Forum - View topicNEWS: Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War Anime's Dub Casts Alain Mesa as Chad
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Tenbyakugon
 Posts: 793 Location: Ohio, United States |
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Yeah, the point is to just act, right? I guess he couldn’t reconcile who he is with not feeling it’s actually an accurate representation, however I do echo the sentiment that ultimately none of us judge his performance based on who he is — He was a great actor in this role that made a not-so-emotional character come across as emotional. I can understand if he felt that he should, as a part of the Caucasian majority, should step aside to allow for more representation for minorities, especially when it comes to the role of an ethnic minority character. I would say this likely came down to a personal decision for him and probably shouldn’t be used as a means for activism for who should be “allowed” to have what role. I would also say that dub casting should take seriously more minority representation when it comes to roles, protected minority or otherwise, just out of consideration for the issue, however again, it’s an actor’s job to act, and to act well, at the end of the day and they should ultimately consider who they feel does the best job. And on this note, this is Alain’s first real role, and is a major one at that for the final season of a show we have been waiting for for 10 years… Hope he doesn’t f**k it up. |
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Soul_Punisher
Posts: 70 |
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I respect his decision too bad a lot of voice actors don't even consider that. It's not just colour but it's also the guy's age, Chad is a teenager right? Especially a teenager of colour so it does make sense he is doing this and it's intelligent. People need to stop taking race seriously especially when it's the actor making that choice! NOT YOU.
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bleachj0j
 Posts: 925 |
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Saying Chad's ethnicity isn't integral to his character is just not right. Its incredibly important in his backstory and all his attacks are in Spanish. Ultimately its his decision and he's not making a grand statement, if he wanted to give the role to an actor who may have not been in the role then let him.
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DankyKang
 Posts: 15 |
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Is Wendee Lee next? Seen some people like to claim Yoruichi is black and with Lee being a white woman and all.... I got a bad feeling about this.
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Soul_Punisher
Posts: 70 |
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Exactly. Can no one actually understand this.
Last time I checked the soul society don't really have cultures like the living world does. You nobility of families and poorer district so it already doesn't work or function in the same way like culture does in the world of the living in the show. Living world mirrors our present day closely so it makes sense for an actual representative to that whereas characters in the soul society barely show that in the same manner at least as far as the writing is concerned. Either way I approve of Jaimeson decision. |
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flamemasterelan
Posts: 463 |
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If Yoruichi does get replaced, it will be Wendee Lee's decision to do so, just like Jamieson Pierce. Not only did Viz not decide to replace JP, but Wendee Lee was also one of the directors of the original dub, and wouldn't be replaced so easily. Stop making more of this news than there actually is. |
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allnightclerk
 Posts: 43 Location: Osaka, Japan |
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I'm curious, but has there ever been a case where something like this happens but the actor actually chooses not to step down and keep voicing the role? I can't think of any. It's hard to think not a single actor wouldn't do that, so it could entirely be possible it's less of a 'willing' choice and more of a 'we're giving you the opportunity to bow out with grace before we replace you'. The alternative of everyone in the industry is on the same page when it comes to racial sensitivities which seems very unlikely, in my opinion. I'm not so sure a white voice actor could keep voicing a non-White/non-Asian role even if they wanted to. |
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Gem-Bug
 Posts: 1242 |
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@FeelMyBlade
This is like the only comment in this entire thread so far that is genuinely correct. Everyone needs to take a second to re-read it. |
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harminia
 Posts: 2012 Location: australia |
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No one SHOULD look at it this way because it was the old VA's decision to step down and give the role to someone else. It's not like Alain was whispering in his ear "this guys not white, let me play him" or something. Also people talking about the gap; isn't this the best time to cast new people? When there HAS been a significant gap? It's not like he got 20 eps in decided to swap, and I'm sure this was all decided a fair while back, so it's not like it'd be holding up production either. I think it was a very kinda move of Price to do this. I know anime is in that weird position where it's just voice acting so theoretically race might not matter but it sounds like Chad's mexican roots are important and it'd be better to have someone who can pronounce the attacks fluently anyway, plus I'm sure the role will mean a lot to the new VA. Giving Alain the chance to play the character is an important step forward. |
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catandmouse
Posts: 214 |
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The thing is, we need to stop putting people in boxes, because there is no way you can ever represent a whole group of people. For example, a lot of people think Mexico and think they whole country is like what they see in Coco, and the truth is that Mexico is a very diverse place. Same thing with trying to cast people to match the character just because of their last names.
