Macross - Voice Actor Appreciation & Discussion

[Westlo]

I liked what Megumi Toyoguchi did with both versions of Klein Klan, I looked up her roles on ANN and she's done a lot of nice roles I've seen... Revy, Winry, Tsukasa and Honoka. I'm liking her other big role his season in Maid Guys Fubuki.

[vspirit]

...what's GAR? As in, exactly? Would someone mind explaining to me?

Don't get me wrong. I love seiyuu and have been for years but sometimes these terms just escape me. I've seen it used numerous times and can draw some conclusions but since I've never been given a concrete explanation, they're only vague at best. I suppose it's only wise to ask now than to spend an eternity wondering, assuming but never being sure. It's only quite recently that I even managed to properly grasp the meaning of , believe it or not-.-;;;

[velocity7]

GAR means that a character is very manly, acts very manly, or is just so awesome as a guy that we all bow down before him.

[vspirit]

Ah...I thought it was manly at first but then I saw references where that didn't particularly work and was thrown off for a bit but the last bit of your explanation finally drove it home.

Thanks muchly.

P/S: Can I also assume that it is the manly version of MOE?

PP/S:

It's only quite recently that I even managed to properly grasp the meaning of , believe it or not-.-;;;

For some reason, the word MOE was left out either by my own mistake or it got censored out. If it's the latter, is it a taboo word here or something? o.O But yes, it's the meaning of that word that I only very recently have come to understand properly.

PPP/S: Bringing it back into topic a little, I, too, appreciate the way Kamiya-shi voices his character. =)

[dodgethis_sg]

Megumi Nakajima's performance so far is just blowing my mind away. At first, I was skeptical because this is her first role and I found her voice somewhat stilted from the preview in December but after some character development in the actual airing, it fits her character quite well. And her singing. My god, her singing. Just so beautiful, so, so beautiful. Diamond Crevasse, My Boyfriend is a Pilot and now, What 'Bout My Star. Just brilliant.

In fact, I think the entire voice cast's performance is brilliant. Not the strongest cast in any anime by far, but the best performance by the entire group.

[vspirit]

Brought over from the General Character Discussion thread.

Originally Posted by Tak

Really? Thats what he sounds like in real life, eh?

Well, more or less. He's definitely a natural tenor, in any case.

Originally Posted by Tak

I guess I found out while I was playing Valkyria of the Battlefield, and heard his voice. I thought I heard Lulu, so I went and checked him up, and HOLY CRAP, he was credited with the role of Luca.

Wait a minute. So was the 'Lulu' you heard in there Luca or not? Cos I don't think Luca was ever meant to have a Lulu moment, unlike some of his other characters. The range in which he uses for Luca is so far to the other side of the spectrum, I find it unthinkable for there to be chance at all for his Lulu voice to emerge. Or was it actually someone else and it was by sheer coincidence that Fukuyama was still listed, but as a whole other character that you hadn't suspected was him at all?

[Tak]

Fukuyama was credited with the role of Prince Maxmillian in 'Valkyria of the Battlefield', who was a cold-hearted, ambitious strategist entrusted with the duty of conquering Gallia.

So you can guess which persona he would refer to for this particular role.

I just didn't think for one split second that he'd be the voice for Luca in Macross F, as well.

- Tak (And no, it wasn't his Luca persona in Valkyria of the Battlefield)

[vspirit]

Originally Posted by Tak

Fukuyama was credited with the role of Prince Maxmillian in 'Valkyria of the Battlefield', who was a cold-hearted, ambitious strategist entrusted with the duty of conquering Gallia.

So you can guess which persona he would refer to for this particular role.

Quite quickly. Instantly, even. Because as far as I know, he only has one pitch for that kind of character. It's probably his work as Lelouch that brought forth opportunities in doing these sorta roles for him, I reckon.

[Matrim]

Most star studded cast since Gundam SEED Destiny and what's even more amazing, the less experienced seiyuu who have some of the most important roles don't allow the likes of Kuwashima Houko to outshine them. What's not to like?

At first I was all "damn it, give the big stars bigger roles" but I got over that sentiment. In fact thus far I have been most impressed with Endou Aya and Kamiya Hiroshi - probably because they have had a lot of screen time and I tend to take for granted that Tanaka Rie and co will be perfect ("Voice Actors are humans" is a good point). Still I think these two have done a great job.

