#NOT JUST BECAUSE JYB VOICES HIM

[todayisafridaynight]

johnny yong bosch only got to voice young masumi for like one scene but thats ok because i know the role cast was perfect regardless

[dante-winning-archive]

My thoughts about casting JYB as Dante: I had hoped they'd get someone lesser known, but in the end I think getting someone like JYB, who has a lot of... prestige? Notoriety? was a good move. Because people are going to complain about not casting Reuben, and that kind of negativity could be a lot for a VA. Dante is VERY iconic, after all. But Johnny is popular enough that I'm not worried about him catching tons of hate, or at least secure enough in his career that it doesn't matter as much. If that makes sense?

And as far as ability goes, I think he'll do a great job. Let's cast him as Vergil next, just for lols

Just because this anime is different (esp in terms of art and now voice acting), doesn't mean it will be bad. So I am excited and hopeful.

[magadauthan]

Ep 12: Diablo

Son: Whatcha watching? Me: Trigun. I'm doing @trigun98watchparty. Son: What's that about? Me: Pain and suffering. Son: (dryly) who doesn't love pain and suffering? Me: …go put your pants on.

this got condensed into Day 13 bc I had an entire fishbowl full of ginger beer and vodka last night and it was awesome.

Diablo: Pain and Suffering. But First, Ice Cream.

--The bit with the shoemaker went straight over my head on the first, second, and eighteenth viewings. IDK whether that was sloppy writing or I'm just naive.

--Vash loves his momma.

--Meryl is so confused. Like Milly, she's relieved, but she doesn't know what to think. More on that next ep.

--he treats ice cream, what a nice boy.

--Again, Milly picks it up right away, and on go the glasses.

--Legato is a dramatic bitch.

--...so did Legato cut out the shoemaker's tongue, or decapitate him, or both? Looks like... both? Both.

--Vash is so gentle with the girls. He's caught in a combination of overwhelming rage and terror, and yet he keeps his voice low and asks most politely to be let alone for the time being. He speaks so carefully and respectfully to them so he won't frighten them.

It does not work on Milly.

--Monev or Livio: Who wore the big hat and cloak better? (Livio.)

--Meryl and Milly have come to care for Vash so much already. They could easily have stood by and let him get killed; he was a sitting duck. Risk Prevention, right? No more claims for Bernardelli if Vash the Stampede is dead.

But no - Meryl pulls her tiny derringer on a man who's about five times her size, and Milly's stungun shell breaks Vash's chains. He has defenders.

--JYB kills it with the voice acting while Vash is clearing out the streets. Vash is not fucking around (and you should stop fucking around too lol.)

--It's unclear whether Vash's eyes are actually glowing, or whether it's metaphorical to demonstrate how violently angry he is. Either way, it's effective.

--Meryl now gets what Milly intuited earlier - the man pursuing Monev is not the man she knows. That dichotomy is something she has to resolve, but in that moment, she decides (consciously, or unconsciously) that whatever she can do to help Vash remain the kind, gentle man she knows, she's going to do it, because that's the person he would much rather be. You can see her heart breaking for him.

--and then, the central question from here on out. Does Monev deserve to be shot? And does Vash have the right to pull the trigger on him?

--Vash doesn't think so. But answers to these questions are never black and white.

[the-nysh]

Everytime I rewatch Tristamp on subs I get a kick out of the fact the radio DJ is Masaya Onosaka, Vash's original JP voice actor. He was the voice of Vash for two decades and now he's sounding the call to hunt 'Vash the Stampede' down. I can almost imagine his Vash cackling behind the professional radio voiceover like 'now it's your turn kiddo'. (while Show Hayami, Wolfwood's original JP actor is the Eye of Michael radio televangelist in ep 5, which is its own irony...)

Considering I've just had an extensive listen to the 98's subs hearing all the vocal range + complexities there, aaaaa this has got to be one of those fun lil winkwink nudgenudge easter egg inside joke kinda things from Studio Orange's casting. x'D Also because the radio DJ's voice was almost always there, narrating along with them and present for most of the eps anyway (ep1-6, 10, 12) as they traveled around in Meryl's car! :'D That's so cute, because yeah, it's like old Vash was still there the whole time (in spirit~) guiding the new kids around the block.

Cause gosh do they sound so much older now, ahaha. (And I totally get why the casting directors would want to try a fresh new spin and/or different portrayal for the main chars.) But you can still catch some of that old sing-songy, playful and performative, yet clean and posh-sounding 'pretty boy' enunciation in his (Onosaka's) voice! ahaha

And there's no replacement for JYB's eng Vash portrayal either, who reprises his old role (yay!) and still kills it with all the wacky-silly-pathetic Noises(tm) and raw yelling Anguish (my favorite~) Cause man, all his natural energetic ad-libbing, to his soft vulnerability (and masked happy 'customer service' voice), to him screaming his heart out (damn did you hear him go off in ep12!) were still just as fantastic to hear again. :'3

But then of course, I'm not without praise for Stampede Vash's new jp voice! Matsuoka--whom you may also know as Inosuke (Demon Slayer) or Teru (mp100). Cause in my opinion, his portrayal brings...a different type of flavor. He can be just as soft/genuine/sincere, with just a little more throatier grit/gravel (pain) around the edges, but then he can suddenly drop to a much deeper register (like a more guttural, low chest resonant sound, like when he ordered E.G. Mine 'that's enough') or explode with spontaneous bizarre noises (like the Sneeze) that have you double-taking like---I beg your pardon!? O.O (Thinking: there's something weirdly odd and uncanny about this guy!!) Unassuming yet polite (esp vs his very soft appearance). Who def has the vocal range, like he's deliberately holding himself back, to go louder & feral--just like Inosuke does. Those things, I think, are the strengths he brings to Vash's new portrayal.

