TOKYO, JAPAN - Taking karaoke to a new level, a machine soon to be out in Japan will let people impersonate animation characters, turning them into superheroes -- or mischievous smart alecs -- for the night.

Namco Bandai Games Inc. unveiled the prototype machine as the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2008 opened Thursday for the media and business.

It aims to launch the machine in Japan around mid-2008 at karaoke parlours, said Shohei Nakanowatari, a consumer software official with the company.

"You are unbuttoned at karaoke places where you drink with friends," he said. "The freer you are from your usual persona, the more fun you can have. You can also easily change your sex."

A quiet person can be a courageous hero while a straight-laced businessman can turn into a delicate young girl, Nakanowatari said.

The machine -- called "afrec!" in an abbreviation of "after recording" -- shows a 30-second scene cut from well-known Japanese animation or "anime" programmes involving two characters.

Two participants read their parts at the bottom of the screen after hearing the performance by professional voice actors and actresses. Recordings are made automatically and played back instantly.

Everybody at the party can enjoy at once, Nakanowatari said.

"In the case of karaoke, one person sings while others just look around for the next song to sing," he said, adding the new machine would also come to the rescue of tone-deaf people dragged to karaoke.

Voice recordings for movies are also under consideration, he said.

Karaoke has turned into a multibillion-dollar industry since being invented in 1971 by Daisuke Inoue, a Japanese club keyboardist looking to provide music for a customer who wanted to sing on a company trip.

The annual anime fair opened for a four-day run with the participation of some 290 exhibitors including animation studios, television and movie companies, and toys and software makers.

It will open to the general public on Saturday and Sunday.