Forum - View topicINTEREST: Gundam: The Witch From Mercury Dub Casting Prompts Discussion Over Suletta Role
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cyberdraco
Posts: 628 |
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In my opinion, I think this thing is blown out of proportion. As long as the VA can give a good performance, that's all that matters. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having diversity in a voice casts be it for Cartoons, Anime, or Video Games, but I think that being a good actor that can portray the character well should matter more than having the actor and character sharing a race.
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igiari21
Posts: 36 |
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I have trouble being sympathetic to VAs who speak out about this because they continue to take work from the corporations they criticize and keep feeding into the system they're speaking out against.
I do think diversity matters and not casting a MENA lead was a big missed opportunity, but i can't help but think it feels opportunistic to criticize your boss but continue to accept work from them. Take a stand or don't. |
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Ultimate N
Posts: 133 |
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So the way I see it here there are two conversations being presented in this article, there’s the conversation of Crunchyroll ending remote recording and the problem of actors being denied to play roles connected to their race. So firstly I’ll say that the Crunchyroll remote recording thing I’ll gladly agree was a mistake. I mean fact is they still DO it like with Chainsaw Man so I would happily say it’s been an annoying thing to see something that lead to a really strong uptake in English dub quality be ruined. Tho I will be fair in that it can be kind of a strain on engineers and that can’t be ignored. Even with remote recording people doing everything they can it can still be hard for engineers.
Now for the OTHER conversation…..Imma be real this is stupid. Look I understand that because Suletta is in a lesbian relationship and has Middle Eastern descent, but also unless they actually delve into the full on culture I don’t really think it’s that relevant. I dunno if Zach Aguilar is of Hispanic descent but nobody really cared then. You can say it’s about somebody representing their culture but this show isn’t about middle eastern culture it’s a new original Gundam anime, it’s about war and also in this case a Yuri relationship. Like the queer part at least makes more sense to me tho I would ask how many of those people were happy about Nick Offerman as Bill in The Last of Us. My point is this isn’t the show to be upset over and this isn’t the hill worth dying on. Just enjoy the good English dub of the really good show. |
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Cryssoberyl
 Posts: 241 |
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Dubs were and are a mistake. The only certain thing is that whoever redubs Suletta, it is still an unnecessary alteration of the original. So getting on one's highhorse one way or the other about who's going to paint over the original work is odd and more than a little hypocritical. All that said, the company is still to blame for not foreseeing the inevitable desire and expectation that people would want to see a non-white character voiced by a non-white individual of a similar ethnic background. If you're going to go to the effort of changing the voicework, that is not an unreasonable expectation.
But the real lesson here is that the endeavor of dubbing is just asinine to begin with. Anime is Japanese stories made by Japanese people. Make your own original works with English VA if you want that, rather than papering over works from other cultures to suit your own parochialism - and for the record I would feel the same about, for instance, She-Ra or some other Western original works being redubbed into Japanese. Everyone should learn to appreciate the great tapestry of human works in their original, intended frame of cultural reference. |
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frozenkex
 Posts: 17 |
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People need to stop saying this. It's only a missed opportunity if there is a "MENA" VA that : 1) has a voice that fits the role 2)good acting chops 3) is actually willing to work at anime dub rates. Last edited by frozenkex on Thu Feb 02, 2023 5:55 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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GWOtaku
 Posts: 678 |
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Frankly, one thing that seems obvious: even if you think Suletta should have had an "accurate" or "representative" casting, it isn't true that this would have struck any kind of meaningful blow for inclusive voice casting. Because frankly, how could it? Doing so simply fits a fairly narrow idea of "appropriate" casting. If it goes that way and then the attitude is "well, our work here is done", then what good is that if access and opportunity are what matters to you?
So the conversation is maybe useful insofar as it raises examination of how deeply, how well & how often VA studios audition new talent beyond the pool that's already pretty well established. But if you're looking for "representative" voice casting to make voice acting more diverse, you're going to be waiting a very long time. Because the fact of the matter is that anime is not going to provide nearly enough leading roles to make this happen that way. |
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Blazi
 Posts: 502 |
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I literally don't care who voices who if they are a good voice actor and will fit the role as good as the sub.
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getumbuck
Posts: 198 |
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It's a dub. It's like being upset that Japanese characters in an anime, are being dubbed with people who are caucasian, black, or hispanic. It just doesn't make sense.
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StarDango
Posts: 99 |
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Going to have to agree with a few people on here. Stick me in the “I’m a minority and I think this is overblown” club.
