Monday, October 24, 2005

The Once and Future Minmay

You may have seen my post a couple of months ago about Mari Iijima, the Japanese singer-songwriter who did voice acting for just one anime (Macross) 23 years ago, and then never again. The character she played, Lynn Minmay, was wildly popular; and she found herself typecast in her musical career by those who thought she was the live-action incarnation of this cartoon character. Later, she moved to the U.S., and has been working on establishing her career as an American actress.

Meanwhile, in the mid-eighties, Macross was shown in the U.S. as the first segment of Robotech, and an American voice actress, Reba West, played Minmay.

Now things appear to have come full circle. ADV Films is preparing a new dub of the Macross series; and according to Iijima's website, they have asked her to play Minmay in English. She has agreed.

To my knowledge, this is unprecedented -- a voice actor who did the Japanese voice of an anime character also dubbing the English voice over here.

Iijima is excited about the opportunity. She notes that she did not really have acting experience when she previously played Minmay; she was mainly recruited for her singing skills. Now she has studied acting, and is eager to put her skills to use.

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