Naruhodo the World - Anime Cosplay 1993

In mid-late July 1993 after Anime Expo #2, Fuji TV in Japan wanted to film a segment on American anime cosplayers for an episode of their show "Naruhodo the World" on Americans interested in things Japanese. Since they were taping various groups in other parts of the country doing other non-anime Japanese stuff as well, they couldn't make it to Anime Expo. So instead Nippas (a company that does work for various studios including Fuji TV) flew myself and a number of other cosplayers back out to LA a few weeks after AX for a special film shoot. The result is this segment which aired in Japan sometime in August 1993.

They were especially interested in Dale Engelhardt doing his famous Lupin, but also notable here are Taliesin Jaffe as Inaba the Time Rabbit from Urusei Yatsura, Tavisha Wolfgarth as Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service, Rich Simental as Moose from Ranma 0.5, as well as the Texas and California Dirty Pairs!

Of particular historical interest to American otaku is the fact that it was at this event that Tavisha and Rosearik Rikki Simons decided to form Tavicat comics! (Rosearik is perhaps best known as the voice of Gir in Invader ZIM)

I went in my Galactic Heroes outfit, but the producers had no idea what it was! I kept saying "Legend of Galactic Heroes" and it's "Ginga Eiyu Densetsu" in Japanese, and they kept saying "Ginga Tetsudon?" and were still confused. Fortunately I brought with me my LoGH background music CD, so after the video shoot at the hotel (where the producers also stayed, by the way) I pulled it out and said "this show!" Whereupon they ooh'ed and aaah'ed and understood. Most amusing was the reaction of the lady who acted as the host of the show — forget the name, Kaori something I think, apparently a Japanese opera singer as well. When she looked at the CD and the song listings on the back, such as "Skies of Love", she noticed the name of the singer and exclaimed "I know her!" I asked her to tell this person I liked her singing very much.

This hostess was dressed up as "Oba-Q" from "Obake no Q-Taro", doing a bit of cosplay herself

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• anime
• cosplay
• Naruhodo
• Fuji

[Moonfight]

0:49 Popon scheiße XD

[Rheinhard]

@Moonfight Ich verstehe gar nicht.

[divauch14]

ala madre

yo ni habia nacido en ese tiempo

[Rheinhard]

Had to get your comment translated, basically "My goodness, I wasn't born yet"... yes, well, I am getting old... :(

[YoungPups]

Any chance you have the intro for this show on the tape this came from? When I was in high school, my marching band did a show that was shot to be used in Naruhodo's intro, and I've always wanted to see what it looked like.

[Rheinhard]

Unfortunately, no. I was always a little disappointed that the Japanese station only sent us tapes with the segment we were personally directly involved in. I would have liked to see the other segments they shot around the country as well!

[theeFri]

Dang!! That Gundam cosplay is impressive!! oAo

[Animelady851]

@ShayaPalmTrees

How could that be Lindsay Lohan when she was 6 years old back then.

[tommytonebender]

Nostalgia~ Those were the anime I grew up with.

Those Lupin cosplayers were impressive haha.

[laserbender]

Wow! It's cool seeing old school cosplay again. I remember seeing several cosplayers in this video, especially the Lupin cosplayer because he was in a lot of magazines both English and Japanese at the time. All you need is Robert Fenelon as Leader Desslock to make it complete. Great video!

[GayDad420]

yep downtown los angeles used to be a barren, desolate place 15 years ago. good point fellow youtube user "zerudah"!!

[Zerudah]

What really makes the video old is she can still stand in a street in Los Angeles without having to worry about cars. ^_-