True, last names usually depict origin, but that doesn’t define anything. For example someone that is a 3rd generation Mexican-American with a very obvious Hispanic last name might not know much about their ancestors culture because it was their great-grandparents who were Mexican. What’s the point of checking a box just because it matches outwardly when the inside may be totally different? For example, an old coworker has a very Hispanic last name, but he does not identify with his Mexican ancestry because he’s a 3rd or 4th generation Mexican. His kids are probably going to identify even less, yet their last name will still be Hispanic. I think we just need to let people be people because you’ll find all kinds of different people everywhere that may look a certain way and be different. Another example, an ex coworker whose name and last name is Japanese, yet she’s born and raised in Peru. She’s Peruvian through and through even if her ancestry is Japanese. There is also a family friend whose family is Mexican through and through yet if you look at his physical appearance he’s Asian and his last name is Japanese but he very much identifies as Mexican. So is he not Mexican-American because he’s not of Hispanic descent? It should be more about experiences and place of origin rather than ethnicity because you can be a certain ethnicity and culturally be something else. |
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flamemasterelan
Posts: 463 |
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Yes, there has. Literally every time a voice actor has reprised their role. Unless there's more to the story than has been posted here, Price says he was offered the role and made the difficult decision to turn it down because he didn't feel comfortable playing a person of color anymore. We have no evidence that someone pushed for him to leave the role - if that was the case, they wouldn't have offered him a reprisal in the first place! |
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oilers2007
Posts: 100 |
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Someone in a recent thread asked why Japanese voice-actors get more leveraging power when it comes to payrates, role security, and other things. Pretty much this right here is a big reason. Imagine giving up your biggest role willingly over something like this. People that do that are obviously not going to have much in the way of power or influence to call their own shots. Forget unionizing or payrates. If an industry suddenly decides that you shouldn't have your role based on your race alone then that sounds like a much bigger problem English actors should be worried about since there's nothing they can do to fight back. And it's certainly going to end up being a bigger problem in the future as the social rules get more and more restrictive on who can voice what. The actors who willingly go along with this are working against their own self interest so that's on them.
Recently a certain western actor made call that Asirpa from Golden Kamuy should be played by an Ainu actress and all of JP Twitter was dunking on him when they saw that comment and told him how Japan's industry is a meritoracy and that talent is the only important factor. They ran a poll to try to prove a point and like 97% of the participants said to hire based on merit and talent rather than immutable characteristics. He did not take that very well needless to say. It appears that the view in Japanese is talen should be about business and meritocracy. |
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Vanadise
 Posts: 505 |
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Insisting that an industry is a "meritocracy" as a smokescreen for systemic racism is practically a running joke. I've got really bad news for you if you think that there is no racism in Japan and everybody is judged purely based on their skill. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13581 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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I am not against more non-Whites voicing more anime characters. I am criticizing the mentality that Price approached it with.
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MFrontier
Posts: 11851 |
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Personally I don't think Price needed to do this but I respect his decision nevertheless. I guess it helps that this isn't the first time they're recast Chad.
And, good for Alain Mesa, even if Chad barely gets any dialogue so far in the arc so it's not like he'll get to really show himself off as the character much. I kind of hope they cast Price as one of the Sternritter or a spoiler[Squad Zero member.] so he can still be involved with the show. |
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