Voices Behind Japanese Cartoons

Their business is to make a new soundtrack, which specifically requires adding voices to a film, broadcast or recording. They are "Instant Voices." More often, they are called "dubbers."
Way back in the 70's when Voltes V, Daimos, and Mazinger Z hit, the television Filipino audiences became more entertained. Now the latest craze - dubbing in English and Tagalog voices - have given birth to new dynamics of art.

Oftentimes, great shows emanate from great dubbing. Dubbers breathe the heart and soul to the characters. Like acting, they give life and emotion to the individualities of the cast. It is acting to the voice with limited space because the video is already made. Gestures help them in the voice performance.

Dubbers can produce many voices. Some of them at most, produce three-low pitch, normal pitch, and high pitch. Others produce seven depending on the creativity of the dubber, his experience and background. "We grow from one voice to several voices," adds Veron Calaguas in soft tones.

This playful art calls for responsibility. The 30-minute cartoon shows are dubbed around four or five hours. "It is really dedication but I never get bored." "The thrill is enhanced when the program is perfectly dubbed. It feels real. It's a joy. It's a team. We all feel good when it succeeds, and know that we've touched people especially kids," dubbers say.

This is the future. And of course, people needs entertainment to battle on stress. As the prophetic Shakespeare said, "All the world is a stage." Be it music, drama, fine art, comedy, and now dubbing - arts will always occupy a lofty place in our universe.

Japanese Cartoon Art

Japanese cartoon art has been one focal point to the introduction of Japan to the whole world. We have gotten to know more about Japanese culture and how the country has risen to become what it is now. Many of this art are shown in the many animated cartoon series and movies. Video games have also shown Japanese cartoon art and just like the movies and series they have been accepted internationally. The world of animated art has seen Japan create lots of animated movies and series that have been accepted wholly by the whole world.

Most of the Japanese cartoon art is usually three and two dimensional and you will find the use of bright colors is always in constant use and help create a montage of various color use. The cartoons are able to look life like because of the use of the colors which help in creating a more realistic look at human emotion. This way we are able to tell if the cartoon is angry or annoyed, by the red cheeks and also if they are sad or sick they usually turn different colors or more pale than usual.

However the colors are not the only thing that the Japanese artist uses to denote emotion. The use of the large western like eyes is also used quite frequently and many times I have always wondered why the use of western characters, have become a big theme in most of the Japanese animated movies and series.

I guess its because the whole world looks to the west as the main super power countries and it is easier to use them as characters in the animated movies.

Cartoons - The Japanese Invasion

For the kids of today who think that these Japanese imports are a new thing, you may be surprised to find out that Japanese import cartoons have been going on for some time. We're going to touch on just a small portion of those cartoons going back to the early 1960s.

Cartoons in America, for the most part, were dominated by the likes of Warner Brothers and Walt Disney with such titles as Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse and a host of other characters. But around the early to mid 60s a new kind of cartoon was coming onto the scene. These cartoons were very different from the ones we were used to seeing. They were darker, more serious and very well done. They also had a very distinctive look to them, mostly in the characters themselves. If you take a look at American made cartoons, especially around the area of the eyes, you will notice that they look almost like a real person's eyes would look, within reason of course. After all, they're still cartoons. But these Japanese imports had a very different look, especially around the eyes, which could only be described as looking like "robot eyes". They definitely were not human. For that matter, the Japanese invasion that began in the 60s was far from human.

A slew of these cartoons all hit the American airwaves pretty much at one time. The most popular of these were "Astro Boy", which was the first of the 60s invasion cartoons in 1963, "Speed Racer", "8th Man", and "Gigantor". All of these cartoons contained either a fantasy or science fiction theme.

Speed Racer was about a boy and his race car, the Mach 5, which could do things that even today's cars can't do. Speed had his sidekicks, Spridle, Chimp Chimp, and Trixie to help him out of tough jams.

The 8th Man cartoon was about a man who was almost killed but brought back to life in the form of a robot, which is tobor spelled backwards. Yes, tobor was the alias of this robot who could take on the appearance of any person alive. A very handy trick when having to sneak into the criminal's facility.

Gigantor was basically the story of a boy and his gigantic robot. Gigantor could usually be seen battling other gigantic robots in each episode. No matter how grim things looked, you could always count on Gigantor to come out the victor.

Because the cartoons were made in Japanese, they had to be dubbed in English for American audiences. Because of this, many times the animation and the voices didn't exactly fit right, pretty much the same as with Japanese made movies that are dubbed in English, the most famous of these being the Godzilla series.

Japanese animation took off like wildfire in the states. Americans couldn't get enough of these cartoons and over the years more and more were made.
Today we are in the midst of another Japanese invasion from cartoons like Pokemon, Yugioh and Card Captors.

As long as American audiences are fascinated by these very different kinds of cartoons the supply of them will most likely never run out.

Japanese Anime Cartoon

When we, as Japanese hear the term, Japanese Anime Cartoon, we get this funny feeling. Perhaps, it is the cartoon part that is not wrapping the anime part in the right way. Since we only used the terms like Manga and Anime, perhaps the new term, Cartoon, is not something we are used to.However, there are so many factors as to why this term give us this special feelings.

I know that this is just an expression that is different, not the subject itself, but when you say Japanese Cartoon, it sounds less animated in the sense, which I have to apologize if that offend someone. On the contrary, if you say Japanese Animation, that could mean, it is created in a rich form of art. That is probably not an impression that more of Americans or Europeans are getting toward Japanese Animation Cartoons.

By definitions, the difference between Anime and Cartoon are as follows. The anime, coming from animation, points out to all the Japanese animations as oppose to Cartoon being the topical satire comics.

Therefore, there are still Cartoons out there that are also Japanese Anime, and I suppose we call them Japanese Anime Cartoons. So, I should not even make any difference in that matter, but that is just a definition. The real feeling towards those words in terminology is somewhat different from Japanese perspective.

Anime and Cartoon are two separate things. I know this sounds a little strange for some people who are not used to the cultural differences. But, the little difference like this could make a huge difference in the large picture.

I am sure there are terms in English that are so close but they are in slightly in different meanings. So for instance, if Dragon Ball is playing on Cartoon Network, it looks and sounds kind of funny. However, something like PowerPuffGirls being Cartoon is more suitable from our perspective.

Japan's anime like Inuyasha or Bleach are the great unleashed animation cartoons. This is due to the fact that they are not only good and fun to read comics, but sometimes, they can represent our Japanese culture in further degree and can be an animation after all.

I know some people in the states do not understand what I am talking about, but those of you who are getting what I mean, please keep in mind that next time you are getting pictures, images, or wallpapers of characters from galleries, Japanese seldom refer them to as Japanese Anime Cartoon. We prefer to use the term, Japanese Anime, Manga, or Animations. Think of the term Cartoon only applies to the animation made by non-Japanese creators. Well, at the end, what we call them does not really matter, but the quality of the Anime or Cartoon is what counts.