Anime voiceovers have come a long way...

[pseudotheist]

Just watched Nausicaa last night (I'm real current on anime trends...), and I was pretty surprised by some of the voice actors (yeah, we watched the English dub; not my decision, get over it):

Uma Thurman
Patrick Stewart
Edward James Ulmos
Mark Hamill
Chris Sarandon
Shia LaBeouf (admittedly I have no real idea who this guy is, but it's a name I'm sure I'

Comments

love me some Ghibli

[cheetahmaster]

When did big name actors start doing Anime dubbing?

Uh, I want to say the trend started about ten years ago, but I will let more knowledgeable voices be more specific.

In this case, this was probably the Disney re-release of Nausicaa (they have a deal with Studio Ghibli to release things over here.) And Disney loves putting names into things even ones that aren't big releases (like Nausicaa.) We just watched The Cat Returns, and we were surprised by some of th names in an otherwise direct-to-video kids movie.

Re: love me some Ghibli

[pseudotheist]

You are correct on the Disney angle. I almost cried when the previews started to roll. "Disney!?!? What does Disney have to do with Anime!!??!"

Re: love me some Ghibli

[cheetahmaster]

All Disney did was buy them to release them here, and give them new American voiceovers. Animation and story is kept intact, and indeed, anime fans say they did a pretty good job with the dubs.