Rebecca
Forstadt has many more performances to her credit than her turn as the
Robotech Lyn Minmay when she was credited as "Reba West." That
performance in one of the series that gave birth to North American
anime fandom came at the start of Forstadt's voice acting career, which
has included many anime roles - the second Mihoshi in Tenchi-Muyo, Irma
in Tenchi GXP, Pai in 3x3 Eyes, Tima in Metropolis and a cockroach in
Twilight of the Cockroaches. There's a lot of range in those roles, but
a modest Forstadt said she basically uses one voice, her high-pitched
voice which is good for performing girls and young women. "I don't do
much diversity in my voice or a lot of heavy character stuff," she
said. Forstadt said she's done so many roles in her post-Minmay career
that she has to check her listing at the Internet Movie Database to be
able to remember what she's played...
...and
one of the reasons is the way that Forstadt gets her roles in Los
Angeles, where she's considered one of the most professional and
reliable voice performers. That top-notch reputation means that
Forstadt gets a lot of calls for anime dub roles, commercial voice
overs and dialogue replacement work. Forstadt typically goes into the
recording sessions "cold," with no advance preparation. "When we get to
the studio, we get the script them. We don't have a chance to look at
it," she said. "It's up to the director to make sure we stick to the
story." Getting the script at the last second is a way of life in Los
Angeles voice acting circles, and performers need to be able to get
their lines right with a minimum number of takes.
Forstadt
also adapts scripts for dubs, and she has a lot of experience in
transforming childrens' shows such as Digimon and Flint the Time
Detective. Hard-core anime fans love to criticize any dub which appears
to deviate from the original, but Forstadt said that's inevitable with
kids' programming. To satisfy the FCC and keep advertisers happy,
broadcast and cable programmers have "standards and practices" rules
which childrens' shows must follow. Japanese children aren't coddled as
much as American children, so the stories in Japanese kids shows
sometimes take what would be considered an inappropriately raunchy or
depressing line in the U.S. Forstadt recalled the infamous "digidrop"
episode of Digimon which concealed the episode's original poop story,
and said that one apparently cute episode of Honeybee Hutch where the
young spiders took the realistic action of eating the older spiders in
their family, something inappropriate for American kids.
Rebecca
Forstadt has many more performances to her credit than her turn as the
Robotech Lyn Minmay when she was credited as "Reba West." That
performance in one of the series that gave birth to North American
anime fandom came at the start of Forstadt's voice acting career, which
has included many anime roles - the second Mihoshi in Tenchi-Muyo, Irma
in Tenchi GXP, Pai in 3x3 Eyes, Tima in Metropolis and a cockroach in
Twilight of the Cockroaches. There's a lot of range in those roles, but
a modest Forstadt said she basically uses one voice, her high-pitched
voice which is good for performing girls and young women. "I don't do
much diversity in my voice or a lot of heavy character stuff," she
said. Forstadt said she's done so many roles in her post-Minmay career
that she has to check her listing at the Internet Movie Database to be
able to remember what she's played...
...and
one of the reasons is the way that Forstadt gets her roles in Los
Angeles, where she's considered one of the most professional and
reliable voice performers. That top-notch reputation means that
Forstadt gets a lot of calls for anime dub roles, commercial voice
overs and dialogue replacement work. Forstadt typically goes into the
recording sessions "cold," with no advance preparation. "When we get to
the studio, we get the script them. We don't have a chance to look at
it," she said. "It's up to the director to make sure we stick to the
story." Getting the script at the last second is a way of life in Los
Angeles voice acting circles, and performers need to be able to get
their lines right with a minimum number of takes.
Forstadt
also adapts scripts for dubs, and she has a lot of experience in
transforming childrens' shows such as Digimon and Flint the Time
Detective. Hard-core anime fans love to criticize any dub which appears
to deviate from the original, but Forstadt said that's inevitable with
kids' programming. To satisfy the FCC and keep advertisers happy,
broadcast and cable programmers have "standards and practices" rules
which childrens' shows must follow. Japanese children aren't coddled as
much as American children, so the stories in Japanese kids shows
sometimes take what would be considered an inappropriately raunchy or
depressing line in the U.S. Forstadt recalled the infamous "digidrop"
episode of Digimon which concealed the episode's original poop story,
and said that one apparently cute episode of Honeybee Hutch where the
young spiders took the realistic action of eating the older spiders in
their family, something inappropriate for American kids.
