Way back when, while reading the first site I ever used for reliable reviews, I  discovered the value in trying out a series because I liked the main voice actors or actresses. Steven made a comment in his Railgun review and I hope he doesn't mind if I paste it here:

Things to watch for:Or listen for, anyway. Kuroko is a wonderful character, varied and complex, yet absurdly funny at times. Kuroko's seiyuu was in love with the character, and did an amazing job with the part. Kuroko is not my favorite character in the series, but there's no doubt that her's was the best seiyuu performance. (seiyuu is the Japanese term for voice actress)

I had never thought about looking at a series before from that perspective which, for a former drama major seems rather silly. It was his note about the seiyuu being in love with the character that got me interested in Satomi Arai in particular. I had seen other series in which she played usually supporting characters, including the recent Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo and, umm, To Love Ru. Her versatility is both evident and amazing. Then I came across Mahoraba: Heartful Days.

In a nutshell, the female protagonist has multiple personality disorder. How the male protagonist adjusts to it and works towards developing the different relationships he must make to this same person is the major plot direction in the show. It is  difficult for a voice actor(actress) to establish a convincing character in any series, especially an animated one. To have five different, distinctive characters, when you have limited "stage time" for each is nigh on impossible.

Because we do not have the physical presence of the actor, the voice becomes much more important in convincing us successfully to believe the character.  The animation needs to be "right" for the voice and vice-versa. The level of anxiety we hear, or affection, or anger all help us believe the story. It helps drag us in.

The timbre (or tone quality) of a voice is generally a constant, whether the voice is speaking in a light tone, a romantic tone, a violent tone, etc. This is good, because it ties a sound to the character and impresses us in sub conscious ways. We identify the tone with the character, and it gives us a perspective - a mental image of sorts so they don't have to start from scratch in every new scene. This doesn't always work out for the best, because there are some voice actors I just don't like listening to and it was a real distraction for what might have been an otherwise interesting story.

In Mahoraba, Satomi Arai does such a wonderful job with the different characters and their very different voices, that by the middle of the series, I was able to tell which personality was emerging before the camera could reveal it. Each character was not only distinct, but identifiable. The "hail fellow" voice of one was so different from the shy retiring voice of another, to the utter childishness of a third. The timbre helped anchor all these together. You knew the same "body" was saying these lines because of the timbre.

Considering that most of her personalities don't have an awful lot of screen time, it takes a special talent to make this work. Ms. Arai establishes these characters quickly, and believably at the outset. Each character addresses the world and the characters in it in complete, yet completely different ways. Without her talent, what is one of my favorite series would be a sad attempt at a nice idea, and I have seen enough of those.

She is truly a gifted performer.

Posted by: topmaker at 03:03 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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.mee.nu has lots of cool things that I need to learn about. this is me trying to insert a youtube thingy.



Fred Eaglesmith: Pistols and rifles.

Posted by: topmaker at 04:58 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Greetings and thank you all for visiting this blog thingy.

This site will focus on a few topics. These include things of interest to my work (countertops and cabinets), anime/manga, music and a little bit about politics. That's about it, really. I reserve the right, etc....

I am also not too web savvy, so this will be a work in progress. Always. Bear with me while the whole bloggy experience unfolds as I learn about organization, looks, posting, etc.

If you comment, please keep it relatively clean, legal, and always realizing that the whole world is reading this.

I may have exaggerated that last bit.

Thanks. I hope this works.

topmaker

Posted by: topmaker at 04:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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