[crossroadsdimension]

Dipped back into the dub for Trigun Stampede’s episode 3 and man the voice acting continues to be on point.

Knives just sounds so calm. So sure of himself. The man has thought his plan through and finds it amusing that Vash is flailing around trying to stop him. And failing spectacularly in the process.

And Vash? I think JYB is dipping into his time as VA for other characters with all that yelling Vash is doing, because he stopped with the higher-pitched comedy yelping. His “That’s enough” to EG the Mine? For a split second, I could see a furious Nero from DMC glaring into the gyroscope cage that EG sits in.

Just. So good.

And at the end, Vash is barely speaking above a whisper, likely because he’s fighting back the tears -- again, “I don’t deserve to cry” -- and because he’s just spent several minutes yelling at his brother and a stupid bomber who lives for killing others.

Well done, one and all.

[rharyx]

Always going to lean towards watching dubs over subs when available, and Bleach is no exception. But it's really frustrating with how lazy they've always treated Bleach's dub, despite it being one of the most popular anime in the west.

I mean, both Naruto and Boruto get union dubs, while Bleach has always been non-union, even TYBW, despite it being picked up for streaming by Disney of all things (granted, I doubt Disney actually pays for anything; they just bought the streaming rights, but still).

Because of it, we get all these recasts and lazy double-casting. Half the captains have new voices (and not just because of understandable reasons like actors retiring), and we already have actors playing multiple Stern Ritter (including Bambi and Meni both being played by the same person for some reason).

And they don't even bother to look up how to pronounce stuff like Wandenreich and Yhwach correctly.

Hearing new actors for Shinji and Ukitake especially is deflating. And they apparently never even contacted David Lodge to come back as Zaraki despite him constantly tweeting that he would 100% come back even for shit pay just for the fans.

Some actors not coming back is expected, like Laura Bailey (though that also speaks to other issues regarding how shittily anime dubbing is viewed), but a few of these were completely avoidable if they just bothered to not be so cheap with things.

Idk, I still think the dub's good in general, and I love hearing JYB as Ichigo again, but some of this feels like stuff that was excusable back in the mid-2000s, but not anymore. There's no real excuse for them to be going non-union and being lazy here.

[raziraphale]

Okay don't get me wrong, I ADOOOOOORE Johnny and his Vash will forever be the immortal timeless english Vash. But I also feel let down, because new blood would've potentially offered a totally fresh experience. Studio Orange did not hire Masaya Onosaka. They certainly could've, and nothing would be wrong with that, but decided a new voice needed to go with this new Vash, and thus gave us a totally new performence with Yoshitsugu Matsuoka. And now the character offers a lot of uniqueness that sets him apart from 98 Vash. Overall I love and am happy for JYB's return, but also sad people aren't willing to be open to new talent, just like the new japanese cast proves, it can be a very good thing too!

I completely get where you're coming from here and I agree with the general sentiment, but the recent bullshit with CR re:mp100 has made me appreciate a familiar face (er, voice, I guess) more these days lol. Like as a company they've proven they will recast any role if it saves them a buck, so it's nice to see them being able to recommit to the guy that originated the character in english instead of starting from scratch. Recasting Vash in english has some extra context that wouldn't make me as thrilled to hear a new voice, you know?

Like I'm not trying to frame this as a certified #Win for voice actors or anything. I don't know any of the behind-the-scenes, and as far as I know they could be paying JYB in cocktail weenies. But I'm hoping he had some leverage as the existing voice and a more established voice actor to get some decent pay out of it.

I am excited to hear further news about the voices for other characters, though, since we'll probably hear some new voices there (at time of me writing this, only Vash's VA has been confirmed afaik). Like even with returning characters like Meryl and Wolfwood, they've already been recast in english for Badlands Rumble, so I don't think people have the same kind of attachment to maintaining whoever the last actor was. Excited to hear how the new performances will turn out!

[teafiend]

CW: Critical, subjective opinion on a vital aspect of “A Time Called You”

Some final thoughts on “A Time Called You”. That show niggled still because it was such an excellently plotted show, and Jeon Yeo Been was blindingly bright in it, yet something felt off. And that piqued my interest in the Taiwanese original because I anticipate that the “something off” would not be an issue there.

At first, I thought my main issue with the show was mostly the - personal opinion - lacklustre male lead and his appeal for me personally.

But I have had many experiences with unappealing male leads making me fall in love with their characters. ”Coffee Prince” and ”I Hear Your Voice” - two of my top favourites - come to mind.

(Yes, I found Gong Yoo iffy initially, and still not particularly fond of Lee Jeong Seok, though Park Su Ha remains one of my favourite MCs). So, it was less because I was resistant to having my initial impressions changed. Unfortunately, Ahn Hyo Seop’s portrayal of his characters - as the romantic leads - were “meh and uninspiring” till the end, despite the wonderful elements of the writing of his character(s).

It had nothing to do with the character himself, who was amazingly written, honestly. Turned out it was him after all, or precisely, the lack of chemistry.

I don’t think I have felt that lack this keenly in all my years of watching dramas, especially in such a solidly-written and performed show. I have had shows where the chemistry between the leads saved what were otherwise mediocre shows, even given spotty performances, but ATCY stood out because of the opposite. LOL 😂🤣😭

There have been many instances where I had the Second Lead Syndrome, some worse than others, but not once did I find the main pairing lacking in the chemistry department or of not being convincing, except ATCY. That was painful because in what was a fantastic show, they lacked one of the most important ingredients which makes a successful romance, IMO.

