Sonny sets the record -Strait- (*Collective groan*)

djkalteraphine · Post by **djkalteraphine** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:20 am

Some of you may or may not recall the news of a Ms Masako Nozawa some months (maybe even years?) back, and her distaste for "Voice Actors", i.e., the idea that you can "voice act" if you're not an actor. In this recently posted video of Sonny Strait's panel at Anime North, he addresses the same issue in an eerily similar manner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7I30lohwtI
If you want to skip to it, it's at 2:49.

Thanks to the original poster of this (SpatulaQueen on YouTube), I got a real kick out of it. I recommend you watch all of it (even though, as of this posting, part 9/9 has yet to be posted, that's how recent) if you're even mildly entertained by it, and like Sonny's work even a fraction of how much I do (He's Lupin! Of course I love him!). There's also some humorous commentary on Bruce Faulconer score and the general treatment of anime in that era. He's a funny guy.

A lot of the talk within particularly pertains to some of the voice acting commentary and discussion going on in this topic, but I felt this video, and these comments pointed out, merited it's own discussion.

Oh, and there's potentially great news in for Lupin III fans, concerning a certain "Red Jacket Series" here-to-fore only released by the now-debunked Geneon Entertainment. Good stuff, I'll say.

Raki · Post by **Raki** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:42 am

Nice to see that Sonny thought the "mondo-cool" thing was lame too.

Big Momma · Post by **Big Momma** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:48 am

Mondo-cool is mondo-cool just because it isn't mondo-cool.

djkalteraphine · Post by **djkalteraphine** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 12:03 pm

Big Momma wrote:Mondo-cool is mondo-cool just because it isn't mondo-cool.

That's not mondo cool.

The Time Traveller · Post by **The Time Traveller** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:24 pm

Lupin the Third "movies" he calls them

He's actually quite funny, I love part 3 of the video.

Post by **Herms** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:41 pm

Pretty interesting series of videos. I admit that I never liked his Kuririn voice, and I haven't seen anything else that he's been in, but he seems like a neat guy. He actually really reminds me of my atmospheric science professor, in both voice and appearance. There's a lot of parts I think I might quote in the future, like on Funimation's changing attitude towards Americanizing things, or on American expectations about what "manga" should look like.

djkalteraphine · Post by **djkalteraphine** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:15 pm

The Time Traveller wrote:Lupin the Third "movies" he calls them

Actually, two of the DVDs they put out were theatrical films. "Farewell to Nostradamus" from 1995, and "Dead or Alive" from 1996. The latter of which was directed by original author Monkey Punch, an experience he loathed and left mostly to his assistant directors.

The others they put out are commonly called TV Specials by fans, but for all intents and purposes, they're annual Made-For-TV movies. They each run about an hour and a half without commericals, at any rate.

StarrDust · Post by **StarrDust** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 4:28 pm

That was a pretty interesting video. I didn't know that One Piece went from 4Kids to FUNi, let alone that the creator cast the American voices. Sort of makes me want to check it out, but I doubt I'll be able to rent any One Piece DVDs

Tanooki Kuribo · Post by **Tanooki Kuribo** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 5:22 pm

Hmm, I think Krillin would have been better if he used his normal speaking voice. Just saying...

Lavender Saiyan · Post by **Lavender Saiyan** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 5:27 pm

I love Sonny, such a cool guy.

StarrDust · Post by **StarrDust** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 5:47 pm

Random Question: Does Sonny Strait still play Tom, the Toonami mascot?

Super Sonic · Post by **Super Sonic** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 6:08 pm

StarrDust wrote:Random Question: Does Sonny Strait still play Tom, the Toonami mascot?

He used to. Steve Blum does Tom now.

And Herms, you've never seen FMA?

Adamant · Post by **Adamant** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 7:07 pm

StarrDust wrote:That was a pretty interesting video. I didn't know that One Piece went from 4Kids to FUNi, let alone that the creator cast the American voices. Sort of makes me want to check it out, but I doubt I'll be able to rent any One Piece DVDs

It's such a great show it's worth purchasing anyway. Episodes #1-#13 are available as a box set, though the series won't really hit it's stride unti llthe Arlong arc, which won't start until episode 30 or so.

omegacwa · Post by **omegacwa** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 7:24 pm

Honestly, I think he got it a little backwards. If you want to be a good comic book artist, you are probably going to have to go to some kind of art school, sure you could be a naturally very talented artist, but artistic skill requires a lot more patience then most people know. I have been drawing since I was 11(with the intent of getting better) and I have gone to art school, and I am still nowhere near the talent I want (I am 22 now). Plus there are tons of tools you need to learn how to use, gone are the days when pencil alone was enough.

