Venegas concentrates on getting the actors’ voices to sound as natural as possible. GTO is one of her projects.

Crispin Freeman: For the fans who say that the Japanese voices sound "better" or "more realistic," my question is, do you speak Japanese? How would you know if their acting is better or more realistic? Many times an anime fan will just like the sound of the Japanese better and that's fine. Sometimes I do too! But I think it's sorta silly to insist that all Japanese performances sound more realistic than American ones if you don't actually speak Japanese. A good friend of mine who is Japanese found out I was acting in anime and she asked me if I was performing "over the top" or being "melodramatic" like the Japanese voice actors do.

Now, to be fair, there are many bad English dubs out there and many times the Japanese sounds better because the English dub is so awful. But that's more a reflection on the lack of skill and talent on the part of the English dub than the seeming superiority of Japanese voice actors over all American voice actors. Yoko Kanno, the composer for many famous anime series including, Cowboy Bebop, once told the English language director of the series, "Our Spike, good. Your Spike... Sexy!" To me both versions of Spike are wonderful because they're played by wonderful actors on both sides of the Pacific.

What I try to do both as an actor and director is to understand the intention of the Japanese creators and performers. I believe it was Tchaikovsky who said that the artist's goal is to try to share one's emotions and feelings through a piece of art in such a way that the audience shares the same emotions as the creator. I want an English language audience to have the same emotional experience as the Japanese language audience. That, of course, is impossible to accomplish exactly because of all the different cultural nuances, but that is my goal. Sometimes I can do that be sticking very close to the original Japanese, but sometimes, things need to be adapted slightly so the same intention comes across. I always want to stay true to the creator's intention, however.

Michael Lindsay: As for the anime fans who prefer the Japanese? I think people prefer what they've grown accustomed to. I'm an actor and I can't control what people think of my work or even this field. I just try to do a good job. I've never phoned in a performance in my life and I'm not about to start now. I try and stay as faithful and real to the character as the story, the script and the animation allow.

Olivia Venegas: Different production companies do things differently. If I have a choice and working on a dramatic series, I concentrate on making the voices as natural sounding as possible. Casting and scripts are critical. Taking into consideration that we are definitely bound by what has already been animated, my ultimate goal is ending up with a show that's entertaining.

If you have been dubbing Japanese animation for several years, has there been any change in dubbing direction? Are you being asked to perform "more realistically" today than you were a few years ago?

Bob Bergen: Again, you take the cue from the director. I don't see a general trend. It's all per project.

Crispin Freeman: Absolutely. Believability is the name of the game now. Those old Speed Racer cartoons are wonderful and campy, but that's not where dubbing is nowadays. On average, a lot more care is taken to make sure that the end product is believable than in the past. There's a still a wide range of quality from the best dubs to the worst dubs, but on the whole, the licensing companies are much more concerned now with the acting quality of a dub because they realize their market is increasing by having anime in English. Japanese anime fans follow their favorite seiyuu (Japanese voice actors) and that has spilled over into the American anime fan. They are following their favorite American anime voice actors.

I myself have a fansite on Yahoo with more than 470 members. That would've been unthinkable four or five years ago. A lot of this comes from anime's presence on TV. In order to air an anime on Cartoon Network it needs to be in English and that is how the vast majority of fans are experiencing anime. That's how I experienced anime when I was a kid and it wasn't until I was much older that I ever watched anime sub-titled.

Another criticism is over changed pronunciations of Japanese names, such as the common girl's name pronounced "SA-kura" on Japanese voice tracks and "sa-KU-ra" in some American productions. Do you watch the Japanese versions first to listen to the original voices and try to match their intonations, or are you directed for your performances without having heard the Japanese track?

Bob Bergen: I've never watched an original project before dubbing. You pronounce the way you are told. I myself have never seen an American animated film dubbed in Japanese. Do they pronounce all of our characters with American dialects??? Is Snow White, Snow White?? Is Porky Pig, Porky Pig?????? Just curious!