Anne Voice Actress Eiko Yamada on What Anne of Green Gables Means to Her
by Richard Eisenbeis,With the new anime Eiko Yamada, and talk about the show that jump-started her voice acting career four decades ago.
*This interview contains major spoilers for Anne of Green Gables.
“Anne's a very positive person. 'It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will,' right?” Yamada began, quoting Anne. “Normally, Anne lives a very rock-bottom life, but she uses her imagination to imagine her friends in the mirror and other things. She doesn't let herself stay in the depths of sadness. I like the fact that she's always cheerful.”
This is a philosophy that Yamada uses in her everyday life. “When I'm stuck on something unpleasant, I suddenly think, 'Oh well, I'll consider it more tomorrow.' I can't keep mulling about unpleasant things forever. And if I go to bed deciding I'll think about the issue tomorrow, the next day I end up thinking, 'Oh well, it's no big deal after all.'”
Beyond Anne's optimistic way of viewing the world, Yamada thinks that another aspect of her character has kept her story in the popular consciousness for over 100 years: Anne's insatiable curiosity for knowledge.
“Anne wanted to know more about it all. She wasn't studying because she was forced to, she studied because of her own interest and rose to the top. Anne became a wonderful woman with an ever-expanding mind,” Yamada explained. “When Anne was a child, she did such outrageous things—she was such a cute and interesting girl—but she grew up to be such a wonderful person. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that she was interested in so many different things and studied so hard.”
Part of what makes Anne so unique as a character is how she goes against expectations. At the time when Anne of Green Gables was written, stories about orphan girls (known as “formula Ann” stories) followed a predictable pattern. A female orphan offers her services to a lonely person, doing housework and caring for them. In the end, the person comes to love the orphan and keeps her. Rambunctious Anne with her temper and unique way of viewing the world is anything but a humble servant.
This difference in characterization is shown even in the spelling of her name. “It's not A-N-N, it's A-N-N-E, after all,” Yamada noted. “Like, [Anne is saying] 'I'm not just an 'Ann.'”
In Yamada's eyes, it all has to do with how Anne wants to be viewed as a person. “Anne's not someone to be pitied,” Yamada told me. “She doesn't want to put herself in that kind of position. That's why when Marilla first asks Anne to talk about her past—about what has happened up until then—Ann refuses. She doesn't want to talk about it. She wants to think that it doesn't define her—despite the terrible circumstances she has endured.”
Largely, it's a matter of empathy to Yamada: “Even with all she has been through at such a young age, Anne is able to think, 'Mrs. Thomas took care of several sets of twins, was in poverty, and her husband was a drunk that was hit by a train and died. It's because of her circumstances that it was a matter of course that she wouldn't be able to be kind to me either.'”
“Normally, if it was just Ann without the E, she might think, 'It's so sad that they did this to me.' But Anne with an E thinks, even if they did this to her, it can't be helped as Mrs. Thomas has her own misfortune—that everyone has their own misfortunes and all sorts of things happen. I think that Anne with an E is the one who truly understands that.”
This empathy and understanding from Anne serves to highlight that we are all nuanced people, not one-dimensional villains. “We all have our own lives. We all have our own problems. We all have our own issues and we all suffer in our own ways.” Yamada continued, “So we all come out of it with these kinds of answers and act in these kinds of ways. But that can't be helped. It's okay. We just have to overcome our problems. It's a test that's been given to us.”
Of course, it's Anne's interactions with other people that allow her character to shine. Perhaps the most interesting of these is her relationship with Gilbert. “When you're a kid, you usually bully the people you like. The more you fight, the more you like them, and that kind of thing happens a lot,” Yamada noted. “I think that's true—and young people really seem to like that about Anne and Gilbert. It seems like they're going to get together, but they don't. They break up again and again. It's exciting to watch them seem like they're going to get together but they can't get along. That kind of thing became popular [in shōjo fiction], right? It wouldn't be fun if they just got together so easily,” she laughed.
While Yamada started her career in voice acting as Anne, her life since has allowed her to empathize with Marilla. “I'm getting older, and had been playing Marilla on stage for six or seven years—I was doing it until before the COVID-19 pandemic, until 2019.” Yamada joked, “Anne's chatter is just so loud. My daughter is noisy too. She's the same way, so I really understand Marilla's feelings.”
When it comes to her favorite ing character, the choice is an easy one. “For me, it's Diana,” Yamada told me. “I think that having Diana as her dear friend helped Anne a lot. [...] Diana and Anne have completely different personalities. At one point, in the second and third books, there are times when Anne and Diana grow a bit apart. [...] But still, thanks to Diana, Anne grew up little by little—it's all thanks to her 'moonlight.'”
But there might be another, more personal, reason for Yamada's love for Diana. "Even now, I'm very close with Gara Takashima (who played Diana) and we can talk about all sorts of things. It's really thanks to Anne that she's still my dear friend.”
To close out the interview, we discussed the ending of the Anne of Green Gables story—Anne giving up her chance to go to college in order to stay and care for Marilla at Green Gables. “I would [make the same choice as Anne] I think. Green Gables is precious and so is Marilla—and Matthew. Matthew lived there!” Yamada exclaimed. “I think that I couldn't leave that place and leave Marilla alone.”
“Of course, there are times when I think about [the line] 'Anne's horizons had closed in since the night she had sat there after coming home from Queen's,'” Yamada said, quoting the novel. “But, even though choosing that path narrowed her future, she would still be able to find happiness in it. If she did her best, she could find a different happiness—even though it's one on a different path.”
“I think Anne was able to choose her path because she understood that in her heart,” Yamada continued. “Anne doesn't lament the fact that she couldn't go on to higher education, but instead faces the path she chose and can soar again upon it. That's what makes her so attractive. I think that's the kindness of Marilla, who raised her, and the proof of Anne's growth cultivated together.”
“If you decide to have fun, you will have fun,” Yamada said, in conclusion. “In any case, no matter what road you take, even if you must part ways, no matter what path you choose, you will find your own enjoyment in it. That's a wonderful thing—that strength to live. I think that's what Anne is trying to convey through her story.”
Additional interview assistance by Rebecca Silverman.
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