When
voice actor Rome Elliot was introduced as one of the English-language
voice cast for the Gravitation dub, female fans squealed - and they got
even happier when he recited a couple of his lines from the series.
They loved hearing Elliot say "You have no talent and your lyrics suck
- why are you wearing a doll costume" (although a few fans corrected
his pronunciation of the characters' names) . "People should love
gravitation," said the actor who also has appeared in the dubs of
Gokudo, Area 88 and Record of Lodoss War. Elliot started his anime
fandom when he saw Battle of the Planets and Star blazers on TV, "which
I thought was really cool." Elliot had a fascinating story of how he
got his Gravitation voice role. He had auditioned for other roles, and
was chatting with the recording engineer in his normal, "non-acting"
voice when the producer shouted out that the voice was exactly what she
wanted for the role. "It was fantastic," Elliot recalled.
Elliot
was part of the annual all-guest get-together at the Nashville event,
which included married artist couple Robert and Emily DeJesus. For this
couple, it started with Speed Racer, or in Robert's case, comics that
seemed to look like Speed Racer. In high school, a friend with
relatives in china was sent manga that he showed to DeJesus, who
thought it looked like Speed Racer. "l liked," DeJesus said. "It was so
much different than what we had in the U.S. It was like having a movie
unfold in front of your eyes." Wife Emily liked speed racer since she
was a kid - "I always wanted to be Trixie or Chim Chim." Now, the
married couple has turned their anime fandom into a business, Studio
Capsule, which turns out magazine and commercial art.
After
playing female roles from a number of ethnicities, Monica Rial has a
new challenge - a deaf-mute who communicates only in noises and with
sign language in Grrl Power. The series about little girls who run
their own business, directed by Akitaroh Daichi, will be released in
the U.S. before it's shown in Japan. "This is the way they find if
Japanese like anime if it's released in the U.S. first," she said.
Rial's anime fandom began when she was nine years and developed a crush
on one of the male characters in Voltron. "It was a real bad guy - I
think it was the red lion." Then, on a 1990's visit to see relatives in
Spain, she had to translate a morning TV broadcast of Dragon Ball for
her brother who doesn't speak Spanish. When the trip was over, Rial
thought that was the last time she'd have to deal with Dragon Ball -
and then it became a cable TV favorite in the U.S.
The
other actors on hand were Doug Smith (left) and Greg Ayres (right).
Smith has returned to acting with the voices of a couple of characters
in Steam Detectives. His fandom started with his military family in
Germany where he first saw Battle of the Planets, Gaiking Space Dragon,
Danguard Ace and Starvengers (aka Getter Robo). "When a new robot show
came on, I would record it on the VCR, pause it, draw the robots and
take then to school. Nobody could describe the robots so I would draw
them," Smith remembered. Ayres, who confessed that he was once a
"sub-only guy," said his anime epiphany came when he saw Akira on a big
movie screen. "I remember that first bike race and the music and the
extremely Blade Runner scenery was running by, and I thought `Oh my
God,' That was when I started watching and buying laser disks - boy,
did we waste a lot of money on these things."
When
voice actor Rome Elliot was introduced as one of the English-language
voice cast for the Gravitation dub, female fans squealed - and they got
even happier when he recited a couple of his lines from the series.
They loved hearing Elliot say "You have no talent and your lyrics suck
- why are you wearing a doll costume" (although a few fans corrected
his pronunciation of the characters' names) . "People should love
gravitation," said the actor who also has appeared in the dubs of
Gokudo, Area 88 and Record of Lodoss War. Elliot started his anime
fandom when he saw Battle of the Planets and Star blazers on TV, "which
I thought was really cool." Elliot had a fascinating story of how he
got his Gravitation voice role. He had auditioned for other roles, and
was chatting with the recording engineer in his normal, "non-acting"
voice when the producer shouted out that the voice was exactly what she
wanted for the role. "It was fantastic," Elliot recalled.
Elliot
was part of the annual all-guest get-together at the Nashville event,
which included married artist couple Robert and Emily DeJesus. For this
couple, it started with Speed Racer, or in Robert's case, comics that
seemed to look like Speed Racer. In high school, a friend with
relatives in china was sent manga that he showed to DeJesus, who
thought it looked like Speed Racer. "l liked," DeJesus said. "It was so
much different than what we had in the U.S. It was like having a movie
unfold in front of your eyes." Wife Emily liked speed racer since she
was a kid - "I always wanted to be Trixie or Chim Chim." Now, the
married couple has turned their anime fandom into a business, Studio
Capsule, which turns out magazine and commercial art.
After
playing female roles from a number of ethnicities, Monica Rial has a
new challenge - a deaf-mute who communicates only in noises and with
sign language in Grrl Power. The series about little girls who run
their own business, directed by Akitaroh Daichi, will be released in
the U.S. before it's shown in Japan. "This is the way they find if
Japanese like anime if it's released in the U.S. first," she said.
Rial's anime fandom began when she was nine years and developed a crush
on one of the male characters in Voltron. "It was a real bad guy - I
think it was the red lion." Then, on a 1990's visit to see relatives in
Spain, she had to translate a morning TV broadcast of Dragon Ball for
her brother who doesn't speak Spanish. When the trip was over, Rial
thought that was the last time she'd have to deal with Dragon Ball -
and then it became a cable TV favorite in the U.S.
The
other actors on hand were Doug Smith (left) and Greg Ayres (right).
Smith has returned to acting with the voices of a couple of characters
in Steam Detectives. His fandom started with his military family in
Germany where he first saw Battle of the Planets, Gaiking Space Dragon,
Danguard Ace and Starvengers (aka Getter Robo). "When a new robot show
came on, I would record it on the VCR, pause it, draw the robots and
take then to school. Nobody could describe the robots so I would draw
them," Smith remembered. Ayres, who confessed that he was once a
"sub-only guy," said his anime epiphany came when he saw Akira on a big
movie screen. "I remember that first bike race and the music and the
extremely Blade Runner scenery was running by, and I thought `Oh my
God,' That was when I started watching and buying laser disks - boy,
did we waste a lot of money on these things."
