The man behind the voices of Android 17 from “Dragon Ball Z“, Shou Tucker from “Fullmetal Alchemist“, Hiei from “Yu Yu Hakusho” as well as so many others, Chuck Huber, has made his way down to Australia for the 2014 Supanova Sydney Expo and us here at Capsule Computers were given the chance to interview the talented man one-on-one.
Mr. Huber was the star of the very first anime panel (which you can read about here) of the Sydney convention and we were given the chance to interview him just after it. Now Mr. Huber and I did talk for almost twenty minutes so before you even think about heading down to our featured video section to watch the interview, make sure you’ve got some time on your hands.
We spoke about his favorite anime roles and he even acted out some of his favorite lines. The conversation went from his previous work to his anime voice acting work and even to his family life. If you’re a fan of Chuck Huber and his work than this is definitely an interview you do not want to miss so head down below now to check it out in all its glory!
Every once in a while a series like “Psycho-Pass” comes along that shakes fans of anime to the very core. Usually these series’ are filled with likable character, they take place in an interesting location and they have a story that people can become engulfed by…”Psycho-Pass” is no exception to this. It had it’s original run back in 2012 to an amazingly positive reception and to this day is still revered as one of the very best contemporary anime series’ to have been released. Thanks to the lovely people over at Madman Entertainment, I have been given the chance to review “Psycho-Pass” in all it’s high-quality, English dubbed glory. Let’s see just how much I loved the series a second time around.
Story
Set in a seemingly utopian future somewhat like our present, “Psycho-Pass” follows the journey of a young woman named Akane Tsunemori who has just joined a law-enforcement team working under the “Public Safety Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division”. “Psycho-Pass” takes place in a world where crimes are stopped long before they can even be committed: Simply thinking negative thoughts can have an individual thrown into Police custody or even be publicly executed in some cases. It is an existence ruled by technology but you’re quickly shown that technology may not be as reliable as once thought. Mrs. Tsunemori has a healthy mind but the unit she has just joined happens to be filled with civil officers that have been deemed “latent criminals”.
These “Enforcers” have shown that they can be assets in the fight against crime so they’re placed under guard by “Inspectors”, of which Akane Tsunemori happens to be. Armed with firearms accurately named “Dominators” (weapons that read the “Psycho-Pass” of possible criminals and activate if necessary), these peace-keepers are possibly the only force that can bring a sense of stability to a world slowly sinking into madness. The story of “Psycho-Pass” is very reminiscent of older science-fiction tales and has been compared to movies like “Blade Runner” countless times ever since its release back in 2012.
It’s overall dystopian setting is something we’ve all seen time and time again but its story execution is absolutely something that sets it apart from all the rest. The way characters develop and the way the world they live in skews in all types of negative ways is extremely well-written and perfectly paced. Each of the characters are as unique as they can be which is saying a great deal considering they’re living in a world that greatly dislikes outside thinking and forms of individuality.
“Psycho-Pass” seemingly slides in and out of different sub-genres to weave a tale of absolutely delight that has you wanting to watch “just one more episode” in anticipation of the events that are to come. Most of “Collection One” seemed like a cop drama you would see on late night television with each episode featuring a new case and a new perpetrator but, by the end of the collection, you begin to see everything fall into place with the introduction of the series antagonist and the revelation of quite the web of connection.
Visuals
“Psycho-Pass”, as I mentioned above, was released back in 2012 now even though it was only two years ago, that happens to be quite a while when it comes to animation technology. Somehow the series visually dominates a great deal of the series’ released at the same time while also being able to do the same to series’ being released now. Each of the characters was designed by Akira Amano who you may know as the creator, writer and illustrator for the hit Shonen Jump series “Katekyo Hitman Reborn!”.
She does a fantastic job at designing character that are realistic but also fit into the visual style of anime which, as you may know, is unlike a lot of the typical animated TV shows you see. The animation throughout “Psycho-Pass” is fluid and there’s never a visual dip. Every so often you will notice the use of CG animation for small things like vehicles, you don’t often see this because it is barely used but, even so, it is used properly and to a subtle degree. One thing that is extremely striking about the series is it’s colour palette.
