The John DiMaggio Fan Club

(This post is only partially gaming related.)

I recently learned that I have a new idol, and his name is John DiMaggio. I've always wanted to be some kind of creepy celebrophile but there was never a celebrity I liked enough to devote my energy to (and we thought that if e'er a celebrity would inspire me to get up off the couch, it would be Jessica Alba).

John DiMaggio did the voices of Wakka and Kimahri Ronso in FFX and FFX-2 and the voice of the lovable pimp-and-dry-goods-salesman Migelo in FFXII. He was the Juggernaut (bitch!) in X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends II. He did voices for Kingdom Hearts II and the animated film Princess Mononoke. Apparently, he also played some guy called Marcus Fenix in some other game. Perhaps most important of all, he was the voice of Bender Bending Rodriguez in Futurama, the greatest television show ever made by man.

In all seriousness, though, the phenomenon of voice acting as a profession bears thought. In the United States, we don't think about voice actors very much (if at all), unless a person who is famous in some other arena lends their voice to a project (for example, Andy Serkis in Heavenly Sword, or Patrick Stewart in Oblivion). In Japan, however, voice acting is on an entirely different plane. "Seiyuu," or Japanese voice actors, have a celebrity status in Japan akin to movie actors in the United States, or Posh Beckham in the United Kingdom. Magazines profile them, and they're recognized in the street.

What I'm trying to say is, it's a crying shame that John DiMaggio has been involved in pretty much everything I've liked in the last ten years or so (and some 360 game I don't care about, but whatever), and I didn't even know it. A brief googular foray turns up no evidence of an existing John DiMaggio fan club, so I would like to start one. I can make up T-shirts with his face plastered all over them. I can be not just a member of the fan club, but also the president. If Futurama ever goes on tour, I can follow it around the country just like in episode 3ACV13, Bendin' in the Wind.

In unrelated news, I'm cooking up an article that I thought to have ready yesterday, should be along in the next few days. It would have been done sooner, but I was distracted by the sudden realization of John DiMaggio.