It galled me even more because as someone highly allergic to fictional BL/m/m, I was bummed by the few scenes of the male lead with the Rowoon cameo, but I was even more chagrined when those two sweet boys died. WHAT?! Please don’t bury your gays!

What was worse, I thought AHS had more chemistry with Rowoon for those few minutes - and even with his friend In Gyu - than he had with Jeon Yeo Been’s character(s). As someone prone to ignore “bromance” and any related chemistry, it felt weird to notice that in what is a ROMANCE, and a brilliantly written romance at that.

I suggest the lead actor to pivot to BL and forgo trying to make it with straight romcoms. I read that in another of his more well-known romcoms, the female leads carried the show too. Figures.

I say this because the second lead - Kang Hoon aka In Gyu - had more chemistry with JYB (Min Ju/Jun Hee). At least his longing was palpable in a quiet, poignant way, which was more than I could say for the main lead.

His “love” felt very scripted and simply of the going-through-the-expected motions variety. He did and said all the ”right words” but little came through as convincing (for me).

I say this with sad irony because the character was written so fabulously as this kind, faithful, devoted and love-driven male character, which if the chemistry was there, would have propelled this remake into another minor hit. Alas. (And I personally simply love, love characters like these, yet I was not particularly impressed here).

Because JYB carried the whole show and in a romance, I don’t think it is a good thing at all. Personally, I love that fact. However, this is supposed to be a fantasy/romance targeted mostly at a women audience, and when the male lead is unconvincing, I think it is a terrible situation all around.

Of course, this is just my very subjective opinion, but this is the first time I have felt that way about a good romance, so it sucks quite a bit. Especially since Jeon Yeo Been was so beautifully awesome in it. I know that this show is more than romance, but that particular element is a major narrative driver, so I don’t think I am being too unfair.

JYB had memorable/explosive chemistry with all her co-stars in a few of the dramas I have watched her in, so I am not going to put the onus on the lack of chemistry on her. Because her performance was not an issue at all. Not even a little bit. There was chemistry with everyone in the show except her main love interest. Sorry, not a problem with THE QUEEN.

And also in a Romance, the female lead does not need to be as convincing as the main male character, so…

I am also not trying to pan AHS’s performance because except for the romance, he was quite solid. Mayhaps this is not his genre at all.

I was also a bit weirded out about the sequence of the credits, TBF. How come JYB was not the No 1 in the intro? By age and acclaim, I do not think it is unreasonable that JYB should have gotten top-billing.

Yeah, yeah, we live in reality, I get that. *sigh*

[allshewhispers]

Ok. Here me out. Shizaya Promare au🔥🔥🔥

[epickiya722]

also for the opinion ask game: what do you think of nine & his little squad whose names i forgot (mummy, chimera, & miss girl? lol)

Altogether, I actually find them quite an interesting bunch for BNHA movie villains right after the LOV. In fact, I find them a step up from the first movie villain Wolfram.

Starting with Nine! Okay, okay, okay. Okay. I won't lie. He is fine. I do think he's handsome. His overall design is one of my favorites And he sure did give Bakugou and Midoriya a hard time, he had no right, that was unlawful. He's actually on the list of characters I would fight. Come on, man, going after a bunch of kids? I'm sure he has scarred those kids (those adorable kids) and he was mad disrespectful for what happened to their dad. He is an evil, evil man. Wish version of AFO. Also, JYB getting to voice him had me going "WHAT?" because watching the movie in dubbed (I do both sub and dub) my first words hearing him speak was "Lelouch Vi Britannia!" Also, he camoed in the manga before the movie.

Mummy, out of all of them, I care for him the least. I do find his own bandage design cool. but boy was he disrespected by Bakugou! 😆

Chimera. Okay, I find him cool but he's another character I would definitely fight, too. First off, sir, don't talk to my baby Shoji like that! He is PRECIOUS!! I actually just glared at my screen during that scene and declared war on him. (I have a soft spot for Shoji.) But I do get what he meant. Still I declare WAR!! I was ultimately surprised he survived that freeze attack at the end. What the hell is Chimera made of?!

Slice! She's actually on the list of badass BNHA women for me. I liked her character overall and yes, I do want to fight her, too. (SHE HAD NO RIGHT TO DO THAT TO MINA & TOKO!!) But I gotta admit, she is a badass! And a badass who got disrespected at the end, too! (They all got disrespected, let's be honest.) Now, to all you Marvel experts out there, I want you to try and deny she's walking shout-out to Medusa. You can't, can you? Long red hair, the mask, purple outfit. She's anime Medusa. BNHA is a bowl of references to other franchises and she is one of them!

Give Me a BNHA Character...

[todayisafridaynight]

That's true! Those were some short and sweet but pretty impactful appearances from Mitsu. I have Misgivings™ about the dub but SungWon Cho (and JYB!) absolutely killed it, it was awesome to see him in such a high-profile game. Fingers crossed for LaD8!

Of course! The movie was insane, but I'm happy I could share. SPEAKING OF INSANE MOVIES... I've only seen Play in Hell once, but. Yeah. Incredibly incredibly fun movie, and the cinematography was gorgeous! I would recommend The Mole Song movies for a similarly wild watch (ft. Tsutsumi's Smile) if you haven't seen them!

DANGAN RUNNER THOUGH. SORRY BUT MY VERDICT IS THAT IT SLAPPEDDD. SABU was just deadass obsessed with Tsutsumi and cast him as the lead in all of his first five films (though there's a recurring cast in general, Kawara's actor Susumu Terajima included). I Have No Choice But To Respect That. And, I cannot stress this enough, they are ALL insane, if not even more so.

