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13/11/1999
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| Glorious autumn weather from the morning brought lots of animation fans early, to stand in line in hopes of bagging a good seat. |
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| And then it was time for the opening of the 4th Animation Kobe! |
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| First to appear on stage were Kazuo Iwasaki and Kaori Minami, personalities on AM KOBE's "青春ラジメニア" show. Iwasaki tried to pay homage to director Shin'ichi Watanabe (who always looks like Lupin III) by dressing up as Ishikawa Goemon, but... well, he was dressed in a kimono, but didn't look a whole lot like Ishikawa Goemon! Minami was dressed up as Asuka, the popular "Evangelion" character -- and her costume was created by one of her fans! |
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| And then, with a promotional clip edited by himself showing in the background... appeared director Shin'ichi Watanabe! But wait... huh? His head's really huge... |
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| Suddenly, Watanabe took his head and tossed it out into the audience... well, it looked like his head but turned out to be a giant afro wig. Since his own hair under the wig was an afro too, it didn't make much of a difference. |
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| A talk session followed, with the director's works being shown all the while. Watanabe kept the audience laughing as he covered everything from how he got into the animation industry to how he became a director. Following the discussion, there was a screening of Watanabe's latest work, Excel Saga, a program that isn't being aired in Kansai, so the audience was pretty excited! The hall shook with laughter throughout the screening -- just like director Watanabe to keep us all in stitches! |
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| Next came a report of Watanabe's recent doings. As it happened, he'd just gotten married on October 23 -- to a woman from Kobe! Moreover, it turned out he first met her when he came to Kobe for last year's Animation Kobe Awards. Let's wish him and his bride lots of happiness! |
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| Finally, there was a drawing for super-rare Watanabe items, including his motorcycle helmet and a pineapple-shaped cushion, all quite heavily used by the director himself. Hey, all you lucky winners, don't throw your prizes away! |
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Shin'ichi Watanabe's talk session provided everybody in the hall with lots of laughs and courage. Here are some of the comments from audience members garnered in a post-session questionnaire: "I haven't laughed so hard in a long time -- my guts got twisted into knots!" "I think I understood how hard it is to make a really funny work." "I fell in love with director Watanabe's wonderful personality." Let's look forward to seeing more of his works! |
