Memorial Day is traditionally viewed as the beginning of the summer season. And for the past seven years, right around Memorial Day, Project A-Kon, the oldest North American anime convention, has cued the beginning of the anime summer season. (Of course, in 1990, the end of the season coincided with the end of the inaugural A-Kon.)
The weekend right after Memorial Day, Project A-Kon 8, like its recent predecessors, once again invaded the Harvey Hotel in Addison, a small suburb on the north side of Dallas. (And a jaunt up the road from Houston, home of AD Vision.) So, it was little surprise that versatile ADV voice actress Amanda Winn was an invited Guest to A-Kon.
Ms. Winn's impressive voice acting history reads like a listing straight out of the ADV video catalog: eleven very different characters from eleven different series, all tagged with that career-enhancing "Principal," which indicates a main character. But Winn does more than bring life to the English dub versions of popular characters like Gally, Rally Vincent, Yohko, Momiji, and Ayanami Rei. Since sometime in the middle of the BLUE SEED series, Winn has also contributed to the direction. She also helps with the script writing, taking the literal translations and writing the dub scripts from them. Why write a new script instead of using the one from the subtitled version? She notes that the sub script does not always sound right for spoken dialect and, of course, there is always the eternal issue of getting the words to fit to the animation, ever important in English language dubbing.
Like many of her counterparts in the industry, Winn's first exposure to anime coincided with her first job in the industry. A theatrically trained actress, Winn returned home to Houston (not exactly the first choice destination for theatrical actors) with the intent of moving on to San Francisco after a few months home. She joined an improv comedy team, where she met her future husband, Jason Lee, and also her avenue into voice acting. Another member of the improv, Rob Mungle, and a good friend of Jason Lee, had done quite a bit of voice work for ADV (including GUY and BLUE SEED), and with her plans to search for theatrical work out west on hold, Winn attended an open audition.
The title was BURN UP!, and Winn's reaction mirrored many a fan's. In her own words: "Wow, this is so cool!" That same phrase could apply to her whirlwind history with ADV. First, she landed the role of Reimi, one of the three leads. Now, three short years later, she is director, writer, and literally and figuratively, the voice of AD Vision. (In addition to her eleven varied leads, she also provides the voice for AD Vision's voicemail system.) Very cool, indeed.
As most readers know, one of the big differences between Japanese and North American animation is the voice process. Specifically, in anime, all the voice actors for a scene are present in the studio at once allowing the opportunity for characters to play off each other. In American animation as well as in dubbing, each voice actor shows up individually, largely because of sync issues. Winn explained that while it would be nice for the actors to be able to employ the chemistry amongst them, sync issues multiply because if one actor misses a cue, then the entire ensemble must retake the scene. Thus, it is easier (and considerably less expensive) to bring in each character one-by-one.
For main characters, the voice actor will typically be either the first or final voice into the process. The idea is that the first character serves as a centerpoint for the other actors to work around and with. Conversely, the final voice has the privilege of hearing all the other characters in a scene, allowing the actor to make the appropriate adjustments to flesh out the scene, and apply the final touches. With her early roles and series, Winn was usually the first in the studio. After gaining some experience, she made the transition to the end of the process, "to help tie everything together," and from there, it was not much of a jump to directing. As she explains it, after playing so many lead characters, "I knew what Matt [Greenfield]'s vision was for a show." She got her first chance at co-directing while working on BLUE SEED and now serves as either director or co-director for almost all of ADV's English dubs.
What is it like playing the most popular anime character in Japan (Ayanami Rei) in one of the most influential breakthrough TV series (EVANGELION) voiced by a fan-favorite Japanese seiyuu (Hayashibara Megumi)? On "replacing" Hayashibara, she is well aware that she will always face comparisons (and she also voiced another Hayashibara character, Momiji), but there is also nothing she can do about it, so she just does her best for the English dub and hopes that her version is good for the character. In playing her roles, Winn concentrates more on the animation and the characters than to try to imitate the original voices.
Did she choose Rei for the audition? "No, I was cast." An interesting casting decision considering the vibrant, decidedly un-Rei-like personality she had on display throughout the entire con. She commented that Shinji's Spike Spencer is also quite the opposite of his character, and wondered if, perhaps, the casting (for both) was done on purpose.
As for the actual character, she remarks that the initial impression is to view Rei as a cipher, completely without personality. But, that is wrong, she says, for "Rei is not totally devoid of personality, otherwise she would not be interesting." There is a small spark of humanity, but it is "clouded by this huge sense of negative self-worth and the realization that she is expendable." The joy of playing Rei is exploring that small spark.
Which is her favorite character? A rundown of all her characters in her own words. Yohko is "fun," and Rally is "just a bad-ass." Gally is from BATTLE ANGEL, "the best movie of all, and my favorite [series]." SUKEBAN DEKA's Saki is "even more of a bad-ass than Rally." Rio, from BURN UP W, is just so "over-the-top." With Momiji from BLUE SEED, it is the series premise that is intriguing. PLASTIC LITTLE's Tita is "just this kid," while Winn likes playing Rei because she is such "a challenge." Playing Annette, the Subterranean agent in SUPER ATRAGON "gave me the chance to play with my accents." In ELLCIA's Crystel, "I get to play the villain." ELLCIA is also Winn's own directorial vision. Rounding it out, Ushiwaka from MIGHTY SPACE MINERS provided her the different experience of playing a fourteen year old boy while Reimi is, of course, what started it all.
No SoftCel work. "I don't do that," she flatly replied. But, that did not stop her from discussing her idea of a joke Rei sex tape: "twenty minutes of silence, followed by 'Are you done yet?'"
Winn's advice to aspiring young actors? "Never think that you're above acting classes." and "Always take something out of each class." Also important, get an education. This writer was very pleased to hear Winn tell another attendee that a strong liberal arts background is important. Her point: "How are you going to play a world famous scientist if you don't know anything about the world?" Winn, herself, was actually pre-med (with a strong theatrical background of course).
Near the end of our interview, Winn confessed, "Yes, I'm a con virgin." So, how was her first con experience, and what did she think of anime fans? "I had a blast." The fans were great, she said, and it was clear from attendees' reactions that they feel the same of her. With eleven main characters to choose from, it is no wonder that everywhere she went around the con, fans were approaching her for a photo or an autograph on a GUNSMITH CATS, BATTLE ANGEL, or EVANGELION poster. She is looking forward to attending her next anime con, and if her next con proves as entertaining as A-Kon 8, she will soon become the next fan favorite.