Like it's simultaneously true that you could make a SABU bingo and that you'll never guess how each of these movies go. They're movies nobody but him would make and it's just awesome to have that kind of authorial voice honestly. I was thrilled to see them work together again in My Blood and Bones in a Flowing Galaxy (even if Tsutsumi's character makes me SCREAMMMMM). Because It's A SABU Movie, it's what I'm used to, but so much more refined.

OK infodumping aside... yes... definitely a movie. (Also, I'm glad you enjoyed my breakdown of my translation!!)

For sure! Dubs/English translations can’t ever be perfect just because of the limitations of translation and all, so I feel like Y7 did especially well with who they casted and I can’t deny that I love the English cast (probably also because I recognize so many names so I’m probably a liiiittle biased ;;)!

Ooh, I’ll make sure to add The Mole Song and My Blood and Bones in a Flowig Galaxy to my watchlist (hopefully I can find them this time rpdhaj)! AND YEAH LIKE. NONSTOP/DANGAN RUNNER IS DEFINITELY A UNIQUE MOVIE I CAN’T DENY THAT... I also can’t knock someone making a movie they want even if they don’t think it’ll reach The Biggest Audience- THAT is definitely something respectable (and I have heard that his other movies really are just as niche, so I’m stoked to see more when I get the time!)

[nicetomeetmew]

If LU was an anime (VA headcanons)

Okay so! A while back I uploaded a video (which you can find here) giving the LU boys voice actors. And in the description of said video, I promised that I was going to post a list of explanations for my voices and link it. Which I am only doing now.

These choices, bar a few, are my own personal opinion, so I'd love to hear your thoughts about them! I spent far to long working and watching anime for this but I am pretty happy with the end result, bar one (glares at Four). So I hope you enjoy! And prepare yourself. Cause this is LONG.

Legend - Vic Mignoga (Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

So fun fact. Back when I first discovered LU, I almost immediately imaged Leg with this voice. He had strong Ed vibes for me and when I started making this list, he was the only one I immediately knew was perfect. At least to me. It just has that quality; the snark with the capability of being genuine and emotional (I do apologise if the voice clips I included in the video made you sad. That's a hazard of FMA). I didn't consider anyone else for Legend, even though I did briefly consider Vic Mignoga for Warriors (more on that later).

Sky - Aleks Le (Zenitsu Agatsuma from Demon Slayer)

Man, I considered a fair few KnY voices for this list, including the voice of Tanjiro for Wild and the voice of Giyu for Twilight. But this is the one that stuck. I was struck between Sky having a youthful, soft voice or an older, soft voice (I knew his voice had to be soft. I mean. It's Sky.)

I watched the dub of Demon Slayer solely for this and it never would've occurred to me to consider Zenitsu's voice for Sky. But as the show progressed and I heard it when he wasn't... you know... begging some poor lass to marry him, I realised he actually has quite a soft voice. And when I heard it get all serious I thought "Yep. That works." And thus I placed Aleks Le as the Chosen Hero. You could argue that his voice is a bit too youthful for him but I still think it works.

Wind - Amanda Miller (Boruto from Boruto: Naruto Next Generations)

Ugh. Ugh. *increasing sounds of disgust*. I hate this.

But let's start from the beginning. Right off the bat, I was 99.9% sure Wind would be voiced by a woman. Okay so he's not 10 (that will make more sense in a second), but he's still pretty young and I imagine him with quite a youthful voice. For him, I considered Sarah Natochenny, the current voice of Ash Ketchum in Pokémon, and also Colleen Clickenbeard's voice for Monkey D. Luffy in One Piece. But these two voices shared the same problem. They were too raspy. I just cannot see Wind with a raspy voice. I guess if you really, really, really focus on it it could work but I just could get it to work for me hfff.

And then... ugh. I spoke to a mate about. He doesn't know about LU so I just told him I was making voice headcanons and couldn't think of a good one for a 14 year old boy. And he said "have you heard Boruto's English voice?" And I think my response was something along the lines of, "Ben, I have standards." But he insisted it would probably work so I watched a clip of Boruto on YouTube and much to my horror, it did seem to work. But there was problem. None of the clips had lines I could picture Wind saying. And because of that I was struggling to actually give Wind the voice. But something told me that it was the right one so... I... *shudders*... watched Boruto. I watched I think 5 full episodes before I had no more braincells and skipped thorough a bunch more and sure enough, I could finally see Wind with that voice. I think it fits him great and it honestly might be my favourite choice just because I had to watch that nightmare.

Hyrule - Justin Briner (Izuku Midoriya from My Hero Academia)

Ah. This one is much more pleasant. First of all, I never realised this at first but Midoriya and Hyrule are kind of similar. For one thing, they do kinda look alike. And for another they have the same "I will never give up" kinda thing going on.

Roolie is another one I knew would have a soft voice. I think Justin Briner was always down as a choice for him, except for when I briefly considered him for Four (more on that later *big sigh*). This is another anime I watched the dub for solely for this and there were a ton of lines right from the get go I could instantly imagine Roolie saying. So yeah. Aside from the tiny moment I almost assigned Justin Briner to Four, this was a pretty easy one. Midoriya has a soft voice that I could easily imagine Hyrule having. And when he got angry and his voice got harsher, I could also easily see Roolie like that too. Fun fact: there's another BNHA voice on this list... heh.

Wild - Michael Sinternklaas (Dagger from Black Butler)

AW YEAH. YOU HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH BRITISH BOI.

Ahem. Anyway. Yes Wild is British. Everyone rejoice. I was unsure of how people would react to this but I think this is the only voice on the list everyone agreed on. Which I'm happy about.

