Bunta Sugawara Is Ged in Ghibli’s Earthsea Pic! First Voice Cast Announcements!

Posted by Todd Brown at 9:41am.

Posted in Film News , Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Asia.

Once again big thanks are due to Don Brown for the news and translation of this ... Sugawara as Ged? That’s fantastic. The man is an absolute screen icon and has done solid voice work for Ghibli in the past.

Actors Okada Junichi (25) and Sugawara Bunta (72) are to voice the main characters of Studio Ghibli’s forthcoming animated feature “Gedo Senki.”

Okada will play boy prince Arren, while Sugawara takes on the role of sorceror Ged.

Sugawara, who supplied the gruff tones of Kamaji for Miyazaki Hayao’s 2002 film “Spirited Away” (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi), was recently reported as having been hospitalised with a mystery illness, but fortunately it turned out to be a mere cold.

“Gedo’s battle and journey can be transposed with that of the Japanese people, who have walked in the shadow of the West since the Meiji Revolution,” says Sugawara. “So, I’m sure that director [Miyazaki Goro] will whip up a great wind and blow away the dust and taint of money and greed that have accumulated in this archipelago to show us a vision of a virtuous country.”

This will be the first time Okada has lent his voice to an animated feature. The Johnny’s Jimusho idol has become increasingly conspicuous on the big screen of late, with lead roles in the hit romantic drama ”Tokyo Tower” and comedy ”Fly Daddy Fly,” and will soon be seen in “Nobody Knows” director Koreeda Hirokazu’s next film and first period drama, ”Hana Yori mo Naho.”

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Reader Comments

Peter 02/14/2006 @ 10:41am

Hi Todd,

I got this news this morning from one of my Japanese contacts as well. Already posted it on my website with some additional info about voice cast member Okada Junichi and some other pictures. If you’d like to, you can check it out over here:
http://www.ghibliworld.com/news.html

You might also want to check out the post below it about the Ghibli Museum Shorts “The Day I Harvested a Star”, a.k.a. “Hoshi wo Katta Hi”.
logboy 02/14/2006 @ 10:55am

bunta is in ‘spirited away’ too… and ‘the great yokai war’.
gwyddon 02/14/2006 @ 11:26am

Wasn’t Ged supposed to be dark-skinned? I remember that Le Guin got irritated at Sci-fi for making all characters white.. and the two pictures on ghibliworld.com show quite white characters.

Personally, I don’t care - I didn’t even notice the indicators about skin colour when reading the Earthsea books.. but still, at least Ghibli could have done some basic research, hm?
Caterpillar 02/14/2006 @ 1:42pm

Yeah, Le Guin is gonna be pissed that they made Ged a whity AGAIN. I’m sure Miyazaki knew he’s supposed to be black but chose to bleach him for the anime. The Japanese don’t exactly love blacks ...