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INTEREST: Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Dub Casting Prompts Discussion Over Suletta Role

zanm0nk wrote:

I watched the tweets unfold all afternoon/evening yesterday... It's a shame that individuals may be feeling pressure to quash their dissent when this really is such a big issue in the industry overall. Crunchyroll chose to announce this role on the first day of Black History month here in the US so they deserve to get all the shade possible for the insult. Their choice to stick in Texas, a backwards RTW state that takes human rights away from its citizens regularly, is disgusting to begin with. But the fact that they're actively working to recast voice talent that they took on as remote work, when there's absolutely no technical reason to do so, is asinine at best.

Is February 1st some national day of mourning in America where companies aren't suppose to announce anything or something? What does G-Witch have to do with Black History Month?

Again:

Quote:

You're reading a tone into the article that isn't there, which might explain why your post reads so...offended? Nowhere in the article does it suggest that the casting decisions are objectively wrong. It explains that this is currently a point of discussion within the VA community on social media and why. Crunchyroll isn't going to come out and say who auditioned and didn't get the part or that a MENA actor auditioned for Suletta but they weren't as good so we went with Harris. That would be a PR nightmare.

Even the continued comment of "an excuse to shit on CR" is weird. We didn't plant this conversation that's happening. Some voice actors are unhappy with CR's current casting methods and we're reporting on that. If you don't think it's a worthwhile conversation, regardless of the many industry members taking part in it, that's fine?

Since it's obvious not everyone can connect the dots, with a role casting that could be construed as whitewashing, it's stupid to announce it on the first day of Black History month. It's obvious how tone-deaf those that made the decision are.

Unless you're a minority, you don't understand how important this stuff is. Like, seeing people, characters, and yes, voice actors, represent you, is extremely important to us. People who aren't minorities, don't get it, because you're represented every day. We're not.

I'm going to ignore the whole casting argument because I genuinely don't care and find it to be performative at the end of the day by studios and actors. English dubs are going to do whatever they want in the end of the day. But I want to say using names to try to figure out ethnicity seems like a bad idea. People said the same thing about John Cho being cast as Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop because "Spiegel" is a Jewish name and people insisted the character must be Jewish. But Watanabe has said he's Japanese and based on actor Yusaku Matsuda and described as "oriental" by other characters in canon. Gundam is a franchise with names like Bork Cry, Cracker Griffon, and Revive Revival. Nothing about the name Chibodee Crocket screams American to me, let alone any specific ethnicity, but yet he's the (white???) American guy in G Gundam. (Maybe he's named after Davy Crockett, but Chibodee sure isn't a real name at all...)

If people look at her skin color and see themselves represented by it, that's a valid take worth considering.

Yeah...way to miss / gloss over the main point I was making of not including the other side such as the many positive and supportive tweets to the casting. I guess you did throw in Alejandro Saab's casting near the end. But it just read as a bit to biased since any positive reaction to Suletta's casting seemed to be left out and the majority of the article was was lets find a reason to shit on CR again and bring up there casting decisions once again.

Really? I thought she got her skin tone due to being from the closest planet to the sun.

If we apply the idea of a White person voicing a non-White character to be Whitewashing, then a Japanese person voicing a White character or non-Asian is Asian-washing. Yes, I am applying that logic. Voice acting has a lot more leeway than on-screen or on-stage acting. Sometimes it is best for a White person to voice a Japanese character as well as many vice versa.

RemGalleuSimp wrote:

Yeah...way to miss / gloss over the main point I was making of not including the other side such as the many positive and supportive tweets to the casting. I guess you did throw in Alejandro Saab's casting near the end. But it just read as a bit to biased since any positive reaction to Suletta's casting seemed to be left out and the majority of the article was was lets find a reason to shit on CR again and bring up there casting decisions once again.

I agree that this article seems a bit one-sided. In addition to the positive comments, there are also some voice actors not mentioned who pointed out the strangeness of all this casting talk, Adam Tilford for example.

I also agree with your other point that we do not have enough information about the casting decision to know what's going on. As you said, none of the people ANN quoted have any insight into the casting decisions. They are not this show's producers or casting directors.

We do not know with certainty that Middle Eastern or North African VAs were not auditioned. Maybe they were auditioned and were not chosen for some reason. Maybe the reason is even unrelated to their ancestry. Or maybe MENA VAs really were not auditioned at all. We just don't know.

It's upsetting to see some people attacking others and making assumptions about the casting procedure. We wouldn't want to spread misinformation about others' livelihoods. Let's see what the producers or casting directors have to say first (if they choose to discuss it).

penguintruth wrote:

Suletta is also neurodivergent coded, but you don’t see anyone demand a neurodivergent voice actor play her.

While this is not specifically Suletta, I was not happy with the casting of Odokawa on the ODD TAXI dub for the same reason. They could've gotten a nuerodivergent actor and they chose not and I felt that was such a missed opportunity. I got some crap for it on my twitter feed for it, too.

So yes, actually, it's a missed opportunity with Suletta as well.

Representation matters. Like, I cannot stress this enough.

Glordit wrote:

This was a non-issue which is been blown out of proportion for whatever reason. I don't watch dubs but good on the people getting voice roles. Why can't we just celebrate them getting a role? Why must it be about politics and representation?

Unless you're a minority, you don't understand how important this stuff is. Like, seeing people, characters, and yes, voice actors, represent you, is extremely important to us. People who aren't minorities, don't get it, because you're represented every day. We're not.

If we apply the idea of a White person voicing a non-White character to be Whitewashing, then a Japanese person voicing a White character or non-Asian is Asian-washing. Yes, I am applying that logic. Voice acting has a lot more leeway than on-screen or on-stage acting. Sometimes it is best for a White person to voice a Japanese character as well as many vice versa.