Hayama Junichi / Fukami Rica Guest Of Honor Panel Sunday continued to surprise with another change to the schedule: The Hayama Junichi Panel got moved up and combined with the Fukami Rica Panel. Hayama Junichi is best known as the character designer for JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE. In addition, he worked as an animation director on FIST OF THE NORTH STAR. Ms. Fukami Rica is a talented voice actress, known for her voice as Sailor Venus in SAILOR MOON, as well as The Mysterious Lady in the new JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE OAV series. This panel also got off to an awesome start, with a special, exclusive showing of a 10 minute clip from the newly completed JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE OVA series. This clip featured some fantastic CG special effects combined with Hayama's newly redrawn characters. Overall, it looks to be a fantastic new anime series to watch out for at the end of the year.

Q: Hayama-san, what is your favorite stand? And why?

Hayama: The World. Because it is the strongest.

Q: Hayama-san, do we see more of The Mysterious Lady in the series besides episode #1?

Hayama: The mysterious woman will show up in all 7 episodes, with more screen time as the episodes advance.

Q: Hayama-san, do you have any future plans?

Hayama: I'm just trying to finish up all 7 OVA episodes for the moment.

Q: Hayama-san, do you have a favorite series?

Hayama: Well, HOKUTO NO KEN (FIST OF THE NORTH STAR) is what I first worked on, and it taught me all of the skills I needed to be an animator.

Q: Hayama-san, what exactly do you do as an animation director?

Hayama: I'm in charge of how to layout the layout of the anime. I make sure the timing and all other aspects are going well. And I make sure it kicks ass [laughs]!

At this point, an audience member asked Fukami-san to do a voice sample for her characters, to which she kindly obliged. She gave two stunning on-the-spot performances: One as Sailor Venus (her transformation sequence), and then the other as The Mysterious Lady in JOJO. The crowd roared in approval after she finished.

Q: Hayama-san, why did the video clip from the new JOJO'S series look smoother? Was it CG?

Hayama: Yes, we used computers and went digital. Why? I don't know. The company decided to do it. Probably because all Japanese anime is going digital soon.

Q: Hayama-san, were you able to capture all of the cool poses by the stands in the original manga for the new JOJO's OVA series?

Hayama: No. Araki-sensei—the original manga creator—is way out there [in terms of style], but I'm confident that our interpretation will capture the essence.

Q: Hayama-san, what was your favorite character?

Hayama: All of them [smiles]. However the most recent characters stand out the strongest in memory. And GANDARA was good. Unfortunately, the finished product was not as good, so I cannot recommend it, but the design process was great.