This isn’t a hill worth dying on and expecting a character’s English VA to have to fit a list of specific characteristics for it to be “OK” for them to do their job is ludicrous. We don’t know what went into auditioning and picking the VAs. Personally, I always assume it’s based on either convenience or talent or both. You can say “missed opportunities” and whatever, but that assumes that the “right” person you’re expecting actually stepped up for said opportunity and was, you know, the right VA for the job. Jill Harris, in particular, is a great VA and I can connect her voice with Suletta’s character. That’s what matters to me more than if the VA matches the character’s ethnicity or sexuality or whatever. To reference other dubs, neither Zeno Robinson nor Alejandro Saab are Chinese but I thought they were amazing as the leads of Link Click. Kayleigh McKee is an amazing queer VA and I’m glad her list of characters isn’t strictly limited to her queer identity because it shows off more of her range and talents. And to the dub haters- you can have your opinions but this isn’t the thread to talk about it. Discourse about a dub’s casting choice isn’t a call for you to get on your soap box and talk down on the dubbing industry entirely. |
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Series5Ranger
Posts: 42 |
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Isn't acting, in a nutshell, pretending to be someone you aren't? So it really doesn't matter who got the role as long as they can do a good job. That's just me though.
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6043 |
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People who don’t speak Japanese and would prefer to watch things in a language they primarily speak? This question is not overly profound or thought provoking.
Oh is that why when the Vic Mignogna thing happened why you had people talking about how unfairly he was being treated and how his accusers were going to pay in court for ruining his career? People are going to care.
Are we including properties like Jojo or Rose of Versailles and countless others including Gundam that are set outside of Japan and feature a largely non Japanese cast? Not to mention may be worked on by staff or studios who aren’t native Japanese?
Which will be dubbed in non English languages when the work in question is brought to markets that don’t primarily speak English.
That would be localizing which at least in the U.S. is largely a dead practice.
This is a somewhat naive mindset that ignores the fact that each language has it nuances and other aspects that will be glossed over if you don’t know how to speak the given language. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11851 |
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I get the desire for representation and wanting to see more diverse VA's get roles or roles that match them...but I can't help but find this a non-issue considering how little Suletta's ethnicity matters to her character (she comes off more "anime girl" than "MENA girl" to me) and that ultimately it's her voice and how well it captures her character that matters in the end. Especially in an industry where 97% of the time it's Americans playing Japanese characters.
I do think the casting process should be open and fair (and wish remote recording was more of a thing instead of being so often strictly for Texas casts these days) but I also think Jill Harris will do a great job playing Suletta. In fact this isn't even her first Kana Ichinose role.
The funny thing is that the dub actually cast different VA's for Suletta and Eri, but I think that was less because of the theory that they're different people and more just something the voice director does even for female VA's who could conceivably play their characters at a younger age. |
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Sketchor
Posts: 74 |
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I feel like NYAV Post, Sound Cadence, Kocha Sound or many of the studios that dub for Netflix would have found a MENA actress or a neurodivergent actress or even an actress that is both MENA and neurodivergent because they cast from a wide pool. Maybe that looks performative but representation matters.
I hope Crunchyroll at least auditioned MENA and neurodivergent actresses in this case but I kinda doubt they did even that much. They have so many dubs to produce every season that they often fall back on reliable local talent with short lists for characters because they can’t spend a lot of time auditioning. But they didn’t rush out this dub to air a few weeks behind Japan so maybe they took more time auditioning this one. Sunrise might have had to approve the casting even. |
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reynado
Posts: 18 |
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This is literally the first time I'm hearing the claim that Suletta is Middle-Easter. It sounds like Twitter just being Twitter again. People should be careful what they advocate for because something like representative casting sounds like something that would backfire on these people horribly. I'm sure if I look up their resumes they're going to be voicing a lot of ethnically Japanese characters. So it's probably not in their best interest to push for representative casting in a medium that's made up of 99% Japanese characters unless they're willing to give those roles up. Although more than likely people are pushing for a double standard where they get to voice anyone they want and it's only the other people who have to play by the proposed rules.
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GWOtaku
Posts: 678 |
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Not to get too nitpicky here, but so far as Witch From Mercury is concerned it isn't the case that the majority of the characters are Japanese and that's very far off from unique when it comes to a Gundam series anime. These are shows with a lot of characters from a lot of backgrounds. So in point of fact, any given Gundam project now or in the future is going to be fertile ground to cast a wide net on casting. The only question is the willingness to do so. It doesn't come up directly in the show but Suletta is a mixed-race person, that much isn't up for debate. The information we have about her parents is what it is. & incidentally it wouldn't even be the first person visibly coded as being of Middle Eastern descent either (see Setsuna F Seiei, Gundam 00). Anyway, representative casting isn't *bad* in and of itself. My point is that it's *not enough* if the goal is more diversity in casting, which is what the people who brought this up really have as their bottom line. In essence, what's most interesting to me isn't "why wasn't a MENA actress cast as Suletta" but rather, say, something like "how many non-white people auditioned for Miorine"? Because that kind of thing, as I see it, is what more opportunity actually looks like. Earlier in the day I saw this thing on twitter. It was Joe Barbera getting into how Scatman Crothers, a 71-year-old black man, was cast as Hong Kong Phooey in the 70s because he played audition performances for the big shots and he had them pick out what their favorite was before he told them who it belonged to. Because otherwise they would have had preemptive opinions about using him before what he could do was even given a chance. https://twitter.com/HannaBarberaCap/status/1620885962665660417 So that's it. Make sense? |
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