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this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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Anime
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Anime is hand-drawn and computer animation originating from Japan.
Anime; the one thing that gets us closer to each other and brings us together.
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Honestly I don't think the actors race really matters too much for voice acting. Let the voice directors/casters pick the voices they think best match the characters. If that happens to mean that actors are selected by race, then that is because that's what the voice director/caster wanted. For some stories it works better or makes more sense when the voice actor is selected based on race, and for some stories it doesn't. Let the voice director/caster decide.
This doesn't have to be hard.
Yeah, voice acting is the one area where race and gender should not matter. Imagine losing out on the voice actor for Kratos. Everything else is so dependent on physical appearances in the entertainment industry where you have to look the part, so it'd be a shame for voice acting to also be affected by that.
It's the one place where it's just the voice that matters, and the best voice roles being ones where you don't recognize the actor behind it.
Well no, race and gender can still matter. Basically, the choice of whether race matters or not should be up to the voice director/caster.
For example, if I was voice director on a project that features characters from feudal Japan, I would probably not cast white actors. Not that white actors are bad, but I wouldn't consider them a good fit. I would prefer to hire native Japanese actors, as that would give a more authentic sound to the voices in my opinion. Or, if I was making a new Silent Hill, I would prefer American actors (for characters that arent specifically a certain nationality) over other nationalities. It would give a more authentic sound as compared to hiring actors that sound "non-American."
At the same time, if I was casting characters for something like Sword Art Online, I wouldn't really care much about who the actors are. The premise of people being transported into an MMORPG lends itself to having a varied voice cast. So I would simply pick voices that I feel best sound like what I hear from the character in my mind.
In any of those cases, the choice should be left to the voice director/caster. They know the project and have conversed with the producers, artists, and other creatives on the project. No project should be required to include or not include races of people. If it is what the creatives want, thats what should be done.
For me there's stuff like Samurai Jack which isnt voiced by a Japanese person, and that voice to me never left me feeling it would have been better voiced by someone else. I just heard and saw the animated character of Jack.
Same goes for many younger male characters voiced by females that I never found myself wishing it was voiced by a male like voices of Bart Simpson and Timmy Turner.
To me it sounds like you are more speaking of native language voices? Like if a character speaks English you want it to be voiced by someone who speaks like a native speaker, or Japanese you want someone who speaks like a native speaker and so on. That I do agree with. You want someone who can deliver the performance of native speaker regardless of race. So you wouldn't want like Mark Hamill doing a Japanese dub of the Joker.
Like an example I think of is Vinland Saga voiced by Japanese for the Japanese language. I don't think the performance would be better replacing them with white Japanese speakers to deliver the performance in Japanese if their performance isn't as good. And for English I'd apply the same where the delivery is more important like how it wasn't important that House for example was a British actor delivering the performance of an American doctor.
I like animation to be a place where anyone can voice anyone if their performance is good and none of their other traits matter. But only voice performance. Like how orchestras may hire based on auditions with the performance being done behind a curtain.
I am saying let the voice director/caster decide who plays the voice. If they want a person with an Asian accent playing a white character, then thats what they want. If they want a person with an European accent playing an African character or vice versa, then that's what they want. Let them pick. They know about the project and usually the intention behind it. They will know the sound they want.
Im not saying they should pick based solely off of skin color. Pick based off of voice sound. Sometimes someone will say they want a specific race but what they really mean is that they want a particular accent common to that race or nationality.
I'm not deciding for them. I'm explaining why I don't find physical or background traits to be something I find important for voice acting.