So I didn't really take detailed notes this con, Otakon, as it seemed others were doing it already and in a better manner. I'll still post the stuff in case people don't upload their notes for whatever bullshit reason. The Garo Animation panel had at least two people taking detailed notes...
Lex Lang Panel-
-Interesting difference between anime and western animation dubbing. In western animation, the voice actor has seen the script multiple days in advance and they do a whole read-through before they start recording. For anime, it's a much more disjointed recording process as they depend more heavily on the voice director for cues.
-1600 people tried out for the Han Solo VA role (for LucasArts) from four different cities that kept getting culled until the remaining four were reading lines over the phone to executives.
Garo Funimation Panel-
-Park: I don't have a preference for voicing male or female characters. I am a female though...Boys are generally more straight forward so I try to see it through their eyes and be honest with their emotions. With a female, I try to hold it back a bit (somewhere I hear Imaishi screaming).
-Why was CG armor used? Hayashi: When it comes down to it, time. However there is a metallic gleam that you can do with CGI to make the armor stand out. Doing things like a 360 pan, that is really hard to do in 2D.
-Romi's favorite show she worked on was Adventure Time. "I love Adventure Time"
-Medieval period wasn't exactly determined by the writer but it just seemed like a good fit based off the script
-The Garo movie will have Ema in it and she is voicing a new character in season 2. (From what I've been able to gleam, the movie is a sequel to the first season. I asked the translator after the panel, as I hadn't gone to the earlier Mappa panel, and he flat out said it was a sequel.)
Romi Park Q&A-
-Park: You all are so cute.
Someone in the audience: You're cuter
Park: I know.
-Q
id being Korean affect getting into the VA industry?
A:No, but it did lead me to having an identity crisis when I was a teenager.
-Q:How do you separate the characters you play?
A:I don't know. I really don't.
-She tried out for a female part in Turn A but got a boy role. Didn't feel any pressure until someone pointed it out that Gundam MC had never been voiced by a female before. She looked at Ogawa for Shinji as a reference but ended up ignoring it and realized each role and director are different.
-Any difference between Brotherhood and 03? No, but she was a rookie at the time in 03 so the VAs around her helped out. The reverse was the case in Brotherhood as she and Kugimiya were the experienced VAs and had to help the newbies.
-Tomino is insane. She was recording a line but he apparently didn't like it and slammed his hands down and ripped the door open and did a recreation of how to do the scene with hand motions. He apparently does stuff like this a lot.
-What would you do if you woke in an anime universe? She acts this out on stage: literally checks her boobs and crotch as if she had changed sexes.
-Part of a temp agency right now.
-Korean things that irritated you? Park: I had a Korean bento and everybody ended up stealing my lunch so I ended up with a Japanese bento anyway from trading.
-Scene where Loran hits his crotch and she did it one way, all the males did were saying she did it wrong. Tomino bursts into the room again and tried to correct her and acts it all out.
-Q:The role for Ragyo required a lot of moaning, was it different than your usual recording process?
A:I was making Satsuki moan.
-Park: If I lose an audition, I might check a role and see who it is doing it and be like "Oh this guy? hmp" (Real life Zuka)
-Nina scene is when she really snapped into the Ed role. Thought it was the best scene she ever had done and the recording director was like "Do it again" and she was like "huh? Huh? HUH?". She ended up protesting and he retorted that it was excellent, possibly the best he's ever heard but it's too raw. The scene was already dramatic visually and he felt that her initial recording would have made it almost melodramatic.
-(It seemed like she knew some level of English as she was following along to some extent with some of the questions asked. She also would blurt out lines like "Come on!", in a bring it on sort of manner, to the audience when they started asking questions. She also loved acting out Tomino's mannerisms and was really energetic in general.)
Garo Animation Panel-
-Maruyama: Thought Takei's natural artstyle would help greatly with the project. Was really impressed with his work from Shaman King.
-Kubo: When becoming a horror, it's a karmic thing so tried to incorporate who the human was before. Yes it's strange for a producer to do designs on a show but Maruyama gave the go ahead.
-Didn't take too long to design the Garo armors as they had references from the TV series. It's a bit different due to being an anime so it took a little time to find that balance.
- Maruyama: Ms.Kobayashi is a talented writer and I worked with her before. The Inquisition aspect lead to Medieval Europe as a setting.
-*Looking at storyboards for episode 17* Maruyama: Some directors like having motion in their storyboards. He thinks Hayashi has a good balance. (This is kinda weird as they were implying that Hayashi did the storyboards for episode 17)
-For the CG armor segments, many were drawn in 2D then animated in CGI.
-Producers pushed for Ema to be older while Takei wanted her younger.
-German was designed to be younger and his relationship with Leon is supposed to be like a brother. (This makes a shit load of sense and helps justify some of German's reactions during the show)
-Details for S2 in August at Comiket (Although from other sources, we know there's a female lead and it takes place in the Heian period).
-(Was pretty cool seeing the earlier animations for the
Leon/Alphonse fight in ep 17.)
