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INTEREST: Ken Akamatsu Comments on Casting POC Voice Actors in American Cartoons, Japanese Anime

While the voice acting changes recently are obviously empty, symbolic gestures that don't have anything to do with the real problem of police violence (this is like having a flat tire and changing your bumper sticker to fix it), some good can perhaps come from it by giving PoC voice actors a chance they might not normally get because of hiring biases (it's not always a meritocracy).

And Japan has its own issues with discrimination.

One of the best parts about voice acting is a person's appearance doesn't have to correlate to the character on screen. I've heard more than a few voice actors express that sentiment and say how it helps avoid typecasting because they don't have to look the part.

There is also obviously the problem of trying to cast based on an appearance that may or may not turn out to be accurate. What do you do with, for example, a show with a setting modeled after European medieval times, but the characters have Japanese names? Isekais would be a bit a challenge since many of them involve a Japanese person reincarnating with a different appearance. My Next Life as a Villainess involves a Japanese girl reincarnating into a character with a name and living in a setting that would suggest she is closer to European now. What do you do with that other than cast whomever gives the best audition?

but it's standard in Japan to leave an explanatory note about that while preserving the work as it was in the past.

Greed1914 wrote:

One of the best parts about voice acting is a person's appearance doesn't have to correlate to the character on screen. I've heard more than a few voice actors express that sentiment and say how it helps avoid typecasting because they don't have to look the part. There is also obviously the problem of trying to cast based on an appearance that may or may not turn out to be accurate. What do you do with, for example, a show with a setting modeled after European medieval times, but the characters have Japanese names? Isekais would be a bit a challenge since many of them involve a Japanese person reincarnating with a different appearance. My Next Life as a Villainess involves a Japanese girl reincarnating into a character with a name and living in a setting that would suggest she is closer to European now. What do you do with that other than cast whomever gives the best audition?

Yea that’s great and all but when the English voice acting industry is predominantly white people and very few BIPOC in comparison the BIPOC actors really only get the one line token roles. While the white actors get both white/BIPOC roles and get to say that’s why they get to say “it doesn’t matter how you look to be a voice actor” it’s really funny how it’s really only white voice actors saying that. Actors that are BIPOC don’t get the same chance to audition for bigger roles because they are type casted for one off token characters and yet when a major role that is a character of color they’re not even given a chance at the role. If you followed any BIPOC voice actor on twitter you would’ve seen them talking about this over the last few weeks.

Quote:

but it's standard in Japan to leave an explanatory note about that while preserving the work as it was in the past.

this is a bit funny coming from Japan, a country that likes to avoid talking about WII as much as they can.

This whole Simpsons (and Family Guy) thing is ridiculous so I agree with him. When it comes to voice, the only thing that matters is the acting ability. And while I'm sure people here know how I feel about anime dubs, it's literally impossible to cast them all as Japanese actors that speak English. Simply impossible. As long as the person doing the voice doesn't do an obvious racist impression that caters to racist stereotypes, then there's no issue. The role just needs to be acted with sincerity.

Ken Akamatsu's also commented on foreign influence on the manga industry ( I can only assume he means China, since the US is really an tiny tiny fraction of the foreign money flow). https://twitter.com/KenAkamatsu/status/1277578343538257921

Kougeru wrote:

Quote: but it's standard in Japan to leave an explanatory note about that while preserving the work as it was in the past. this is a bit funny coming from Japan, a country that likes to avoid talking about WII as much as they can. This whole Simpsons (and Family Guy) thing is ridiculous so I agree with him. When it comes to voice, the only thing that matters is the acting ability. And while I'm sure people here know how I feel about anime dubs, it's literally impossible to cast them all as Japanese actors that speak English. Simply impossible. As long as the person doing the voice doesn't do an obvious racist impression that caters to racist stereotypes, then there's no issue. The role just needs to be acted with sincerity. Ken Akamatsu's also commented on foreign influence on the manga industry ( I can only assume he means China, since the US is really an tiny tiny fraction of the foreign money flow). https://twitter.com/KenAkamatsu/status/1277578343538257921

Yeah, but the thing is that BIPOC don't get that chance that much and thus they deserve a better role with them.

2) There are tons of PoC/minority actors who can absolutely do a great job with voice acting roles. The reasons they haven't been hired as often is mostly due to systematic racism (not necessarily by racists, and not necessarily on purpose), not a lack of talent.

Quote:

but it's standard in Japan to leave an explanatory note about that while preserving the work as it was in the past.

this is a bit funny coming from Japan, a country that likes to avoid talking about WII as much as they can.

This whole Simpsons (and Family Guy) thing is ridiculous so I agree with him. When it comes to voice, the only thing that matters is the acting ability. And while I'm sure people here know how I feel about anime dubs, it's literally impossible to cast them all as Japanese actors that speak English. Simply impossible. As long as the person doing the voice doesn't do an obvious racist impression that caters to racist stereotypes, then there's no issue. The role just needs to be acted with sincerity.

Ken Akamatsu's also commented on foreign influence on the manga industry ( I can only assume he means China, since the US is really an tiny tiny fraction of the foreign money flow). https://twitter.com/KenAkamatsu/status/1277578343538257921

How about casting any person as a voice actor to voice any character just by the sole prerequisite of them being good at their jobs. Has anybody thought about that oooor...??

Kougeru wrote:

Quote: but it's standard in Japan to leave an explanatory note about that while preserving the work as it was in the past. this is a bit funny coming from Japan, a country that likes to avoid talking about WII as much as they can. This whole Simpsons (and Family Guy) thing is ridiculous so I agree with him. When it comes to voice, the only thing that matters is the acting ability. And while I'm sure people here know how I feel about anime dubs, it's literally impossible to cast them all as Japanese actors that speak English. Simply impossible. As long as the person doing the voice doesn't do an obvious racist impression that caters to racist stereotypes, then there's no issue. The role just needs to be acted with sincerity. Ken Akamatsu's also commented on foreign influence on the manga industry ( I can only assume he means China, since the US is really an tiny tiny fraction of the foreign money flow). https://twitter.com/KenAkamatsu/status/1277578343538257921

Ok people are not saying make every actor the same race as the character what we are saying is that when the English voice acting industry caters more to white actors because that industry is predominantly white people and give them every role whether it be a white/BIPOC role they get it and not giving BIPOC voice actors a chance to play those roles and only giving them one off token characters with one line that matches there skin color there’s a problem. I mean funimation could’ve hired a Black voice actor to be in Panty and Stocking for the only prominent Black character in that show but they decided to go with Chris Sabat and do a stereotype so I don’t know that seemed like an easy thing to do but they didn’t.

How about casting any person as a voice actor to voice any character just by the sole prerequisite of them being good at their jobs. Has anybody thought about that oooor...??