Filled with blues, greys and blacks, it seems as though “Psycho-Pass” is a bleak and dull series…it’s anything but that! When you’re presented with colours, they’re always vibrant, piercing and perfectly suited to the scene. “Psycho-Pass” is aesthetically pleasing and will deffinitely go down in history for having animation that is “ahead of its time”, for lack of a better term.
Audio
As an avid anime fan that had previously watched this series in its original Japanese dub, I’m so very grateful that time was taken to properly translate from the original. The English dub of “Psycho-Pass” would have to be one of my favorites, at this point in time. The voice actors naturally use Western speech styles to portray the characters while at the same time correctly pronouncing Japanese names in a way that I’ve really never seen before. Despite the fact that the voice actors record their lines in solitude, nowhere near their co-stars, characters interacted with each other in the most realistic ways.
Whether it was a simple “we need to talk” or a more aggressive “shoved up his ass”, each line was delivered perfectly and really made for an incredible watch that, in my opinion, outdid the Japanese dub. What impressed me, once again, was the soundtrack for the series: It didn’t exactly use a plethora of genres like a lot of the series’ you see today but it didn’t need to. It never used any unnecessary tracks and when it did, you absolutely heard it and it made in impact. Big or small.
Yugo Kanno, who provided the soundtrack for the series, deals greatly with more classical styles of musical composition and his tracks matched perfectly with the overall vibe of the series as well as the individual scenes where they were played. When it comes to jazz and acoustic sounds, he definitely knows what he’s doing and it is thanks to him that “Psycho-Pass” was able to musically represent each and every scene so quintessentially.
Extras
“Psycho-Pass Collection One”, despite being distributed on Blu-Ray, actually doesn’t feature that many extras. Like regular anime home video releases, “Collection One” comes with somewhat of a reversible cover, episode commentaries and textless opening/closing sequences. It was nice to see that the release also featured a “Sakura-con” spotlight video that basically showed “Psycho-Pass” in it’s element at a popular convention but this is all pretty much normal for standard anime releases. It would have been nice to have seen more special features, especially seeing as I was given the Blu-Ray version to review; a format that can hold a great deal of data. Still, at least “Collection One” came with what it did rather than nothing at all.
Overall
“Psycho-Pass Collection One” is exactly the type of series we need in this new age of anime that is currently being populated with sub-par stories and constant shows of unnecessary fanservice. There is a reason “Psycho-Pass” has retained it’s popularity even two years after its release. It honestly takes a special anime to last this long. Mixing science-fiction and crime is something we haven’t entirely seen before and even if we have, it hasn’t been anything near as good as “Psycho-Pass”. “Collection One” has set up the series perfectly and it has also left the audience with nothing but anticipation of the next half of the series. I cannot wait to, once again, sink my teeth into more “Psycho-Pass” and I’m so glad its quality hasn’t diminished over these past two year. Absolutely fantastic.
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“Adventure Time” has really exploded down here in Australia so it’s no surprise to see that the voice actress behind one of the most favored characters, Marceline, would make her way down to the seemingly secluded country to connect with her fans in one hell of a big way.
Olivia Olson, the voice behind Marceline the Vampire Queen, came to Australia alongside her fellow voice actress Jessica DiCicco (see our interview with her here), both of which featured in their very own “Adventure Time” panel. After the panel I was able to sit down with the beautifully talented actress and signer to talk about her career and all things “Adventure Time”.
Head down to the featured video section below to check out the full interview with Olivia Olson and don’t forget to hit up our comments section to let us know what you think. For more “Adventure Time” action at Supanova Sydney 2014, click here to check out our article on the Olivia Olson and Jessica DiCicco panel.
Amidst the crowds and chaos of Supanova 2014, we were lucky enough to net an interview with the lovely Jessica DiCicco. As most fans at the convention were aware, she is the voice behind Flame Princess from the animated craze that is Adventure Time.
