Pet peeve and my thing with Digimon voice actors in other media...
Pet peeve of the day:
Bad Japanese pronunciation.
Some, like karaoke and karate, I can live with since no one says it the correct Japanese way and people just look at me funny if I say it Japanese (which I did for a couple years). Oh well.
However, I finally saw Akira recently (the 2001 dub), and my first thoughts on it were, "Thank you thank you thank you for pronouncing all the names correctly!!"
Then of course there was a section where all the scientists kept going, "It is 148 degrees Kelvin" or something and I was inwardly wincing every time I heard the word 'degrees'.
Then I recalled having seen the last ten minutes of this movie in class a couple years ago, and remembering how annoyed I was with "a-KEER-uh" and "ka-NAY-duh". Kaori wasn't too bad.
They are pronounced "AH-kee-rah" and "KAH-nay-dah". Thank you thank you thank you all people in that dub for pronouncing Japanese words correctly. This is why overall I'm fairly happy with dubs these days. THEY PRONOUNCE EVERYTHING CORRECTLY. And Funimation does a really good job with translation too, even trying to keep in all jokes that might not work in an English context.
This is just a thing of mine that I occasionally get annoyed with.
"heer-ROE-shih-muh". BAD.
"HEE-ro-SHEE-mah". Much better.
Oh, speaking of the 2001 Akira dub: More voice actors that I recognize primarily from particular roles!
Ichigo = Kaneda. This I was mostly okay with, because I watch the subbed version of Bleach (or used to watch, rather), and liked to watch the dub purely for comparison and because it was in a language I understood much better, so JYB's voice as Kaneda was mostly okay. Besides, it didn't sound quite like his Ichigo voice... or his Kiba voice... or Emil Castagnier (flipping high voice, I didn't even realize it was him o.O). Haven't seen Trigun, though I should, so I can't compare with that, but apparently it's closer to that one.
Tai = Tetsuo. This is the one I had the most problems with. I think Joshua Seth did a great job and was very pleased with his performance, but his voice is just a little too cemented in my mind as Tai from Digimon. Especially since how he played the Tetsuo at first, in terms of his voice inflections and whatnot, were also practically the same. So basically, towards the end I just kept having these images of Tai being insane and laughing and blowing up everything, and then of course the infamous transformation scene... *innocence is shot*. "KANEDAAAAA!!"
I had this problem with Wolf's Rain too. I recognized the voice, went "Holy crap Tai's voice. Whoah blood. OMG HE'S DEAD!" Except there I was better able to separate it into Hige as a character.
Not to mention Toboe, where I flipped a little when I recognized the voice there and had to look it up immediately. "WAAAAA That's totally Mona Marshall! Zomg Izzy! GAAAAAH HE JUST GOT SHOT!! ... Izzy died... *sniff*" Didn't help that Toboe has reddish hair and wears an orange button up shirt. Also didn't help that the death scene was so tragic. In my defense for this though, I saw the first few episodes of Wolf's Rain, then skipped straight to the end, so I hadn't had the time really mentally solidify Toboe or Hige's characters. It was a little better when I watched the series all the way through.
Joe = Yamagata. This one was a little weird too. I'd only ever heard Michael Lindsay in other media as Urahara from Bleach, and I wasn't very pleased with his performance there. Maybe it's because it was Shinichiro Miki in the Japanese version, who is now solidified in my head as Roy Mustang. And also, Yamagata sounded a bit more like the tone used for Joe... except the character was so drastically different it wasn't too hard to separate them.
Very fortunately, Wendee Lee is using her adult voice, so she sounds absolutely nothing like *child*TK.
I think the real reason I had this problem is because Akira was a movie. Back in the day when I watched Digimon... that was two whole seasons. So those voices became VERY cemented in my head as a result. Wolf's Rain, I had the problem at first, but since I watched the whole series I was able to separate them and see the characters differently. It took a few episodes. Akira... yeeeeah. Too short. I'm not sure, but I think Michelle Ruff might have been in Digimon too. Gah, I don't remember.
So, putting it in a popular anime nutshell, Tai gets into a bike accident, is experimented on by the government, and gains psychic powers. He then goes insane, attacking Ichigo, while TK is then possessed by creepy old woman child and then the two fight. Before that part happens, Tai also kills Joe. Then there's the transformation scene.
...
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With voice actors in other media, since I pay attention to this sort of thing...
I learned about Doug Erholtz when I was looking up voice actors for the KH series. It hasn't been too hard regarding his voice work, as his TK voice sounds almost nothing like the ones he uses for Gin and Leon/Squall.
Lara J Miller, I hadn't heard her in years, when I was watching Lucky Star and went, "Hey, that voice is familiar... Whoah it is her!" It was the 3 second rule scene. Absolute cuteness.
