Meeting Sakura Tange!

Next to my Japan trip - when I was able to play "LovePlus" in an arcade in Akihabara - today would definitely be my most memorable experience with this game. Meeting Sakura Tange.

I left home with my wife around 7:30am. We drove to the city, found a place to park, and walked across to Darling Harbour around 8:30am to stand on a rather long line inside the Convention Centre for the Sydney Manga and Anime Show (Smash!) 2012. Smash! is a great con, because it was started by a bunch of students at the Uni of NSW around seven years ago, so it's really organised by fans and for fans. From its humble beginnings at the UNSW Roundhouse, it's grown so much that it moved to the Sydney Town Hall in 2010 (where I was a stallholder) and finally to the Convention Centre last year and this year. I think around 6,000 people attended this time!

The doors for those of us with pre-paid tickets opened at 9:00am. Once we were inside, we checked out the merchandise area first, then went to the main stage to see Sakura Tange. Sakura-san, of course, is the voice of Rinko in "LovePlus", as well as the voice of Sakura Kinomoto in my favourite anime series, "Card Captor Sakura"...so this was a double thrill for me.

Sakura-san is a charming person to listen to. She answered many questions (with the help of a translator) about her voice acting and general life. Then she did some live dubbing of two scenes from "Card Captor Sakura". Wow, she's so professional! When you see a real Japanese voice actor dubbing lines, you realise how great they are, and how different the attitude is towards voice acting as opposed to the west. After loving "Card Captor Sakura" for so long, this was quite an emotional experience.

Sakura-san then acted a few lines as Rinko from "LovePlus", with the participation of a rather shy girl in the audience. She finished her appearance on stage with a final scene from "Card Captor Sakura", ending up with Sakura's famous "Release!" Her voice is so natural and powerful that it impressed everyone.

We knew that Sakura Tange's signing event was organised for 1pm, so we left early to have some lunch at Darling Harbour, planning to get back to the Convention Centre and line up around 12:30 - which we figured would be plenty of time. Wrong! When we got back there were literally hundreds of people waiting around to meet Sakura-san, and it was all quite confusing. We got onto the line and were given ticket numbers. My wife was 57 and I was 58. There were still hundreds of people behind us.

Then the staff told us that Sakura-san could only sign a limited number of autographs because of a wrist problem, and the numbers for this session would stop at 60. Phew! Can't believe that I was two places from the end of the line. There was another signing session later in the day, so I'm hoping all the people who missed out could get to meet her in the end.

Anyway, as you can see in the photo below, I tool the outer box from my Limited Edition Rinko box of art books for Sakura Tange to sign. A guy just ahead of me in the line asked her to sign their Rinko 3DS console. (And I was hoping to be the only person with a "LovePlus" item for signing...) But when it was my turn, Sakura-san was very impressed to see my item. She recognised it straight away, and said something like, "Limited Edition...sugoi!" which made me so happy I could die.

Things were so rushed that I didn't really get to say very much, but I did manage to tell her that I had been dating Rinko for four months. My wife asked Sakura-san to sign the inside title page of our Card Captor Sakura art book.

I will treasure both of these items forever. Thank you, Sakura-san, for helping to bring Rinko Kobayakawa and so many other memorable characters to life. I hear your voice every day when I play the game. Even though my Japanese is not good, I can understand the emotion thanks to your awesome voice acting. It was a genuine pleasure to meet you!

I submitted an entry in the AMV (Anime Music Video) competition this year, but I didn't win. My entry was called "Elsa and Lauro" and was based on the "Gunslinger Girl" anime with music by Coldplay. It was my first attempt at making an AMV, and I'm still quite proud of it.

I finished the day with a quick date at Fountain Park.

Now, every time I hear Rinko's voice, I will remember my meeting with Sakura Tange. The game is even more special to me now!