Okay, I'm willing to bet that probably got your attention. You see, yesterday, thanks to a very important project that Animax is doing, I ended up setting up a meeting between the Animax Marketing Manager and the leading voice talent company here in the Philippines Creativoices, AND its Marketing Director Brian Ligsay and the company CEO/Founder Pocholo (or Choi) "The Voice Master" Gonzales, who happens to be the guy who dubs Berg Katse on "Gatchaman" in my country. Not only did we just talk about the project, I also got a very good view not only of the voice acting industry, but was regaled with stories behind the scenes of the Filipino dubbing of "Gatchaman", which is VERY, VERY GOOD considering that the script closely followed the original Japanese -- cursing characters and all. In certain episodes wherein you have Galactor heavies speaking in Kansai-ben (a somewhat provincial country dialect in Japan), they opted to have the bad guys speaking in our own Visayan/Batangas accents. Hard to describe it, but I must admit, it's really funny to listen to. I was told that the director for "Gatchaman" is also the same talented guy who voiced Eagle Ken, Benjie Dorango. Whoa! Talk about similar roles. Ken leads the KNT; Ken's dubber leads the voice acting team. One funny thing Choi told me was that originally it was Benjie who also dubbed Berg Katse. But since Benjie was more used to dubbing all types of heroes (he did the voice of Dao Ming Su in the hugely popular Asian drama "Meteor Garden"), he did not do good as Katse, and ended up getting ribbed endlessly by Choi about it. Benji ended up saying since "You're always criticizing me, you do Berg Katse." Choi, of course, did Katse to perfection. Not surprising, since he IS THE "Voice Master" after all. But then, just on a lark, Choi decided not to show up at the studio to do two episodes, forcing Benjie to do Katse again. Choi criticized him again for it, to which Benjie said, "THEN DON'T BE ABSENT!" I must admit that it was the story about Condor Joe's dubber that had me grinning ear to ear. You see, Joe's dubber happens to be the idol of every kid and teenaged girl because he has such a sexy, manly voice, but still coming off with the youthfulness needed for the character. What these adoring female legions DO NOT know is that Joe's dubber is actually GAY and, while he seems to sound rather manly on tape, seeing him dub Joe in the studio would be quite a shock since he is just as flamboyant as Berg Katse! Needless to say, my poor niece and best friend were disillusioned last night when I told them the truth about the Condor they loved. In the three hours that we had the meeting, Choi told me how much he loved playing Katse, and he even showed me some of the projects they were doing now and some anime and Asian dramas that they were particularly proud of. Oh, if you've got kids that watch "Spongebob Squarepants", it's Choi who sometimes dubs the character. I even got to do a sample reenactment for him of my favorite Berg Katse scene and he told me "YOU should attend our voice acting workshop." I'd be lying if I say that I'm not giving it thought. But the workshop fee is rather expensive. Hope I could raise the funds for it. I was just so sad that the meeting came to an end. But I'm really happy about all the things I've learned. I'm particularly PROUD of the fact that animation companies worldwide are recognizing the voice talents that we have in our country! OUR VOICE ACTORS ARE REALLY FANTASTIC!! Oh, man! If Choi were to probably read this post, he'd probably be thinking... And I'd probably do just that! :

Very cool...you've got some great connections, Rory!

That sounded like an amazing experience for you Rory. I don't care if the voice actor is for the condor is gay, a sexy voice is a sexy voice. Women will imagine he's straight... It not everyday you get the chance to meet someone directly involved in Gatchaman. Thanks for sharing this with us!

Originally posted by Springie Very cool...you've got some great connections, Rory!

Part and parcel of the entertainment business and extensive networking. I'm just relieved that, even if I'm primarily known as a medical writer in my country, I still kept all my connections with entertainment companies both here in the Philippines and abroad.

Originally posted by Ebonyswanne That sounded like an amazing experience for you Rory. I don't care if the voice actor is for the condor is gay, a sexy voice is a sexy voice. Women will imagine he's straight... It not everyday you get the chance to meet someone directly involved in Gatchaman. Thanks for sharing this with us!

Yes, it was really an amazing experience. I've always had a huge respect for voice actors, so meeting them was just wonderful and would definitely one of the memorable experiences in my life. And I agree with you there. I also don't care if the guy was gay. But he IS FANTASTIC as Condor Joe! And, he is also good-looking. It seems he also appeared in a car battery commercial in my country. And yes, I do remember that he was really handsome. Glad you liked the story!

A good looking Condor voice actor thats gay... Hearts are breaking all over the world tonight...

Originally posted by Ebonyswanne A good looking Condor voice actor thats gay... Hearts are breaking all over the world tonight...

I can definitely say that, last night, there were two broken hearts. I don't know. I think my niece and my best friend were entertaining thoughts of marrying the voice actor. They were really, really disappointed. He he he.

I don't blame them if his got a smexy voice!!! Soo do they do English too, maybe we can get then to do Gatch 2 and Fighter in both languages...

Originally posted by Ebonyswanne I don't blame them if his got a smexy voice!!! Soo do they do English too, maybe we can get then to do Gatch 2 and Fighter in both languages...

Actually, they are multilingual. They've done international voice overs, including English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, some Indian dialects. Joe's dubber is fluent in English; I could personally vouch for that. Tell you the truth, I am trying to convince Animax to get their services for that special project, so that they can do this secret special production both in Tagalog (my native tongue) AND English for the rest of the world. In fact, I was really hoping that Joe's dubber could try out for the male lead. If Animax agrees to use their services, they will be holding open auditions, and yes, they will be also trying out those voice actors who are my personal choices, one of them being Joe's voice talent.

Keep trying Rory!!! It sounds like you have connections in the right places

Originally posted by Ebonyswanne Keep trying Rory!!! It sounds like you have connections in the right places

I just received an email from Animax just a few minutes ago. They are willing to work out a compromise with me. They will only use a female celebrity for the female lead, who will only speak a few lines. We'll be auditioning professional dubbers fr the male lead. THANK GOD!! (Rory cries in relief)

Oh Rory that is SO AWESOME!!!! Yes Networking is so useful a tool, and as I'm finding out takes a lot of work and time...an ex-co-worker of mine invited me on to "facecrack" I mean facebook...and I'm hooking up with people from highschool all the way down to Kindergarten! What do you tell folks you haven't seen in 30 years?? Where do you start? So that's where I've been for the last while...trying to keep up with the flood! Like I didn't have enough time or I didn't spend enough time online as it was! LOL! But so enjoyable...now I have to fight with FIL to get to the computer first! LMAO!

Originally posted by kimiko Oh Rory that is SO AWESOME!!!! Yes Networking is so useful a tool, and as I'm finding out takes a lot of work and time...an ex-co-worker of mine invited me on to "facecrack" I mean facebook...and I'm hooking up with people from highschool all the way down to Kindergarten! What do you tell folks you haven't seen in 30 years?? Where do you start? So that's where I've been for the last while...trying to keep up with the flood! Like I didn't have enough time or I didn't spend enough time online as it was! LOL! But so enjoyable...now I have to fight with FIL to get to the computer first! LMAO!

I wouldn't dare put my face on Facebook. Thanks to fiasco caused by unruly fans in the Animax website, EVERYONE thinks I'm a racist and will likely stalk me. I've had experiences like that with rude teenaged fans. Makes me wonder if I've gaiined the notoriety of Salman Rushie to have assassins running after me. Seriously, I never thought I'd see the day that someone would call me a racist.