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AFA09 Day Two Reflections: K-ON! Live Dub/Q&A

j1m0ne gives a pretty good blow-by-blow account of the K-ON! Experience panel on AFA09 Day Two so, instead of re-reporting what happened, I'll concentrate on sharing my reactions.

Photography and video recording was forbidden - even though I had a media pass, none of us in the media pit took any pictures except for the two official photographers from the AFA09 crew and Animax. I guess no one wanted to risk being getting blamed if anything went wrong. The view was, of course, excellent though the trade-off was not being able to have a chance to get the autograph boards. Later I saw one of the four lucky winners outside the Moe Moe Kyun Maid Cafe and got his photo - his justifiably smug visage is pixelated mostly to prevent future robbery or burglary.

Given the lack of actual K-ON! seiyuu photography, I'll be posting K-ON! cosplay photography instead. It's not uncommon for anibloggers to turn up their nose at this series at best (LOL moe blob show) or to pour vitriol on it at worst (DIE KYOANI DIE FULLMETAL PANIC NEXT SEASON WHERE) but it was reasonably popular among cosplayers (i.e. girls just wanna have fun).

Back to the actual event itself, the live dub was pretty amazing - I've never seen anything like it before. Though I also agree with j1m0ne that it was a great pity that the great Singapore-customized line was lost in (non-)translation.

I've been to various concerts before and, in contrast to other cities, the Singaporean audience is a tough crowd to warm up; I find that usually the crowd only comes alive when pandered to with the artistes delivering their most popular hits right from the get go. But those are usually saved for the last. Which by then is normally too late. So the saving grace was that most Singaporeans were familiar enough, by the grace and glory of the Internets, with the scenes featured to feel sufficiently pandered to right after the introduction of the four seiyuu by MC Reiko and special host Danny Choo.

And, of course, fans felt unpandered to due to the absence of Mio's seiyuu. I felt it was a pity because it didn't really make sense to ask Ritsu x Mio rabu rabu questions in her absence.

I have to say that, of the four, it was Toyosaki Aki who made the greatest impression on me. Mostly because, to me, she came across as being full of nervous energy in both good and bad ways. Her excitement was palpable in her quite unique natural voice but I also felt anxious that she seemed really anxious, like being on the verge of bursting into tears and blubbering like the scene in the first episode when Yui apologizes for wanting to quit the band.

I was also touched when she declared that she loved K-ON! Most of the time, this motherhood statement by performing artistes is just so trite. Even when delivered with the affectation of sincerity, it quickly wears thin with repetition. But I was pretty convinced by Aki-chan. Mostly because I rationalized it as being her happiness of her role in this anime propelling her young career forward.

I was also surprised by certain strong resemblances between each seiyuu and her chara during the Q&A. I'm not much of a seiyuu fan so I don't know how the four of them normally sound like or behave.

Aki-chan, in addition to the nervous crackle I noted earlier, had a ditzy air about her. Satomi felt like the leader and moving force of the group with the way she would talk about the group collectively as well as refer to and call upon the others for confirmation, agreement like the way an effective chairman of a meeting would. Mina-chan came across as sweet but with a hint of quiet mischief; honestly not much more of an impression though her Mou hitokoe~~~ rocked the house. Aya-nyan was the second most voluble after Satomi and had Azusa's SRSBZNS tone almost throughout. Maybe they had already all gotten into character for the live dub, it could also be that the casting decisions picked up these traits, or - as Satomi mentioned - the roles could have also changed them after the fact.

My initial reaction to the last question (What would you have done if you hadn't become a seiyuu?) was WTF? The four also seemed flummoxed for a while too before prefacing their answers with "I've always wanted to be a seiyuu..." It's a tough industry to get into and the talents we hear probably would not have managed to see the light of day if they were not already hugely motivated to make it their profession. So, again, while it sounded like a motherhood statement, I felt that the four, to arrive at where they are now, could not have seriously considered doing anything else. My respect for them all has grown.

P.S. I don't think I'm revealing any official secrets but, based on looking from behind, over the shoulders and at the clipboards of the Animax and PR people in the media pit, K-ON! will be coming to Animax Asia soon so that non-internetless people can watch it again.

P.P.S. Which reflects the chicken and egg nature of promoting anime. Would the K-ON! Live Experience been so well attended and the fan response so (for Singapore's diffident standards) warm if most attendees hadn't already downloaded and watched the anime?

P.P.P.S. I really liked how the five K-ON! cosplayers were clearly having fun - particularly the Ritsu cosplayer who also had the chara's exuberance. I hope the four seiyuu had a good time at AFA09 and Singapore.

Related posts:

1. AFA09 Highlight: Moe Moe Kyun Maid Cafe
2. AFA09 Day Two Highlight: Hibiki Reine
3. Zaku at AFA09