Triumph! Dan Green IS in Slayers!?

((Haven't been at this in a while, have I?))

Having seen almost three and a half seasons of Slayers now (plus some movies and OVAs), one by one half the cast of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh have cropped up in this show. But one thing has been bothering me since the end of Next. Between Lord Gaav, Inspector Wizer, and Slayers’ tendency to reuse main character voice actors in minor roles, I could have sworn Dan Green was in this damn show. Credits thwart me time and time again with their “James Snider” as Lord Gaav or Actor Number 3.

I was about to let it drop when Slayers Revolution introduced Inspector Wizer. Surly THAT’S Dan Green. The show is ten years older now and, though they managed to round up most of the original cast, the voicing circuit has changed. That HAS to be him. “NoooOOOoo,” says the credits, “That’s Jay Snyder.” “Oh, fine!” says me. After all, I have been known to mistake Cam Clark for Dan Green, much to my dismay, but NO-LONGER! Anyway...

Wait a minute! “James Snider” and “Jay Snyder,” ten years apart with nearly identical voices? Clearly this is a stage name. Crispin Freeman is also known as Mark Percy, so it’s definitely not impossible. I was convinced, once again, that this was Dan Green in disguise, when my mom watched a few episodes of Revolution with me. She says, “Who is that guy? Why do I know him?” I have two younger brothers, 7- and 14-years-old respectively, each hit by a different wave of the Yu-Gi-Oh craze. I told her the character she was referring to probably sounded like Yugi, and dawning broke over her. My MOM recognised this voice; I note she said nothing of Goury (Eric Stuart). That’s it, I’m looking this sucker up NOW.

Anime News Network hasn’t seemed to catch on to this little game yet. Sometimes they list credits with other names or give “also known as” information, but James Snider, Jay Snyder, and Dan Green are all listed separately. The thing is, the first two only have a handful of credits to their name. I’m a terrible researcher so, to Wikipedia! Da-da-da da-da-da DAAAAA!!! (you couldn’t hear it, but that was a Batman reference.)

Wikipedia says that Dan Green also goes by Jay Snyder, Jack Bean, and James Hadley. It says nothing about “James Snider” but come-on! Look at it! Listen to it! My MOM recognised this guy. Wikipedia also lists Slayers in his filmography: Gaav, Wizer Freion, and Zannafar. Totally called that.

I suppose I could go a little deeper and get some more conclusive evidence than Wikipedia, but I’m lazy. If anyone wants to do it for me or prove me wrong, I’ll accept that. For now, I will revel in my triumph, or at least the fact that enough other people thought the same thing as me to make it fact on Wikipedia.

You can’t hide from me with a stage name, Dan Green! Especially two, nearly identical stage names. Not very creative are you?

"I cast Magic Missile!"

11/8/2010

Just got back from Nano Con a small game con run by South Dakota State University's game club. My friend's dad runs the game club, so of course is responsible for the con. That's why all this is coming up late. I might just be drabbling for a while, but I WILL stay on top of my "one per day" thing.

I was introduced to D&D 4th ed. Previously, I'd only played a little 3.5. I really took to 4th though. It was fun. I have this piddly little regenerated Eladrin Wizard that I feel kicked some serious a--. I've found that I don't really like building characters (yet anyway, takes too long if you don't know what you're doing), but I can definitely have fun with a random character or a pregenerated one. I especially like picking up the Character Builder, entering class and race, and hitting "generate character."

Wizards (well, magical (or "arcane, if you prefer) classes in general) used to be really hard to play, but it seems the new system has made fighters (martial classes) more like wizards to play and wizards more like fighters in usefulness.

I enjoyed it immensely, but I refuse to ever use the words "magic missile" again; I'm coming up with a much cooler name for that attack if it's the last thing I do. Can't we just change a wizard's "unarmed attack" to the effect of magic missile. 'Cause that's basically what I did. But i also learned some intricacies of the character's other abilities and that's when it really started to get fun. But I learned that even a simple strategy can be really effective.

It was a good weekend.