| At Anime Weekend Atlanta in 1997, Amy Howard (right), voice of Nova
in Star Blazers, launched what has become a reunion tour for fans of the
Americanized version of Space Cruiser Yamato. On Friday at Project: A-Kon
10, Howard introduced a new member of the tour: Tom Tweedy, who voiced
Mark Venture's role. The two actors had not seen each other in 20 years,
and got back in contact after Tweedy sent E-mail to Howard. |
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| "This is my first convention," Tweedy said on Friday. "I'm really floored
by how it works. I am overwhelmed at meeting you and Amy today...it was
a wonderful show." Like Howard, Tweedy learned of the Star Blazers project
while at acting school. He was impressed by the story line, so unlike American
cartoons. "It had a clear, gigantic, classic story line that was fun to
do," he said. |
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| "I find it hard to believe that something, after 20 years of the show
not being on the air, that so many people still love it," said Howard.
"It was the most fun...it wasn't a job." Neither did it pay very well (only
a couple of hundred of dollars and no residuals, the actors said), but
it was acting at a time when the students were looking for work and trying
to make a breakthrough from off-Broadway roles. |
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| While it's fashionable for hard-core anime fans to criticize any translation,
the Star Blazers actors said they tried to respect the original...because
they were asked by representatives of the Japanese company that created
the show. The rough parts of the work were giving a good performance to
separately recorded voice tracks (some cast members never saw each other,
and the voice tracks were edited together to make it seem as if they recorded
their lines at the same time.) Tweedy said it was odd to have to fit the
English word "fire" into the space for the three-syllable Japanese equivalent. |
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