8/14-15: KIKAIDA Star DAISUKE BAN @ LA's ANIME JUNGLE!

[Darkster]

It's precisely the overpricing that gets them. I calculated his autograph's value at about fifty dollars by online order.

 

[August]

How does this overpriced venue manage to get these appearances? Didn't they have V3's actor a while back?

What do you mean by "venue"? "Venue" means "a place where events of a specific type are held <music venues>". As far as I know this is the first US autograph session sponsored by Anime Jungle, which is a shop, not a venue. The autograph sessions themselves were not held in the store (they have two in Little Tokyo), but in one of the empty shops in the Japanese Village Plaza. The Dinner & Talk Show was held at a cafe/restaurant upstairs from Anime Jungle, Cafe Focus.

Okay, so to clarify, do you mean the original shop in Osaka had Hiroshi Miyauchi as a guest? That would be "yes," they have autograph sessions/talk shows with tokusatsu actors every month, I believe. Most recently, the Osaka shop had Tōru Okazaki, the star of KAMEN RIDER AMAZON (who has not made any public appearances in decades). Now, if you are wondering how Anime Jungle got Ban-san to come to Los Angeles, they simply contacted JN Productions/Generation Kikaida and set it up.

Everyone who went had a great time, Ban-san signed everything, was happy to meet everyone, and took pictures with everyone who asked — and the Dinner/Talk Show was awesome, because after the main event, everyone got a chance to have Ban-san at their table for 15 minutes, and then we were all asked to be in a group photo, and everyone was given a free Kikaida Brothers poster from 2002 (signed by Ban-san and the late Shunsuke Ikeda), and a gift bag — which was a very nice touch. So, I hope that Anime Jungle does more events like this — and they would like to, according to the manager, Shiota-san, and I hope that they follow through!

Anime Jungle also did not charge anyone for autographs — they were absolutely free — they did have a table of merchandize (posters, toys, t-shirts, etc.), but no one was obligated to purchase a thing. For example, I brought my own items to have signed; but did buy a poster for a friend (they only had one), and it's not exactly something you can find easily online, either (and I only paid about $20 for it):



Wow, someone brings a real-life tokusatsu star to the US for an autograph session, and you can only complain about it? Really? Especially since I take it that you didn't come out and support this effort or don't live in the LA area? I flew down from San Francisco. Seriously, I think that you're missing the forest for the trees — someone brought a tokusatsu star in from Japan to meet with American fans! I actually think that this is really cool, and I could care less how "overpriced" people think their merchandize is. If you don't like it, don't buy it. But, bringing Ban-san to LA is super-cool, regardless.

 

[social_deviance]

My mental dictionary is ****. "Establishment" then. And wasn't bashing, just stating the fact that they really are overpriced.

And I live in LA so yeah I guess I can afford take this place for granted. Nice shop but still, overpriced..