Chobits
was a favorite of hard-core anime fans - and costumers - before the Clamp
series was commercially released in North America. The English-language role
of Chi, the cute and innocent humanoid computer, went to Michelle Ruff, who
previously had roles in the dubs of Rurouni Kenshin and Pilot Candidate.
Ruff has taken to Chi and already counts her as her favorite role. "She makes
me laugh," Ruff said. "The frustration she causes for Hideki without trying,
the situations she's in and her total vulnerable childlike quality. She'll
take one thing and run it into the ground like the underpants thing - it
was ridiculously funny." Chat a little longer with Ruff and it's evident
that she identifies with Chi, even worrying about some of her adventures,
such as the time she was coaxed to work in a peep show. "I was worried that
this poor innocent thing was being taken advantage of, but the director said
`Don't worry it's not going anywhere.' "
For
most of the early episodes of Chobits, Chi is a one-word role, speaking only
her name. Ruff has to put all of the role's emotions into a single syllable.
"It's been an interesting ride," Ruff said in describing her Chobits
recording sessions. "In the studio with the producer, he's telling me there's
a specific vocal quality to Chi. There are different ways they want it. Sometimes
the director is pressing the (intercom) button saying I didn't get the correct
emotion, or this time she shouldn't have any emotions." One week earlier,
Monica Rial said at Tekkoshocon that she had planned the changes that her
performance of Kirika would take in the dub of Noir. Ruff takes a different approach
to the evolving Chi. "Since I don't have a chance to see the script, I depend
on my director to give me guidance in the evolution. Sometimes I can see
the arc and where we're going, but usually I'm willing to go along for the
ride."
Ruff's
performances compete with Japanese female voices, preferred by many fans
even though they don't speak Japanese. "Would that have a lot to do with
the Japanese culture and the way the women are taught to speak?" asked
Ruff about the high-pitched voices of female Japanese anime actors. That vocal timbre isn't
used by English-language actors because high-pitched female voices mean different
things to English-speaking audiences, she said. Ruff's work comes with studios
that use three cuing beeps, and she's had hard times working for studios
that don't use those beeps (while the previous week's collection of voice
actors at Tekkoshocon showed that the opposite was true). Fans who dislike some dub work
will be interested to learn that Ruff also is unimpressed with some studios because
they try to use scripts that aren't timed to match onscreen lip flaps; that
forces Ruff and the other dub actors to rewrite their lines on the spot to
match the animation.
Chobits
was a favorite of hard-core anime fans - and costumers - before the Clamp
series was commercially released in North America. The English-language role
of Chi, the cute and innocent humanoid computer, went to Michelle Ruff, who
previously had roles in the dubs of Rurouni Kenshin and Pilot Candidate.
Ruff has taken to Chi and already counts her as her favorite role. "She makes
me laugh," Ruff said. "The frustration she causes for Hideki without trying,
the situations she's in and her total vulnerable childlike quality. She'll
take one thing and run it into the ground like the underpants thing - it
was ridiculously funny." Chat a little longer with Ruff and it's evident
that she identifies with Chi, even worrying about some of her adventures,
such as the time she was coaxed to work in a peep show. "I was worried that
this poor innocent thing was being taken advantage of, but the director said
`Don't worry it's not going anywhere.' "
For
most of the early episodes of Chobits, Chi is a one-word role, speaking only
her name. Ruff has to put all of the role's emotions into a single syllable.
"It's been an interesting ride," Ruff said in describing her Chobits
recording sessions. "In the studio with the producer, he's telling me there's
a specific vocal quality to Chi. There are different ways they want it. Sometimes
the director is pressing the (intercom) button saying I didn't get the correct
emotion, or this time she shouldn't have any emotions." One week earlier,
Monica Rial said at Tekkoshocon that she had planned the changes that her
performance of Kirika would take in the dub of Noir. Ruff takes a different approach
to the evolving Chi. "Since I don't have a chance to see the script, I depend
on my director to give me guidance in the evolution. Sometimes I can see
the arc and where we're going, but usually I'm willing to go along for the
ride."
Ruff's
performances compete with Japanese female voices, preferred by many fans
even though they don't speak Japanese. "Would that have a lot to do with
the Japanese culture and the way the women are taught to speak?" asked
Ruff about the high-pitched voices of female Japanese anime actors. That vocal timbre isn't
used by English-language actors because high-pitched female voices mean different
things to English-speaking audiences, she said. Ruff's work comes with studios
that use three cuing beeps, and she's had hard times working for studios
that don't use those beeps (while the previous week's collection of voice
actors at Tekkoshocon showed that the opposite was true). Fans who dislike some dub work
will be interested to learn that Ruff also is unimpressed with some studios because
they try to use scripts that aren't timed to match onscreen lip flaps; that
forces Ruff and the other dub actors to rewrite their lines on the spot to
match the animation.
