Fushigi Yuugi anime

21 March 2008 @ 02:22 pm

I’ve been watching Fushigi Yuugi: The Mysterious Play recently. Yeah, I know it’s a really old piece, but I decided to watch it because the main male character, Tamahome, was voiced by David Hayter, who is also the voice for Solid and Naked Snake! (Hooray!) And the voiceover in Japanese was done by Hikaru Midorikawa, also the voiceover of Marth, my favourite Fire Emblem character from SSBM and SSBB. Heh.

I watch anime in Japanese usually, but Fushigi Yuugi’s the exception.  I’ve been watching the English-dubbed TV series and I’m really impressed with Mr. Hayter’s voice-acting. More than Mr. Midorikawa’s, at least. The latter’s wasn’t so amusing -- it wasn’t the laugh-out-loud funny kind. It was just average to me.
I’ve been watching a lot of anime in Japanese in my life, and I grew to like Mr. Midorikawa’s voice because it was unique. Different from all the other high-pitched shrieking or manly, deep voices. It was the same with Mr. Hayter’s. I played Metal Gear Solid in English and in Japanese and I really think he was suited to play the role. The Japanese voiceover just couldn’t cut it.

Many people (Well, maybe it's just my friends), including me initially, roll their eyes and stick out their tongues when it comes to English-dubbed animes. It is well known that anime are created by Japanese artists and hence the names of characters are all very Japanese too, like Tamahome, Seiran (from Saiunkoku Monogatari), and Tasuki (from Fushigi Yuugi too). So you hear the English voice actors speaking in weird ways. I first heard the English dub of DNAngel and I just started laughing. The Japanese ones are supposed to be more "authentic" because they're done in the original language it was created in. But some English-dubbed anime are really good, proven by Fushigi Yuugi. This one changed my mindset :)


Current Location: At home
Current Mood: Bouncy
Current Music: Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn OST