Mystery Guest

[vrmlbasic]

I guess you can't give us a slightly better hint so we can guess?

Collossalcon is ~1.5 months away.  I need something to keep my hopes up. Of all the cons on my list to attend this summer, that have announced guests, matsuricon is the only one adding guests.  The others are subtracting guests (and not getting replacements like matsuricon did in 2011). That's bleak.

[Zyvernia]

I guess you can't give us a slightly better hint so we can guess?

Collossalcon is ~1.5 months away.  I need something to keep my hopes up. Of all the cons on my list to attend this summer, that have announced guests, matsuricon is the only one adding guests.  The others are subtracting guests (and not getting replacements like matsuricon did in 2011). That's bleak.

No clues for now -- just let your imagine run wild

[Recliner Man]

No clues for now -- just let your imagination run wild

The last time I did that I ended up in the principal's office.

[Zyvernia]

No clues for now -- just let your imagination run wild

The last time I did that I ended up in the principal's office.

You may need to bring that mind back a little bit -_-;

[vrmlbasic]

Is that a very vague hint? 

[Zyvernia]

Is that a very vague hint? 

You're going to be fun to play with

[Recliner Man]

You're going to be fun to play with

And you complain about me going to the principal's office... 

[Zyvernia]

You're going to be fun to play with

And you complain about me going to the principal's office... 

*I* was referring to how vrmlbasic thought I threw out a vague clue when I was just commenting.

What are YOU thinking about???

[Recliner Man]

*I* was referring to how vrmlbasic thought I threw out a vague clue when I was just commenting.

What are YOU thinking about???

I was thinking that you were enjoying being the master of these little games a little too much. You're not Drosselmeyer you know.

[Recliner Man]

I'm thinking that it has to be an "anime legend", but there aren't too many of those.

Well, then who do you define as an anime legend?

To me, there are different types. There are the old-school veterans who came from the early days of dubbing between the '60s to the '80s (To that effect, we're already getting Tony Oliver who easily fits in this category.) Then there are the road warriors who have been around since the '90s. Finally, there are the newly-minted greats who started in the '00s but have already made a tremendous impact.

[vrmlbasic]

I'm thinking that it has to be an "anime legend", but there aren't too many of those.

Well, then who do you define as an anime legend?

To me, there are different types. There are the old-school veterans who came from the early days of dubbing between the '60s to the '80s (To that effect, we're already getting Tony Oliver who easily fits in this category.) Then there are the road warriors who have been around since the '90s. Finally, there are the newly-minted greats who started in the '00s but have already made a tremendous impact.

I'm thinking that this guest, to be as awesome as Matsuricon has said he is (though they put a disclaimer in there), would have to be a "legend among legends".

Which is someone that I'm having difficulty thinking of.  We already have guests from all 3 of your categories, guests who are fairly renown, legends themselves in the anime industry.  Shoot, at AnimeUSA 2011, even Tatum referred to Tony Oliver as a "living legend" (Though I feel compelled to follow that by mentioning that I don't agree with Tony Oliver on many things pertaining to anime).

There are few "old timers" who are more renown than Tony Oliver, few newish guests who are more renown than Todd Haberkorn (he even has an action figure lol), and there aren't too many 90s actors still around, and we have at least one in "stock". 

I'm not saying that the guest necessarily has to conform to one of those categories specifically.  There are some actors who blur the lines of your categories, Greg Ayres would be an example, but I'm not sure that I'd say he's more renown than Todd Haberkorn.  I'm more of a fan the shows that he's dubbed than I am of Haberkorn's (I also like that Greg is an unabashed anime fan), but that doesn't mean that he's "bigger" than Haberkorn.  Hetalia says that he isn't anyhow.  But that brings in the hardest part of guessing a guest that is presumably legendary, and gets back to your question (and the Matsuricon disclaimer): What is "legendary"?

[Recliner Man]

To be honest, the categories don't really matter. Many of the actors that we admire are still in this game and love it to this day.

Also, to be blunt, "legend"/"legendary" is kind of the wrong word. I feel it's more of a personal connection. To paraphrase a quote from Cameron Crowe, "It is about single people, finding a single performance, that affects their life, in a way that they feel that that performance is for them." Many of the actors that I've met have given a specific or multiple performances that have left a profound impact on me, whether they are considered "legends" or not.

[vrmlbasic]

Matsuricon implied that, at least to them, the current "mystery guest" was even more astounding than the ones currently announced.  Considering how renown the current guests are, I'd say that anyone who tops them would have to be a legend.  If not, I'm going to go on record as saying that Matsuricon "trolled" us

As for a personal connection, I find that too many of the actors who have delivered great roles tarnish their own legacy when they're met as they aren't like their characters.  Or, worse, when they aren't fans of anime (or don't remember their roles/assert that they weren't in shows where they were the main character, cough Wendee Lee cough).

Chris Sabat, for example, is a pretty cool guy who is knowledgeable about anime, at least those that he is in.  He does have a "policy", as admitted by him and by That Anime Show, of making up answers when asked fan questions, to an extent.  That's cool and all, but it's tarnished his image a bit when I've heard him answer the same questions with radically different answers over the years.   I will admit that it makes Q&A sessions funnier

I'm not sure I should give any more examples, if any, as they might turn out to be the mystery guest and that could be a little bit awkward.

[Recliner Man]

To be fair, actors have never been obligated to behave like the characters they portray. In my case, I make an effort to give sincere thanks for what they gave me. Doing that has led me to great convention memories that I refuse to forget.

Also, to be fair to Wendee Lee, when you've done as many roles as she has, it would be hard for most people (let alone yourself) to keep track what you've done.

[vrmlbasic]

To be fair, actors have never been obligated to behave like the characters they portray. In my case, I make an effort to give sincere thanks for what they gave me. Doing that has led me to great convention memories that I refuse to forget.

Also, to be fair to Wendee Lee, when you've done as many roles as she has, it would be hard for most people (let alone yourself) to keep track what you've done.

I go, I get my DVDs signed to directly link my thanks and fandom to its source, and then I hit up the guest panels. 

Since we've gotten to Wendee Lee...
Wendee Lee isn't really an anime fan, which is always brutal to hear from a guest (Too many Bang/Zoom actors and directors aren't, and it shows in their work), but thanks to the Adventures in Voice Acting dvd, I suspected this before meeting here, lessening the blow.

Wendee Lee is also partially infamous when it comes to mid-atlantic cons as she had to cancel at the last minute because she "hurt her foot" (always that same excuse) several times over the years.  Most recently, that I recall, at AnimeNEXT 2011 (NJ).  I think people figured out that she only hurts her foot in the summer as she was able to attend AnimeUSA 2011 (VA).

At Matsuricon 2011, Stephanie Young had a presentation prepared which went through almost all of her characters, and she remembered her roles well, and even spoke about the ones that she used an alias for (Desert Punk).  While she hasn't been in as many roles as Wendee Lee (sadly), she also had a working knowledge of her roles which went above and beyond that of the "average" guest...and she didn't insist strongly that she was not in the dub of Tsukihime (which she thought was a video game) or Planetes. 

Wendee Lee struck me as a guest who acted like being at the con imposed upon her.  Cons are smart business moves for actors, but it is nice to see actors who are actually anime fans.  Shoot, even if they aren't fans it would be prudent to act as though they were for business reasons, or to at least not give us the feeling that in getting sanctioned autographs that we're imposing on her

</Wendee Lee rant>

(I hope that Tony Oliver repeats his line about Bang/Zoom having the best dubs because it employs "real actors who have been in real shows on TV, like Kari Wahlgren" again.  That was classic.)