Talking
to yourself is a fundamental skill of anime dub acting, at least to the
actors who appeared at an AnimeFEST panel on the convention's first
day. It was a big group of actors who included male actors Greg Ayres,
Johnny Yong Bosch, Mike McFarland, Jonathan Klein, Scott McNeil, Xero
Reynolds and Kyle Hebert. These performers need to be able to crate
different voices, and often they'll portray more than one role in a
show. For Ayres, the video game-based Goemon - Legend of the Mystical
Ninja series had the best example of that need to double up. Ayres
recalled that most of the actors on that show played more than one
role, and at one point "...I ended up fighting myself. I was this egg
critter, so it was an egg fighting a horny robot." Ayres recalled
having to cheat on that show, pitching one of his dual roles lower than
it was usually played so that viewers would have a harder time
recognizing that Ayres was playing both roles. McFarland added that
"I've done that in longer shows like Yu Yu Hakusho and Dragon Ball. In
Z I was three people at one time. You just stay in character - it is a
nice advantage of to know what the other character is going to say
because it's you."
Some
fans criticize dubs because of the actors' pronunciation of Japanese
names. McFarland said pronunciation is a decision from producers and
directors, and often what sounds right in theory doesn't work in
execution. McFarland, who has worked on Funimation's dub of Galaxy
Railways, mentioned the name "Yamato" as an example. Japanese
pronunciation has few stressed syllables, but "Yamato" tends to be
pronounced "YaMAto" by English speakers - so many that the correct
Japanese pronunciation doesn't sound right to English speakers.
"Sometimes it sticks out like a sore thumb to have a perfectly
pronounced Japanese name," McFarland said. Klein, another director,
admitted that some actors have a hard time with the Japanese
pronunciations. And everyone agreed that any attempt to pronounce a
Japanese name is better than replacing that with an English name. That
approach may not please hardcore fans, but it's part of the business -
something that former dub critic and current dub actor Ayres said he
didn't understand in his fanboy days, but grew to understand when he
got into the industry and learned the artistic choices that were
necessary to "reversion" anime into English.
Talking
to yourself is a fundamental skill of anime dub acting, at least to the
actors who appeared at an AnimeFEST panel on the convention's first
day. It was a big group of actors who included male actors Greg Ayres,
Johnny Yong Bosch, Mike McFarland, Jonathan Klein, Scott McNeil, Xero
Reynolds and Kyle Hebert. These performers need to be able to crate
different voices, and often they'll portray more than one role in a
show. For Ayres, the video game-based Goemon - Legend of the Mystical
Ninja series had the best example of that need to double up. Ayres
recalled that most of the actors on that show played more than one
role, and at one point "...I ended up fighting myself. I was this egg
critter, so it was an egg fighting a horny robot." Ayres recalled
having to cheat on that show, pitching one of his dual roles lower than
it was usually played so that viewers would have a harder time
recognizing that Ayres was playing both roles. McFarland added that
"I've done that in longer shows like Yu Yu Hakusho and Dragon Ball. In
Z I was three people at one time. You just stay in character - it is a
nice advantage of to know what the other character is going to say
because it's you."
Some
fans criticize dubs because of the actors' pronunciation of Japanese
names. McFarland said pronunciation is a decision from producers and
directors, and often what sounds right in theory doesn't work in
execution. McFarland, who has worked on Funimation's dub of Galaxy
Railways, mentioned the name "Yamato" as an example. Japanese
pronunciation has few stressed syllables, but "Yamato" tends to be
pronounced "YaMAto" by English speakers - so many that the correct
Japanese pronunciation doesn't sound right to English speakers.
"Sometimes it sticks out like a sore thumb to have a perfectly
pronounced Japanese name," McFarland said. Klein, another director,
admitted that some actors have a hard time with the Japanese
pronunciations. And everyone agreed that any attempt to pronounce a
Japanese name is better than replacing that with an English name. That
approach may not please hardcore fans, but it's part of the business -
something that former dub critic and current dub actor Ayres said he
didn't understand in his fanboy days, but grew to understand when he
got into the industry and learned the artistic choices that were
necessary to "reversion" anime into English.