I don't believe that acting classes are necessary to be a good voice actor. Practice and training yourself will help, but I don't really think acting in the theater is necessary, sure it can't hurt, but I don't think it is necessary. Through only a few months of practice I have developed a ton of unique voices I can do, and some impressions, with little to no real acting training.

Well, anyway, I guess my point is that it is easier to become a skilled voice actor than it is to become a skilled artist.

djkalteraphine · Post by **djkalteraphine** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 7:49 pm

omegacwa wrote:Honestly, I think he got it a little backwards. If you want to be a good comic book artist, you are probably going to have to go to some kind of art school, sure you could be a naturally very talented artist, but artistic skill requires a lot more patience then most people know. I have been drawing since I was 11(with the intent of getting better) and I have gone to art school, and I am still nowhere near the talent I want (I am 22 now). Plus there are tons of tools you need to learn how to use, gone are the days when pencil alone was enough.

I don't believe that acting classes are necessary to be a good voice actor. Practice and training yourself will help, but I don't really think acting in the theater is necessary, sure it can't hurt, but I don't think it is necessary. Through only a few months of practice I have developed a ton of unique voices I can do, and some impressions, with little to no real acting training.

Well, anyway, I guess my point is that it is easier to become a skilled voice actor than it is to become a skilled artist.

As someone who dabbles in both fields, I politely disagree, and endorse Sonny's advice as, at the very least, worth considering. But it's all subjective to the person, I suppose.

omegacwa · Post by **omegacwa** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 8:31 pm

Well, I guess it is just a matter of opinion, as I believe that developing true artistic talent require far more effort than voice acting.

djkalteraphine · Post by **djkalteraphine** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 9:16 pm

omegacwa wrote:Well, I guess it is just a matter of opinion, as I believe that developing true artistic talent require far more effort than voice acting.

But that's where we differ. I don't believe in such a thing as "voice acting", just acting.

xzero · Post by **xzero** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:52 pm

In one of the later videos (8 I think), Strait was asked to speak as some of the characters he has voiced. He notes that he played Kyuzo (Samurai 7), and he also played Giru from GT, "but nobody really cares about that."

Another interesting thing I learned from these videos was that Justin Cook was the primary mover for taking Funimation's direction toward the professional, non-Americanizing company it generally is today. I always used to watch DBZ DVDs with the English audio and the Japanese subtitles so I could hear the Faulconer music I liked so much, but read the better script. After a while, you could at least mentally hear the real lines, and as a side note of unimportance, my favorite line is Piccolo saying to Goku while he's charging the Genki Dama in the Freeza Saga that "that Freeza creep is quite thoroughly pissed off."

But anyway, while watching Yu Yu Hakusho with the dub audio and Japanese subtitles, I noticed that a lot of the lines were identical, or at least really close, a total change from DBZ. In fact, if they Americanized that show at all, the uncut version simply had more profanity added, which was uncommon at the time. I bring this up because I believe Justin Cook was responsible for the excellent treatment given to Yu Yu Hakusho, and the excellent dub it received as a result. Good work, Justin!

StarrDust · Post by **StarrDust** » Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:57 pm

I remember watching Yu Yu Hakusho on adult swim and expecting it to be grabage because it was done by FUNimation. Of course, I was pleasently surprised. I think I remember reading that Justin Cook was a big Yu Yu Hakusho fan, so I'm not surprised that he influenced FUNi's new style. I personally loved Cook's Yusuke. In fact (dare I say it) I like it a little bit better than Yusuke's Japanese voice.

Lavender Saiyan · Post by **Lavender Saiyan** » Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:17 am

Yeah and for one Yu Yu Hakusho put Linda Young in a role that she was not only well suited for. But a role that she did very well in IMO.

Kanzenshuu

Sonny sets the record -Strait- (Collective groan)

Sonny sets the record -Strait- (Collective groan)

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