Naruto: Ninja Destiny Voice Actors Call

By: Eric M. Martin

Monday February 25, 2008

The voice actors for Naruto share some insight on recording for both the series and video games.
Shelf alert, gamers! Naruto: Ninja Destiny is coming out for the Nintedo DS on February 26 of 2008 as a joint venture between D3Publisher and TOMY. We posted the initial coverage about the game itself, but there was one thing that we did not cover at all: voice acting! Static Multimedia had the rare pleasure to speak to Maile Flanagan (Naruto), Yuri Lowenthal (Sasuke), Brian Donovan (Rock Lee), and Kate Higgins (Sakura) who are the voice actors for the dubbed version of the Naruto television series and the various Naruto games.

This was a rather large conference call, and a lot of anecdotes were shared from the voice actors about their various experiences. Here are some of the questions posed during the call.

Q: How much of a fan are you of the Naruto series? Do you have to watch the newest episodes or play the newest game as they come out?

MF: I’m a big fan. Not of Yuri particularly, but of everyone else, except for Yuri, in the series. I am horrible at the games, but I sometimes watch people play the games and mutter under my breath, “You know, I play the character.” No one listens. It’s not just a series where I simply do my job, because the people that we work with are outstanding. It’s kind of taken on a life of it’s own.

YL: I grew up watching Japanese anime, and it’s sort of a dream job to be able to work in the field, on the show and in the games. I wish I had time to keep up with the shows, but I do love them. It’s not just a job for me, it’s a dream come true. As far as the games, I can’t keep up with the games either. I’ve actually taken to watching friends of mine play the games.”

BD: I stink at the games! I wish I had the forte, but I think it’s a generational thing. I’m in my forties now and I think I just missed the window. But I’m fortunate to work with a lot of kids, and they go NUTS whenever you mention that you’re involved in Naruto.

Q: How many hours do you spend on recording your lines? How many lines do you do in a session?

MF: Well, it varies on the video game. I usually do two-hour increments for the series, and depending on the length of the episode I can get through one or one-and-a-half episodes. For video games, I can only do about three hours and then my voice gets too fatigued. For one game, and I can’t remember which, I had over eight hundred to twelve hundred loops, which is an insane amount. I think I did five different three-hour sessions.

BD: It’s universally known that even contracts are limited to a certain number of hours, because it’s pretty well documented that your voice can only hold out for so long, particularly for the video games. Even the best of us short out after awhile. I’ll even try to schedule video game stuff late in the day, in case I have anything else. I try to do other jobs before that because I know I’ll be thrashed after my video game extravaganza.

Q: Whenever you do voices for the games, do you have an actual script that you stick to, or is there any ad-libbing?

KH: For the video games, there is a script, a very specific script. Maybe the only time we do ad-libs are if they need some extra screams, punches, or kicks. Other than that, we follow the script.

Q: Did you ever have anything interesting or embarrassing happen during a session?

MF: Well, Yuri usually does all of his stuff naked.

YL: But that’s not embarrassing for me, it’s embarrassing for you.

MF: I usually choked myself once or twice with the headphones. They get wrapped around my leg and I forget, wander around the booth, and end up choking myself.

YL: In order to get a proper sound, sometimes you have to imiate what your doing. In some cases, I’ve gotten carried away and kicked over mic stands.

KH: I’m very professional, as Sakura, so I don’t make too many mistakes.

Q: If you could do a voice for any other character in the game, which would you try? MF: I’d try Choji. Just looks like a lot of fun.

KH: I’d probably want to try something totally different, like Lady Tsunade.

BD: I’d want to do Guy, or Gaara, who kicked my butt.

A very big thanks to TOMY, D3Publishing, Kohnke Communications and the voice actors for sharing of their time for this truly unique opportunity. Make sure to listen for your favorite character’s audibles in Naruto: Ninja Destiny, available February 26, 2008!