Undoubtedly the weirdest anime related thing to ever happen to me occurred this year. It’s not even a case of ‘small world’, just a bizarre series of coincidences; the intersection of the super-niche with the extraordinarily unlikely that leaves me – and potentially only me – in a position to truly appreciate just how fucking dumb it is.
A couple of years ago a new barbershop opened up near my office. In need of a haircut, and it being closer than where I had been going (and with never being satisfied with their cuts I had nothing to lose) I decided to give this new place a shot. Far from the personality-less barbershops I was used to, this was a small place hidden down a little alley and below a tattoo parlour decorated with records and Pokémon cards across the walls, owned and solely run by a trendy 19 year old married gay trust fund baby with Asperger’s and Tourette’s (or so he says).
In short, a hipster barber.
And damn did he give me one heck of a haircut. In an epic one-and-a-half hour session (that was supposed to be 10 minutes during my lunchbreak) he lopped off inches of my head and gave me something radically different. And, thanks to his incessant pressure over the next year-and-a-half, he got me to actually care about my hair. I wake up earlier now to sort it out! I’ve used a variety of products and have opinions. I actually feel good about how it looks for the first time ever! You have no idea how big of a change this has been for my self-image and self-esteem, and I owe him so much for getting me to this place.
Alas, he moved to Leicester, and afraid to deal with terrible cuts while I fish around for a decent replacement I asked him who he would recommend; fortunately, he had one ready that’s nice and local. It wasn’t a flashy recommendation – he simply said he does good cuts and will be able to keep the style the same – but it was a solid recommendation nonetheless.
Visiting this different barber, I was struck by how, well, differently hipster it was. The owner is middle-aged but with a cultivated sense of taste and attitude, and wears it on his sleeve; his shop, larger than the previous’ and employing two others, was replete with classic barber memorabilia, Americana, taxidermied hog heads wearing sunglasses and hard left/socialist art prints for sale. Interesting! But there was one other decoration that caught my eye, standing out in a shock of white PVC behind the counter and underneath a layer of dust.
A goddamn Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha figure.
In the trendy-yet-mature barbershop.
Owned by a middle-aged dude.
Staffed by normal people.
Fucking.
Nanoha.
So I asked. Not immediately, of course; I didn’t work up the courage until my third visit. But I asked. I had to ask. There’s no way I could keep going without knowing the story behind it, as an anime dork and because it doesn’t make any goddamn sense. Think about it – if you’re a big enough anime fan to own a Nanoha figure you probably know well enough to hide your power level from your customers. If you’re a big enough anime fan to own a Nanoha figure AND you have the reckless disregard for your reputation to decorate your shop with it you’d have way more shit on show than that. If you’re a more casual fan a) why would you choose Nanoha as one of the likely few pieces of anime memorabilia to pick up and b) how would you ever end up watching Nanoha in the first place?
So I asked.
I don’t think I was prepared for the answer.
His dad voices Bardiche, Fate Testarossa’s weapon.
His dad, who isn’t Japanese but lives in Japan, voices Bardiche, Fate Testarossa’s weapon.
His dad, one of extremely few English people to count their voice as part of the regular cast in the original Japanese dub of an anime, voices Bardiche, Fate Testarossa’s weapon.
His dad, who isn’t a voice actor and has no other voice acting credits that I’m aware of, voices Bardiche, Fate Testarossa’s weapon.
My middle-aged barber, who owns a hipster barbershop in a small market town west of London, whom I only started visiting because my previous hipster barber recommended him after managing to do the impossible and make me care about getting good haircuts before he moved away, has a Nanoha figure because his dad, who lives in Japan, but isn’t Japanese, and isn’t a voice actor, and one of extremely few English people to count their voice as part of the regular cast in the original Japanese dub of an anime, voices Bardiche, Fate Testarossa’s weapon.
And I here I am, possibly the only one able to appreciate just how fucking weird and cool this link forged through an almost impossible series of events is.
I am two steps and half the world away from the anime industry in the dumbest, most unlikely way.
What are the odds?
I know I said something on Twitter, but I just reread this and I’m still just floored by the sheer coincidence and fantasticness of this. Thank you so much for sharing it haha.
How fantastically weird and awesome! I concur with bless about how crazy coincidental your experience was. I find it odd that the Nanoha franchise is the ONLY anime work I can find for the guy’s father, as recently as the not-so-old Strikers series. Makes me want to see an interview of him!
But then why isn’t it a Fate figure instead?
That’s amazing.
[…] substantially higher than most other blogs. There are some posts I’m really quite proud of (the last few 12 Days posts in particular), there are posts which were forced out, and then there was the […]
[…] substantially higher than most other blogs. There are some posts I’m really quite proud of (the lastfew 12 Days posts in particular), there are posts which were forced out, and then there was the […]