in the sound booth at Bell Sound Studios, Hollywood
In the late 1990's I had a great voice acting gig playing a sexy space pirate. Ryoko was a serious warrior and a desperate lover. She could walk through walls and fly. She was silly, funny, romantic and fierce. One doesn't get a role like that every day. (If one did, one might wear out much too young.)
When I first accepted the part I had no idea the English dub of the anime series Tenchi Muyo!, of which Ryoko was a part, would become a cult classic, or that I'd still be getting fan mail 15 years later. "Tenchi" has a devoted fan base (many of whom hail from Ohio and/or the UK--why is that?) and the fans have been gracious and friendly over the years. They're my Facebook friends, my Twitter followers, my pen pals. And they know a lot more about Tenchi and Ryoko than I do.
On November 13th, I'll be appearing on a panel called The Ladies of Tenchi Muyo at Pacific Media Expo at the LAX Hilton. It's a reunion of sorts, although we "ladies" never actually recorded together in the sound booth. We voiced our parts separately and the engineers mixed us in post-production, like producers do with music tracks. But we acted together nonetheless. I always hoped the voices of the other actors would be recorded before I came to record mine. I considered myself lucky when I had their tracks to act with.
I could be wrong but it seems lately there's been a resurgence of interest in Tenchi Muyo. Just last week I recorded an interview for the online radio station 91.8TheFan. (The interview's not online yet. I'll let you know.)
If I were Brad Pitt or Lady Gaga I might get tired of fans, but mine don't count up into the millions and they're mostly not nuts or intrusive or rude. They're nice people who, in their youths, loved an anime cartoon and the character I played. Some of them tell me they chose careers in anime or voice-over because of it. What an honor it is to hear from them, and to know something I did was meaningful in their lives.
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