American J-pop fans on the East Coast were lucky enough to have a special guest come to the New York Anime Festival: former Morning Musume starlet, and current�Hangry & Angry member,�Ishikawa Rika!

The Hello!Project girl made an appearance at the anime convention on October 8th and 9th as a representative for the Hangry & Angry fashion label, although her partner Yoshizawa Hitomi was unable to make it to the event.

As soon as I arrived in Manhattan and started walking towards the convention center, the impact of the rock group on the area was clear. �Posters were featured on the walls, and banners graced the lamp posts along the street, all with Hangry & Angry prominently featured on them and advertising the fashion brand at the Fashion Institute's special museum exhibit.� Although the fashion exhibit wasn't affiliated with the New York Anime Festival, it still had plenty of the rock duo.� Images of Ishikawa Rika and Yoshizawa Hitomi covered the walls and every door in the museum, affording the legions of fans that trekked to the exhibit a great location to take pictures.



The exhibit itself contained the original outfits worn by Hangry & Angry for their debut mini album, "Kill Me Kiss Me." �I certainly wasn't the only fan of the duo that had shown up for the costumes, as legions of other fans traipsed through the exhibit just to get a look at the outfits.� It was definitely a treat, as even in Japan only the Hello!Project mini-museum in Shibuya displays the outfits from any of the groups.� The Fashion Institute gave its patrons a chance to see something really special, and even featured a big screen television above the clothing with footage from Hangry & Angry on loop to give insight on the duo to museum goers who might not know their music.

New York Anime Festival, on the other hand, didn't feature the singer quite as prominently, especially on the Friday the event opened.� Ishikawa Rika was only scheduled to make one appearance at the Kinokuniya bookstore's booth in the dealer's room to sign autographs for fans.� I showed up early to talk to other fans in line about their journeys to come see the Hello!Project singer.

It quickly became apparent that Ishikawa Rika was quite the amazing guest, not just because of her past accomplishments as a singer or her open personality, but because she had brought together such a diverse group of fans.� A vast portion of the people waiting in line for Rika to make her appearance weren't even Asian. �In fact, they were Americans from all over the country, everywhere from sunny California, to the Midwest, to residents of New York City.� As I conversed with the excited fans, I found people from Canada and other countries as well, but the most exciting was a tightly knit group of 'wota' straight from Japan.

For those who might not know what a 'wota' is, they are the extreme fans of Japanese culture, idols in particular.� The group of 'wota' that I talked with had followed Rika all the way from Japan just for the convention.� They went to every event that the singer has had, including all the Hangry & Angry concerts that were recently held across Europe.� Their dedication to the singer was unmatched by any of the other attendees, but it wasn't offsetting at all.� Often it seems like the term 'wota' has taken on a negative vibe, especially here in America, but from my discussions with them, they were some of the nicest and most outgoing people I have ever met at a convention.� I only wish that other fans around the world will get a chance to meet some 'wota' like these dedicated ones, so that they can see that the bad rep they seem to have acquired is totally undeserved.



The autograph signings on both Friday and Saturday were a great experience.�� Rika seemed a little jetlagged from all her flights on Friday, but it didn't make her any less outgoing.� She politely talked with all her fans (through the use of her translator/manager, as she cannot speak English)� and was always smiling and engaged with everyone.� I watched as fans gave her presents, received their autographs, and even shared some special moments with their favorite singer.� One set of fans even asked Rika to do her trademark "Happy~!" line from the Morning Musume television show with them, and the singer happily obliged.

Overall, the experience of the fan signing was very positive.� Some of the fans were disappointed that they could only get her autograph as Angry and not as Ishikawa Rika, but her contractual obligation was as a representative of the fashion label and not as the former Morning Musume singer.� Others expressed a desire to take pictures with her or shake her hand, both of which were not allowed, but this was similar to most of the events for the singer in Japan as well.� Handshakes are something given away as prizes or as expensive dinner show appearance bonuses in Japan, so the fact that we weren't allowed to engage her like that didn't surprise me.� In fact, it only added to the untouchable mystique that Morning Musume girls seem to have built up over the years.



