Bonus – A Conversation With Sonny Strait

We don’t actually have a show recorded for this week, so here’s the audio to our interview from Anime Festival Orlando 2007 with Funimation voice actor, director, and comicbook artist Sonny Strait (Krillin in DBZ, Hughes in FMA). None of us have ever done a live interview before prior to this.

Show notes? I got nothing. Except for this video:

Here’s Sonny’s Myspace page.

And here’s his comic.

50 Replies to “Bonus – A Conversation With Sonny Strait”

  1. Damn Daryl, you dress like my brother, also OTAKU USA issue 2 is out go get it.
    Also, Daryl nice save with the article of the OG : Original Gunbuster šŸ˜€

  2. I was present at this brutal clown pistol assassination. In fact, I’m the dude in the purple shirt and tie that occasionally wanders into the left side of the frame.

    It’s a good thing Daryl was only packing one pistol at that moment, or I might have been next.

  3. “You guys let him get away with calling himself a manga artist. I’m slightly upset.”

    Daryl was holding back just a twinge of nerd rage during that interview certainly. Best part of this thing was the guy who was sitting next to me in the crowd dressed in his FMA cosplay talking about how Daryl was ruining it for him.

  4. Although in the intro you talked about how your regular shows have the benefit of editing, I thought the three of you were pretty good in a live interview format.

    It does give me a little pause when people in dubbing speaking of having “wrote” an episode. Perhaps this comes from Hollywood conventions, where the screenwriter of a film might actually be one of several people who re-wrote an earlier draft. To me, simply saying you wrote something should mean you wrote it from scratch, whereas anime dub scripts are almost always adaptations of some sort from the plot, dialogue, and characterizations of the original Japanese script.

    I would be fine with saying “I did the English adaptation” rather than “I wrote it.” It’s a little bit like “American manga”–I have no problem with Americans drawing their comics in black and white, publishing it in 5″ by 7″ tankobon, and shelving it in the bookstores with Japanese creators. In fact, I think the most valuable lesson we can learn from manga (since I believe the problem is not a lack of talent in Western comics) is to use its formats and publishing practices to reach more readers.

    We’ve unfortunately come to confuse comics as a medium with this stapled comic book format that was invented in the 1930s, whereas there are other successful models for publishing comics. But I almost feel as if calling it “manga” is unseemly, one step too far. Another way of looking at it is that at times the American auto industry has sought to improve by studying and adapting Japanese methods, many of which (as with comics) have to do with freeing up creativity rather than having a lack of it. Yet nobody said the better U.S. autos that resulted from it were now “Japanese cars.”

  5. “You guys let him get away with calling himself a manga artist. I’m slightly upset.”

    I wasn’t there(I rarely go to cons) but I could definitely sense Daryl biting his tounge so he wouldn’t get booed by the majority of the crowd (aka the losers). You handled yourselves well guys.
    You asked some pretty good questions and you managed to not get hated.

    C yaaaaaaa.

  6. This just in: we’ve been selected as a finalist for the Parsec Awards in the Best Anime Podcast category. It’s not actually that much of a feat considering that there were only nine nominations total and they selected five finalists, but there you go. Perhaps a mad dash to Dragon*Con on Friday night is in order, though one must bear in mind that the only thing more terrifying than THE TRUTH about anime conventions is THE TRUTH about sci-fi/fantasy ones, especially when they have an 18+ costume contest that Gerald’s archnemesis is going to be a part of, last I checked.

    (no, not Clarissa or me)

    It’s a good thing Daryl was only packing one pistol at that moment, or I might have been next.

    Don’t you think I would have done so at Megacon or any of the various other times I’ve had the chance? The fact of the matter is that you have no inner clown to shoot, Mr “I Think Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, New Getter Robo, and the Rush Hour Trilogy Aren’t 100% Awesome.”

    Best part of this thing was the guy who was sitting next to me in the crowd dressed in his FMA cosplay talking about how Daryl was ruining it for him.

    Aw man, why did I not know about this until you posted it? How did I ruin this guy’s convention, anyway? If anything, Gerald was the one who’d be ruining it for people since he was the one out fielding questions from the audience and eliminating what he saw fit!

    We sort of forgot to record the show. Again. Looks like you guys get another interview this week! I promise you, it’s even worse than the first one.

  7. Before I broke, about 10 minutes in, you had already convinced me that I definitely never want to ever go to an Anime convention ever again.

