Musician
and voice actor Vic Mignogna has been playing lead roles since his
appearance as Gawl in the ADV Films dub Generator Gawl, but his biggest
voice acting break came when Funimation hired him to play Ed in Full
Metal Alchemist. The role offers Mignogna the rare chance to have a
major lead in a series that's become a big focus of anime fans and will
also get major exposure from being cablecast on the Cartoon Network. "I
was doing some Edward stuff yesterday at Funimation," said Mignogna on
AnimeFEST's opening day. "I leaned back against the booth and said, `I
love this show.' " Edward is one of the two alchemist brothers who get
in big trouble at the start of the series and spend episode after
episode trying to get out of that trouble. "He's such a complicated
character. He's this 14-15 year old kid with tremendous power, but he's
still a kid he faces a lot of guilt from decisions he made. His dad
took off when he was little and his mom died early. It's a heavy show,
not for the faint of heart." In some respects, Edward in Alchemist has
been compared to Shinji in Evangelion, another character of similar age
with similar emotional struggles...
...but
the major difference between the two is that Edward acts more out of
concern for his family and his losses than does Shinji. Another
difference is that, while Shinji is depressed to the point of inaction,
Edward gives the outer appearance of being overconfident, while he has
some of Shinji's shortcomings under the surface. "It has everything,"
Mignogna said. "It's funny at one moment and at the next moment it's
pure powerful drama. There are a couple of episodes that I finished a
couple of weeks ago where Ed, who tried to be cocky, breaks down like a
little kid who wants his mother back. You work yourself up for this
sort of stuff in the booth - I was in tears." In developing the voice
and attitude for Edward, Mignogna found it was necessary to balance the
character's arrogance with a touch of tenderness you wouldn't expect in
a stereotypical anime character.
Full
Metal Alchemist is a major project for Funimation and the Cartoon
Network, but it's equally as big for the Japanese owners of the series.
Mignogna discovered that during the process of getting the role. He
said he was recording demo lines for a pilot episode right
after learning he had the role. But Mignogna wasn't able to relax and
get into the role until the series' Japanese representatives approved
his voice and performances, a process that wasn't finished until after
he had recorded an episode and many of his lines for the accompanying
video game. Mignogna is so dedicated to the Edward role that he's
changed his approach to anime dubbing for Full Metal Alchemist.
Previously, Mignogna wanted to know as little as possible about his
characters and the series in which they appear, figuring that learning
plot swerves from episode to episode would keep his performances fresh.
For this series, Mignogna has researched episodes and plots so he knows
every change -- because he's so excited about the role and enthusiastic
about the series.
Musician
and voice actor Vic Mignogna has been playing lead roles since his
appearance as Gawl in the ADV Films dub Generator Gawl, but his biggest
voice acting break came when Funimation hired him to play Ed in Full
Metal Alchemist. The role offers Mignogna the rare chance to have a
major lead in a series that's become a big focus of anime fans and will
also get major exposure from being cablecast on the Cartoon Network. "I
was doing some Edward stuff yesterday at Funimation," said Mignogna on
AnimeFEST's opening day. "I leaned back against the booth and said, `I
love this show.' " Edward is one of the two alchemist brothers who get
in big trouble at the start of the series and spend episode after
episode trying to get out of that trouble. "He's such a complicated
character. He's this 14-15 year old kid with tremendous power, but he's
still a kid he faces a lot of guilt from decisions he made. His dad
took off when he was little and his mom died early. It's a heavy show,
not for the faint of heart." In some respects, Edward in Alchemist has
been compared to Shinji in Evangelion, another character of similar age
with similar emotional struggles...
...but
the major difference between the two is that Edward acts more out of
concern for his family and his losses than does Shinji. Another
difference is that, while Shinji is depressed to the point of inaction,
Edward gives the outer appearance of being overconfident, while he has
some of Shinji's shortcomings under the surface. "It has everything,"
Mignogna said. "It's funny at one moment and at the next moment it's
pure powerful drama. There are a couple of episodes that I finished a
couple of weeks ago where Ed, who tried to be cocky, breaks down like a
little kid who wants his mother back. You work yourself up for this
sort of stuff in the booth - I was in tears." In developing the voice
and attitude for Edward, Mignogna found it was necessary to balance the
character's arrogance with a touch of tenderness you wouldn't expect in
a stereotypical anime character.
Full
Metal Alchemist is a major project for Funimation and the Cartoon
Network, but it's equally as big for the Japanese owners of the series.
Mignogna discovered that during the process of getting the role. He
said he was recording demo lines for a pilot episode right
after learning he had the role. But Mignogna wasn't able to relax and
get into the role until the series' Japanese representatives approved
his voice and performances, a process that wasn't finished until after
he had recorded an episode and many of his lines for the accompanying
video game. Mignogna is so dedicated to the Edward role that he's
changed his approach to anime dubbing for Full Metal Alchemist.
Previously, Mignogna wanted to know as little as possible about his
characters and the series in which they appear, figuring that learning
plot swerves from episode to episode would keep his performances fresh.
For this series, Mignogna has researched episodes and plots so he knows
every change -- because he's so excited about the role and enthusiastic
about the series.
