Who is he? What does he do?
Taliesin Jaffe is an Independent Voice Director. This means that he is responsible for ensuring that dubbed anime attains a reasonable level of quality. He is responsible for the script, the casting, getting good voice-overs from the actors and ensuring that the sound engineer is getting a good mix.

Taliesin's work starts with the raw translations. By himself or with other translators, he goes through the script, working out the timing so that the words and the mouth movements (lip flap) in the anime match as closely as possible. A second pass through the script makes sure that the wording makes sense. Once they have a script, they begin the casting process. They cast from tape or live auditions. Once they have picked all of the actors, they schedule some time in a studio (about 4 weeks) and do the mix.

How did he get into this profession? How can I?
Taliesin stated that he didn't get into the voice directing profession through school. He got interested at Anime Conventions and pestered individuals involved in commercial and fan dubbing projects for advice. He tried his hand at some dubs and found that it was a good way to lose money and He decided that it might be nice to actually get paid for doing dubs. He started out as an editor at Anime Village and eventually got some contract work from New Generation Pictures.

Taliesin's advice for folks interested in getting into voice directing is to try it by doing it. Create some scripts from scratch, get some people together for the voices and see what you can do.  Record your efforts as demos and send them to prospective companies (like New Generation). He stated that companies are looking for voice directors. As an aside, Taliesin mentioned that there is a group in Berkeley that did a great Sailor Moon dub and that he would hire the person in a heart beat. So, there is a job out there for someone : )

Taliesin had similar advice for voice actors. Do some theater because theater will teach you a lot, and then do some radio plays. A lot of the techniques that are used in live theater come into play for voice-overs. When you are ready, put together a sample tape. He recommends doing monologues from comic books, such as Magical Girl Roxy and JLA. Surprisingly, he has found many voices that way. So, check the New Generation Website for an address to send your demo tapes to.

Current Work by Taliesin
You can check out Taliesin's latest work in Nazca, Blades of Fate by Pioneer (12 episodes). According to Taliesin, it is a fun show to watch, even though there are some cheesy 3 D sections. The best villain that he has ever done shows up in Episode 9.

Taliesin is currently dubbing a product called Nanako for Pioneer. He describes it as "X files meets Bay Watch". Lots of genetics and aliens and cute girls getting their clothing ripped off. He warns that it is like  Blue seed, in that it hints that it will get risqué but never does. His biggest challenge is keeping the humor. Taliesin will also be helping out with the dub of 3X3 Eyes. 3X3 Eyes will be directed by a voice director who is new to anime. He will be taking a whole new approach to it, which should produce some interesting results.

Dubs vs. Subs: Which is better.
Taliesin has a rather unique take on the whole question of dubs versus subs. It is his belief that both are not very good. "Most of the time", he says, "my Japanese friends are rolling with laughter at the poor translations." He prefers a good dub to a good subtitle because dubbing can convey so much more subtext when done right. When it comes to the mediocre work, than he thinks that a bad subtitle is better than a bad dub but only marginally. He emphasizes that "It is important to respect good work, wherever it comes from". His real advice is to learn Japanese and then watch the originals.

Fan Subbing
Taliesin thinks that there is a future in free fan subbing, however fan subbing for profit has to die. He doesn't see that it has a purpose. He thinks that free fan subbing has a purpose in that there are many shows that fans will want to see which will not be commercially translated and subtitled. He would like to see an Anime industry that leaves that type of thing alone.

Advice and Recommended Viewing
Taliesin's advice to new anime viewers is to see some good dubs and to watch the classics! Besides the new things that are being produced, there is a whole library of classic anime that is available for cheap. He thinks that all anime fans should learn their history and he  recommends the following anime in particular, to any new anime viewer.

Good Dubs: Macross Plus, Nazca, El Hazard, Captain Tylor
Classics: See GUNDAM (The Movie and The TV Shows), Candy Candy (if someone has subtitles, I want a copy, says Taliesin), Saint Seia, Lum, Orange Road, and Ranma 1/2