  8. How did I ruin this guy’s convention, anyway? If anything, Gerald was the one who’d be ruining it for people since he was the one out fielding questions from the audience and eliminating what he saw fit!

    There is a definite pleasure that one gets when you go up to someone and they want to ask “What did you work on/What shows did you do?/Did you play X character?” (those question came up multiple times in both panels) look at them and say “How about something wikipedia can’t answer?” and they shake their heads and I move on. This is made far worse when you don’t have a wireless microphone. Even then it’s clearly better when the audience asks as few questions as possible.

    It’s a shame the the voice actors had so many people at their panels and Mark Handler’s panel was limited to two people who we didn’t know in the audience, and he had the most stuff to say by far.

  9. Does this mean you’ll have another Marc Handler interview? Because if so, I’m all for it. Your last interview with him was great and he definitely deserves more exposure.

    RĆ©

  10. Daryl,

    Where did you get the idea in your head that I didn’t like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure? JoJo is great. A wee bit gay, but great.

    As a matter of fact, just yesterday I was press-ganged by my Doppelganger into guesting on an upcoming podcast involving JoJo.

    As for New Getter Robo, it is also gay. Uber-gay. This does not necessarily detract from its awesomeness. It just means you should admit those Getter Beams are rainbow colored.

    And Rush Hour, well, my feelings on Chris Tucker should be readily apparent, and I have a reputation to maintain as a Jackie Chan-hater. I don’t know how I got this reputation, either, since I generally like early Jackie Chan, but whatever…

  11. Isn’t everyone in New Getter Robo too monomaniacal to be gay? It would ruin my ideal image of those characters to think of them as anything other than asexual.

  12. Does this mean you’ll have another Marc Handler interview? Because if so, I’m all for it.

    Yeah, we got another one. It’s either the best or worst interview of the weekend, depending on the criteria you go by.

    Where did you get the idea in your head that I didn’t like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure?

    Probably the part where you called me on the phone to tell me how bored you were by the first few episodes, so you just skipped to the end. That probably was what did it. Also your boredom at Le Chevalier d’Eon. Clearly you just can’t handle my PARSEC AWARD NOMINATED~! superiority. They knew full well to not endorse anyone who hated on Ryuhei Kitamura.

    As for New Getter Robo, it is also gay. Uber-gay. This does not necessarily detract from its awesomeness.

    And yet you are so nonplussed by it that you were willing to give your DVDs away for free or sell them off. Yet you own and watched all of Desert Punk. Desert Punk? DESERT PUNK?! NAJICA?!

    Remember, boys and girls: PT Chapman is completely and totally wrong approximately one third of the time. Sean “Hollywood” Hunting is wrong approximately two thirds of the time, and Katherine clocks in at 95%, though that measurement was flawed and may have up to a +5% margin of error.

    Gooberzilla needs to un-delete the Love, Actually podcast and post it for the world to hear so that my calculations may be complete once and for all. I think it is a prerequisite of all archnemeses that they adore that film.

  13. Wait, New Getter Robo as in that mecha anime that isn’t really a mecha anime from Geneon? Or Shin Getter Robo as in a man’s mecha anime from ADV for people who’ve grown up since Evangelion?

  14. I think the convention is to refer to the ADV one as Getter Robo Armageddon or Change Getter Robo and the Geneon one was New Getter Robo.

  15. I watched the original set of JoJo OAVs back in the VHS fansub days, so the prequel series with its digital animation short-cuts did indeed leave me nonplussed. But I still like the original OAVs; it wasn’t that I skipped to the end, it’s just that the end was the beginning and then they made more which came chronologically before. (*_*)

    Two episodes in and Le Chevalier d’Eon (aka Boring French People doing Frenchy French Things) is still not grabbing me. I’ll soldier on and try to complete the first DVD, but it’s an uphill battle in the snow.

    I don’t own Desert Punk anymore. I erased that stain from my collection shortly after forcing myself to finish watching it. It was an educational experience. I learned that even if you don’t let a series defeat you, sometimes you still lose.

    As for getting rid of New Getter Robo, I had to make room for Doki Doki Kurumi Sewing Adventure La Verite Armaggedon the Third Part II. One must prioritize in this world of limited shelf-space.

    Congrats on the Parsec Award nomination. I don’t feel bad about my podcast not making it to the finals, though, because two-fifths of the finalists in my category are podcasts about Firefly. (-_-) If AWO doesn’t take home the gold, it will be clear beyond doubt that the judges lack sophistication.