As I mentioned, I considered the English voice of Tanjiro (Zach Aguilar) for Wild. There were issues with this; mainly that it was too soft, too young, and made him sound too similar to Sky. Now here's the thing. I WANTED to give Wild a English accent. I am almost certain he would have one, like most people. However the only anime I could think of with decent English accents was Black Butler (and yes I know his final voice is from it, bear with me) and there was a problem with that. Most of the voices from Black Butler are ridiculously posh. Now you may be thinking "But Kai, Zelda has a posh English accent" and to that I would say "Ah yes but she's a princess and Wild is not". And now you might be thinking "But Kai, he's a knight an probably spent a lot of time in a place with posh English accents". To which I would say "But he wasn't always". Two words. Hateno Village.

Let me explain.

I feel like a lot of people hear the words 'English accent' and immediately think of an accent like Zelda's (and no, I am not saying everyone does and I'm also not implying that there aren't people out there who aren't British and know that there are multiple accents). Anyway, English accents are different depending on the place. And, since one can assume Wild is from Hateno Village, I would imagine their accent is different to that of those born in Castle Town. So that's why I was reluctant to give Wild a voice from Black Butler. Because all the voices that weren't insanely fancy were either far too old or did not have the right vibe.

Then one day, taking a break from this, I was watching season 3 of Black Butler (one of the only anime I watch dubbed) and I heard two voices that I suddenly thought, hang on just a second. One of those was the voice of Ronald Knox, who's a grim reaper. And the other, of course, was Dagger. I was leaning towards Dagger and what sold me was one scene in particular, which I chose as the final voice clip for Wild (you cannot tell me that is not exactly something he would say). And that was it. But Wild's was easily one of the most frustrating (not the most *glares at Four again*).

Time - David Matranga (The Father from Wolf Children)

Another tough one and also one I heavily considered for Twilight (for obvious reasons). Time's was kind of tricky because I knew I wanted it to be deep but there's such of variety of deep voices. At one point I even considered dumping the deep voice idea because it was so hard. It was a this time I thought of the voice of space cowboy extraordinaire, Spike Spiegel. But my brain said "hell no". There were other voices I considered for him, loads of which I cannot find the notes for and another one which will likely appear in part two as another character (no spoilers), but when I was picking a voice for Twi, some of the lines the father said just kept ringing big old Time vibes with me. So in the end, I decided to for it. Like I said, I imagine time with a deep voice and while to father's might be a bit more... gravelly (?) than I imagined, I think it fits him pretty well. It's serious and mature but still a certain kindness I'd imagine Time's voice to have.

Warriors - Johnny Yong Bosch (Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach)

Don't lie. You knew Johnny Yong Bosch was gonna be on here and not just because I put his name (albeit spelled incorrectly) in the thumbnail. When I started making this, I knew I wanted to fit JYB into it. In my mind, LU would be an amazing anime and almost all amazing anime have Johnny Yong Bosch in it.

Now, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether he would be better for Wars or Twi. At one point I was convinced he would be best for Twi and that's when I briefly thought about Vic Mignoga for Warriors (his voice for Tamaki Suoh from Ouran High School Host Club. Don't tell me Tamaki and Wars aren't at least a tiny bit similar). But I could bear to part with Vic for Legend so I decided heck it, Johnny is Warriors and I'll find someone else for Twi later. As for the voice in particular, the two voices I considered for Twi definitely did not fit Wars. And then I remembered Bleach and immediately I thought "Yep. That's the one". I imagine Warriors having an authoritative voice, not too deep and very... uh... I don't know the right word. Clean sounding? Anyway, Ichigo just seemed to fit nicely and thus it was so.

Four - Micah Solusod (Yukine from Noragamai)

Ugh. UGH. Okay. This is my least favourite. Four was, excuse my French, A FUCKING NIGHTMARES. There was not ONE SINGLE VOICE that seemed to work for him at all. I watched a bit of the Noragmai dub because I was thinking about Yato's voice for someone (I can't remember who. It might have been Wild) and I heard Yukine's and decided to put it into reserve. As in, my last resort. And I had to use it. Oh my god Four. I love you but your voice is literally a nightmare. Is it high? Is it low? Is it young sounding? Surprisingly grown up sounding? I DON'T FREAKING KNOW.

I mentioned earlier that I considered Justin Briner for him. I was thinking about his voice for Luck from Black Clover, which may have honestly worked a bit better, but I was pretty attached to Justin as Roolie by this point. So I had to whip out Micah.

Let me be clear. No, I do not think this works well at all. I appreciate the people who tried to see that good in it, but I honestly just don't think it works. The only reason I went for it is because Yukine's voice switches between older sounding and younger sounding throughout the show and since I could decide what Four's would sound like I said to myself "Fine. Four can be the same", found some clips, slapped it together and never looked back.

I am still looking for another voice for Four and if I find a decent one, I will include it in part two.

And last but not least...

Twilight - Aaron Mitchell Dismuke (Tamaki Amajiki - My Hero Academia)

Told ya there was another BHNA voice.

So Twi was another tricky one. As I mentioned, I was seriously considering Johnny Yong Bosch for him. More specifically, his voices for Giyu Tomioka from Demon Slayer and Kiba from Wolf's Rain (for obvious reasons). I did almost go for Kiba but something was stopping me. I'm honestly not sure what.

So I was talking to a mate (and by that I mean I rambled. A lot) about VA's and at one point he suggested Aaron Mitchell Dismuke but not for Twilight. I can't actually remember who he suggested it for but anyway, that didn't work out. But when I was looking through his work, I saw that we played Amajiki and I was curious. I listened to him and I liked it.

