Years
ago, acting couple Jaxon and Amanda Winn Lee dreamed of success in
California. They pulled up stakes and left Texas, moving to Los Angeles
where they formed their own independent Gaijin Productions dubbing
studio. "We just figured that just because were moved to L.A. didn't
mean we had to stop doing what we loved," Amanda said at an Ohayocon
panel. "I wasn't impressed with the companies out there." The results
were the highly-respected dubs for the Neon Genesis Evangelion films
and the Read or Die OVA series. That last dub had one of the "lone
gunmen" from the X-Files in the cast. One fan asked the Lees why so
many dubs seem to have the same voices, and Amanda answered that the
technical challenge of matching lip flaps is something that only a few
good actors can meet. "That's why people keep using the same actors,"
she explained.
Casting
any acting role is a challenge, but it's a little more difficult in
anime because fans - and often the series' rights holders - expect the
English-language dub voices to sound as much as possible as the
original Japanese voices. Amanda Lee thinks that acting ability counts
more than pitch. "It's a matter of doing the character justice, rather
than matching the voice," she said. "You can do a cute voice in English
that doesn't sound like a 12-year-old on helium." One point that Amanda
made was that dubs take more care in making sure a character voice
comes out of the speaker at the same time the character is speaking on
screen. Since anime shows are seen as animated comics in Japan, Amanda
said, lip-flap matching isn't as important with the originals - even if
all anime is "dubbed," regardless of the language.
Gaijin
Productions' next dub project is for a bizarre show titled Dead Leaves.
The Lees said some of that show's scenes are mind-bending, including
one sequence with a character with a drill in a sensitive, suggestive
part of his body. On a family site, we can't tell you what that
character does with the drill. The Lees were qualified for that work
because they already had handled the English-language version of the
Evangelion movies. Part of the adventure of dubbing those movies was
the Lees' need to make up some sound effects because the originals
weren't available from Gainax. Jaxon provided the "voices" for the
Evangelion mecha and the angels, while one odd sound came from a sound
engineer's recording of a camel.
Years
ago, acting couple Jaxon and Amanda Winn Lee dreamed of success in
California. They pulled up stakes and left Texas, moving to Los Angeles
where they formed their own independent Gaijin Productions dubbing
studio. "We just figured that just because were moved to L.A. didn't
mean we had to stop doing what we loved," Amanda said at an Ohayocon
panel. "I wasn't impressed with the companies out there." The results
were the highly-respected dubs for the Neon Genesis Evangelion films
and the Read or Die OVA series. That last dub had one of the "lone
gunmen" from the X-Files in the cast. One fan asked the Lees why so
many dubs seem to have the same voices, and Amanda answered that the
technical challenge of matching lip flaps is something that only a few
good actors can meet. "That's why people keep using the same actors,"
she explained.
Casting
any acting role is a challenge, but it's a little more difficult in
anime because fans - and often the series' rights holders - expect the
English-language dub voices to sound as much as possible as the
original Japanese voices. Amanda Lee thinks that acting ability counts
more than pitch. "It's a matter of doing the character justice, rather
than matching the voice," she said. "You can do a cute voice in English
that doesn't sound like a 12-year-old on helium." One point that Amanda
made was that dubs take more care in making sure a character voice
comes out of the speaker at the same time the character is speaking on
screen. Since anime shows are seen as animated comics in Japan, Amanda
said, lip-flap matching isn't as important with the originals - even if
all anime is "dubbed," regardless of the language.
Gaijin
Productions' next dub project is for a bizarre show titled Dead Leaves.
The Lees said some of that show's scenes are mind-bending, including
one sequence with a character with a drill in a sensitive, suggestive
part of his body. On a family site, we can't tell you what that
character does with the drill. The Lees were qualified for that work
because they already had handled the English-language version of the
Evangelion movies. Part of the adventure of dubbing those movies was
the Lees' need to make up some sound effects because the originals
weren't available from Gainax. Jaxon provided the "voices" for the
Evangelion mecha and the angels, while one odd sound came from a sound
engineer's recording of a camel.