  16. Daryl, I went out and got Smokin’ Aces after I heard you mention it in the same sentence as Crank and Die Hard 4 and it was nowhere near as good. EXPLAIN YOURSELF OR GIVE ME THAT LAST 20 MINUTES OF THE MOVIE BACK.

  17. Both Clarissa and I are not purchasing the Viz release of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure since it’s edited, and even though we both like Jojo’s a lot, we can’t really support edited releases. And yet, one of the first episodes of the podcast was about how the concept of “voting with your dollars” doesn’t actually WORK, since the only message Viz can receive from the act of people not buying Jojo’s is “well, I guess nobody in America likes this series; better not release any more! Couldn’t have been anything on OUR part!”

    EXPLAIN YOURSELF OR GIVE ME THAT LAST 20 MINUTES OF THE MOVIE BACK.

    A wise man who discovered thoughtbirds and clown pistols summarized the film in three words: “shootin’ a Nazi.”

    I know the rest of the Internet is up in arms over that ending, but it didn’t bother me one bit. Aside from Skye and Watters (the girls), pretty much every character in that movie is interesting enough to be the subject of their own film. I think they are in fact talking about making a movie entirely about the Tremors, which I will pay money to see without hesitation. I hate Paul Walker as much as the next guy, but the next movie you should watch as part of my list of films that fall under this yet-unnamed emerging cinematic movement of awesome is Running Scared.

    Also, that Live Free or Die Hard review (presumably written by the previous poster) speaks vicious lies, as there isn’t really any “bullet-time” or “wire-fu” present in that movie at all. In fact, that was the point: “enough of this kung-fu bullshit” is more than just an offhand remark, and despite my hatred of Len Wiseman for the Underworld movies, Live Free or Die Hard is the finest film of the summer. It’s a shame it didn’t make more money than those nancy-boy Harry Potter/Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Clearly people just aren’t ready to accept true gender equality, settling instead for the Joss Whedon/JJ Abrams “90 pound girl beats people up” crappy type that Keira Knightley personifies.

  18. daryl: “Both Clarissa and I are not purchasing the Viz release of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure since it’s edited, and even though we both like Jojo’s a lot, we can’t really support edited releases.”

    It’s still pretty gruesome, in spite of that one edit. I mean, a rat gets cut up worse than that dog getting blown up. PETA would still be writing Viz letters over the content. Plus, let’s be honest. The only people likely to buy that series are old-schoolers, anyway, so boycotting it is not going to help anyone.

    It’s great as is that Jojo’s still being published as frequently as Ultimate Muscle, and not St. Seiya and Bastard, but that’s probably as good as it’s going to get for the manga. Maybe if Capcom hadn’t changed their minds on releasing the PS2 game here, Broccoli actually kept their part of the deal to distribute the anime, and STA wasn’t forced to go the mail catalogue route, more people might be aware of it. But that’s just the state of the series.

    “Also, that Live Free or Die Hard review (presumably written by the previous poster) speaks vicious lies, as there isn’t really any “bullet-time” or “wire-fu” present in that movie at all.In fact, that was the point: “enough of this kung-fu bullshit” is more than just an offhand remark,”

    I said Underworld had bullet-time, not DHIV. My point was that most of the action got dumbed down to a game. I also didn’t say that it did have wire-fu, but that it would, if Bruce wasn’t involved.

    “Live Free or Die Hard is the finest film of the summer.”

    Gotta disagree with you, and side with my inner fascist by attributing that label to 300. I’m not jingoistic, and I sure as hell hope it’s not a propaganda piece made by the studio to support nuking Iran, but it met the hype, and didn’t chicken out on the sex and violence.

    “It’s a shame it didn’t make more money than those nancy-boy Harry Potter/Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Clearly people just aren’t ready to accept true gender equality, settling instead for the Joss Whedon/JJ Abrams “90 pound girl beats people up” crappy type that Keira Knightley personifies.”

    I will applaud MQ not being anorexic, but unfortunately, the ring-leader is, which is why it’s lame. Timothy Olyphant is a poor man’s Alan Rickman, and wouldn’t even be fit to lick Jeremy Irons’ shoes. The only reason the studio went with Wiseman is it didn’t want to pay for McTiernan’s bail.

  19. Thanks to AWO and Otaku Usa, I’m now attempting to find and watch Tokusatsu, and I have to say that Kamen Rider Black is one of the best things I have seen in a long long time.

    Any suggestions on series easily found on the internet, or shows I can netflix, would be appreciated.