Derek Stephen Prince, I first noticed his voice again in Bleach as Ishida. It threw me off for a while, but now I just have this funny mental picture of Ken wearing glasses and shooting people with arrows and occasionally getting his arm blown off. Every now and then I'll add a ninja headband with bugs and an Organization Coat. Except Vexen doesn't sound as similar.
Coleen O'Shaughnessey, I actually heard her in Zatch Bell. Was kinda surprised, but I wasn't really following it. I've heard that recently she's in Bleach as Nel though...
Also threw me for a loop the first time I saw Digimon Frontier (which I bumped into because I discovered Kenichi Suzumura was in it, and then his English dubbed voice was Crispin Freeman...). Of course, Matt and Takuya have significantly different personalities, but it was still very funny imagining the slightly angsty bishounen of the previous series being ridiculously cheerful and going, "Hey, it's the Fair Thingy!" Then looking up a cast list of the English Naruto dub and recognizing Michael Reisz' name as Mizuki? Hmm.
I think the only problem I have with newer voice actors is probably Edward from FMA. That's why I have trouble watching Kekkaishi and occasionally Tsubasa. I also had problems with the first episode of Ouran.
Actually, the real reason I have trouble with Tsubasa is some of the pronunciations and the fact I prefer the manga. Acid Tokyo Arc!
Speaking of Ouran, I found it VERY amusing that Mamoru Miyano was Tamaki, as I was used to him as Riku from the KH series. (I watched ALL the Japanese cutscenes when KH2 first came out and was able to kind of understand what was being said... woot!) Of course, the association went away after a bit. Oh yeah, same thing kind of happened with Bleach at first. I was watching the subbed version, and was used to hearing Ichigo as... Tidus from FFX. Mmmmmmmm...
I think those are the main ones that got me at first. Of course, in Japanese I kept hearing Kenichi Suzumura and Takahiro Sakurai literally EVERYWHERE... oh, and Morikubo Shoutaro. Oh yeah, and Romi Paku. Interestingly, I initially associated her voice as Hitsugaiya, even though I'd heard her as Ken first. Then I watched FMA Brotherhood. Wow. Very awesome. Didn't have a problem with Junko Takeuchi, because Naruto rarely sounds like Gomamon. Takahiro Sakurai as Tentomon just made me crack up.
Okay, I'm done ranting...
Bad Japanese pronunciation.
Some, like karaoke and karate, I can live with since no one says it the correct Japanese way and people just look at me funny if I say it Japanese (which I did for a couple years). Oh well.
However, I finally saw Akira recently (the 2001 dub), and my first thoughts on it were, "Thank you thank you thank you for pronouncing all the names correctly!!"
Then of course there was a section where all the scientists kept going, "It is 148 degrees Kelvin" or something and I was inwardly wincing every time I heard the word 'degrees'.
Then I recalled having seen the last ten minutes of this movie in class a couple years ago, and remembering how annoyed I was with "a-KEER-uh" and "ka-NAY-duh". Kaori wasn't too bad.
They are pronounced "AH-kee-rah" and "KAH-nay-dah". Thank you thank you thank you all people in that dub for pronouncing Japanese words correctly. This is why overall I'm fairly happy with dubs these days. THEY PRONOUNCE EVERYTHING CORRECTLY. And Funimation does a really good job with translation too, even trying to keep in all jokes that might not work in an English context.
This is just a thing of mine that I occasionally get annoyed with.
"heer-ROE-shih-muh". BAD.
"HEE-ro-SHEE-mah". Much better.
Oh, speaking of the 2001 Akira dub: More voice actors that I recognize primarily from particular roles!
Ichigo = Kaneda. This I was mostly okay with, because I watch the subbed version of Bleach (or used to watch, rather), and liked to watch the dub purely for comparison and because it was in a language I understood much better, so JYB's voice as Kaneda was mostly okay. Besides, it didn't sound quite like his Ichigo voice... or his Kiba voice... or Emil Castagnier (flipping high voice, I didn't even realize it was him o.O). Haven't seen Trigun, though I should, so I can't compare with that, but apparently it's closer to that one.
Tai = Tetsuo. This is the one I had the most problems with. I think Joshua Seth did a great job and was very pleased with his performance, but his voice is just a little too cemented in my mind as Tai from Digimon. Especially since how he played the Tetsuo at first, in terms of his voice inflections and whatnot, were also practically the same. So basically, towards the end I just kept having these images of Tai being insane and laughing and blowing up everything, and then of course the infamous transformation scene... *innocence is shot*. "KANEDAAAAA!!"
