hey guys!! thanks for having me:) ok, so...
as for the questions-
first of all I have played Shenmue a few times, but it was at a friends house. I actually don't have any game consoles,etc at home...because if i did, I am sure I would be addicted. lol:) I thought it was a cool game but at that time I had no idea how big of a following it had. and yes, of course I would love to see the series continue!
And as for having a Shenmue 3, I read that Yu Suzuki recently (last month) said "I think Sega will let me make it", but then went on to say that it depended on various budget issues...so I don't know. but fingers crossed, I guess.

Yuan...ahhh, yes, the mysterious character that is Yuan. so with that voice, I probably spent at least a few hours in the studio offering up various voices for that character. I guess Yuan was a very sensitive topic for the game, because Sega was trying to keep the game as "politically correct" or "mainstream" as possible, and yet keep as close to the original character as possible. Honestly I actually had another voice that I gave them that was a bit closer to the character, so I was a bit bummed that they didn't use it. It was actually a voice that I kinda modeled after the character Samantha in "Sex and the City". lol.. I will say that experimenting with that character was quite a bit of fun.
And yes, I do believe that the director told me that they had envisioned Yuan as a bit of a flamboyant, cross-dressing boy/girl...


Some of you may or may not know, but when we go to a voice job for a video game, here is how it usually goes...
we sit down with the director (and sometimes client) of the project.
they explain the character we are voicing.
they we go through various lines to warm up, sometimes WITH the video, but many times it is without the video.
we give them various voices, and the director chooses the voice he wants to use.
then we use that voice and go through the various lines.

I remember when I was doing Xiuying, the director kept telling me that he wanted her to have a very flat, almost monotone feel. I wanted to add a bit more emotion to her character, but the director didn't want that.
Probably one of the hardest things for me during the recording of Shenmue 2 was actually keeping the consistency of my voice. When I recorded the various characters, it was right in the middle of winter AND flu season.
And unfortunately I got sick during the recording. (it didn't help that my "regular"job was DJing Mon-Fri for a radio station in Tokyo, so I was probably overusing my voice a bit...)
But anyway, I remember one day I showed up at the Sega studios all ready to record, but after about 15 min in the studio, they told me to go home, because my voice was just a teensy weensy tad off, but they needed to have it the exact same voice quality. So I was totally bummed...especially because the commute to the Sega studios from downtown Tokyo is over an hour by train:(

but I will say that being a part of the game has been a great experience. And I had the opportunity to work with some good friends on this project, like Paul Lucas, who is awesome, btw. I am going to try and get him on here at some point.

ok, so as far as my Tekken characters...I am Nina Williams, and also do the voice for Christie Monteiro, as well as Zafina. I actually went in the studio here in LA a few weeks ago to voice one of my Tekken characters for an upcoming game, which unfortunately I can't really discuss yet...but can give you details at a later date:)

how did I get into voice acting...well, I have been in radio since I was 19, so it was kinda a natural thing for me, I guess.
I'm not sure if you guys know this, but I grew up in Japan. Lived there since I was 5.
In fact, the first city I ever lived in was Sendai (which was, of course, the epicenter for the huge recent earthquake)
And yes, it has been quite surreal to watch the events unfold...very sad :(
As we speak, I am actually coordinating a big charity event which will be on 5/20 in Tokyo, and have been pretty wrapped up with that the past couple weeks.
Anyway, so I have pretty much lived in Japan my whole life. And just recently (as in two years ago) moved back to the US. So I speak totally fluent Japanese, and while I was in Japan, I hosted mostly radio and tv shows. That led me to also doing quite a bit of voice over work, which led to my video game work. And I must say that video game work is DEFINITELY a highlight.

OK...so I know that I haven't answered all your questions, but I will be back for more.:)
And Peter told me that some of you guys have been donating some stuff to help raise money for Japan. I can't even begin to tell you how touched I know the Japanese people would be if they knew...and I am very touched as well:)
So thank you :)
will be back to talk again soon:)
xoxo