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Wahid Jalal: The legendary Arabic actor, and radio producer

In an exclusive Interview with Arab News Japan, Wahid Jalal revealed his passion for Japanese anime that dates to the mid 1970’s. (Supplied)
In an exclusive Interview with Arab News Japan, Wahid Jalal revealed his passion for Japanese anime that dates to the mid 1970’s. (Supplied)
In an exclusive Interview with Arab News Japan, Wahid Jalal revealed his passion for Japanese anime that dates to the mid 1970’s. (Supplied)
In an exclusive Interview with Arab News Japan, Wahid Jalal revealed his passion for Japanese anime that dates to the mid 1970’s. (Supplied)
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01 Nov 2020 02:11:03 GMT9
01 Nov 2020 02:11:03 GMT9

Amin Abbas Dubai

Lebanese actor and radio producer Wahid Jalal, recognized as being one of the most influential voices in the world of Arabic dub art.

He’s been featured as Ali Baba in The Arabian Nights: Adventures of Sinbad, Flip in Maya the Honey Bee, John Silver in Treasure Island (Takarajima) and has also played a role in Nobody’s Boy Remi (Rittai anime ie naki ko).”

More recently, he has narrated for new animes dubbed in Arabic like Takeshi’s Castle (Al Hosn) and Future’s Folktales (Asatir: Mirai no Mukashibanashi).

In an exclusive Interview with Arab News Japan, Wahid Jalal revealed his passion for Japanese anime that dates to the mid 1970’s.

He shared: “The Japanese were so professional with their anime shows in a way that we felt that the characters in those shows were realistic.”

He continued by emphasizing how their goals were educational yet still entertaining for the children, impacting many children during the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Many of the children who were raised listening to “my voice are now adults and having kids of their own” he said while expressing how honored and pleased he feels to be able to influence people then and even now.

“My favorite Japanese anime series was Treasure Island (Takarajima) as my top choice, other series are Maya the Honey Bee, The Arabian Nights: Adventures of Sinbad, Miimu Iro Iro Yume no Tabi, Igano Kabamaru and many other classic anime shows that I took part with,” he shared.

Wahid Jalal was among the first people who participated in voice acting for Arabic dubs of Japanese anime shows which was a new and unique project at that time.

Jalal started doing voice acting for old Japanese anime series in the mid 1970’s, he shared: “I was very happy to reach to the minds of the children through these shows” and he hoped that “the children are able to understand and have an idea of what they are watching so that they can teach it to the others as they grow up in life.”

“The first project that I worked on for the Arabic dub was Sinbad’s Adventures in the mid 1970’s, then it was followed by Maya the Honey Bee, Manga Sarutobi Sasuke, Treasure Island (Takarajima), Manga Hajimete Monogatari, Miimu Iro Iro Yume no Tabi & others,” Jalal told Arab News Japan.

About the challenges that he faced during the dubbing of Japanese anime into Arabic language, Jalal said: “One of the challenges that we have faced at that time was that there was no technology similar to these days that controls the video footage and audio recordings as we had to record our voices on reel videos and audio tapes at the same time.”

He expanded by explaining how himself and the rest of the team had to coordinate during recording session, and if there was a mistake they had to repeat the process.

“Then years later after having the computers & technology, we had an easier process of recording the lines and audio mixing process,” he said.

“Also, the translation from the Japanese language was difficult as the Japanese dialogues were sometimes short and the Arabic sentence was longer” justifying why “it took from us a lot of effort to make sure that the Arabic dialogues were synchronized with the lip-sync of the scenes,” Jalal said.

Audiences responded well to the Arabic dubbed anime series in the Middle East region during that time.

Wahid Jalal said that the popularity and feedback of the Arabic dubs was prominent, and audiences were attached to it in a very big way.

The old Arabic dubbed anime series was done more professionally and had a valuable message to everyone, “that’s why we are very pleased & humbled about it as we shared the fun and joy of these shows with the children,” Jalal reiterated.

Wahid Jalal is known for voicing (John Silver) in Treasure Island (Takarajima) which is one of the most famous characters in the world of Arabic dubbed anime to this day.

He shared with Arab News Japan the story of doing the voice of the character, he said: “In the world of dubbing, you must understand the character in terms of its background and dimensions and that’s what made me love” my character in Treasure Island (Takarajima).

 Playing this character gained him a lot of recognition, Jalal stated that it was  because “I understood his background and dimensions in terms that he was violent and cruel, but kind and compassionate.”

Regarding how Arabic dubbing for anime series has come to change over the years, Wahid Jalal shared how the old shows were featuring important educational, cultural, social and enjoyable lessons to the kids to learn from it, but this is scarce compared to shows these days.

About his reaction of being part of the success for the Arabic dub that has a huge fan base in the Middle East till today, Wahid Jalal feels humbled to be loved and appreciated by many people around the Middle East region.

He concluded by offering advice to aspiring voice actors by emphasizing the importance of gaining knowledge, information, and awareness.

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