Okay to be fair I wanted a country accent for Twi. Of course I did. But I could not a find a decent one. They few I found were absolutely terrible. So I gave up on that and decided that was Amajiki. And that was that.

And that concludes the Links VA headcanons! I am happy with most of them and once more these are my opinion but I would love to hear your own ideas!

As I have said many times, I am working on a part two and as a sneak peak (sort of) I'll tell you two of the characters that will be featured (excluding Four, if I find him another voice).

Dink (even though he hasn't, technically shown up yet) and Malon (which is proving to be a lot tricker than I thought). There a couple more but my lips are sealed heh.

Oh and speaking of Dink, the voice I considered for Time and then thought it would be better for someone else? Yeah that's the voice that's currently in the lead to be Dink's :)

I hope enjoyed my long winded explanations! And thank you for reading/watching!

[mrsmarymorstan]

You know what gang? After today's Horimiya Dub, I am throwing in ANOTHER potential VA for Katsuya Honda: Johnny Yong Bosch

Okay, hear me out.

He just played Akane Yanagi in Horimiya. Caitlin and Shaun, the ADR Directors for the series, said that they deliberately kept his casting as a surprise for the rest of the cast. Since the Horimiya Dub is made up of mostly Black, Asian and Hispanic actors who have been rising up over the past 5 years; it was a big moment for a lot of them to find out that they'd now all shared screen time with such a big industry name.

But, all Yanagi really does is show up and be a Super Hot Guy who Yuki turns down because she's secretly in love with Tooru. He doesn't say or do an awful lot.

Why go to the trouble of casting a Big Name for just that then? It'll probably cost a lot of money to book the session, and it's not like you're casting a big name to pull in audiences. You're just doing it as a treat for your cast! If he were a regular voice at Funi, then fine. We hear Coleen Clinkenbeard and Chris Sabat as wala all the time in other shows. But I don't think JYB hasn't been in Funi production since Free ?

HOWEVER! If they already had JYB booked in for a session for Fruits Basket and then had him do the Horimiya Part afterwards? That would make more sense! Recording multiple shows in one session was pa for the course long before COVID hit town.

Caitlin has also said on Instigram that she is actively casting people who have been in the industry for a long time so that the Dub has a classic feel to it. Which is why I like that she went the opposite route with Horimiya, but I digress.

JYB is a very talented actor, but a lot of his roles tend towards "Soft Spoken And Charming" which is exactly what you want with Katsuya! It would also add a little bit of racial diversity to the cast, which would be nice. Since so far I think Micha is the only Non-white person in anything akin to a main character? And he's voicing Naohito.

I still think that it's weird that Tatum hasn't even done wala on the show, since he's also been in the industry forever; and I stand by Katsuya being a combination of the dad in Wolf Children and the Teacher in Hitorijime My Hero: meaning that David Metrenga would be a VERY good shout for him.

But... I don't know!!! It might just be that they thought he'd be good for the part in Horimiya, and he was available so why not? But y'all -- What if? W H A T I F ????

[the-nysh]

... alright! i'm tired! tired of 90% of your blog being blacked out to me because i censored 'trigun' 😭 tell me, where do i begin? where do i start... consuming, this story? there's like, an anime, i know, and the... rewrite of said anime?? all based on a manga i assume??? where do i start. what do i see. what do i skip. tell me i cannot live with this hamster drip of nysh content 😭😭

...?! HOLD UP also rip to your blacklist omfg I was totally under the impression you already knew, since you were the very first to notice a while back and ask me opinionated stuff about it! x'D Fortunately I've answered a similar ask relating to your current predicament~

As you can probably guess, each 'version' of Trigun essentially has its own separate canon (the 98 anime, the manga, and the new Stampede anime; there's 3 whole cakes to enjoy here~) as different tellings of the story + characters that diverge to explore the core themes and messages in their own ways. I do not recommend skipping anything, as it all builds to the lore, world, and characters! :O (Yes, even the silly 'filler' breather eps in the 98 anime's first half all build towards the whole picture, slowly revealing bits and pieces along the way. Even the 'recap' ep at midway pieces everything about Vash's character together thru Meryl's perspective, then introduces more to reframe what's known about him in new complexity.)

But if you're familiar with the old 98 anime (as I've been since 20+yrs ago) I'd recommend a rewatch just to freshen your memory of what happens. JYB's iconic voice work for the dub makes it worth (re)watching alone. Note the anime was created before the manga was even finished, so it draws from the first few early volumes then essentially becomes its own anime-original plotline with different lore akin to how the first fma anime went for example. :O Which upon rewatching recently myself, while it def has some dated 90s bits/gags you can safely ignore, the writing's core messages, themes, intent, and character-driven growth are still very solid and satisfying, with plenty of room left open for more. The strong emotional beats hit very hard for some unsuspecting watchers - going from a seemingly silly lighthearted episodic slapstick comedy at first, to transitioning thru the tragedies of some very heavy/difficult topics later. But worth it for the hopeful, healing process of living through major loss and trauma, and recovering from suffering emotional breakdowns and depressive spirals. :') So fair warning to pace yourself with breaks if needed, without speeding/binge-watching through that kind of content (eps23-25 are where it Hurts the hardest)!

...Cause then the manga takes all those emotional beats (+ the plot & characters) even further and harder than the old anime ever could!!! 8'D That coming out of that will probably make you question your whole existence worldview. Yes, the story's one of those gems that'll probably change your life~ In ways you simply have to experience for yourself to decide what meaning/interpretation/value it holds for you.

