I checked out J.J. Abrams latest T.V. series “Fringe” the other night.  I found the show to be pretty compelling, but decided it was not one that I would be tuning in regularly.  Not that I didn’t enjoy it, but I’m already hooked another one of Mr. Abrams’ shows, “Lost,” and after one episode of “Fringe,” I realized that I was only in for more impossible science, conspiracies, and just general weird shit if I were to decide to watch it weekly.  “Lost” has mind-fucked me enough already, I’m not letting “Fringe” double team me.  There was, however, one actress on the show that had me wondering where I had seen her before during the entire episode.  In the opening credits of the show I saw the name Anna Torv and could not think of where I heard that name before.  There was something so familiar about her, but I could not place it.  So, after the show I decided to check out her IMDb page and soon realized why I had checked her page before.

Anna Torv’s is one of the only names of a video game voice actor I have ever bothered to look up, and it was for her work as Nariko in the PS3 title “Heavenly Sword.”  The game was a 2007 title that received average marks from most critics and gamers.  The game had quite a few glitches and the combat system, while fun, was very repetitive.  The game was also painfully short, about nine hours.  This made for a game that was good for a weekend rent, but with very little replay value.  There was, however, one place where the game was almost unanimously praised and that was the cut scenes.  I, along with most others, found the cut scenes to be entertaining and engaging, and not “Metal Gear” long.  Much of the praise of these cut scenes went to motion capture king Andy Serkis of “Lord of the Rings” and “King Kong” fame for his work as King Bohan.  The praise was very well deserved, but I can’t help but think that having this big name (especially in the world of motion capture acting) took a little bit of the spotlight away from Torv’s performance.  She totally made the character of Nariko work for me, which, in turn, made the game.  Perhaps my favorite line in all of video games comes in the middle of Nariko’s battle with the fish-lizard-lady, Whiptail.  For those of you who haven’t played the game, this will mean nothing because what I love about the line has nothing to do with content and everything to do with delivery.  It is during a mid-battle cut scene that Nariko realizes she has gotten under the scaly skin of Whiptail when she repeats a line that the villain spoke to her earlier: “Oh, it’s so much better when you’re angry!”  Again, out of context it means nothing, but after I heard that line delivered, I knew Nariko and I were gonna gut that fish bitch.

I’m glad that Anna Torv has had somewhat of a breakout role this year.  I regard her’s as one of the all time great performances in video game voice acting.  And, if you have the stomach for mind bending sci-fi thrillers, check out the voice of Nariko in “Fringe.”