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Japanese 'Anime' animation making the rounds in U.S.
August 26, 1996
Web posted at: 11:45 p.m. EDTFrom Correspondent Bill Tush
NEW YORK (CNN) -- If you grew up watching television in the 1960s and early '70s, there's a good chance you are familiar with the character known as "Speed Racer."
(800K QuickTime movie)
Guess what? That was probably your first exposure to "anime," the name given to a Japanese art form drawing a following in the United States.
While Speed Racer was happy to go around the world in reruns, Japanese animators were still turning out more and more products that were beginning to appeal to teen-agers and adults.
"The characters from the series Dragonball keep going on and on. The giant robot series Gundam in Japan always will be around, forever probably," said Adam Dickstein, the assistant manager of Anime Crash.
Anime Crash is a store in Manhattan that specializes in anime. They and another company, Central Park Media, which markets anime, have seen its popularity surge.
Today, anime's creators are looking for ways to bring the art form to an even wider audience.
"As the popularity grew, we realized a dubbed product would be more appealing to more of an audience, so we started to dub more and more product and that's continued to expand the audience by making it more accessible," said Central Park Media's director of sales, Mike Pascuzzi.
The people behind the voice-overs say you shouldn't underestimate the skill it takes to put Japanese anime into English.
"There's all these different skills to develop, and timing to be had," explained Joan Baker, a voice-over artist who provides the voice to a number of characters. "I think people on the outside look at it and go that's real easy. It's not."
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