Seiyuu
The word seiyuu means voice-actor in Japanese. For an animated character the voice creates a huge part of the personality, (Which is why many otaku hate dubs) and that this is acknowledged and used in anime is one of the greates difference to 'normal' cartoons.
The most famous dub of Sailor Moon, the NA version, is accidentally also one of the worst dubs in anime history. Surprisingly, Jadeite fared quite well.
On this page I'll give some small facts about Jadeite's voices in different languages, as well as my opinions on these voices. Please note that I'm using the concerned dub's official spelling of Jeddy's name on this page, which is why it will vary quite a bit.
The original voice is, of course, the Japanese one.
Jadeite's seiyû, Masaya Onosaka, has a very fitting voice for his character, deep and steady. In the radio episode, he sounded soooo sexy.
Without doubt, Masaya-san is the best of Jadeite's voices, and he sounds a lot more natural then many others. He also manages to show how ice-cold Jadeite is, while not being boring or sounding stupid.
I think he manages Jadeite's (slightly insane) laugh good, and even if it's not the most extreme villain laugh I've heard, I find it quite funny. Fits Jeddy very well, and it is used sparsely enough to make his character seem calm and collected, except in the final episodes. It gives a contrast to his normal behaviour, and how he acts when stressed and worried.
I also like the way he can sound so extremely nasty sometimes, since it is my firm belief that anime-Jadeite is evil to the bone and should be portrayed so.
To hear how Masaya-san sounds normally, try to hunt down a copy of the seventh Sailor Moon omake, where Usagi's seiyuu meet the Shitennou's voices and they have a barbecue together ^_^
Okay, now for some personal information. Masaya-san was born in 1964, and comes from Osaka. He is 170 cm tall, and I don't know much else. But who cares, we want to listen to the man, not read his profile...
Masaya-san debuted in the anime "Maps", and his largest role to date is probably in the series Trigun, where he does main-character. Vash the Stampede, gunman extraordinare who manages to live by the motto "Love and Peace" is about as far from Jadeite you can come personality wise. One of my friends hotly denied it could be the same seiyû as Jadeite (he thought it was Xellos' voice, actually) until the credits started to roll. Myself I already knew, but it is very difficult to hear, except when he laughs on a few occasions. Sounds way to silly to be Jadeite somehow ^_^;;
He's also done (big) Cerberos in Card Captor Sakura, Takakura Takeo (leader of the magic club) in Mahou Tsukai Tai and some other stuff.
I adore Jedite's German voice, made by Kai Taschner. It's quite dark and the language fits him perfectly. This guy also has a nice evil laugh, and I like the way he says 'Königin Perilia' (queen Beryl)
Since this was the first dub I saw more then a few episodes here and there, Jedite will probably always speak German in my mind. Could've been worse... I might have been stuck with the DiC version.
On the downside, he doesn't always have the same cool composure as Masaya-san, making this version of Jedite a bit less phlegmatic and more easily angered.
In the Swedish dub Jedyte's voice is made by Olav F Andersen, who also happens to be the main translator of the show.
He has quite a nice and steady voice, and a good laugh, sounds completely crazy on a few occasions. Problem is that his voice has been so horribly overused (the guy also does Metallia, Kunzite, Ail and Rubeus)
But somehow he always comes out sounding a bit... lame, or something. Not intense enough to play Jedyte, and even worse when he is Rubeus! It's hard to describe exactly what I dislike, but I guess you can say his voice isn't harsh enough, and he also overacts sometimes. After all, I think Jeddy is supposed to sound heartless and without emotions.
Mr. Andersen has his own homepage, in Swedish, with a small message-board for us fans. He thought we were asking to many questions to his personal mail...
In the NA dub Jedyte is played by Tony Daniels. He isn't even close to being as good as Masaya-san, but compared to the other horrible voices (Serena *shudders*) he's pretty decent. Don't like his laugh, however. He also played Wiseman in some episodes, but I haven't heard him in that role.
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon © of Naoko Takeuchi.
This page belongs to Dancing Moon.
