Mary McGlynn has a number of impressive roles, Jagura in Wolf's Rain, Helba in .hack, Kurenai Yuhi in Naruto, just to name a few of my favorites. But I believe her definitive role was Major Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell:Stand Alone Complex. For those not familiar with GitS as we call it, it's basically about the singularity, when the line between man and machine gets blurred out of existence. Kusanagi stands at the precipice of this being the first cyborg with a full prosthetic body for most of her life. In the second season we learn that Kusangi barely survived a plane crash when she was a child and what remained of her functioning brain was put in a prosthetic body that she eventually learned to control. For most of her life she has experienced everything in this artificial body(which happens to be quite possibly the most attractive prosthetic body ever made), and to pay for it she gave her life in service to the Japanese government, first serving in the military earning her rank as Major, and then transferring to Public Security Section 9, a police department dedicated to cyber crime. The series tackles several crimes that are possible in the future when people start using cyber brains. Yes, cyber brains, forget your smartphone and your bluetooth, in the future all of that is wired directly into your brain and now phone calls are like telepathy and net surfing is done at the speed of thought. Cases vary from a conspiracy to cover up the prevalance of cyber sclerosis to organ donation taken to an extreme when the leader of an organization donates his entire body and now lives in a cheap prosthetic body that looks like a child's toy. I have to say my favorite episode is a flashback revealing the how Kusanagi met her sniper Saito. Saito used to be a rebel fighter in South America when Major Kusanagi was in the military and fought for the government. She cornered him and it was down to the two of them in a shoot-out, the most tense scene in whch nothing was really happening, Saito contemplated his next move, realizing that if he came out and made the first shot he'd leave himself open to her shooting him. But then he realizes the factthat she isn't making the first shot is probably because she needs to download information to make the shot. He reaches the conclusion that his natural skill is superior and his only chance is to take her out first. He goes for the shot and she fires back. His shot misses but her shot hits him perfectly centered on his sniping eye, and then she jump him, cutting his gun arm and says "You're mine now!" The episode then comes back to the present where he has prosthetic replacements for the parts he lost in that confronation, and as she said, he still works for her, his life changed forever in an instant. Still that line is the most badass line I ever heard from the most badass woman in voice-acting, here's to you Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, long may you reign as the queen of anime!
7th Moon
Friday, June 13, 2014
Mary McGlynn, Anime Goddess
Voice actors are very important to the anime industry, without them, we'd have to read subtitles. To this end they have become rock stars of the American anime world. They may not always realize it in their cramped little booths where they record their dialogue, but when they get to the conventions and see hundreds of people in costume screaming their character's name and demanding they say that line...well, I only know from the fan side but it's got to be satisfying. One of these greats is Mary McGlynn, a very distinctinve female voice I can recognize without having to check the credits and I am always happy to hear. I am picking her as my first voice actor profile for this blog because the Silent Hill Band that she is a part of recently followed me on Twitter. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure why, but I am very happy about it. She is absolutely an influence on 7th Moon as I wrote a character with her in mind, Zokushou, leader of the rebels. I actually thought of anime voice actors for everybody in the story, but this is Ms McGlynn's turn to shine, so let's focus on her. Zokushou is the daughter of the main villain, Han Toromi, but doesn't agree with what he's doing so she's trying to lead a rebellion against him. She can be a bit of a hard ass, just like many of Mary McGlynn's other roles, but like the others, Zokushou has her heart in the right place, it's just that she isn't above kicking someone's ass to get what she needs. Unlike the main characters, she does not have any super powers, but she does have a bit of inheritance from the richest man in the world and the respect of her troops. McGlynn came to mind primarily after hearing her as Princess Cornelia Li Britannia in Code Geass where she played pretty much the same part, at least being a military leader. Previously I had actually imagined Zokushou as a male and then listening to Mary McGlynn I thought, I want her to play this character, I'm gonna make her a kick ass woman!
