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Marwan Farhat: Iconic Arabic voice actor for over 30 years

The voice actor became a core part of many Arabs' childhoods as they grew up watching dubbed anime. (Suppplied)
The voice actor became a core part of many Arabs' childhoods as they grew up watching dubbed anime. (Suppplied)
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21 Jul 2024 04:07:39 GMT9
21 Jul 2024 04:07:39 GMT9

Amin Abbas

DUBAI: Marwan Farhat is a Syrian voice actor who is known for being one of the most influential voices in the world of Arabic dubbing of Japanese anime. He worked on shows such as Kogoro Mori and Professor Hiroshi Agasa in ‘Detective Conan’, Takenori Akagi in ‘Slam Dunk’, Tsubasa Ohzora, as well as the Narrator in Pokémon, Digimon, and many more. 

His first role was in the 1992 anime series ‘Tsurikichi Sanpei’ followed by a variety of other shows such as ‘Ikkyu the Little Monk’, ‘Dash! Yonkuro’, ‘Gurimu Meisaku Gekijou’ and ‘Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.’ He also did the adult voice of Tsubasa Ohzora in both ‘Captain Tsubasa J’ and ‘Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2022.’

About the challenges that he faced in his career, Farhat said: “The most important thing we have encountered was that the material that comes to us comes from societies whose cultures are somewhat distant from ours, so we began by preparing the text by modifying and not modulation (as some say) to suit the culture of our Arabic society.”

“In my performance of any character, I study its psychological state in the beginning, put myself in its place and act and feel the feelings sincerely. Then the character imposes on me a certain way of performing, feelings, and a pitch of voice. If we compare Brain from ‘Animanics’ and Kogoro Mori as comic characters, we see that they are different in all aspects,” he told Arab News Japan.

Farhat shared that the industry has changed significantly since he began his career. “In the past, we used to be one group of actors in one room doing the voices of the characters and we were synchronizing with our characters at the same time. Now, each actor enters a recording room alone, listens to a voice for the character, and performs the voice of the following character as written in the text.”

“Computers and technology made the recording process a lot easier for recording lines and mixing the audio in specific moments of the footage without doing it from the beginning, which saves time and effort for everyone,” he added.

The voice actor became a core part of many Arabs’ childhoods as they grew up watching dubbed anime. “We used to receive reactions and feedback through our social environments and they were positive. At that time, social media websites had not yet spread,” he reflected. 

“But after the spread of the social media websites, we began to receive feedback on our work and the responses were amazing. There was a lot of love and loyalty, and the majority used to say, ‘You taught us values ​​and ideals, and most importantly, you made the Arabic language present in our minds, and you were like our fathers in ensuring that we were raised properly.’ This is what made us very happy and made us forget the effort and fatigue of the past years,” he added.

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