Steve sez...

> 1. how come many Japanese voice actors "change" their names?  I mean, why does
>    Noda Reiko go by "Sakuma Rei"?  Maybe she doesn't want her family to know
>    what she does for a living?  :-)
>
  Dunno. Perhaps the idol name is cuter? ^_^
 
> 2. how come the singing style for many singers (not necessarily just Ranma)
>    is "geeky"?  For example, why do the singers of "Omoide ga ippai"
>    (CoCo) have such whinny, goofy, Shampoo-sounding voices?  Is it the 
>    "cutsey" effect?  I mean, CoCo sounds pretty much "non-geeky" in "Equal 
>    Romance".   
> 
  Ummmm - according to very good sources (ie. some friends who have been to
Japan and back...). The train station announcements, PA announcements and
all that are all made in that 'cutset' sound effect. According to my friend, 
it was okay in the beginning - but get's damn annoying after a while. 
He wonders why they don't use their 'normal' voices - unless they have
permanent damage from sucking helium!
  Perhaps this is one aspect of Japan which indicates it's closed nature -
how a whole society thinks that something is cute while the rest of the
world would consider it 'novel' in the beginning and 'damn irritating and
stupid' after the 5th listening of it.

  But in the anime world, most consider it cute. But when you are immersed
in a whole society where every PA announcement is like that - you'd think
otherwise... 

--
= Eric 1/2 Shen (erics@jna.com.au) = K.Soc (1993) = KOR, AMS and BGC otaku =
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| "You're watching too much anime and still don't have a girlfriend.       |
|  At the rate you're going, are you going to marry a Japanese girl?" -mum |
| "Not unless she's like Bell-chan or Nene!" - Me!                         |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
        "Pardon me while I change into something more formidable."