Despite
anime's popularity in North America, the voices who give life to the medium's
characters in Japanese and English rarely meet. Their techniques are radically
different. Japanese actors record their parts as if they were performing
a radio play, moving in sequence to a group of microphones and reading
their lines as the entire show is screened. North American animation usually
sees the voice actors record their lines first, then the animation is created
to match those performances. And when anime is dubbed, each actor records
his English-language part in sessions that are separate from the other
actors. Few Japanese seiyuu and English-language actors have met, and even
fewer have worked together. That's what made the Katsucon encounter of
actors Lisa Ortiz (left) and Maria Kawamura so special and rare.
Both
actors have distinguished themselves by their performances in The Slayers,
Ortiz as Lina Inverse and Kawamura as Naga the White Serpent. But neither
actors had tried performing in the others' language. On Saturday at Katsucon,
the actors engaged in an experiment. Kawamura was given English-language
dialogue to read, and Ortiz took Japanese lines to perform. They stood
in front of a large screen that displayed a Slayers episode and tried to
match the lip flaps of the original. It was a setup that resembled the
Japanese technique of group reading, and the video was minus the three
cueing beeps that English-language actors are accustomed to using as cues.
The
advantage in the experiment should have gone to Kawamura, except that she
was only moderately fluent in English. Ortiz, also fluent in Spanish, had
little experience in Japanese. Both actors struggled with the unfamiliarities
of each others' language, but they did a credible job, despite the difficulties.
"I don't think I'm ready for American voice acting yet," Kawamura said
after the test was over. "I'm not ready for Japanese voice acting, either,"
Ortiz replied. More important than the struggles was the attitudes the
actors brought to the experiment: both were willing to try - and both coached
each other through the session in the others' language.
Despite
anime's popularity in North America, the voices who give life to the medium's
characters in Japanese and English rarely meet. Their techniques are radically
different. Japanese actors record their parts as if they were performing
a radio play, moving in sequence to a group of microphones and reading
their lines as the entire show is screened. North American animation usually
sees the voice actors record their lines first, then the animation is created
to match those performances. And when anime is dubbed, each actor records
his English-language part in sessions that are separate from the other
actors. Few Japanese seiyuu and English-language actors have met, and even
fewer have worked together. That's what made the Katsucon encounter of
actors Lisa Ortiz (left) and Maria Kawamura so special and rare.
Both
actors have distinguished themselves by their performances in The Slayers,
Ortiz as Lina Inverse and Kawamura as Naga the White Serpent. But neither
actors had tried performing in the others' language. On Saturday at Katsucon,
the actors engaged in an experiment. Kawamura was given English-language
dialogue to read, and Ortiz took Japanese lines to perform. They stood
in front of a large screen that displayed a Slayers episode and tried to
match the lip flaps of the original. It was a setup that resembled the
Japanese technique of group reading, and the video was minus the three
cueing beeps that English-language actors are accustomed to using as cues. 
The
advantage in the experiment should have gone to Kawamura, except that she
was only moderately fluent in English. Ortiz, also fluent in Spanish, had
little experience in Japanese. Both actors struggled with the unfamiliarities
of each others' language, but they did a credible job, despite the difficulties.
"I don't think I'm ready for American voice acting yet," Kawamura said
after the test was over. "I'm not ready for Japanese voice acting, either,"
Ortiz replied. More important than the struggles was the attitudes the
actors brought to the experiment: both were willing to try - and both coached
each other through the session in the others' language.
