Richard Epcar and Ellyn Stern are one of the biggest power couples in voice acting today, with decades of experience between the two on shows such as Bleach, Genma Wars, Digimon, Ghost in the Shell, Lupin III, Mobile Suit Gundam and many more. Scoop had the chance to sit down for an interview with them at Zenkaikon earlier in April to discuss the ups and downs of voice acting and some of their best-known roles.

Scoop: How has Zenkaikon been for you two so far?
Richard Epcar (RE): It’s been great. Honestly, this is one of our favorite conventions. We did it maybe four or five years ago, and we’re just delighted that they asked us back.

Scoop: Both of you have been involved in the convention scene for quite some time now. How do you feel that anime conventions and comic conventions have changed and evolved over the years?
RE: There’s a lot of really good ones that have been doing it for a while now and have become tried and true, and they’re just wonderful. They treat the guests very well. And now there’s a bunch of upstart ones – I’ve noticed there’s a lot of new ones that are a little funky. But, listen, you know – it’s all for the fans.
Ellyn Stern (ES): The thing that makes the convention is the heart of the show. And if the people who are running it have heart and integrity, then the convention is going to go well. I think that’s really the most important thing.

Scoop: Both of you have done a ton of anime work, but you each have done video game work as well. Could you sort of go through the differences in the process between each?
RE: The big difference is that when you’re doing anime, the animation is already done. It’s in the can. So when you’re doing that, you’re replacing the Japanese dialog, and you have to do lip-synching with that animation. And that’s a whole other art form, to be able to do that. It’s very difficult. Most games feature original animation, so you go in and record your characters and they animate the dialogue to you, and it’s much easier. And you also tend to get paid more for the game gigs than you do for the dubbing, which doesn’t make any sense, but that’s the way it’s always been. There’s not a lot of people who can do the dubbing well. It’s a very unique style of acting.
ES: When you’re doing the games, as Richard was saying, the animation is original. There, you get to act more than you do even in anime. In anime, you’re trying to be a spirit that climbs into an existing character, and that’s challenging and unique – and I love doing it. When you’re doing the games, you get to create the character and you get to really act more. It’s more like doing stage acting, actually, because you’re creating a character from the root. But what is similar about both is that you’re only using your voice, and you have to create that instantaneously. You don’t have much time to prepare.

Scoop: Richard, you were involved in the Digimon franchise pretty heavily for a long time – from Myotismon and Etemon in the early series, and then as Merukimon in Data Squad, and so on. Now that the Digimon Adventure Tri movies are starting to come out, more people are either discovering the series for the first time, or sort of rediscovering it and remembering what was great about the franchise. Looking back 15, almost 20 years later – how do you view Digimon now?
RE: Digimon was a lot of fun. I did Dracula on-stage for a long time, so Myotismon was basically just Dracula. And then Etemon was a blast, because he’s basically Elvis. So I got to sing and do Elvis impressions. It was just a fun time. I really, really enjoyed doing those characters. And then I got tapped to do a gig in Europe, so I was overseas for many months, and that kind of took me out of that series for a while. But it was really a fun show to work on.

It’s fun to go back with any series – Ellyn and I just directed the new Lupin III series, and it’s nice to be able to go back and visit these characters after you’ve spent some time away from them. I’d love to come back and do some Digimon stuff again. But nothing’s a given. People always ask us – ‘Are you going to do it?’ Well, they haven’t asked me yet, so I can’t say yes or no! But if they asked, I’d love to do it. But you never know in this business.

Scoop: Ellyn, you were involved with Bleach, among many other things – but Bleach was one of the longest-running series, with more than 300 episodes in total. What’s it like to be involved with such a huge series?
ES: Well, I wasn’t in Bleach for years, because my character died! [Laughs] But what I understand is that she comes back in the manga.
RE: I was also in Bleach. I was Zangetsu.
ES: It’s my turn! [Laughs] But as I was saying, if the show were to continue, my character could come back. Which would be nice. Bleach was somewhat short for me, so I’d like to go back. But I was involved in Gundam Unicorn, where I played Martha Vist Carbine, and I worked on that for five years. She was the villain. It was wonderful, because when you do a character for a long time, you really get to know them. For instance, some people will ask us at conventions, ‘How was it when you did this character?’ And we don’t even remember doing that character sometimes, because we went in for a few hours, recorded the lines and moved on. Unless we have a long history with the character, we don’t remember it. So that’s the huge thing in doing a character for the long run, is that you really get to know them well.