Go
back two decades, when Superdimensional Fortress Macross was new, and
Run Sasaki was there. English-language fans know that Wendee Lee was
the voice of Vanessa in the Robotech version of Macross, but only the
most hard-core fans know that Sasaki originated that role in Japanese,
winning auditions against dozens of other aspiring young actors to get
that role. For years, Sasaki was a mainstay in the anime acting
business, and she worked with the top names in the industry. Megumi
Hayashibara? Sasaki worked with her in the Hello Kitty anime. "We've
worked together in the dubbing of other American films, and we'd go out
to eat ramen after work." Keiko (Belldandy) Inoue? "She's a tall lady.
She has a very mellow personality. She's very gentle and I've never
seen her angry. Sometimes when our sessions get long and everyone's
agitated, she's the one that calms everyone down." Orikasa (Ryoko in
Tenchi-Muyo) Ai? "She's very petite and slender, but she has a very
powerful voice. She 's a very good actress, she's been acting since she
was little." Akira Kamiya? "He is a typical example of a versatile
voice actor...it was a very happy thing that I could work with Akira
Kamiya (on the City Hunter series where he was Ryo Saeba). When you
work with him, you are impressed with how he changes voices - it's like
Jekkyl and Hyde."
But
Sasaki is one of the people who worries that Japanese voice
acting has been getting worse. The criticism is that the voice
actors are expected to be idol singers more than actors, and so the
quality of the acting performances has suffered. "When I was starting
off as a voice actor, a new actor would be doing bit roles and there
was much emphasis on voice acting skills. Veteran voice actors who
would be as old as I am today would be doing the lead roles such as
teenaged girls. But starting about 20 years ago, things started to
change. Voice actors and actresses were required to become idols. Voice
actors ceased to be behind the scene production people to people who
would be in the limelight, and the actors stopped imagining the
characters they were becoming." The other part of the change, according
to Sasaki, was that anime producers stopped having the number of
veteran actors around to help guide newcomers through the requirements
of the business. The growing number of anime shows in production, each
which seems to get less money than the year before, also doesn't help,
she said.
And
Sasaki is now taking a step to change that situation by starting her
own acting school and agency in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue,
having
moved to the area when her husband went to the U.S. to study medicine.
The school will teach Japanese and American actors the techniques of
voice production in their own language, along with music and singing.
"The field that I'd like to join is the Japanese animation industry,
and I do think as a voice actor I'd create the ideal production
environment." Sasaki also has a goal of dubbing anime into English in
the U.S., and her instincts tell her it would be best to use the
Japanese group acting technique. In Japan, voice actors record their
roles by stepping to a group of microphones and delivering their lines
as the video plays. In the U.S. and Canada, dubs are made
by having actors perform their lines one at a time, alone in a booth.
"In a group you can act off your colleagues. Considering that animation
is still a form of drama, if you have two cast member confessing their
love to each other, if you do this individually you would not have the
interaction and they would not go whole heart into the acting. I would
consider it obligatory to have group dubbing. It might not be
considered the optimum way, but I think it's the better way."
Go
back two decades, when Superdimensional Fortress Macross was new, and
Run Sasaki was there. English-language fans know that Wendee Lee was
the voice of Vanessa in the Robotech version of Macross, but only the
most hard-core fans know that Sasaki originated that role in Japanese,
winning auditions against dozens of other aspiring young actors to get
that role. For years, Sasaki was a mainstay in the anime acting
business, and she worked with the top names in the industry. Megumi
Hayashibara? Sasaki worked with her in the Hello Kitty anime. "We've
worked together in the dubbing of other American films, and we'd go out
to eat ramen after work." Keiko (Belldandy) Inoue? "She's a tall lady.
She has a very mellow personality. She's very gentle and I've never
seen her angry. Sometimes when our sessions get long and everyone's
agitated, she's the one that calms everyone down." Orikasa (Ryoko in
Tenchi-Muyo) Ai? "She's very petite and slender, but she has a very
powerful voice. She 's a very good actress, she's been acting since she
was little." Akira Kamiya? "He is a typical example of a versatile
voice actor...it was a very happy thing that I could work with Akira
Kamiya (on the City Hunter series where he was Ryo Saeba). When you
work with him, you are impressed with how he changes voices - it's like
Jekkyl and Hyde."
But
Sasaki is one of the people who worries that Japanese voice
acting has been getting worse. The criticism is that the voice
actors are expected to be idol singers more than actors, and so the
quality of the acting performances has suffered. "When I was starting
off as a voice actor, a new actor would be doing bit roles and there
was much emphasis on voice acting skills. Veteran voice actors who
would be as old as I am today would be doing the lead roles such as
teenaged girls. But starting about 20 years ago, things started to
change. Voice actors and actresses were required to become idols. Voice
actors ceased to be behind the scene production people to people who
would be in the limelight, and the actors stopped imagining the
characters they were becoming." The other part of the change, according
to Sasaki, was that anime producers stopped having the number of
veteran actors around to help guide newcomers through the requirements
of the business. The growing number of anime shows in production, each
which seems to get less money than the year before, also doesn't help,
she said.
And
Sasaki is now taking a step to change that situation by starting her
own acting school and agency in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue,
having
moved to the area when her husband went to the U.S. to study medicine.
The school will teach Japanese and American actors the techniques of
voice production in their own language, along with music and singing.
"The field that I'd like to join is the Japanese animation industry,
and I do think as a voice actor I'd create the ideal production
environment." Sasaki also has a goal of dubbing anime into English in
the U.S., and her instincts tell her it would be best to use the
Japanese group acting technique. In Japan, voice actors record their
roles by stepping to a group of microphones and delivering their lines
as the video plays. In the U.S. and Canada, dubs are made
by having actors perform their lines one at a time, alone in a booth.
"In a group you can act off your colleagues. Considering that animation
is still a form of drama, if you have two cast member confessing their
love to each other, if you do this individually you would not have the
interaction and they would not go whole heart into the acting. I would
consider it obligatory to have group dubbing. It might not be
considered the optimum way, but I think it's the better way."