Conversation naturally turned to her character’s rapid rise to popularity despite her later introduction into the series and the important role that she plays. We talked of the intricacies that come with such an emotionally charged role, a fact belied by the young nature of the series. Diverging from Adventure Time, we also spoke about her role as Lumina in the RPGLightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Jessica seemed only too happy to speak of this recent role, discussing how such an antagonistic character carries herself through dialogue.
Check out the video below and enjoy the rest of the interview and the voice that is Jessica DiCicco.
It was a star-studded event at this year’s Supanova Sydney expo (2014) and one of the special guests who made their way down to Australia just for it was none other than the voice of Naruto, a lovely lady named Maile Flanagan!
After attending her panel – which she did alongside Tara Platt and Yuri Lowenthal, which you can read about by clicking here – I was able to sit down with her for a few minutes to talk about her career, her time as the voice of one of the anime community’s most beloved heroes and about the struggles of voice acting.
Without further adieu, I now present to you my interview with the voice of Naruto Uzumaki, Maile Flanagan, which you can watch below in our featured video section.
There is no man in this world more charismatic than the legendary anime voice actor and star of the new web series “Star Trek Continues” Vic Mignogna. The industry great headed down to Australia to attend this year’s Supanova convention (2014) as a guest to promote the new science-fiction series as well as to connect with his long time anime fans down here in “Oz”.
He appeared on stage to the delight of the audience and was immediately met with our roars of joy. Gripping his heart and smiling profusely, he welcomed us to his very own panel at the same time as our warm vibes welcomed him back into the country he loves. The panel officially began when he jumped down into the audience to informally introduce himself to us. Out of all the guests of Supanova 2014, Mr. Mignogna was by far the warmest (followed closely by his colleague and friend Chuck Huber).
Audience members began asking him questions and mentioning their favorite characters, Mr. Mignogna didn’t think twice about getting into character for his fans and it made for when heck of a start to a panel. He spoke about his favorite roles as well as the roles he missed out on but wished he could have been a part of.
“I really wanted to be a part of ‘Death Note’ but, as you may or may not know, ‘Death Note’ is recorded in Canada so you never actually hear an American voice actor in ‘Death Note’ unfortunately” – Vic Mignogna
He then went on to explain the difficulties behind recording roles like Broly from “Dragon Ball Z”, commenting that “he is a larynx ripper”. From there he was lead into talking about the actual voice acting industry. He explained to the audience that it is somewhat cut-throat and that “time is money” with faster voice actors getting more work than those who take more time to record lines.
Thanks to the lovely MC of the panel Vic was then thrown into a conversation regarding “Star Trek Continues”. After a hilarious William Shatner impression he began to talk sincerely about the influence of “Star Trek” on his life and how he plans to give back to the “Star Trek” community with his new show.
“I started to fall in love with ‘Star Trek’ around the time my mother and father got divorced…Captain Kirk was a father figure to me back then…he inspired me in so many different ways…” – Vic Mignogna
He went on to say that his goal with “Star Trek Continues” is to continue the original series in the same way it all would have been done back then. He doesn’t want people to see the new Captain Kirk as Vic Mignogna, he wants audiences to see Vic Mignogna and be reminded of the original Captain Kirk; William Shatner.
He then explained to the audience the reason behind having the third episode of the new series being aired at Supanova Sydney 2014; he simply loves Australia and believed that this would absolutely be the perfect place to debut what he called such a fantastic episode. Thanks to an audience member he was brought back to his role as Edward Elric from the highly acclaimed anime series “Fullmetal Alchemist“. He was asked what his favorite line as Ed was and after explaining that there are far too many to choose just one…well here’s the scene he chose:
The rest of his panel was populated by questions from the audiences and Vic’s own flamboyant answers. As mentioned above; he is one charismatic man and he made the audience feel as “at home” as he possibly could. It is clear that Mr. Vic Mignogna loves his fans be they part of the “Fullmetal Alchemist”, “Soul Eater” or even “Star Trek” fandoms.
