Jackson student gives voice to Japanese anime character

Jackee Collins knew her daughter got a part in an anime series when she received the e-mail, but Kearsten was headed out the door for school.

"She couldn't pronounce it, so I had to wait until I got back home to see what part I got," said Kearsten Collins, a ninth-grader at Jackson Junior High School.

At a convention in St. Louis last March, Collins auditioned to do English voice-overs for an anime series. Since July, she has been working with Anime Midstream, a St. Louis-based company, to dub the series "Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh."

She had an interest in anime since she was younger when "Sailor Moon" and "Pokemon" gained popularity. She taught herself how to draw anime characters. Sketching eyes comes more easily to her than inanimate objects, she said.

But, at some point, her interest in anime crossed with her ability to make funny voices for her younger siblings. She beat out more than 200 people when she and her friends auditioned for the voiceover part.

The series was originally released in Japan in 1991, and the company is releasing English versions incrementally. It tells the story of elementary school children who defend Earth from an evil empire with a mecha named Raijin-Oh. Mechas are walking vehicles that commonly appear in anime.

Collins plays Reiko, a character that she said is more girlish.

"She's real short," she said. "I think that's the only thing we have alike."

She travels to St. Louis to record her part. The process to voice a 30-minute episode can take an hour or longer depending on how well she works. At times she has to ad-lib so the English words will fit the mouth motions of the Japanese animation.

Jackee Collins said the voice her daughter uses for the character differs greatly from how she normally speaks.

"It's kind of funny because it's not like her at all," said Jackee Collins, who watches her daughter transform into another character in the recording booth.

Kearsten Collins has since appeared at Cape Comic Con, and her yearbook is full of references to the project. Her classmates, however, could not pick her voice out of the characters.

"No one could guess who I was," she said.

DVDs of the series are available at conventions and at www.animemidstream.com/mall.php.

abusch@semissourian.com

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