Many anime voice actors and actresses pull double duty by contributing vocals to the production’s associated collection of songs. Often, though, the major appeal of their singing stems from the goodwill fans feel towards the characters they portray, an so the less-than-stellar technical aspects of their musical performance get smoothed out by harmonizing with a handful of other singers, or perhaps being relegated to special “character image song” CDs that aren’t part of the actual in-anime soundtrack.
However, Maaya Sakamoto has no need for such smokescreens. Since her big break as both the sole opening theme vocalist and the protagonist of 1996 TV anime "The Vision of Escaflowne," the 36-year-old Sakamoto has proven time and again that she’s equally skilled at performing character dialogue and carrying a high-profile tune all by herself.
That skill set made Sakamoto an easy choice for the producers of the Japanese-dubbed version of Illumination Entertainment’s computer-animated musical "Sing," in which she takes over the role of Rosita the pig from Reese Witherspoon. In the original, English-language version of the film, Witherspoon provides both Rosita’s speaking and singing voice, and so Sakamoto does likewise in the Japanese dub. But while Rita speaks in Japanese in the dub, she apparently still sings in English, which means Sakamoto does too, as shown in the clip below of the anime veteran covering Katy Perry’s “Firework.”
Despite singing in a language other than her native tongue, Sakamoto’s vocals are clear and filled with passion. They’re arguably even better than the American-born Witherspoon’s, whom Sakamoto has much more extensive experience than as a singer.
"Sing," in both its original-language English and Japanese-dubbed version, is currently playing in theaters in Japan.
Source: YouTube/編集部 eigafan
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3 Comments
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gogogo
Wow... what a talent!
Strychnine
I would pay money to listen to an album of her snoring.
Juan Carlos Barbosa Padilla
Impressive, here in Mexico decided to keep Resse Witherspoon rendition instead of the star talent used for the Latin dub, a professional singer.