Saturday featured several events with Ishikawa Rika, most particularly the Hangry & Angry fashion show and the Q&A panel.

The fashion show was quite a treat for all of us fans.� Rika had not done a fashion show appearance in years, and she mentioned at the show that it was the first time she had walked down the catwalk.� Fashion and character designer for the Hangry & Angry label, Gashicon, was in attendance, and seemed just as thrilled as the screaming fans to have Rika there to wear� her outfits.� Most of the models for the fashion label appeared to be younger girls who had auditioned to model just for the label, but clearly all the fans were waiting for Ishikawa Rika to walk down the runway.� When she trotted out in her traditional Angry outfit and miniature top hat, the whole audience went crazy with cheers for her.� Although she wasn't used to making modeling appearances like this, she seemed to eat up all the energy from the audience and paused and posed for all the cameras like a complete professional.

After Rika strutted her stuff, she joined Gashicon for a panel on the Hangry & Angry fashion label.� Gashicon took a few moments to spin the singer around like a life-sized Barbie to show off her work.� Rika obviously enjoyed every moment and posed perfectly as the designer explained how the Angry look was made. �The singer commented that walking down the catwalk as a model was an entirely different kind of experience from performing in front of a crowd for a concert, especially since the fashion show room was brightly lit and she could see the eyes of her fans watching her the whole time.



Gashicon's fashion panel focused on the outfits and design of Ishikawa's Angry character, but after the Q&A session was over, most of the fans rushed across the hall to grab their seats for Rika's personal panel.� This event was what most of the Hello!Project fans at the New York Anime Festival had been waiting for: a chance to get to talk to their idol and ask whatever they wanted.

Rika was very outgoing during the whole panel, and answered all the questions enthusiastically.� Fans had a chance to ask about upcoming activities for Hangry & Angry, such as the possibilities of photo book and concert DVD releases.� The singer revealed that there were no such plans for those in the near future, but that they had plenty of footage from their European tour to make a DVD, so she would have to talk to Yoshizawa Hitomi about it.� After she gave that answer, she quickly jumped back into the character of Angry and corrected herself to say 'Hangry' instead of 'Yoshizawa', but her slip up back to being Ishikawa Rika instead of the hardened rocker figure made all of the audience laugh.

Other fans asked about possible Morning Musume covers that could be on the next Hangry & Angry album release, similar to the metal version of "The Peace" that was on their recent "Sadistic Dance" album.� Questions like this made Rika shyly duck her head and rub her temples with her hands as she went deep into thought, bringing out strings off coos and shouts of "kawaii" from the fans.� She finally asked the fans what songs they would like to hear, and she listened to all of their personal suggestions and allowed fans a chance to really interact with their idol.

One of the recurring themes at both the fashion show and solo panels was whether or not there was a real American tour in the works for the rock group.� Both Rika and her manager kept dropping the idea of a tour before the fans, earning quite a loud response from the cheering crowd.� They definitely seemed to be testing the waters on a potential audience for such an endeavor.� With the legions of devoted fans that Ishikawa Rika managed to bring to the convention, all very enthusiastic in their support of a potential tour, it seemed as though they were impressed with the reception of the idea.� With those loud cheers and the large amounts of photos and CDs that were flying off the shelves at the dealer's room for Hangry & Angry, I think that the American fans made quite a good impression.� Hopefully it will be enough to justify the potential tour, and at the very least, it seemed to impress Rika's management, who kept mentioning a tour more and more as the festival continued.

Overall, the event was fantastic.� Ishikawa Rika was a dream, and she wasn't at all like the stuffy personality she can sometimes appear to have on shows in Japan.� She was open and friendly with all her fans, gifting her new American audience with smiles and respect.� Hopefully the reception she received at New York Anime Festival impressed her enough to justify future appearances!

For pictures and video from the event, check out the stuff below!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFEZcedqTNA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjWNaZNxRB4



Photos: ping@jphip, kjpop, boku90, Rika Official Blog

Videos: kjpop, jphip Youtube