Women
in music, television and film often say it's hard to get good roles that
aren't stereotypes. Women in anime often get the best roles because the
most vibrant characters are female, but they also work to produce the shows.
At Ushicon, four women met to discuss their jobs with fans. From left to
right they're actors Tiffany Grant. Stephanie Nadolny and Monica Rial,
and producer Janice Williams of AD Vision. The women said they take advantage
of the great female roles and characters that anime offer, but they don't
feel much impact of the more mysoginistic aspects of the medium.
The
actors were asked about the strongest and most subservient characters they've
played. Grant mentioned Ryoko Subaru and Khomei Sawaguchi as examples of
strong characters, but her thoughts still came back to Asuka in Evangelion,
who was strong in some ways while weak in others. Playing this imperfect
character meant some unique acting challenges when Grant returned to Asuka
for the Evangelion movies. When she recorded the scene where a seemingly
comatose Asuka repeats the phrase `I don't want to die,' "I was almost
completely rigid but I was shaking, I was so focused. The first take I
was shaking and my watch hit the music stand, and that ruined the take.
I don't know how many times I had to say `I don't want to die.' It starts
at this almost inaudible point, and I had to raise the volume to the point
I had to do this huge throat-ripping scream."
Nadolny's
best-known characters are the male Gohan and Goku from Dragon Ball, which
are nothing but if not strong. But event Dragon Ball, which can seem like
an endless series of pro-wrestling-style fights, has its sentimental parts
that draw emotions from the admittedly sentimental Nadolny. She voiced
Gohan in a battle scene with Cel and one of the series' many androids.
The android had its head knocked off, and the head was speaking to Gohan
when Cel crushed the head. "Gohan freaked out. That was a very tender,
emotional scene, and when I had to scream I had my eyes shut - I wasn't
watching the scene. It ended up being some of my best work, because I put
my heart into it."
Rial
likes the mixture of intensity, fantasy and humanity in her roles. "I play
a lot of strong characters but all of my characters have issues," Rial
said. "Izumi was very strong but she broke down. Kirika was very strong
but she didn't know why she was strong and that made her break down. They
have real emotions - they have real girl feelings. That is really cool
in that respect." But some of those characters are portrayed as sex objects
in a way that makes her wonder, such as her Princess Nine character which
is introduced in a baseball scene with closeups of her bust and behind.
One
of the more infamous features of ADV Films releases is the "jiggle counter"
on some films which are full of so-called "fan service." While the feature
may be aimed at males, Williams is the person who has to create the counter,
something that requires crawling frame-by-frame through each scene. She
agrees that many anime girls have chests so large that they would fall
over if they were real. Williams noted a series with French maids, armed
with machine guns, who fell over when their were shot in positions that
made their skits flip up so their panties were visible. But if anime has
a reputation for providing male fan service, Williams noted there's a trend
in the opposite direction of anime that shows large number of cute males
for female fans. And it should be told that the same room used for this
panel was packed an hour later for a yaoi discussion.
Women
in music, television and film often say it's hard to get good roles that
aren't stereotypes. Women in anime often get the best roles because the
most vibrant characters are female, but they also work to produce the shows.
At Ushicon, four women met to discuss their jobs with fans. From left to
right they're actors Tiffany Grant. Stephanie Nadolny and Monica Rial,
and producer Janice Williams of AD Vision. The women said they take advantage
of the great female roles and characters that anime offer, but they don't
feel much impact of the more mysoginistic aspects of the medium.
The
actors were asked about the strongest and most subservient characters they've
played. Grant mentioned Ryoko Subaru and Khomei Sawaguchi as examples of
strong characters, but her thoughts still came back to Asuka in Evangelion,
who was strong in some ways while weak in others. Playing this imperfect
character meant some unique acting challenges when Grant returned to Asuka
for the Evangelion movies. When she recorded the scene where a seemingly
comatose Asuka repeats the phrase `I don't want to die,' "I was almost
completely rigid but I was shaking, I was so focused. The first take I
was shaking and my watch hit the music stand, and that ruined the take.
I don't know how many times I had to say `I don't want to die.' It starts
at this almost inaudible point, and I had to raise the volume to the point
I had to do this huge throat-ripping scream."
Nadolny's
best-known characters are the male Gohan and Goku from Dragon Ball, which
are nothing but if not strong. But event Dragon Ball, which can seem like
an endless series of pro-wrestling-style fights, has its sentimental parts
that draw emotions from the admittedly sentimental Nadolny. She voiced
Gohan in a battle scene with Cel and one of the series' many androids.
The android had its head knocked off, and the head was speaking to Gohan
when Cel crushed the head. "Gohan freaked out. That was a very tender,
emotional scene, and when I had to scream I had my eyes shut - I wasn't
watching the scene. It ended up being some of my best work, because I put
my heart into it."
Rial
likes the mixture of intensity, fantasy and humanity in her roles. "I play
a lot of strong characters but all of my characters have issues," Rial
said. "Izumi was very strong but she broke down. Kirika was very strong
but she didn't know why she was strong and that made her break down. They
have real emotions - they have real girl feelings. That is really cool
in that respect." But some of those characters are portrayed as sex objects
in a way that makes her wonder, such as her Princess Nine character which
is introduced in a baseball scene with closeups of her bust and behind.
One
of the more infamous features of ADV Films releases is the "jiggle counter"
on some films which are full of so-called "fan service." While the feature
may be aimed at males, Williams is the person who has to create the counter,
something that requires crawling frame-by-frame through each scene. She
agrees that many anime girls have chests so large that they would fall
over if they were real. Williams noted a series with French maids, armed
with machine guns, who fell over when their were shot in positions that
made their skits flip up so their panties were visible. But if anime has
a reputation for providing male fan service, Williams noted there's a trend
in the opposite direction of anime that shows large number of cute males
for female fans. And it should be told that the same room used for this
panel was packed an hour later for a yaoi discussion.
