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They've been part of the English-language versions of some American
fan favorites - Revolutionary Girl Utena, Slayers, Irresponsible Captain
Tylor. They love anime and they love acting. But what makes (left to right)
Rachael Lillis, Leah Applebaum, Lisa Ortiz and Crispin Freeman amazingly
popular is their acting in the U.S. adaptation of Pocket Monsters, known
as Pokemon in America. The video game-based show has proven to be the most
successful anime series in U.S. television history, and its success has
amazed its American voice actors. |
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It's not an exaggeration to say that the Pokemon voices are finding
themselves popular beyond their wildest dreams. Lillis, who has the Misty
and Jessie roles, said when people learn she's a Pokemon actor, "Everyone
says `Oh my God!" And they say things like `I loved that episode where
Misty got hypnotized and thought she was a seal." A niece of Lillis' wasn't
overwhelmed by Pokemon when she saw the pilot episode last year, but now
she's a big Pokemon fan who knows more details about the characters then
Lillis does. And, "Mothers have come up to me and said it's the only way
they can get their kids to get up in the morning," because those kids don't
want to miss the latest Pokemon episode. |
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Applebaum was working on the Utena series when she got a call to voice
Suzie and Erica in Pokemon. She enjoyed the cute character designs, but
didn't think she was working on a major hit. "I didn't think about it until
I got a call from my mother, who said my (junior high school cousin) told
her that Pokemon was the talk of the bus," she said. When Applebaum was
at a restaurant and told a woman about her Pokemon work, the woman demanded
that Applebaum give her two autographs right there, one for each of her
children. With no other paper handy, Applebaum ended up autographing a
couple of the restaurant's order forms. |
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Ortiz, who was the first Lina Inverse in the dub of Slayers, said her
first exposure to Pokemon was a street mural painted on a New York City
sidewalk. Later, she got the job of voicing various Pokemon characters.
One of Ortiz' relatives has told her that Pokemon was wildly popular among
junior high school students in her neighborhood. And the anime series is
turning out to be a guilty-pleasure favorite among some adults, too. A
friend, whose children are grown and have moved away from home, admitted
to Ortiz that she watches Pokemon every morning. |
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Freeman, who has finished work on eight episodes of the Tylor series
for The Right Stuf, rewrites Pokemon translations into the scripts that
go on the air. He calls the show's concept "brilliant" in the way that
it combines cute characters with a trading card aspect and sparring between
the Pokemon. "There's a fighting aspect, but it's not brutal," he said.
Freeman notes that there's an element of overacting needed for anime adaptations
and not the underacting that's become popular for TV shows. "It's a heightened
acting style," he said. "It's a matter of acting for the appropriate medium." |
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