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NEWS: Eva: 2.0's English Asuka, Mari, Kaji Cast

penguintruth wrote:

_V_ wrote: All's right the the world, Tiffany's back as Asuka. Having seen how much even Spike and Allison improved after 13 years of experience, I think Tiffany as Asuka in Rebuild 2 will be simply stunning. They improved slightly. It's hardly a night and day improvement, which is what they needed to be good. They're no Ogata and Mitsuishi.

I would argue that the exact reverse is true: Ogata and Mitsuishi were no Spike and Allison. I have listened to the original series both ways and never understood why those two were lauded, while the English cast was derided, when the Japanese performances were so flat and dull.

Renaisance Otaku wrote:

Unsurprised to see Grant back, though Funi had no real loyalty to the overrated ADV dub like Manga did (which greatly hurt their tl quality in the process). I like her a lot in other roles, but I'm with Penguin in agreeing that she's always sounded wrong for the character. Never knew why (could be that I had switched to the sub by Asuka's arrival due to only having access to it and got used to and adored Miyamura in the role), she just didn't do it for me. It would've been nice, given the changes to Asuka, to see how a new actress would handle it. Worked for Rei. Definitely worked for Maya and Gendo.

But the problem here is that Amanda Winn Lee's performance as Rei is immensely less iconic; the character talks in such a subdued voice all the time that it wouldn't take much effort to duplicate the performance. Maya was, for me, and toss-up (the original performance was, admittedly, only so-so), and I'm from the gang that found Tristan MacAvery's Gendo to be an ideal mix of smarminess and authority, though John Swasey is a decent replacement in a distinctly different interpretation on the character.

Tiffany Grant's Asuka, though, is one of the most iconic English dub performances of the '90s, and I'm reasonably sure that most involved in actually making English dubs recognize and acknowledge that, which combined with Tiffany's fervent love for the character made casting her again this time a slam-dunk. (Her voice hasn't significantly changed over the years, either.) For me, Asuka is not Asuka without Tiffany Grant doing that voice, as she adds so much to the character that the original seiyuu could not.

Really, those who couldn't stand her performance in the original series should just go enjoy the Japanese subbed version and stop whining about a dub that you weren't going to watch anyway.

I actually wasn't expecting Grant to return as Asuka. I'll be interested in seeing how she's changed compared to Spike Spencer and Allison Keith. I do wonder why they didn't ask Amanada Winn Lee back to voice Rei since it seems they're getting back a lot of the original VAs.

I've never heard of the two VAs for Mari or Kaji.

Also, as a Asuka fanboy (statuette of her balanced on top of my TV as I write this) I won't be buying this. I started to watch the camrip that was out a while ago, and got pissed when spoiler[Asuka was killed instead of Toji.] That means that, for me, THIS is the end of Evangelion.

I do wonder why they didn't ask Amanada Winn Lee back to voice Rei since it seems they're getting back a lot of the original VAs.

vashthekaizoku wrote:

Also, as a Asuka fanboy (statuette of her balanced on top of my TV as I write this) I won't be buying this. I started to watch the camrip that was out a while ago, and got pissed when spoiler[Asuka was killed instead of Toji.] That means that, for me, THIS is the end of Evangelion.

Just to correct you on one thing: spoiler[ Asuka didn't die after Unit 3 was destroyed, she was just injured. She appears in the preview at the end of the film and will appear in the third film.]

Jikorijo wrote:

I do wonder why they didn't ask Amanada Winn Lee back to voice Rei since it seems they're getting back a lot of the original VAs.

They did ask her. But as much as she wanted to, she was unable to do it, so FUNi went with the closest thing they had.

FUNi made it a point to ask all of the original voices back first, or at least all of the main voices. If anyone was recast it means either the original VA didn't want to do the role again, or FUNi couldn't find them.

I'm curious, penguin of truth. What English voice actor would YOU want to voice Shinji Ikari? Someone with great subtle acting skills who could match or beat Megumi Ogata's Shinji? And while you're at it, who would make a good Asuka as well.

Jikorijo wrote:

I do wonder why they didn't ask Amanada Winn Lee back to voice Rei since it seems they're getting back a lot of the original VAs.

They did ask her. But as much as she wanted to, she was unable to do it, so FUNi went with the closest thing they had.

FUNi made it a point to ask all of the original voices back first, or at least all of the main voices. If anyone was recast it means either the original VA didn't want to do the role again, or FUNi couldn't find them.