The weekly column by Michihiko Suwa, the Yomiuri TV producer
August 2, 2004 Original Japanese text

I went to San Diego in California for participating in Comic-con 2004 late in July. This convention was like a festival for animation fans, where booths for animation of the whole world as well as the US were set up. The convention is held every year. I hear the number of the visitors of last year is as many as 75000. The reason why I attended the convention is that English-dubbed DVD of InuYasha movie 1 was released in the US. In the convention site, the preview was given in honor of the release, then I made a speech as the producer and accepted an interview.

Moreover, I experienced an autograph-signing session for the first time to handwrite over 200 autographs in Hiragana (Japanese alphabets). In the convention, Japanese was so popular that the signs in Hiragana were more appreciated than those in poor alphabet. When signing, the fans said to me, "InuYasha is fascinating" and "Keep up the good work!" etc, which impressed me. I have been very pleased to interact heartily with people in the other country through the work. Many fans cosplaying characters in InuYasha also came to the convention. Sesshomaru cosplay was in particular popular. I was interested in American women cosplaying Kagome because I felt there was a bit of mismatch. I guess that the reason why InuYasha is popular also in the US is of course that there are many people who have interests in fascinations of the individualistic Characters created by Rumiko Takahashi-sensei and Japanese feudal stories.

My remark on the dubbed movie was that voice actors' atmosphere matched the characters very much. In spite of the Japanese feudal story, there was no mismatch at all. I remembered reactions of the Japanese audiences to the movie. It was very similar to those of the American audience. They were amused at Shippo's gags and Miroku's obscene behavior. This movie describes hearty interaction between Kagome and InuYasha across time. They also applauded at impressed scenes. The good anime is transborder... This event made me realize the InuYasha's power again.