Thoughts: Voice Actor Steve Blum
This is a bit of a different topic than usual, but it’s been on my mind I and think more anime/gaming fans should know about it!
A good voice actor really brings a character to life – and when they’re great you might even associate that voice actor with the character entirely. So I did some research on the voice actor for my favorite anime character ever, Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop and discovered he’s voiced by Steve Blum!
That iconic voice of Spikes that’s somehow rough but smooth at the same time really added to Spike’s character and gave it life. In my curiosity, I look into what other voice acting he might have done and you may call it serendipity, but he also voices another one of my favorite all time characters, Mugen from Samurai Champloo. In this case, he spoke in a more brusque way befitting of Mugen, but still his excellent voice acting helped really personify the characters dialogue.
So I got to thinking, what else has this guy done?
Steve Blum has voice acted 772 roles, from 335 titles, according to sources. Busy guy, eh? Not only has he voiced many anime characters, but video game & cartoon characters as well – including some from the Halo series, Call of Duty, Diablo, Starcraft II, Saints Row: The Third, Final Fantasy series, Naruto, Digimon, The Regular Show, Megas XLR, The Legend of Korra, and so many more… seriously, too many for me to list here.
You can read more about his extensive work in the hyperlink above, but one final note about how awesome I think this guy is —
He has a tattoo of the audio wave of his own voice, while he recorded for Cowboy Bebop, of Spike Spiegel’s most powerful line : “Bang!”. (And if you don’t know why, go watch Cowboy Bebop!)
Keep doing what you’re doing, man! Until next time,