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by Matrim

Most star studded cast since Gundam SEED Destiny and what's even more amazing, the less experienced seiyuu who have some of the most important roles don't allow the likes of Kuwashima Houko to outshine them. What's not to like?

While Gundam Seed Destiny and Macross Frontier boast an excellent seiyuu cast, the crown should go to Claymore, which had the best seiyuu cast in just about forever:

Spoiler for Claymore, it's off-topic, not a spoiler:

• A-list cast: Kuwashima Houko, Paku Romi, Inoue Kikuko, Hisakawa Aya, Mitsuishi Kotono, Shinohara Emi and Orikasa Ai
• B-list cast: Kawasumi Ayako, Mizuki Nana, Nagasawa Miki, Toyoguchi Megumi and Takeuchi Junko

A lesser seiyuu than Kuwashima Houko would have been sunk among all those veterans.

Originally Posted by Matrim

At first I was all "damn it, give the big stars bigger roles" but I got over that sentiment. In fact thus far I have been most impressed with Endou Aya and Kamiya Hiroshi - probably because they have had a lot of screen time and I tend to take for granted that Tanaka Rie and co will be perfect ("Voice Actors are humans" is a good point). Still I think these two have done a great job.

I agree. I think that all three of the leads have been doing a good job, and that it's an instrumental part of making their characters work. I'm particularly impressed with Nakajima Megumi - she started off a little shaky, but she's gotten much more comfortable with Ranka's role lately. Her work is much more deep-voiced than most other seiyuu would have used for Ranka's archetype, and I think that it's a refreshing change. For these reasons, she reminds me of myco's work in Full Moon wo Sagashite.

[Matrim]

I actually had forgotten Claymore but I don't think Gundam SEED/Destiny are inferior to it as far as seiyuu casts go but of course this is a matter of very subjective taste. Let's just say that according to me Claymore is lacking a bit in regards of male talent due to its very nature (few male characters) and the lack of the allmighty Takehito Koyasu and Toshihiko Seki which are present in SEED.

I'm particularly impressed with Nakajima Megumi - she started off a little shaky, but she's gotten much more comfortable with Ranka's role lately. Her work is much more deep-voiced than most other seiyuu would have used for Ranka's archetype, and I think that it's a refreshing change.

That's true, I might have not mentioned her because her character is not exactly my favourite but with the wrong seiyuu such type of characters can instead of "not my favourite" be "extremely annoying" - at least in my eyes (or should I say ears? ). I think her Ranka is sounding just as it should - shy but not so much that it becomes an overkill, also with determinatino in the right moments.

[Westlo]

I actually prefer the cast to SEED and maybe Frontier (too early to judge some performeances and some characters yet to debut) to Claymore because it has a better balance of male/female VAs (which considering how the story of Claymore is always going to happen..). Also speaking of Kuwashima Houko I really wasn't that impressed by her Claire... she's done a lot better.. like her performance as Kou Shuurei from Saiunkoku Monogatari where she shined around some amazing male VA talent like Seki Tomokazu, Ikeda Shuichi, Midorikawa Hikaru, Koyasu Takehito, Kiuchi Hidenobu, Hiyama Nobuyuki among others.

[Tak]

I too feel it is a little unfair to use CLAYMORE as an example. It had an entire platoon of A-list female voice actress for the roles partly due to its female-dominated cast with extensive speaking roles for most. Of course, the list of female VAs wasn't that long to begin with

Personally, I'd pick Naomi Shindo over some of the A-list VAs in CLAYMORE. If anyone seen Mai-Hime/Otome, it was surprising to note that Shizuru's VA was the same Naomi Shindo who also voiced Cagali from SEED. I have rarely seen anyone who could roll-over accents (something none of the A-list VAs in Claymore could pull off) and character back-n-forth so fluently.

Obviously, being born and raised in Kyoto have certain advantages.

Then again, I have a thing for Kyoto accent, it tend to make me all warm n' fluffy inside

- Tak (Oh, try not to be convinced when some of the female VAs attempt an OSAKA accent, they are not very authentic)

[houkoholic]

Originally Posted by Tak

Personally, I'd pick Naomi Shindo over some of the A-list VAs in CLAYMORE. If anyone seen Mai-Hime/Otome, it was surprising to note that Shizuru's VA was the same Naomi Shindo who also voiced Cagali from SEED. I have rarely seen anyone who could roll-over accents (something none of the A-list VAs in Claymore could pull off) and character back-n-forth so fluently.

