[New York City] Macross Plus screening with Shōji Kawamori Q&A

[Radioguy]

https://japansociety.org/events/macross-plus-with-shoji-kawamori

Yes, I am going.

Edited August 8 by Radioguy

[Duke Togo]

Japan Society tweet says this is a presentation of the 4K restoration of Plus, which is totally not what is being released in the US on Blu-ray. 
 

 

[Bolt]

Wow, that's awesome! 
I hope he can come to SF 

[Shawn]

Where does it say its a 4k? I can't seem to find that info.

I wonder if this is the same one they did last year that I went to? It def wasn't 4k
Dir. Shoji Kawamori & Shinichiro Watanabe, 1995, 115 min., DCP, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. With Takumi Yamazaki, Unshou Ishizuka, Rica Fukami.

If it is 4k, why isn't that going on the upcoming blu-ray?

[Duke Togo]

The Japan Society tweeted that it was a showing of the 4K restoration of Plus. That tweet (which I originally linked above) looks to have been deleted.

[Shawn]

Thanks that explains it

[Radioguy]

I actually tried to post this from the event, but I had ZERO connection, and they had no accessible wifi.

The event was PACKED. The organizers were quite impressed by this. I think there was an at least 70/30 split on who had seen Plus before and who hadn't. The screened version looked fairly standard, but had folks riveted all the same.

Kawamori-san stayed for a set Q&A (no audience questions), and seemed quite pleased with the responses. Around 20% of the crowd understood Japanese, so his little jokes interwoven in had double-laughs when translated.

While he asked more screenings occur there, and the venue rep seemed on board, nothing ground-shattering was revealed in regards to Macross other than acknowledgement of the current new distribution. He did touch upon a new anime that is somewhat sci-fi based he's been working on, and some hints about new VR experience he wants to do about human evolution.

As for any opportunities to meet him, and possibly get a photo or autograph (the latter being rather important to me), the Anime NYC rep that was there was a taskmaster. As mentioned in the Anime NYC thread, his appearance at the con had a lottery for such an experience (although some caught him before and got things signed while there anyhow). Here, the rep laid down the law enforcing the previous exclusivity of that access forcing him to decline multiple requests for signatures and pics (myself included).

Still, once he went upstairs to confer with the venue people, and 95% of the audience left, the venue staff, in a VERY kind gesture, came out to invite what stragglers were still outside to come back in and line up for autographs! It was implied Kawamori-san had felt bad about having to turn folks down initially.

Yet, once again, the same rep shut it down once more, much to the surprise of the staff who had asked folks to come back into the venue.

All said, as soul-crushing as that was, and as nervous as I was about getting the DX/HMR/Yamcadia boxes I had brought home safely again (Another two fans brought actual models to get signed, but were also shut down), it was a fun experience overall, and really great to talk to a couple model guys who understood what that aspect of the fandom is about. I even walked one to the train as we talked about the state of toys, models, and the current roster of places to get them in NYC and in Japan.

I do regret not attending the con, but hope Kawamori-san returns to New York soon. Based on his reception, I'm sure all involved would want to make that happen.

[Radioguy]

Kawamori-san at the con the previous day:

 

[PsYcHoDyNaMiX]

15 hours ago, Radioguy said:

I actually tried to post this from the event, but I had ZERO connection, and they had no accessible wifi.

The event was PACKED. The organizers were quite impressed by this. I think there was an at least 70/30 split on who had seen Plus before and who hadn't. The screened version looked fairly standard, but had folks riveted all the same.

Kawamori-san stayed for a set Q&A (no audience questions), and seemed quite pleased with the responses. Around 20% of the crowd understood Japanese, so his little jokes interwoven in had double-laughs when translated.

While he asked more screenings occur there, and the venue rep seemed on board, nothing ground-shattering was revealed in regards to Macross other than acknowledgement of the current new distribution. He did touch upon a new anime that is somewhat sci-fi based he's been working on, and some hints about new VR experience he wants to do about human evolution.

As for any opportunities to meet him, and possibly get a photo or autograph (the latter being rather important to me), the Anime NYC rep that was there was a taskmaster. As mentioned in the Anime NYC thread, his appearance at the con had a lottery for such an experience (although some caught him before and got things signed while there anyhow). Here, the rep laid down the law enforcing the previous exclusivity of that access forcing him to decline multiple requests for signatures and pics (myself included).

Still, once he went upstairs to confer with the venue people, and 95% of the audience left, the venue staff, in a VERY kind gesture, came out to invite what stragglers were still outside to come back in and line up for autographs! It was implied Kawamori-san had felt bad about having to turn folks down initially.

Yet, once again, the same rep shut it down once more, much to the surprise of the staff who had asked folks to come back into the venue.

All said, as soul-crushing as that was, and as nervous as I was about getting the DX/HMR/Yamcadia boxes I had brought home safely again (Another two fans brought actual models to get signed, but were also shut down), it was a fun experience overall, and really great to talk to a couple model guys who understood what that aspect of the fandom is about. I even walked one to the train as we talked about the state of toys, models, and the current roster of places to get them in NYC and in Japan.

I do regret not attending the con, but hope Kawamori-san returns to New York soon. Based on his reception, I'm sure all involved would want to make that happen.

Glad to hear that it was a full event, this will likely result in him returning to future events in NYC (hopefully) or even the east coast. Sorry to hear that the ANYC staff member enforced a no signature policy. I was under the impression since the event at Japan Society required an entry fee that they would honor such fanservice for some autographs. That's disappointing to hear, but at least it wasn't Kawamori sensei just outright turning fans down (he did feel bad). If the event was hosted at the Javits I would've still attended (even though it required an entry fee), just event timing/travel constraints didn't permit.

Edited August 26 by PsYcHoDyNaMiX