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Seiyuu are typically recalcitrant about issues related to how the anime industry treats voice actors. But recently, spurred by both anime's popularity in the United States and an Asian economic recession, the Japan Actors Union and individual seiyuu have found a stronger voice to articulate their concerns to an international market. Seiyuu Megumi Ogata, "Evangelion's" Shinji and "Yu Yu Hakusho's" Kurama, speaks out about art and capitalism, school yard bullies, and anime's necessary sex appeal. You mentioned previously that Japanese animation is not in a good situation right now. Why not? MO: Unfortunately, anime is generally rated low by the Japanese public. One reason is that many people still think
anime is for small children, which is no longer true. A series of very abnormal murders of small children that occurred in 1989
can be another reason. Because the criminal was over 20 years of age, and a devotee of anime and video games, the whole nation
started persecuting and discriminating against anime and its fans. Those feelings still remain. Creative teams now must make
anime within very small budgets - this includes voice actors. Furthermore, the ongoing recession makes it more difficult to
train good actors and artists to create good works. We are now facing a hard time and therefore we are given fewer opportunities
to use our high abilities and techniques; and the situation is getting worse every year. I feel that we must do something about
it.
Do you think shows for children in Japan are more sophisticated than American or European shows? MO: I think that is true in some ways, but it isn't always true. I think Disney movies are wonderful. I cannot
believe that "Fantasia" was made that many years ago. But the situation of the Japanese animation industry in which the best
techniques and abilities cannot be fully utilized is something that we are ashamed of. If we had the support of big sponsors
from abroad, the situation may turn out differently. It's a shame.
You achieved near instant fame with your first character, Kurama, the half-fox bishounen from "Yu Yu Hakusho." Did this surprise you? MO: Yes, it did, but I was struggling to play my part at that time. He was a difficult character to play. He
appears to be a 16-year old boy but is actually a fox monster that has been living for thousands of years. I was so preoccupied
with preparing for the role that I didn't even notice I was becoming popular.
You are probably best known in the US for playing Shinji in "Evangelion." Some of Shinji's speeches sound like they might have been ad-libbed. Did you get to ad-lib and experiment when you were working on "Evangelion?" MO: I'm delighted that you think I sounded natural as if I was doing ad-libs. I don't remember doing anything
experimental. There was a time when I actually pushed Yuko Miyamura to the floor to strangle her during the last scene of the
"Evangelion" movie in which Shinji strangles Asuka. I couldn't act very well in playing that scene. I was so agitated that I
strangled her too hard, making it impossible for her to say her lines for a while. Of course, I apologized to her for doing
that. I almost killed her.
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