Mary McGlynn has a number of impressive roles, Jagura in Wolf's Rain, Helba in .hack, Kurenai Yuhi in Naruto, just to name a few of my favorites. But I believe her definitive role was Major Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell:Stand Alone Complex. For those not familiar with GitS as we call it, it's basically about the singularity, when the line between man and machine gets blurred out of existence. Kusanagi stands at the precipice of this being the first cyborg with a full prosthetic body for most of her life. In the second season we learn that Kusangi barely survived a plane crash when she was a child and what remained of her functioning brain was put in a prosthetic body that she eventually learned to control. For most of her life she has experienced everything in this artificial body(which happens to be quite possibly the most attractive prosthetic body ever made), and to pay for it she gave her life in service to the Japanese government, first serving in the military earning her rank as Major, and then transferring to Public Security Section 9, a police department dedicated to cyber crime. The series tackles several crimes that are possible in the future when people start using cyber brains. Yes, cyber brains, forget your smartphone and your bluetooth, in the future all of that is wired directly into your brain and now phone calls are like telepathy and net surfing is done at the speed of thought. Cases vary from a conspiracy to cover up the prevalance of cyber sclerosis to organ donation taken to an extreme when the leader of an organization donates his entire body and now lives in a cheap prosthetic body that looks like a child's toy. I have to say my favorite episode is a flashback revealing the how Kusanagi met her sniper Saito. Saito used to be a rebel fighter in South America when Major Kusanagi was in the military and fought for the government. She cornered him and it was down to the two of them in a shoot-out, the most tense scene in whch nothing was really happening, Saito contemplated his next move, realizing that if he came out and made the first shot he'd leave himself open to her shooting him. But then he realizes the factthat she isn't making the first shot is probably because she needs to download information to make the shot. He reaches the conclusion that his natural skill is superior and his only chance is to take her out first. He goes for the shot and she fires back. His shot misses but her shot hits him perfectly centered on his sniping eye, and then she jump him, cutting his gun arm and says "You're mine now!" The episode then comes back to the present where he has prosthetic replacements for the parts he lost in that confronation, and as she said, he still works for her, his life changed forever in an instant. Still that line is the most badass line I ever heard from the most badass woman in voice-acting, here's to you Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, long may you reign as the queen of anime!
Mary McGlynn has a number of impressive roles, Jagura in Wolf's Rain, Helba in .hack, Kurenai Yuhi in Naruto, just to name a few of my favorites. But I believe her definitive role was Major Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell:Stand Alone Complex. For those not familiar with GitS as we call it, it's basically about the singularity, when the line between man and machine gets blurred out of existence. Kusanagi stands at the precipice of this being the first cyborg with a full prosthetic body for most of her life. In the second season we learn that Kusangi barely survived a plane crash when she was a child and what remained of her functioning brain was put in a prosthetic body that she eventually learned to control. For most of her life she has experienced everything in this artificial body(which happens to be quite possibly the most attractive prosthetic body ever made), and to pay for it she gave her life in service to the Japanese government, first serving in the military earning her rank as Major, and then transferring to Public Security Section 9, a police department dedicated to cyber crime. The series tackles several crimes that are possible in the future when people start using cyber brains. Yes, cyber brains, forget your smartphone and your bluetooth, in the future all of that is wired directly into your brain and now phone calls are like telepathy and net surfing is done at the speed of thought. Cases vary from a conspiracy to cover up the prevalance of cyber sclerosis to organ donation taken to an extreme when the leader of an organization donates his entire body and now lives in a cheap prosthetic body that looks like a child's toy. I have to say my favorite episode is a flashback revealing the how Kusanagi met her sniper Saito. Saito used to be a rebel fighter in South America when Major Kusanagi was in the military and fought for the government. She cornered him and it was down to the two of them in a shoot-out, the most tense scene in whch nothing was really happening, Saito contemplated his next move, realizing that if he came out and made the first shot he'd leave himself open to her shooting him. But then he realizes the factthat she isn't making the first shot is probably because she needs to download information to make the shot. He reaches the conclusion that his natural skill is superior and his only chance is to take her out first. He goes for the shot and she fires back. His shot misses but her shot hits him perfectly centered on his sniping eye, and then she jump him, cutting his gun arm and says "You're mine now!" The episode then comes back to the present where he has prosthetic replacements for the parts he lost in that confronation, and as she said, he still works for her, his life changed forever in an instant. Still that line is the most badass line I ever heard from the most badass woman in voice-acting, here's to you Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, long may you reign as the queen of anime!
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