/ Photo By Aaron Clark

Anime voice actor Chris Ayers demonstrates the E-Cigarette at Daigacon in Cave City, Ky. on March 14.

I spoke with Chris Ayres, a man with a talented voice who puts his skill to use as a Japanese animation (anime) voice actor. Working in many different fields related to the industry, Ayres has even branched out to voiceover work for video games. Chris spared a few moments at DaigaCon to tell me more about himself, what he does, and what he’s been up to.

Rise Over Run So, tell me a little about yourself.
Chris Ayres I started working professionally as an actor when I was six, I did my first commercial. I’ve worked on Broadway, regional tours, national tours, educational, you name it, I’ve kinda done it. I’ve also worked as a director, professional fight director/choreographer, dialect coach . . . uhm . . . I’ve run four improvisational comedy companies. I’m kind of a jack of all trades theater wise.

And then about five years ago I started doing voice work for anime, which is Japanese animation. And then about two and a half . . . no . . . three years ago I started directing for ADV Films and Amusement Park Media. So, that’s a little bit of my background.

ROR What pushed you into the anime industry?
CA Actually other actors.

ROR Really? Any particular ones?
CA All of these actors . . . I actually had stopped performing and had been primarily directing for about 16 years. All of these actors that were working for me were big names in the industry: Christopher Patton, Monica Rial, my brother Greg Ayres, Jessica Calvello, Amanda Winn-Lee, Spike Spencer, and all of them were like, “Man you need to do this, you’re good with dialects, you’re a strong actor, you need to do this.” ADV had an open call audition, I put my name in, and about 6 months later they called me in for an audition. I auditioned just like everybody else . . . and they were like, “Wow, we wanna use you.” It’s pretty funny, my brother does a lot of children…

He does the voices of a lot of children; let me put it that way.

Anyways, they were like, “Oh, Chris, we need you to do the voice of this 10-year-old.” I would respond, “Look, my brother has a voice that goes straight up.” (Chris drops his voice a million octaves.) “I however have a voice that goes straight down.”

So, they go, “Oh! You’re a villain!” and so I’ve primarily done villains. I’ve done a few heroes and good guys, but it’s mostly villains.

ROR So, you’re on the “dark side?”
CA I’m very much on the dark side — which is funny, ‘cause in real life, I’m as far from a villain as you can get, you know? It’s funny, we play a lot of the opposites. My brother plays a lot of wimpy characters and if you could see my brother, you know, with the tattoos and the always skateboarding and stuff, he’s about as rough-and-tumble as you can get. And yet he played the Pope in Trinity Blood! You don’t get a wimpier character than the Pope — who was always crying. Greg was like, “Oh my gosh, this is one of the wimpiest characters I’ve ever done!” And then in Trinity Blood I play Isaak Fernand Von Kampfer.

ROR Now wait, who was that?
CA He’s the one that talks like this (demonstrating his talents once again); he has the giant organ that he plays that blows things up.

(Voice back to normal) He flies the giant dirigible at the end and he’s just a horrible…horrible human being. I loved playing him. There’s just something about that voice that gets under your skin. Speaking of villains, I just did a voice for a new video game called Last Remnant by Square-Enix.

ROR Oh, wow!
CA Yeah! I play Wagrom, he’s kind of a white-mage.

ROR That game has received mixed reviews though…
CA It has. Umm, I personally enjoy playing it. I’m a Vidiot.

CA: It’s got a brand new battle system that a lot of people are having a hard time getting used to. And the story, it’s an Enix, so there’s a lot of grinding.