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Taking karaoke to a new level, a machine soon to be out in Japan
will let people impersonate animation characters, turning them into
superheroes -- or mischievous smart alecs -- for the night.
Namco Bandai Games Inc. unveiled the prototype
machine as the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2008 opened Thursday
for the media and business.
It aims to launch the machine in Japan around
mid-2008 at karaoke parlours, said Shohei Nakanowatari, a consumer
software official with the company.
"You are unbuttoned at karaoke places where
you drink with friends," he said. "The freer you are from
your usual persona, the more fun you can have. You can also easily
change your sex."
A quiet person can be a courageous hero while a
straight-laced businessman can turn into a delicate young girl,
Nakanowatari said.
The machine -- called "afrec!" in an
abbreviation of "after recording" -- shows a 30-second
scene cut from well-known Japanese animation or "anime"
programmes involving two characters.
Two participants read their parts at the bottom
of the screen after hearing the performance by professional voice
actors and actresses. Recordings are made automatically and played
back instantly.
Everybody at the party can enjoy at once,
Nakanowatari said.
"In the case of karaoke, one person sings
while others just look around for the next song to sing," he
said, adding the new machine would also come to the rescue of
tone-deaf people dragged to karaoke.
Voice recordings for movies are also under
consideration, he said.
Karaoke has turned into a multibillion-dollar
industry since being invented in 1971 by Daisuke Inoue, a Japanese
club keyboardist looking to provide music for a customer who wanted
to sing on a company trip.
The annual anime fair opened for a four-day run
with the participation of some 290 exhibitors including animation
studios, television and movie companies, and toys and software
makers.
It will open to the general public on Saturday
and Sunday.
-- AFP
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