But Stampede is completely different from the old anime, since it draws its lore from the completed manga! :O While restructuring and exploring things in a whole new way. As long as you realize that - to not compare it to the old anime (since it's not a 'rewrite' of that story at all) and see it with open eyes as its own independent artform, then you'll have a much better time. Since I'd read the manga beforehand, I really enjoyed seeing the many endgame plot elements Stampede mixed in to set up and enrich what happens. You can of course choose to go in watching blind without that manga knowledge--it's up to you, but imo there's many more layers of appreciation once you realize how much they happened to rearrange and spin into their own thing. (So personally, I'd check out the manga first so you aren't spoiled with sudden endgame elements introduced early here.) BECAUSE, the biggest telling hint is seeing the whole season's timeline as an establishing 'prelude' of sorts before one of the major story events [July City] even happens (cause in the original story--for both the manga & old anime, that incident happens before the story begins, but here it's all different lead up with modified character backstories) with plenty more to continue the manga's (Trimax's) unadapted plot later in s2. Where of course you can have preferences to how it's done, but the overall lesson here is to have patience and let Studio Orange cook, because they knew exactly what they were doing--they did their homework on many meticulous fields of Interest, with everything done with care and purpose (yes, all those conspicuous 'odd' details like the reason why Milly's not here yet- it's explained!) with genuine love for the source material. :'D

The source material which--yes, begins as the Trigun manga (2 vols) and continues renamed as Trigun Maximum (14vols) under a new publisher as a hard seinen. Which currently! The fandom's having a whole bookclub (re)reading event, so it's the perfect time to join in if you feel so inclined! 8'D For enjoying maximum emotional damage and suffering, but easier to cope, navigate, and process among a friendly and supportive group environment~ I've already read the official Dark Horse translation (easily found on most manga sites, but thankfully there's a new hardcover reprint incoming!) but currently I'm trying a reread of the overhaul fan translation instead, as I hear it's more accurate overall. :'3 Hopefully all this info helps, as I bet there's plenty of overwhelming content you may have missed out on!

[kingdomblade]

Digimon Kizuna thoughts

All spoilers will be under the cut!

Fresh off of Tri when Kizuna was announced, I wrote up some hopes I had for this movie. Without looking back at that list, I'm pretty sure this movie managed to not hit any of the things I wanted off of that list - but I'm still walking away completely satisfied. The characters, the story, the setting all feel like completely natural progression from how I remember them, it manages to tell a compelling story in a fairly short movie, the animation and designs are drop dead gorgeous. It's clearly a labor or love and I'm thankful for everyone who worked on it. In some ways it leaves me wanting more - I'd love one more entry with the 02 group as a focus, and I think there would be a lot of value in an entry that focuses more on Digimon intigrated with the human world rather than yet another story about kids discovering Digimon. But if this is the last time we see these twelve in this form, what a way to go. 

This is absolutely stream of consciousness writing while I’m on my second watch through of the day (In lieu of livetweeting - I’ll spare my followers that much lol). Is it rambling? Absolutely. It may or may not be of interest, but I thought it would be something fun to do regardless. If you decide to read, I hope you enjoy!

----

Tom Fahn’s Agumon is noticeably a bit lower pitched even compared to Tri, weather he can’t take his voice up as much or if it’s a different portrayal I’m not sure but it still fits him really well - Tentomon’s voice feel slightly different too. Funny enough Gabumon is somehow lighter and more childish than his original portrayal, but it also fits him well.

Both Tri and Kizuna have such a weird process to their casting - They got back actors that as far as I can tell haven’t done much if anything since their days on Digimon, they’ve gotten back actors for side characters with bit parts. They’ve hired new actors that seem to take the original voice into account and take their own spin on them, and then they hire actors with absolutely no regard for how the original sounded to the point that it just plain conflicts with the established character. It’s all over the place and it’s weird.

Johnny Yong Bosch's portrayal seems slightly different from Tri, maybe he's playing him slightly older, maybe it's the slightly different personality, maybe I'm imagining it. Something about it reminds me of Doug Erholtz's portrayal, which is an added bonus when JYB was already one of the best of the recasts. Minutes in and I'm completely sold on Nicholas Roye's Matt as well, it sounds like a natural progression from his Adventure voice.

In a vacuum Griffin Burns is a decent Davis, but he's one of the recasts that immersion breaking because not only does he sound nothing like Brian Donovan, but his take on Davis is higher pitch than Donovan's so it's impossible to hear him as older. The fact that Donovan was supposed to reprise his role is just salt on the wound. With the insane amount of delays that this dub got, they surely could have brought him back onboard... It's a  shame that 2 our of 3 roles I've heard of Burns have been a replacement of another actor, hope he can get more roles where he can shine more. On the other hand, Bryce Papenbrook as Cody is brilliant casting coming from his 02 voice for what little we get to hear of him.

Yolei didn't sound to great in her video message, but by the time we see her in person her VA has gotten into the role and captures her really well. Hawkmon sounds fine enough, but I'm way more upset than I should be about Armadillomon's voice considering he doesn't have many lines. A recast was mandatory here, and 'medium-deep southern accent' should honestly be pretty easy to replicate but what we got was horrific. What casting director knew enough about the characters to know that Hawkmon had a British accent but not enough to know what an armadillo sounds like??

Mimi is just straight up Sakura now! I actually thought Kate Higgens would have made a great Yolei, kinda funny to see her here as Mimi now.

Not only did Agumon's "Polly want a cracker?" line slay me, but there's something about Tom Fahn's portrayal that really hits me, even though he's not even my favorite Digimon. It hasn't even been a long time since I've heard it - Tri wasn't that long ago, and I just rewatched Adventure/02 within the past few weeks, but hearing him made me a bit emotional, ha. Same thing happened with his first appearance in Tri, and that was after having seen it in Japanese and knowing what was going to happen!

