AND he signed my drawing of Spark:

[link]

Spark, from Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight.

So. Yesterday, Crispin Freeman came to UTD and did a presentation for my LIT 3311 class. We had him to ourselves for three hours; the presentation was on female archetypes in American comics/animation (Disney and Marvel) versus female archetypes in Japan (anime). It was awesome. I got a picture taken with him (along with half the class, I think). Afterwords, I went to the Pub with another classmate (after helping set up chairs for his second presentation - the one open to the public that was advertised on the A-Kon website).

Guess who was there?

Yep. Crispin Freeman, along with both professors and two other classmates. The professors waved us over and so three other classmates and I all got to EAT DINNER WITH HIM.

He answered voice-acting related questions (since he didn't really talk much about his career there during the lecture) then, and I finally worked up the courage to ask him how he felt about situations like Lodoss War, where he had to voice multiple main characters who were often all onscreen together at the same time, and he proceeded to explain how they kept losing people and he got stuck with the roles. As he named some of the characters, he would then do their voices. It was hilarious and awesome. Towards the end (we were there for about 30 minutes), I had finished sketching a picture of Spark, the main character (and one he'd voiced) from Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight... I worked up the courage to ask (I mean, lots of people had him sign stuff like their Hellsing manga, since he's Alucard, but mine was too beat up)...

And he signed the picture. He's a really cool guy, too.

Did I mention that his presentation was AWESOME?

So, long story short, what I got out of Crispin Freeman's visit to UTD:

A handshake (along with everyone else)
A group picture (along with those of us who stayed around)
A solo picture (along with lots of classmates)
An autograph (along with lots of classmates, but on my pic!)
Dinner and a 4-on-1 (6-on-1 if you count the teachers), memorable, hilarious, enlightening 30 minutes of conversation that included voices (only a few words) of one of my favorite characters.
A memory to cherish and tell my grandkids about someday.

I'm sure he was humoring all of us, since I bet he gets pestered all the time at conventions... but he was a nice guy and I am so thankful I got the luck of the draw.


For those of you who don't know:

Crispin Freeman is a fairly prolific voice actor, but he's also done writing and directing and is a passionate anime SCHOLAR.

Famous characters he's voiced:

Alucard, from Hellsing
Balmung, from every .HACK// installment EVER (also Sakaki)
Holland, from Eureka 7
Rude, from FFVII: Advent Children
Kouichi Kimura, from Digimon Frontier
Togusa, from Ghost in the Shell
The Prince/Turnip Head, from Howl's Moving Castle
Itachi, from Naruto
Spark, from Record of Lodoss War
Touga, from Revolutionary Girl Utena
Tsume, from Wolf's Rain
Amon, from Witch Hunter Robin
Setzer and Will Turner, from Kingdom Hearts II
Zetta, from Makai Kingdom
Sigfried Schtauffen, from Soul Calibur III
Regal Bryant, from Tales of Symphonia

There's a ton of other roles, too, but these are some of the more well-known. It's all on IMDB and Wikipedia. Check out his website, too.

Crispin Freeman has long been my #1 favorite voice actor for anime/games; he's done a lot of my favorite characters. At the present, he's tied on my list with Johnny Yong Bosch, and after that it's Vic Mignogna. So, this was so special and lucky.

Sure, if I was desperate to meet him I could find a convention he'll be going to, wait in line for five hours, and get an autograph and maybe a minute, tops, to ask him a question or whatever...

But how cool is it that he ended up coming to my school, as a guest speaker for my 3 hour literature class, and I was just in the right place at the right time to get the opportunity NOT for just an autograph and a quick question, but for a picture with him and a nearly private (just him and the six of us), 30 minute, entertaining dinner conversation with him? I'll probably remember yesterday for the rest of my life, as fangirlish as that sounds.

Crispin Freeman, after all, is not nearly as accessible to a resident of Dallas as someone like Vic Mignogna, who goes to every A-Kon. And this completely tops off any experience to be found by meeting someone like that in a convention or after a public presentation, no? After the presentation for my class, he stuck around and humored us as we all got in line to get a signature or picture with him or ask him a question. He did NOT do this after the second presentation, the one open to the public.

I hope you all get the luck of the draw someday and something cool like this happens for you, too. You may not care about voice actors, but it was a big deal for me. I hope something cool and awesome happens to you guys, too. It's so much better when it happens by chance, and it really made my day... or year. I feel like Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I found a gold ticket. I didn't get it by spending lots of money or traveling far; I got it by chance. We weren't told anything about this event prior to signing up for this class; my classmates and I were all told about this the first day of class so we could plan for it. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time to:

sign up for the class THIS semester
and
walk into the pub at 6:15 pm on Tuesday, April 14th.

Hope you all end up in the right place at the right time someday.

n_~


~JereduLevenin