He acted, he sang and he “wooed” the audience in ways you couldn’t even imagine. I cannot wait to see Vic Mignogna the next time he is in Australia. If you’re anything like me and want to see more, head here to check out our one-on-one interview with the man himself.
What time is it? That’s right adventurers, time to sit back and listen to two of Adventure Time‘s wonderful cast as they take the main stage at Supanova 2014. I speak of none other than the lovely Olvia Olson and Jessica DiCicco, the voices behind Marceline the Vampire Queen and Flame Princess.
To start the panel off, fans wished to know how Olivia and Jessica began their Adventure Time experience. Olivia explained that whilst working on Phineas and Ferb as the voice of Vanessa, Pendleton Ward spoke to her father, the then head writer of the series, wishing to get in contact with the voice actor. Thus Olivia came to lend her voice to one of cartoon’s greatest singing vampires. Jessica followed by jokingly saying that, without any familial connections, she came to the series through a less than exciting method, auditioning with everyone else. Continuing from this, and as a tip to aspiring voice actors everywhere, the two explained that acquiring an agent is often overlooked as a difficult part of the process, so don’t underestimate any facet of a career. A helpful tip.
Following a few choice questions, the pair spoke of what it’s like to record lines and work with their fellow voice actors. Both noted that watching Jeremy Shada and John DiMaggio read lines is unquestionably fun and also rather cute, as the two continue to develop a friendship. They also explained that, despite being fun, difficulty also arises from their inability to practice lines to any great degree, due to receiving their script shortly before recording. Though Olivia did specify that she is given more time to practice the songs that she so loves to sing and audiences hopefully love to hear. As if any confirmation on this was needed a fan indeed asked Olivia to sing a song from Adventure Time. After some loud and confusing shout outs from the audience, she settled to sing “Daddy Why Did You Eat My Fries”…and it was beautiful. Challenging this idea, Olivia also proved that she herself performed each and every bestial sound that a strained Marceline delivered in the episode “Red Starved”…less beautiful.
A sweet serenade
Questions inevitably turned to Marceline and Flame Princess, as fans sought to receive specific details and opinions from the voice actors themselves. Fans were not left wanting to say the least. We learnt that Olivia loves Marceline’s ever changing wardrobe, always appearing with a new look that represents her character. Jessica noted that she is quite invested in the relationship between Flame Princess and Finn, wishing to see the two reconcile their differences sometime in the future. Though she also mentioned that watching Flame Princess duke it out with the Ice King was an action packed high point in the series. As for future developments, Jessica explained that she would love to see Finn and Flame Princess have a serious conversation regarding their relationship, again noting that she ships them together. Olivia’s wishes extended more towards the past, as she enjoys the development that Marceline has gone through and still questions “Where was Hunson Abadeer during Marceline’s time with Simon?” A good question, though with Pendleton Ward apparently keeping information close to his chest, it may be a while before we have our answers.
This insight into Olivia and Jessica’s opinions on their character also brought up the question of favourite lines, of which” there are so many”. Continuing on from her love for the undeniably sweet connection between her character and Finn, Jessica expressed her love for Flame Princesses heartfelt, “You would defy nature for me?” Also mentioning Adventure Time relationships, though in a very different context, Olivia uttered Marceline’s furious “It’s over you psycho!” that ended a tumultuous cartoon relationship. Though “Mah broom!” came in a close second.
With questions just as unpredictable as the series on which they work, Olivia Olson and Jessica DiCicco were terrific sports. In between the cacophony of screaming fans and convention hall announcements, they were only too happy to answer each question thrown their way and show that they were just as sweet as the characters they voice.
At Supanova Sydney 2014, we were fortunate enough to get some time to interview legendary voice actor Vic Mignogna. He is of course the voice behind Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist as well as the voice of countless others.
We sat down to discuss his career, anime and his legendary status on the convention scene. But let’s just say things don’t exactly go that way, instead Vic interviews us, and they ultimately discuss foot massages in what is undoubtedly Vic Mignogna most interesting interview to date.
Check out the interview in the video below. Be sure to let us know what you think of the very unique interview in the comments section.
