Let me try and give some idea of the event itself and the mood in the atmosphere before I get into the notes that I took. Thursday night, at about 6 o'clock the front lobby of the hotel was somewhat thinly populated; a few folks sort of jockeying for position near the tables. At the back half of the room were laid out several large round tables with name cards in English and Japanese. It just so happened myself and the webmistress of Arisugawa's Locket were right there at the front next to the Ikuhara-table... ^^ Someone who would become a good friend over the course of the event came and sat with us, and we chatted about webpages and the lack of consolidated information about Chiho Saito on the net. By 7, when the event was set to start, they had erected a plastic chain barricade, and people had begun to swarm. We had managed to get ourselves right up against the chain along with a new friend we made at the con. Behind us the fans had to be about 10 layers deep. It was like those old films of girls swarmed up against fences clamoring to see the Beatles, in many ways: there was a lot of 'buzz' and excitement in the air, with people getting all giggly and hyper. When Ikuhara and Saito arrived (Ikuhara wore this green and white striped shirt thing and really -tight- jeans; he's -thin!-) with their translator, Shin Kurokawa (who was ALSO really gorgeous; they all looked like rock stars!) there was this sort of -sigh- from my group as we all shamelessly ogled ^^ (Especially my friend Liz, who fell in love with Ikuhara at first sight!) By this point, it was really a swarm of people about. The guests were introduced to the crowd- Watase probably got the loudest applause. We were asked not to take flash photos of -any- of the guests because that would give Watase-san headaches and 'we would never see her again'. After that, the gates were opened to let folks head over. I figured I'd have plenty of time to talk to Ikuhara-tachi, so instead of zooming straight over to that table I went to have a brief chat with Rachael Lillis, catching up on some personal things. (Sorry that I didn't get a chance to show you the movie after all, Rachael- we went looking for you Saturday night for a while, but couldn't find you! (pout)) It was good to finally meet her though. Everyone I talked to at the con said she was so nice and friendly, and it was really true. We were both sad that Crispin couldn't have come as well. Anyway, after that talk about ten minutes later I headed over to the very active Ikuhara table, to find my friend Liz sitting in the chair right next to Ikuhara (tramp! Hmph! That was MY spot! -.-) and grinning from ear to ear. There was only Shin translating for both Ikuhara and Saito, so the questions were flying fast and furious and there was a bit of delay in some cases as he would be turned toward a fan asking a question of one or the other. The mood was definitely a fun one. Ikuhara's face seems very hard to read in some ways, but he seemed to be enjoying himself. The pictures of him on the net -really- don't do justice to this aura of cool power and control he has about himself; like meeting Touga AND Akio in person, it was.. He is really magnetic, though a bit cool and distant at the same time. Definitely a worldly oujisama... Chiho was so cute and so very nice, and we did our best to try and communicate through our limited abilities when the translator was tending to someone else. Someone had given them two little cat plushies, which Chiho said were named Chuchu 1 and Chuchu 2. There was a bit of amusement over the question of what gender the cats were, with Ikuhara and the translator toying with the dolls (^^). This was the closest and most social chance we got to meet the guests and enjoy their company. There were so many questions flying around I didn't have a chance to get to hear them all, but I took notes on what I could hear/remember (it was quite loud and really raucous), so here goes. In some cases the answers are compressed or paraphrased, just to hit the highlights. (C) is Chiho Saito, (I) is Ikuhara. Q: Did you ever think about directing live action? A: (I) Not really interested. Q: We know that Utena is over, and that the movie is done. Yet, is there even a little tiny bit more that might be told someday; the universe is so large with so much potential-might there be more Utena someday? A: (I) (grinning) I can't tell you about that. Q: Who is your favorite character? A: (C) Chu-chu. A: (I) Utena. Q: Who out of Touga or Akio do you like better? A: (C) Touga. Q: How is work on Schell Bullet progressing? A: (I) (teasingly) Top secret. (ed: This answer came up a LOT over the con..) Q: Have you seen Tenshi ni Narumon! and what do you think of it? A: (I) Well, many of the staff are people who worked on Utena. I've seen a little of it, thought it had potential and was going in the right direction. Q: Will you work with J.A. Seazar again in the future? A: (I) Yes, but that's top secret. Q: Has Shiori become the 'Sekai no Hate'? in the film? A: (I) (thoughtful) That's a hard question to answer... (ed: this answer came up a lot too. More about Ikuhara's evasiveness later...) Q: What was the inspiration for the 'windshield' sequence with Akio in the TV series? A: (I) It seemed like a good idea at the time (laughter) Q: We need Ikuniweb in English? Any plans? A: (I) There may be some work on that, but there is so much that gets added in Japanese we may not be able to keep up with it if we tried to do a English page too. (ed: various offers to help ensued at that point) Q: Will Schell Bullet or Shounen Ou be animated? A: (I) Yes, but that is something I didn't tell you officially. Q: What was your inspiration to make Akio 'that way' in the film? (ed: more on -that- later too...) A: (I) That's a hard question to answer. Q: What inspired the way you directed Utena? A: (I) I just wanted to get away from doing something like Sailor Moon. Q: How did you and Chiho-sensei hook up? A: (I) I was in a bookstore and picked up one of Chiho's manga. I thought it was good, and might make an interesting project, and wanted to do something with it. Q: How do you feel about Akio in the TV series versus Akio movie version? A: (I) (laughter) In the movie, I made Akio younger. Ikuhara also asked us a couple of questions: Q: Where did you get your copy of the movie? A: (me) CD Japan. (insert long explanation here of impressive ship-time) Q: Utena has the whole theme of wanting to be like a Prince. Is there any other story like that you can think of in the US? A: (various people) No, that's why we like Utena so much, because it's a unique, fresh story that doesn't seem like anything else that's been done before.