  20. I was going to respond to your response, but after reading your Live Free or Die Hard review I decided to check out other reviews by “Ningen” (who I presume is you), whereupon I saw that you gave Casshern a higher rating than Live Free or Die Hard as well as Reservoir Dogs.

    CASSHERN.

    Now you can try and explain yourself all you want with your conditional ratings based on added hypotheticals, but at the end of the day, you gave Casshern a higher rating than Live Free or Die Hard as well as Reservoir Dogs. And you’re just going to have to live with that.

  21. daryl: “Now you can try and explain yourself all you want with your conditional ratings based on added hypotheticals, but at the end of the day, you gave Casshern a higher rating than Live Free or Die Hard as well as Reservoir Dogs. And you’re just going to have to live with that.”

    I actually thought Casshern was going to be a pretentious wank-fest masquerading as sci-fi-and at times it is-but I appreciate the fact that it took chances with the material, and didn’t just recycle like RD and DHIV. I’ll admit Casshern was a misfire, but a satisfying one nonetheless. If they hadn’t dragged out the zombie/replicant Evil Overlord sub-plot, it probably would be a tigher and more memorable film. If you look at my average for Casshern, though, DHIV ranks higher
    than it.

    As for my review of RD, I think it’s deserved. I honestly don’t see how white people standing in for Asian actors should be judged differently when it’s a remake of some Korean horror film vs. one of QT’s remakes.

  22. I was about to read the Die Hard review but then I saw Daryl’s comment about Casshern and decided against it.

    Daryl, I’ll agree with you that the characters were great, but what pissed me off is that the movie managed to do so little with them. It was like Master of Gekiga-level characters but obnoxious high school writing. Now, if you had the direction and pacing of Crank with the cast of Aces, it’d be the fucking movie of the decade.

    On the other hand, I didn’t know about the Tremors-only movie, and I’ll probably end up checking it out. It seems like that these guys aren’t real good at working with characters in a short span of time, so maybe a full movie about them will work. Oh well, I guess I’ll check out Running Scared per your recommendation. I hope it’s good enough to wash the taste of Smokin’ Aces out of my mouth.

  23. Any suggestions on series easily found on the internet, or shows I can netflix, would be appreciated.

    And looks like I’ve been asked to step in.

    If you liked Kamen Rider Black, seriously think about checking out Chojuu Sentai Liveman, Uchuu Keiji Gavan and Jikuu Senshi Spielvan.

    If you want to go older than that, you can’t go wrong with Denjin Zaboger or Kamen Rider Stronger.

    And whoever said that Casshern is better than Reservoir Dogs needs to get their head checked. No offense but seriously.

    Sure Casshern had amazing visuals. Sure Hikaru Utada sang the ending theme. And SURE I like the director’s photography and give him total props for being his own DP but there’s no way you can compare the two. Even with the John Woo-ripoff argument (which I still don’t see after all these years).

    It’s like trying to stack Ultraviolet against Survive Style 5.

  24. The Angry Otaku “And they let you people conduct an interview…. and you didn’t even edit it”

    Being that it was a live showing, it probably shouldn’t be edited, but my ears could’ve gone without the screaming fangirls. I got weird faces from my coworkers in the vehicle when the audio flat lined with exceedingly high volume through headsets. What possessed you to entice them as many times as you did? I thought you hated screaming fangirls as much as the rest of us.

    Although with it being your first live interview, why didn’t anyone video-tape it?

    Kransom “Oh well, I guess I’ll check out Running Scared per your recommendation”

    That movie is excellent.

  25. gajinder: “And whoever said that Casshern is better than Reservoir Dogs needs to get their head checked. No offense but seriously.”

    Oh, I’m sorry that I don’t jerk off to badly-shot violence and people who use the word “fuck” in place of nouns and verbs like the fans who made Grindhouse a huge success.

    “And SURE I like the director’s photography and give him total props for being his own DP but there’s no way you can compare the two. Even with the John Woo-ripoff argument (which I still don’t see after all these years).”

    Um, it’s Ringo Lam. And the reason you don’t see any similarties is because you haven’t seen City on Fire.

  26. “Oh, I’m sorry that I don’t jerk off to badly-shot violence and people who use the word “fuck” in place of nouns and verbs like the fans who made Grindhouse a huge success.”

    Whoa there. When I say that, it’s not like I worship Tarantino or anything, I just think the whole concept of comparing the two seems a bit off.

    Like I was telling somebody else, to me that sounded like you’re going to see Commando expecting to see an art film and then complaining that it was lacking the substance of say Survive Style 5.