The opening battle is like a complete screw-you to Tai's arc in Tri with Greymon smashing into buildings and Tai completely unfazed. I'm here for it, lol.

The remastered Digivolution sequences are nice but in true nostalgia fashion I kinda prefer the originals, haha.

Izzy's computer is counting down a 'time rimit'.

Agumon says something to the effect of “Aren’t I always hungry?“ and I don't feel like it’s a reference/jab at Tri, but it got a chuckle out of me anyway.

Tai's classmate is blatantly voiced by JYB too, ha.

Matt gives his location as 'inside the restaurant' when calling an ambulance which seems... not helpful. Love that Tai's reaction to a girl collapsing is a confused "Is she drunk?"

An article on Tai's phone is written in perfect English and he gets message from the name Izzy specifically so I'd assume this is a change for the US release. Subtitles would have been perfectly fine but it's a nice effort to keep immersion.

"The ol' Izz-master" I’m so, so glad they got Jeff Nimoy to write this script, bless Toei.

Only 4 of the Digidestined participating in the battle against the Digidestined is kinda disappointing until I realized that it was a throwback to Our War Game - TK and Izzy get to participate more this time around! As per usual Tentomon (Kabuterimon) manages to sneak in a hilarious line here.

'Lime Magazine' just doesn't have the same ring to it...

TAI'S MAGAZINES...

Tai calling Agumon 'little buddy' is the second scene to hit me right in the feels.

Matt is the only one to reach out to the 02 kids during the movie, I wonder if he felt guilty about what went down in Tri and kept in touch with them a bit more since.

Seeing Kari and TK tied up in a dark room like that is actually one of the more shocking scenes in the movie. That could have ended very differently if this was a different movie...

Meiko shows up for literally one scene with Meicoomon which has... interesting implications. This movie retroactively makes her more tragic as well, as even if she didn't sacrifice Meicoomon there's a chance their partnership would have dissolved anyway - almost a complete lose-lose, there was no way for them to be happy together.

Himekawa is also retroactively more tragic as it's possible she would have been able to see Tapirmon again here - one shows up in the crowd shot!

Honestly this is the movie Himekawa deserved - she was a really interesting character that got wasted and underused in Tri, and while Menoa parallels her in a lot of ways her stoicism just isn't as interesting and Hime's decent into madness was.

L'il Joe has black hair now?

I'm pretty sure Menoa doesn't say "Oh shit" but honestly I'm gonna pretend she does.

I mentioned on Twitter how Leomon doesn't die in this one because he never showed up, but there's one fighting an Eosmon in what I think is Osaka and he doesn't die, and GOOD ON HIM, HE BROKE THE CYCLE!

Omnimon having limbs sliced off got an audible gasp from me.

Matt ACTUALLY got to curse in this movie, character development!!

"Just one thing: Meow" I had to pause the movie, I lost it

Story wise, theme wise, character wise I get it, but mad Sora got screwed over in this movie. Would have been nice if 'To Sora' was included inside of the movie at least.

I still don't like Agu and Gabu's new evolutions, but they did feel really earned and a natural extension of the plot. What better way to spark an evolution than such a huge sacrifice? Izzy's perfectly timed 'prodigious' was the icing on the cake, coming at such a fitting emotional moment and possibly being the last time we'll hear it from Izzy.

When the Eosmon start disappearing all over the world there's a shot of an exhausted lone Numemon who had clearly held off the Eosmon with all the poop that is strewn about. THAT is the next story I want to see.

Unfortunately this movie is in the Tri School of Only Using Champion Level. It's actually pretty inexcusable that we we don't see WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon one more time, but even the other characters should have gone up to Ultimate if not Mega for one final sendoff. I wish we could have seen them truely fight as a team once more, even just for fanservice.

My strongest complaint with the movie itself is that it just kinda... ends. The ending is super emotional, but it just skips ahead afterwards and says 'things are going to be ok!' and ends. I would have liked to see the rest of the kids once more, seeing how they handle the fallout or how they might support Tai and Matt - or maybe a little about what Tai and Matt have taken away from this whole things. Just felt like we needed an extra couple of minutes.

Will we see these particular versions of these characters again? From what I can tell this movie did well in Japan and it’s trending pretty well on Amazon, so who knows. I hope if we do, it’s because the writers come up with an idea they really believe in and not just for the sake of a sequel. But if not, I’m definately greatful for what we have.

[bjy-on-ao3]

Hey! I’m a lurker who loves your fics and wanted to ask what your opinions on Adachi’s voice. Because personally I loved JYB’s job in P4/P4G, but hate how the voice got higher after that. I mean I understand why that needed to happen, but I honestly can’t stand his voice when it’s so high like that.

First let me just say thank you for reading, I really appreciate it :) Now, to answer the question, I like Adachi’s voice for the most part through most of the media, save for the regular P4 Animation (I don’t really like how he’s drawn through most of that either actually). The voice acting in P4G is my favorite, particularly in the Accomplice ending and when you confront him in the TV world (Before going into Magatsu Inaba itself that is). JYB does a very good job in general, but in particular as a villain/creepy character imo. 

Though I can understand what you mean about the higher pitch though. While I don’t like that change as much, I do like that it is more ‘raspy’ than previous (Plus some of the lines are absolute gold). When I’m writing and trying to ‘hear’ whether a piece of dialogue fits or not, I primarily focus on lines from P4G.

Also, not that it was asked, but If you haven’t heard it before, his Japanese voice actoring isn’t half bad as well (And is in fact the only option for something like P4G The Animation as far as I’m aware).