Scripts of "Mobile Suit Gundam" Now in Museum

Next time you visit Japan, be sure to drop by Shibuya in Tokyo. Why, because the town has a new attraction you can't miss.

A unique museum opened August 9 named "Seiyuu Museum" or Voice Actors'/Actresses' Museum. A tongue twister in translation, hence a less gender-conscious "Seiyuu".

Now, this is awfully unique because nothing like this ever exists anywhere in the world. It's a museum of voice actors and actresses who dub real "things" on the screen. They are second fiddlers in a sense and not that well known in real life. But they are there alright to show you how the real things would talk if in Japanese.

Animes and foreign movies are televised ready dubbed by them and first-rate voice seiyuus can deceive you the real things really talk that way in Japanese. Asao Koike for Colombo in the old series is the case in point. So skillfully done, you wonder if Colombo came alive in Japanese.

This "Seiyuu Museum" exhibits hundreds of scripts including the ones for Moguro Fukuzo in "Warau Seirusuman"(Smiling Salesman) voice-acted by Toru Ohira (85) who, by the way, is the honorary director of the museum, the scripts done by the late Nachi Nozawa, voice actor for Alain Delon ("Plein soleil")and many others. The entire series  of "Mobile Suit Gundam" televised in 1979 are exhibited in scripts . Some of the scripts show random scribblings and cue points.

Further inside the museum is a shrine, "Seiyuu Shrine" as it is rightly named, enshrining a sacred object to worship for good luck: the historic microphone over 60 thousand voice actors and actresses used to dub their voices!

Director Michiyoshi Minamizaswa tells why the museum was opened. He thought it important to keep in a proper place the "footsteps of work" left by those deceased. He added that the scripts are made into tablets these days and some of them need to be kept as they are.
A PR staff says they receive frequent inquiries from tour organizers targeting foreign tourists and the museum can well be another key tourist attraction.

Seiyuu Museum is admission free and closes only Sundays, Mondays and yearend and new year holidays.