I had this problem with Wolf's Rain too. I recognized the voice, went "Holy crap Tai's voice. Whoah blood. OMG HE'S DEAD!" Except there I was better able to separate it into Hige as a character.
Not to mention Toboe, where I flipped a little when I recognized the voice there and had to look it up immediately. "WAAAAA That's totally Mona Marshall! Zomg Izzy! GAAAAAH HE JUST GOT SHOT!! ... Izzy died... *sniff*" Didn't help that Toboe has reddish hair and wears an orange button up shirt. Also didn't help that the death scene was so tragic. In my defense for this though, I saw the first few episodes of Wolf's Rain, then skipped straight to the end, so I hadn't had the time really mentally solidify Toboe or Hige's characters. It was a little better when I watched the series all the way through.
Joe = Yamagata. This one was a little weird too. I'd only ever heard Michael Lindsay in other media as Urahara from Bleach, and I wasn't very pleased with his performance there. Maybe it's because it was Shinichiro Miki in the Japanese version, who is now solidified in my head as Roy Mustang. And also, Yamagata sounded a bit more like the tone used for Joe... except the character was so drastically different it wasn't too hard to separate them.
Very fortunately, Wendee Lee is using her adult voice, so she sounds absolutely nothing like *child*TK.
I think the real reason I had this problem is because Akira was a movie. Back in the day when I watched Digimon... that was two whole seasons. So those voices became VERY cemented in my head as a result. Wolf's Rain, I had the problem at first, but since I watched the whole series I was able to separate them and see the characters differently. It took a few episodes. Akira... yeeeeah. Too short. I'm not sure, but I think Michelle Ruff might have been in Digimon too. Gah, I don't remember.
So, putting it in a popular anime nutshell, Tai gets into a bike accident, is experimented on by the government, and gains psychic powers. He then goes insane, attacking Ichigo, while TK is then possessed by creepy old woman child and then the two fight. Before that part happens, Tai also kills Joe. Then there's the transformation scene.
...
><
With voice actors in other media, since I pay attention to this sort of thing...
I learned about Doug Erholtz when I was looking up voice actors for the KH series. It hasn't been too hard regarding his voice work, as his TK voice sounds almost nothing like the ones he uses for Gin and Leon/Squall.
Lara J Miller, I hadn't heard her in years, when I was watching Lucky Star and went, "Hey, that voice is familiar... Whoah it is her!" It was the 3 second rule scene. Absolute cuteness.
Derek Stephen Prince, I first noticed his voice again in Bleach as Ishida. It threw me off for a while, but now I just have this funny mental picture of Ken wearing glasses and shooting people with arrows and occasionally getting his arm blown off. Every now and then I'll add a ninja headband with bugs and an Organization Coat. Except Vexen doesn't sound as similar.
Coleen O'Shaughnessey, I actually heard her in Zatch Bell. Was kinda surprised, but I wasn't really following it. I've heard that recently she's in Bleach as Nel though...
Also threw me for a loop the first time I saw Digimon Frontier (which I bumped into because I discovered Kenichi Suzumura was in it, and then his English dubbed voice was Crispin Freeman...). Of course, Matt and Takuya have significantly different personalities, but it was still very funny imagining the slightly angsty bishounen of the previous series being ridiculously cheerful and going, "Hey, it's the Fair Thingy!" Then looking up a cast list of the English Naruto dub and recognizing Michael Reisz' name as Mizuki? Hmm.
I think the only problem I have with newer voice actors is probably Edward from FMA. That's why I have trouble watching Kekkaishi and occasionally Tsubasa. I also had problems with the first episode of Ouran.
Actually, the real reason I have trouble with Tsubasa is some of the pronunciations and the fact I prefer the manga. Acid Tokyo Arc!
Speaking of Ouran, I found it VERY amusing that Mamoru Miyano was Tamaki, as I was used to him as Riku from the KH series. (I watched ALL the Japanese cutscenes when KH2 first came out and was able to kind of understand what was being said... woot!) Of course, the association went away after a bit. Oh yeah, same thing kind of happened with Bleach at first. I was watching the subbed version, and was used to hearing Ichigo as... Tidus from FFX. Mmmmmmmm...
I think those are the main ones that got me at first. Of course, in Japanese I kept hearing Kenichi Suzumura and Takahiro Sakurai literally EVERYWHERE... oh, and Morikubo Shoutaro. Oh yeah, and Romi Paku. Interestingly, I initially associated her voice as Hitsugaiya, even though I'd heard her as Ken first. Then I watched FMA Brotherhood. Wow. Very awesome. Didn't have a problem with Junko Takeuchi, because Naruto rarely sounds like Gomamon. Takahiro Sakurai as Tentomon just made me crack up.
Okay, I'm done ranting...