Rumi Okubo and Hiromi Igarashi talk about their hometown Niigata and manga! Rumi Okubo Offline in Gatafuess" report!

On October 21 and 22, 2017, "Gatfest," an event to promote "Niigata, the City of Manga and Anime," was held mainly in Bandai City and other locations in Chuo-ku, Niigata City. Although the weather was unfortunately unfavorable for the 8th edition of the event due to a typhoon, many anime and manga fans came from inside and outside of the prefecture to enjoy the event to the fullest.

On the 22nd, another popular voice actress, Hiromi Igarashi, appeared as a guest on "Okubolumi Offline," the popular voice actress Rumi Okubo's program on Nico Nico Live Broadcast "Seiyu Grand Prix Channel. Despite the rainy weather from the morning, many fans who were looking forward to the event packed the venue.

Ms. Igarashi followed Ms. Okubo on stage, paying tribute to Yoyoko Ishida, an anime song singer from Niigata, who gave a "preface" to the event. They are such good friends that Mr. Igarashi even invited Ms. Okubo to be a guest on his show. The two got into a lively conversation in Niigata.

In the first free talk session, a listener asked, "What costume play would you like to wear for Halloween? A listener asked, "What costume play would you like to wear for Halloween? Igarashi answered in a slightly lewd manner, "It's getting tough to wear the uniform of a character from an anime (laugh), but if it's for work, I'd like to wear ......." Meanwhile, Okubo said, "I'd like to be in a stuffed animal costume. I used to do it as a part-time job, but I remember the schedule was something like 10 minutes of movement, followed by a one-hour break ....... Surprisingly, I wasn't moving (laughs)," she said, looking back on the past.

Next was the main feature of the program, a corner in which the audience rolled giant dice and performed various actions according to the contents of the dice that stopped on the squares. This time, as a special edition, the participants enjoyed a backgammon game with the cities, towns, and villages of Niigata Prefecture as the squares.

Mr. Okubo was the first to roll, and the first square he rolled was "Tsunan Town. The mission here was a "Yamanote Line game related to anime/game works related to 'stars (space). Mr. Okubo anticipated Ms. Igarashi's answers one after another as if he were reading her thoughts, such as "Stelvia in Space" and "Mobile Battleship Nadesico. ...... The audience was amused, and Mr. Igarashi unexpectedly asked for advice from the audience, resulting in an enjoyable corner with fan participation.

In contrast, Igarashi's dice read "Kashiwazaki City," and his mission was to "tell a funny story for one minute. Igarashi shared a story about a hotel he stayed at last night where he could see the bathroom from the side of his bed.

The stage was filled with excitement as the two talked about their hometowns. Mr. Igarashi, who grew up in Hokkaido, gave a lecture on recommended gourmet foods only a local can offer to Mr. Okubo, who is planning to visit Hokkaido. Sometimes when I go back home, I ask my friends from school to take me to good restaurants. Mr. Okubo, who grew up in Saitama Prefecture, laughed at each other and said, "Saitama is famous for its delicious 'jumangoku manju,' but other than that, I can't think of anything in particular. ......

The topic of conversation then shifted from "Niigata gourmet foods" such as the standard "sasa dango" (bamboo grass dumplings) and "nodoguro" (a local delicacy) to the topic of "favorite manga" since Niigata has produced a number of famous manga artists. The discussion about "Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo" (The Case Files of Kindaichi Shonen), which has nothing to do with Niigata, was very lively, which is a characteristic of this program, which prides itself on its freewheeling nature.

Finally, it was time for the ending.

Igarashi: "I was very happy that so many people came to the show despite the rain!

Okubo: "Thank you for coming today in spite of the bad weather. See you again in Niigata!

The event closed with a message from the performers.

(Reporting, writing, and photography by Atsushi Saeki)