Brianna Knickerbocker Interview: Recording for Shenmue 3

In February earlier this year, Brianna Knickerbocker was announced as the voice actor in English for one of the lead characters in Shenmue III (to be released August 27): Shenhua.

• Related post: English Voice Recording Report (Kickstarter Update #98).

Brianna has extensive experience voicing characters in anime, video games, films, and TV series going back more than 10 years, as can be seen from the filmography on her IMDB page. Brianna was also awarded the title of Breakthrough Actress of the Year in the 2015 Anime Dub Awards held by Behind The Voice Actors, a voice-acting community site.

With the release of Shenmue III coming up in just a few months, it was the perfect time to take the opportunity to hold the very first interview with Brianna by the Shenmue community, and we were delighted to accept her offer. The questions in the interview were gathered from Shenmue fans across various social media fan sites and represent the topics you most wanted to hear about - perhaps you will spot your own submitted question!

And now, onto the interview with Brianna which starts below.

Background

Q: We're excited to have this opportunity to learn about you and your role as Shenhua in Shenmue 3! To get started, could you tell us a little about your background and how you came to work in the voice acting field? 

Brianna Knickerbocker (BK): Randomly enough, I originally moved to LA to pursue fashion design. I remember crying in my car at lunch during a trial day at a fashion company. It was horrible, I hated every second. So I quit that same day! I went on Craigslist searching and searching for what I was going to do next and saw an acting gig, submitted, and booked it (it was just some random short film, but that's how I found acting). I signed up for an acting castings site where I could apply for more acting gigs, saw a voice over gig and applied thinking it would be fun. I booked it and it all took off from there!

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Sneak Peak: Shenhua's Voice in Shenmue 3 | Brianna Knickerbocker

Last month questions were gathered from the fan community for an interview with Brianna Knickerbocker, who will play the voice of Shenhua in English in Shenmue III. (We have now received back her responses to your questions, and we're readying it for publication on the blog).

One of the interview questions was to ask Brianna on behalf of the fans if she would be able to give a small preview of Shenhua's voice - and this she has kindly done!

In this new video clip which she has posted up on her YouTube channel, she voices a piece of the the prophecy poem that Shenhua recites in the first two games. Brianna also gives a message to Shenmue fans.


Although only a short sample, her voicing for the character of Shenhua promises to be a perfect fit, and we can't wait to hear more in future Shenmue 3 trailers or gameplay.

Our interview with Brianna will be posted up later this month.

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[Closing 14th April, 2019] Submit Your Questions: Brianna Knickerbocker Interview

Brianna Knickerbocker, the new English voice actor for Shenhua in Shenmue III, has kindly granted an interview, and we would like to hear your question suggestions. A subset of the questions gathered will be selected for the interview.

Brianna is a Los Angeles based actor and voice artist who was introduced in a Shenmue III Kickstarter Update in February. She started recording her lines for the game at the end of last year and this is now complete.

She has voiced characters in an extensive number of anime, movies and video games as can be seen on her profile page on IMDB. Her roles include the voice of Sakura, Est, Ninian and Charlotte in the role-playing game series Fire Emblem and the voice of Yuna in the anime series B: The Beginning. You can hear samples of her voice work at her official site.

What would you like to ask Brianna?

Submit your questions below, bearing in mind that Brianna will not be able to disclose unreleased details about the actual game. This is a great chance for the community to learn about topics such as her background, her thoughts voicing the character of Shenhua and her experience in the studio recording for Shenmue III.

Update: Acceptance of submissions will close at the end of this weekend (Sunday, 14th April 2019).

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Commentary on "English Voice Recording Report" | Kickstarter Update #96

A new update (officially Kickstarter Update #96) has been released by the Shenmue III project team, introducing the English voice actors for two of the lead characters in the game. The update contains several photographs from the studio and a "behind the scenes" video clip in which cut scenes from the game can be briefly seen.

In this post, we'll recap the update and pick out some points of interest, particularly the game images that appear on the screens in the video.

Earlier posts relating to voice actors for the Japanese version of the game:

• Image of a Day's Worth of Shenmue 3 Script
• Commentary: Shenhua's new voice actress | Kickstarter Update #82

Note: minor spoilers, in the form of a small number of lines of script from the game.

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