Forum - View topicAnswerman - Talk Like A Man
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Gasero
 Posts: 939 Location: USA |
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I wouldn't say there are plenty of female voice actors that play male characters, but there seems to be a decent amount. Depending on the character's personality a female could easily play the male voice.
Youthful and ecstatic characters like Naruto and Luffy come to mind immediately. ------------ I always assumed that there were so many anime produced in Japan that a basic animation job in Japan is the equivalent of working at a fast food restaurant in the USA. When the supply is high the value of each individual job would be low. It's basic economics (if that is actually the case). |
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ChibiKangaroo
 Posts: 2941 |
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The most prominent recent example (for me) of the whole issue of Japanese using women for boys and Americans using young men for boys, came up in the American Astro Boy film.
I have seen most of the previous versions of Astro Boy, and of course all the Japanese versions I have seen of Astro Boy have him played by a relatively high pitched female voice. The earlier American dubs of Astro Boy (and Kimba the White Lion of course) used women like Billie Lou Watt and Patricia Whitley. However, in more recent versions of Astro Boy dubbed for American audiences, I noticed his voice getting progressively lower. For example, in the 2003 version, although he was still voiced by a girl (Candi Milo), it was an obviously more deep sounding voice. Notably, Ms. Milo is the voice actress who took over the role of Dexter (Dexter's Laboratory) from Christine Cavanaugh when she retired. Dexter's mock (Russian?) accent carries a kind of uniquely deeper boy's voice compared to characters of similar age, and I think that additional depth of voice was carried over to Astro in that 2003 dub. Then, in the 2009 film, Astro was played by Freddie Highmore, who at that point was 17 years old, and made him sound much much older than the previous iterations. Given that I'm sure there was a decent budget for that Hollywood film (it had Nicholas Cage in it as Dr. Tenma), I don't think there is any plausible explanation for the further deepening of Astro's voice other than the fact that the people behind the movie didn't think it would be palatable to a modern American audience if Astro sounded at all feminine as he had in previous versions. |
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bravetailor
Posts: 817 |
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I would say that in the west, the younger the boy the more likely it will be played by a woman. Probably over 50% of boy characters under the age of 12 will be played by a woman.
So it's not uncommon. It's just that the cutoff point in the west is around 13 years old, whereas in Japan the cutoff point is about 15 or 16. Since a lot of characters in anime tend to be around 14-15 years old, it seems like in Japan more women play boys. |
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Shay Guy
 Posts: 2116 |
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Ever since the change in management in July, I've found myself enjoying reading the Answerman column a lot more -- more interesting questions and answers both. Anyone else have a similar response?
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YamadaKun
 Posts: 304 Location: Sunny California |
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People say men aren't as good for boys as women, but I disagree. VAs like Ai Orisaka, while normally good as anything else, is very forced as Quatre. You know it's a woman voicing a boy, but Swaile sounds way more natural and like an actual young teenager. Nozawa from DB fame is decent as Kid Goku and very, very forced as adult Goku. She shouldn't really be Goku. Kappei Yamaguchi or Wataru Takagi should be. Much better. Even Tara Strong in Foster's is very forced. Her voice in that doesn't sound right. Characters like Garrod Ran, Light Yagami, Sai Saici are evidence that men are generally more suited for males, even young teens or boys. A lot of females sound forced as males and a lot of males sound natural. Megumi Ogata as Shinji, while was natural was very annoying and whiny. The best VA for boys, who is a lady in Japanese is Romi Park.
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Joe Carpenter
 Posts: 503 |
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I too have been dreaming of a re-release of Paranoia Agent for some time now
the first time I saw it was when it was on Adult Swim and the last time I saw the series was when I rented the dvds from Netflix 4 years ago, I felt so awful sending those disc back because I knew it'd be the last time I saw those Geneon dvds ever again while I could obviously....ya know, Paranoia Agent is a series I love enough that I'd be more than happy to shell out for a nice dvd boxset Paranoia Agent is such an underrated series that deserves a second life, Paranoia Agent is to Satoshi Kon what Twin Peaks is to David Lynch, that is to say a TV series that perfectly encapsulates the style and subjects of an excellent film director |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6525 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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It's currently licensed in Australia by Madman. You can order it here but note that Australia is region 4 so you may need appropriate hardware or software.
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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Not surprising but I'm curious if there is legal precedent or is this just rule of thumb? For Japan, OniAi stars Sumire MOROHOSHI and Ibuki KIDO who were 13 and 15 at the time, respectively. |
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Mesonoxian Eve
Posts: 1858 |
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Yep. Brian was good, but it was clear something was affecting his writing. If I were to guess, I'd say Brian's other life made it hard to manage the column's deadline, as several of them seemed to get posted late (which would mean the editor had to work a bit late as well). I'm enjoying the new format. This column and Shelf Life need an Android app. |
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marie-antoinette
 Posts: 4136 Location: Ottawa, Canada |
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I have to agree with this, though oddly enough, I don't have any problems with her playing Tohma in Gravitation, despite that character being an adult male. Romi Park is also amazing but my personal favourite for female VAs playing male roles has to be Mona Marshall. She's even more impressive after having heard her actual voice, which doesn't even remotely sound like the voice I've heard in her various roles (Izzy from Digimon, Toboe in Wolf's Rain, Nataku in X-TV, just to name a few). |
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bleachj0j
 Posts: 923 |
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Megumi Han and Mariya Ise sound very good as Gon and Killua respectively. So much that they sound almost totally different from their normal voices.
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Looneygamemaster
 Posts: 192 |
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Brianne Siddall is also incredibly skilled at sounding like a boy. I think, in general, the LA actors are the most talented at that sort of thing.
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8461 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Nobody brings the same level of sincerity, quirkiness, liveliness, or warmth to Son Goku as Nozawa. She's IS that character. And I also prefer Romi Paku's Edward Elric, Megumi Ogata's Shinji Ikari, Mayo Suzukaze's Kenshin Himura, Mayumi Tanaka's Kuririn, and Yuko Sanpei's Renton Thurston. In Shinji's case it's party because Spike Spencer is an embarrassment. |
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Rextyn
Posts: 42 |
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She immediately comes to mind for me as well as being great at sounding like adolescent males, but for whatever reason she doesn't seem to be working that angle anymore. |
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Shadowrun20XX
 Posts: 1935 Location: Vegas |
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Justin is back? Clear cut and straight to the point.
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