Three stars, one stage and a whole lot of ninja shenanigans this year at the “Naruto” panel which took place at Supanova 2014. It was the second anime panel of the day and it just so happened to feature three brilliant voice actors all of which have roles on the highly popular show “Naruto” as well as it’s continuation “Naruto Shippuuden“.
The three panel guest had an obvious dynamic that only years of working close together can build and it made for one electric panel with the audience picking up exactly what the stars where laying down. There was a nice vibe floating through the audience as the Flanagan, Lowenthal and Platt spoke of the differences between the dubbing of American-made cartoons and that of their Japanese counterparts.
Yuri Lowenthal, having done a great deal of the “Ben 10” series as Ben himself, detailed the differences between the two voice acting processes explaining that recording lines for for American series’ is done as a group unlike Japanese series’ which are all done in singular booths. Despite each of them mostly recording alone, they still found time to meet each other and became great friends over the years, more so for Mr. Lowenthal and Mrs. Platt who met while on the job and eventually were joint in holy matrimony.
Audience Question: “What have been your most difficult voice roles?” Maile Answers: “Definitely baby Naruto, it’s not a voice I’ve had to do a lot of so it tends to be quite difficult” Tara Answers: “Anything out vocal range like screaming for video game takes”.
Yuri, after being posed the above question, then began to explain that he only ever takes roles that he knows he can perfect which eliminates the problem a majority of voice actors seem to face on occasion. The trio then began talking about the evolution of voice acting: Tara explains that anime introduced a new level of voice acting that hadn’t been seen before.
“Voices used to be extremely ‘cartoony‘ but now, thanks to anime, we’re able to do our job in a more natural way” she explained. Maile shared her views on celebrities taking voice acting roles above professional voice actors saying that she believes everyone deserves to do the work but that Hollywood stars shouldn’t be cast in these roles simply because they’re celebrity personalities, they should be cast because they can do the job properly.
Maile backed up her point by telling the audience that she has filled in for celebrities in their voice acting roles because they couldn’t continue to do the job. She also humorously mentioned that she had a role in “The Simpsons Movie” that she recorded lines for but was ultimately cut from.
Maile continued telling stories relating to voice acting long into the panel. The audience was delighted to hear of the time she met a young “Naruto” fan on Halloween but was ultimately overwhelmed when the young fan invited a mob of his friends to come and see the voice of his favorite Ninja in her very own home.
The guests than went on a tangent after being asked, once again, about their voice roles explaining that the change from “Naruto” to “Naruto: Shippuuden” wasn’t a hard one voice-wise but it did take a change in mentality to properly portray the older characters. Maile explained it as “harnessing a maturity that wasn’t there before”. The trio then went on to answer the audiences questions and eventually the panel come to a natural close. As mentioned, the three had a clear friendship that shined on stage. I cannot wait to see them once again sometime in the near future.
During AWF Wrestling annual Supanova Sydney showcase fans were treated to a very ’emmataining’ surprise guest, none other than WWE Diva Emma!
Prior to the main event title bout between the monstrous Massive Q and Australasian Champion Dean Draven, Emma took the ring to address her adoring fans. She discussed being the first Australian Diva ever to make it to the WWE and even got the crowd doing her now famous ‘Emma Dance’ with the audience at Supanova waving their arms around and having a bit of silly fun with Emma.
Following that very ’emmazing’ appearance by the WWE Diva Emma, the main event championship match took place and with the mammoth monster Massive Q challenging the heroic Dean Draven, the lights were on bright for this match.
Ultimately the match boiled down to an all out brawl between the big man and the hero of the story. Following a wicked german suplex, Dean Draven managed to take out Massive Q with a flying headbutt off the top rope that stunned fans in attendance in awe. 3 seconds later Dean Draven had successfully retained his Australasian Championship.
In the end the good guys came out on top and finished the show by posing off with some super ladies like all real wrestlers do. All in all it was an undoubtedly historic event for AWF Wrestling, one that sent fans home happy and ’emmatained’ to say the very least.
