Wow. Has it really been over 4 months since the last Thursday Lab Report? Yep, it’s official: I’m slacking off as usual. Then again, I could have retired the column you know. It is a hard act to follow up on Mamoru Hosoda. But then you realize you can’t follow up a Mamoru Hosoda interview…and also realize that there’s still people out there to talk to and get their insight! So of course I have to move on and try and get you all to know about others involved in Japanese Pop Culture. And one is Apphia Yu, an up-and-coming voice actor who also is the founder of a Visual novel company and also seems to have time to do a webcomic. Huh.
Justin: So tell us about yourself and talk a bit how you managed to break into the voice acting industry.
Apphia Yu: Hello hello. My name is Ayu (or Apphia – take your pick), I like making bento, practicing kendo, and reading about superheroes. I also really, really like acting. I did a lot of community theater as a kid, and as I grew up I realized that acting was something I actually wanted to do for the rest of my life. I became interested in voiceover when I realized that a lot of the restrictions you get on stage (like having the right height, or age, or even gender) disappear once you get behind the mic. As for how I broke in, it’s basically the world’s most boring story: I took private voiceover lessons, cut a demo when my coach thought I was ready, and mailed it out to as many people as I could. I got called in to FUNimation to record bit parts, then slightly larger bit parts, and two years later, got my first named role.
Can you describe your normal workload whenever you have to do any voice acting?
It changes depending on the role. Recording for bits can be done in an hour or so, but voicing a lead could be spread out over several months.
Mikuni from Shangri-La is my favorite anime role thus far. She had a very archaic way of speaking in Japanese, so the script writer elected to write her lines in a sort of Middle English style of speaking, which means I got to use a lot of “thee” and “dost” and other fun words no one uses anymore. It was interesting working around the older speech patterns while still trying to make the emotion and meaning something people could connect with.
What are the challenges of being in the voice acting industry? Or challenges of voice acting in general?
Like most creative endeavors, there’s a lot of uncertainty. You never know when (or if) you’ll be getting another job. You don’t get to scream at concerts or football games. Getting sick or having allergies is pretty panic-inducing. It’s also kind of hard to bond with coworkers, because we rarely ever work “together.” It’s very different from stage or film where you get to bond with your fellow actors and develop a chemistry.
You say it’s kind of hard to bond with coworkers. Do you think as you continue in the voice acting industry relationships will build over time or should we accept that this is kind of an independent industry?
We definitely bond outside of the booth. We hang out, make friends, and swap stories. Knowing who’s playing a character opposite you does help define how you play a role. It’s just harder to connect sometimes because you don’t get to look into the other actor’s eyes when you deliver a line. If you’re lucky, the other actor has already recorded and you get to hear their recordings. If the reverse is true, you at least know that the actors coming in after you will get to hear everything you recorded.
What would your advice be for someone who wants to get into this industry?
Act as much as you can in any way you can. Taking acting classes is great. Getting a coach is also great. Getting into community theater and actively auditioning, working with other people, and learning by experience is probably the greatest. I’ve found that reading books to small children is a great way to not just develop new voices, but also learn how to keep things interesting. If kids are bored, they’ll let you know right away!
Sakevisual is a fairly small group of artists from around the world who produce visual novels. Visual novels are basically interactive story games played on the computer. They’re popular among otaku in Japan, but they’ve become more popular in English speaking countries in the past few years. Anyone who’s seen The World God Only Knows, Welcome to the NHK, or WataMote is probably familiar with the dating sim subset, but visual novels can be about anything. Sakevisual does make dating sims, but we’re probably better known for our murder mysteries.
I’ve always liked the idea of a story that the reader can interact with. Visual novels are essentially that. The reader actually gets to influence the outcome, play with choices, and become a part of the tale, and that’s just really cool to me. It’s also a lot of fun to be able to combine different creative arts into telling a complete story. I initially wrote visual novels as a hobby, but as I met more amazing artists, composers, and other creators, I decided I wanted to pool our talents together and see if we could make something greater than just my small hobby pieces. It wound up being so much fun that I figured we’d just keep going. And thus, sakevisual was born.
How much time goes into developing, writing, and managing projects for sakevisual?
Working with sakevisual is basically a full time job. A visual novel can take anywhere from a couple months to several years to complete, depending on how long and complex it is.
Visual Novels generally have a perception about them that, in most ways, is not true. What would you say to someone to convince them that there’s more to the medium than what they think?
I think the biggest misconception is “all visual novels are just porno games.” I usually find that reminding anime fans that most people think anime is just “porno cartoons” is enough. For people unfamiliar with anime or visual novels in general, it’s easier just to say it’s an interactive illustrated story and skip the terminology completely. Otherwise, they tend to confuse them with “graphic novels” which are something else entirely.
Can you share any visual novels you believe people would be interested in?
For mystery or thriller games, my personal favorite is 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, which is available for the DS. The Higurashi VNs are also available in English (PC), and Dangan Ronpa will be getting an English language release next year (Vita). There’s also Steins;Gate, which is a very interesting time travel story. (Self-Promotion: I voice one of the maids in the background at the maid cafe in the dub of the Steins;Gate anime.)
So what’s going to be happening to you in the next few months in acting and SakeVisual?
In terms of acting, you’ll be able to hear me in Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine pretty soon. Other upcoming releases include Guilty Crown (Kanon Kusama) and Last Exile -FAM- (Felicite). For sakevisual, we’ve got one free and one commercial VN slated to come out sometime this year. I’ll avoid giving hard dates for now, but they’re both well underway.
Finally, you’re working on a webcomic. How did Ties That Bind get started and where do you foresee the comic going storywise?
I wish I could say something cool and inspiring about how the story came to me, but it really just started with a couple random sketches I did as an exercise. I wanted to design characters that looked like they belonged in the same world, so I came up with various rules of fashion (for instance, no one uses buttons), along with types of clothing or armor someone would wear depending on their social status. The first four characters I designed are the four leads in Ties That Bind.
As for the story, we’ve got the ending mapped out already. It’s going to be a very literal journey tale, with our heroes having to travel a lot to reach the ending. I think people will find it interesting, but I’m probably biased.
You can follow and keep track of Apphia in whatever way you want: her Twitter account (@soymilkpudding), Facebook (Apphia Yu), Youtube (No One of Consequence), Tumblr (SoyMilk Pudding), or Google+ (Apphia Yu). She also has an official web page. You can follow Sakevisual on various platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, DeviantArt, Tumblr), and the same with Ties That Bind (Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt)