CNN 

SHOW: CNN Newsroom 04:52 am ET 

October 3, 1996 

Transcript # 967-8 

TYPE: Package 

SECTION: Entertainment 

LENGTH: 519 words 

HEADLINE: Japanese Animation Considered an Art Form 

BYLINE: BILL TUSH; 

HIGHLIGHT: 
Japanese Anime is producing jobs in the United States for the voice-over artists 
who make the animated features more accessible for their burgeoning 
English-speaking audiences. 

BODY: 
   Japanese Animation Considered an Art Form 
  
TONY FRASSRAND, Anchor: The Japanese style of animation, known as Anime, has 
been around so long, it's considered an art form - and it's gaining popularity 
in the United States.@PGPH Bill Tush shows us why. 
  
[Speed Racer TV show theme music plays] 
  
BILL TUSH, Senior Entertainment Correspondent: If you grew up watching 
television in the '60s, it's a pretty good bet you're familiar with the 
character known as Speed Racer. Well, guess what? That was probably your first 
exposure to Anime, the name given to this art form.@PGPH And while Speed Racer 
was happy to go around the world in reruns, Japanese animators were churning out 
more and more product that was beginning to appeal to teenagers and adults. 
  
ADAM DICKSTEIN, Assistant Manager, Anime Crash [sp]: Metalagus [sp] in the 
series Dragonball [sp], it's just keep going on and on and on. The giant robot 
series Gumdam [sp], in Japan, always - it'll be around forever, probably. 
  
BILL TUSH: This is Adam Dickstein, assistant manager of Anime Crash, a Manhattan 
store that specializes in the product. And it's a product that is in search of a 
wider audience. That's when Anime distributors, Central Park Media, came up with 
this idea. 
  
MIKE PASCUZZI, Director of Sales, Central Park Media: And as the popularity 
grew, we realized that a dubbed product would be more appealing to more of an 
audience, so we started to dub more and more products, and that's continued to 
expand the audience by making it more accessible. 
  
[Anime excerpt] 
  
ANIME CHARACTER: We're all going to get arrested for this - Fwah! [sound of 
explosion] 
  
BILL TUSH: And here are some of the people behind the voices. 
  
ERIC STUART, Voice-Over Talent: Hey! Or, you know, or it'll be like, you know, 
scared, which I do most of the time. I get hit in the head with frying pans and 
things like that throughout the whole series, so everything's like [animation 
voice] "Whoa!" and stuff like that. 
  
JOAN BAKER, Voice-Over Talent: [as Anime character] Daddy, you're so mean! You 
always go away to travel, and you [garbled speech] I just blew all my lines. 
  
BILL TUSH: Joan Baker usually gets it right. She provides the voice to any 
number of characters. 
  
JOAN BAKER: Well, there's all these different skills to develop, and timing to 
be had. So that's definitely in it, and I think people on the outside look at 
it, and go, "Oh, I can do that. It's real easy." It's not. 
  
BILL TUSH: How does this guy talk? [laughter]@PGPH But an old announcer like 
yours truly just has to give it a shot. 
  
ANIME CHARACTER: Prepare yourself! 
  
BILL TUSH: [as Anime character] Prepare myself for what? A clumsy, half-wit, 
pint-sized acrobat?@PGPH Better keep the day job.@PGPH Bill Tush, CNN 
Entertainment News, New York. 
  


The preceding text has been professionally transcribed. However, although the 
text has been checked against an audio track, in order to meet rigid 
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