Obviously, being born and raised in Kyoto have certain advantages.

Then again, I have a thing for Kyoto accent, it tend to make me all warm n' fluffy inside

- Tak (Oh, try not to be convinced when some of the female VAs attempt an OSAKA accent, they are not very authentic)

*cough*Hisakawa Aya*cough*

Hisakawa Aya is from Osaka and is renouned for her Osaka-ben in the industry, and yes she can swap easily between the dialects.

[yezhanquan]

Originally Posted by Matrim

Most star studded cast since Gundam SEED Destiny and what's even more amazing, the less experienced seiyuu who have some of the most important roles don't allow the likes of Kuwashima Houko to outshine them. What's not to like?

At first I was all "damn it, give the big stars bigger roles" but I got over that sentiment. In fact thus far I have been most impressed with Endou Aya and Kamiya Hiroshi - probably because they have had a lot of screen time and I tend to take for granted that Tanaka Rie and co will be perfect ("Voice Actors are humans" is a good point). Still I think these two have done a great job.

Endo-san and Kamiya-san had proved that they are some of the biggies among the new stars. Miyuki from Lucky Star and "Zetsubou-sensei" Itoshiki are quite enough to get in my books.

Unlike 4Tran, I don't have an A-list or B-list distinction. As long as the name doesn't make me go "huh" even after I searched for it, it's good enough.

[Tak]

Originally Posted by houkoholic

*cough*Hisakawa Aya*cough*

Hisakawa Aya is from Osaka and is renouned for her Osaka-ben in the industry, and yes she can swap easily between the dialects.

Yeah, but anyone can fake an Osaka dialect (which isn't exactly a source of envy in Japan), but it takes a true inhabitant from the former capital of Japan to pull off a pure Kyoto accent.

- Tak

[vspirit]

Apparently, Osaka-ben is not as easy to fake as some seem to think it is. Natural-sounding Osaka-ben is completely different from the faked ones you hear on TV. To an Osaka native, they can actually tell whether or not a person is native from the way they speak the dialect. Unless that person is a really, REALLY, good faker, 9 times out of 10, a native can tell straight away just by listening.

Or so my colleague, who's an Osaka native, said. I suppose I can sorta get what this colleague of mine means, too, based on some of the natural ones I've heard.

It doesn't stop people from trying, though. And it seems people from the Kantou region find it really cute and are always goading their Osakan counterparts (loads of em working in the capital and such) into using their accents. xxD (but I must admit, the natural ones are really, really cute-sounding).

[houkoholic]

Originally Posted by Tak

Yeah, but anyone can fake an Osaka dialect (which isn't exactly a source of envy in Japan), but it takes a true inhabitant from the former capital of Japan to pull off a pure Kyoto accent.

- Tak

Now you're just moving goal posts.

This is what you said before:

- Tak (Oh, try not to be convinced when some of the female VAs attempt an OSAKA accent, they are not very authentic)

So which is it? Osaka-ben is easy to fake or are the fakes not authentic?

Hisakawa Aya is born and raised in Osaka, and of course, Hisakawa Aya's Osaka-ben *is* authentic, and she also does many characters which speaks in both the official dialect and Osaka-ben, which is why I pointed her out because you didn't give her the credit in the Claymore A-list.

Of course there are many seiyuu which can speak other dialects but trains themselves to speak the official one - a whole bunch of them comes from the Kyushyu area (which is where I used to live before moving to Tokyo) and can speak unique dialects from there (such as the Hakata-ben), it's just that there aren't nearly as many characters or fascination in that area in anime to make use of that.

[Tak]

Originally Posted by houkoholic

Now you're just moving goal posts.

This is what you said before:

Allow me to clarify.

Osaka-ben can be faked. Yes, it won't sound right to a native, but it can be faked with a varying degree of authenticity. Although most VAs who try to fake it, and they've done it before, can't do a very good job at it unless they are, as you mentioned, an Osaka native, which is another story altogether.

But if you want to fake a Kyoto-accent, that take skills dawg, skills!

- Tak

[yezhanquan]

Officially, I've only heard Madono Mitsuaki doing Osaka-ben in Getbackers. It cracked me up. I can only imagine how he and Yoshino Hiroyuki (as Natsuki Amon) did their joke routine in the drama CDs, if it was included in the first place.