    ..and oh fine, somebody’s going to say this eventually; if anything the reason why Grindhouse bombed actually was because studios made the craptacular choice of releasing it over Easter weekend. That and because apparently nobody has the attention span to sit through a double feature…and because Death Proof should have been 20-45 minutes shorter.

    “Um, it’s Ringo Lam. And the reason you don’t see any similarities is because you haven’t seen City on Fire.”

    I’ve heard people complain about John Woo similarities as well, go fig. Looks like I will be off to the vid shop to rent a copy then…along with the same copy of Tokyo Drifter for the 100th time in a desperate attempt to convince the owners to let me buy it as I don’t feel like shelling out 50 bucks for one disc with no features to speak of.

    …What? It’s Seijun Suzuki. It’s worth it! By any means necessary!

  27. gaijin: “Whoa there. When I say that, it’s not like I worship Tarantino or anything, I just think the whole concept of comparing the two seems a bit off.”

    Sorry, I just have an aversion to QT fans.

    Also, your video store’s ripping you off, cus you can get TD for about $25 off Amazon.

  28. “Also, your video store’s ripping you off, cus you can get TD for about $25 off Amazon.”

    Well they sell their DVDs for 9 bucks a pop when they don’t want them anymore (hence my efforts :P), the price hike in question refers to Barnes and Noble and their “Criterion Shrine”.

    ..of course, knowing my luck, this time next year Criterion will release a three disc special edition of Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill.

  29. Great interview, and it sounds like Sonny had a great time too. No need for editing, screaming fangirls are adorable even if I hate half their favorite shows.

    Review Bounty Dog already!

  30. bI don’t have anything against screaming fangirls, but once the screams begin, the three of you plus guest all need grab instruments and start into this routine:

    As a matter of fact, I’d like to see an actual AWO promo where you all do this (presumably the hapless guest would be in back as Ringo), but if Daryl gets to be John, it must end with him flashing a copy of “The Catcher in the Rye” at the audience, stuffing it in his back pocket, whipping out a clown pistol, and then shooting himself.

  31. Gaiaonline is a terrible place. Many terrible people reside there. It’s myspace but with more geeks. They try to make it look like it’s a fighting mmo but there is none right now.

    I can’t wait for the Pheonix DVDs.

  32. Daryl, I admire you and Clarissa standing by your convictions vis a vis Jojo’s, but refusing to buy it is only gets you halfway to your goal. You need to TELL Viz why you’re not buying it. You know, like, “I’ve chosen not to buy this and I want you to know it’s got nothing to do with the original. Please keep my comment for future reference.” THAT’s how you make the dollar-vote count.

    Hopefully you’ve already done this.

    ‘Cause knowing is half the battle.

  33. Will Viz really care as long as other people are still buying it? There seems to have to be a large amount of people willing to boycott a product for a company to take notice, and my guess is that not enough people really care, or even know, that the material they’re buying is edited.

  34. colin: “Will Viz really care as long as other people are still buying it?”

    They seem to have released later volumes of I”s unedited, but that might have more to do with Negima being more popular, and Katsura only being marginally successful in the U.S.

    For some reason, they also brought back the nipples in Ultimate Muscle, but I guess they figured that nobody would notice in light of the nasty bowel movements and occasional usage of mokkori.

  35. Sure, there’s always a chance that Viz will write such a message off as insignificant. BUT…if it’s the only letter they get from someone AND they see sales are a little slack, they at least have two dots to connect. And if others write in it gives them a few more. Plus, reader feedback is so rare in general, one letter might count for 1,000 in their eyes.

    I’m not naive enough to expect anything to change overnight, but if no one says anything then no one gets edumacated. It’s ALWAYS worth saying something.

  36. I’m pretty sure we’ve contacted Viz before on other issues and they’ve been one of the least responsive companies to us so I guess our thoughts were, if they’re not even going to acknowledge our existence as tiny podcasters, why would they acknowledge our existence as fans of Jojo’s?

  37. Um, on a totally unrelated note, is anyone from the UK going to the free showings of ā€˜They Were Elevenā€™ & ā€˜Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society at the British Museum? I remember you guys mentioning how we should support anime screenings and this is totally free so Iā€™d thought Iā€™d put the word out.

  38. Hey guys,

    Just wanted to say that Sonny’s panel was awesome. When I found it was posted on here I was really happy. Thank you for capturing one of the most incredible moments of my life!

    Ashley a.k.a ‘Voice’ from “We Shadows”

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