where did you used to work?” I did get a recomendation for a company. Unfortunately Digitas has a minimum education requirement of a Master’s Degree. Though, one woman gave me an idea I hadn’t thought of. Or rather, she reminded me about a website I hadn’t tried looking on. CareerBuilder had so many more graphics jobs posted than I had seen anywhere else. I applied for three within one hour.

And to all the emplyers trolling the blogs. I have a profile on Monster, and I’ve even tried picking through Craig’s List. I don’t have a profile on CareerBuilder, but drop me a comment and I’ll make one. Seriously.

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In Nerd News… I am gearing up in the final few days before my Otakon adventure!

Otakon 2009!

Is it really nerdy to say that I’m tingley just thinking about seeing voice acter Crispin Freeman? Well, too bad! I’m dying to see if he had a panel, and if he does, I’m stalking it (just fyi).

I’m going down with Karen, Fools, and Greg, but I have a bunch of friends that’ll be there. J-Chan and Jeff will be there (since we got them the registration/hotel as their Wedding present ^^), and I’m pretty sure my friend Matt is working for them again, so he’ll be there. And yes, we ARE cosplaying. And we aren’t going for some uber fan popular anime to pick characters to dress up from. We made up our own storyline and characters, and it’s all steam punk, baby. Our little steam punk world has its own blog, so head on over to check it out: The Ananhet

This weekend I’m getting together with the girls (and probably Greg, too, if he isn’t busy working his ass off) and finalizing our steam punk gear. Tomorrow, I’m going out with my man. That is, if Phil and I ever figure out where the hell we want to go…