Anime Expo 2007

NEEC Voice Acting Workshop

Panelists: Shigeki Morioka and Takumi Yamazaki

To begin the panel, Nippon Engineering College (NEEC) Instructor Shigeki Morioka announced that the audience would experience voice acting along with students from the school. Students from NEEC passed out handouts with sample lines of dialogue in Japanese accompanied by readings in romaji. Following this, the panelists showed a DVD with a sample piece of animation. Students from the school provided voices for the anime while standing in the audience. Professor Morioka thanked the audience for their attention and invited the audience to read dialogue from the anime along with the NEEC students standing in the audience.

Following the performance with the audience, voice actor Takumi Yamazaki introduced himself and suggested techniques for the audience to use while voice acting. He mentioned that a broad vocal range is important, especially with angry characters that use a low voice when angry but a high voice when they get hurt. Yamazaki stressed the importance of adjusting the volume of their speech and offered specific advice for each of the character types featured in the DVD. Finally, one person from the audience was invited to voice each part.

Yamazaki told the audience about the many ways that certain onomatopoeia are used. For example, each character has a different way of saying “AAAAAAAAAH.” The sound can be used to express a wide variety of emotions as well, such as sadness, happiness, and rage. The panel concluded with one more audience and student practice session.

The NEEC students visiting Anime Expo from Japan attend the Kamada Branch of the school. The homepage for the voice acting program at the school can be found here.