Dub Voice Actor Guesses/Discussion

[AgedVeteranofShow]

She’s whining about AI replacing them and stealing their jobs.

She would know a thing or two about stealing someone else’s job.

I hate what TPCi did as much as you to the PokeAni dub overall and 100% feel your pain, but blame the company itself for the recast decision: remember, Knotz just took a job they offered her because TAJ Productions figuratively basically stabbed their old buddies at 4Kids Entertainment in the back at the time when they got the rights back as the dub studio.

That said, I agree the Pokémon English dub NEVER truly recovered from this change of hands, and the dub was at its best overall from 1998-2006 though before the Pokémon Company took it back in house to reduce costs on production at the time (the irony when 4Kids, a third party company that was otherwise infamous for its silly censorship practices and such, clearly poured much more love & extreme dedication into this Series IMO).

Pretty sad as a result of that fallout that (a) TAJ died out first in 2008, (b) then 4Kids in 2011 (their dub studio still exists and does Yu-Gi-Oh under 4KMedia via Konami, an example of a company that was kind enough to retain those VAs, writers, etc. unlike TPCi with Pokemon, notable), and then (c) DuArt recently stopped dubbing Anime in 2019-ish: Iyuno SDI's only Pokemon-related work before Journeys IIRC was Origins, which they did a much better job on in 2013 IMO but still hasn't aged as well as one would expect over time (I don't have good things to say about JN dubbed as my opinion of the dub is at its lowest overall tbh, I'll leave it at that).

All of this said, TPCi has a chance to make things right here and also join the 21st Century like they were about to do in 2011 in the first Season of BW's dub in S14: will they do that? Or will they continue down the path they're on? Time will tell.

 

[snowmint]

Wow. Maybe LA only VAs will be a thing with the horizons dub after all.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Wow. Maybe LA only VAs will be a thing with the horizons dub after all.

If so, if they cast anyone not Robinson/Hebert/Price/Saab as the leads in Roy, Liko, and Friede I’ll be impressed.

Is the Farb back? I’m going to temper my expectations if so.

The thing I’m looking most forward to is a Pokémon dub without JCC at the helm writing it for the first time since 2006.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

I wouldn't say it'll be a LA only dub just yet.

There have been a few Iyuno union dubs that have featured NY VA's and they could easily find a way to keep them on board.

I know Mike Pollock, Paul Guyet and Chris Okawa was in Thermae Romae Novae and Lipica Shah was in Season 2 of Record of Ragnarok.

Not sure if Rio Shore's dub is union but that also has some NY VA's in it too.

Even if these aren't union there's also been other shows they've done that had NY talent such as Seirei Gensouki (Tyler Bunch) and Battle Game in 5 Seconds (Lisa Ortiz, Erica Schroeder, Mike Pollock, Emily Cramer, Bill Rogers) and they've definitely proven to open up to a lot of international talent as well casting wise.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

I wouldn't say it'll be a LA only dub just yet.

There have been a few Iyuno union dubs that have featured NY VA's and they could easily find a way to keep them on board even if Goldcrest Post doesn't return.

I know Mike Pollock, Paul Guyet and Chris Okawa was in Thermae Romae Novae and Lipica Shah was in Season 2 of Record of Ragnarok.

Not sure if Rio Shore' s dub is union but that also has some NY VA's in it too.

I hope they keep NY VAs on board and bring in others, nice to hear a pool that affords different voices than those using the same ones for multiple roles due to being overworked in LA sometimes.

 

[snowmint]

If so, if they cast anyone not Robinson/Hebert/Price/Saab as the leads in Roy, Liko, and Friede I’ll be impressed.

Is the Farb back? I’m going to temper my expectations if so.

The thing I’m looking most forward to is a Pokémon dub without JCC at the helm writing it for the first time since 2006.

The TPCi higher could say... "Emulate JCC writing style..." I'm hoping it's fresh start.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

The TPCi higher could say... "Emulate JCC writing style..." I'm hoping it's fresh start.

Same, please no.

This goes for the music, too, most of us have had enough Goldfarb imo.

 

[PokeFanForever1]

She’s whining about AI replacing them and stealing their jobs.

She would know a thing or two about stealing someone else’s job.

that's not fair. When TPCi took over they made the decision to recast. That wasn't Michele's decision.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

that's not fair. When TPCi took over they made the decision to recast. That wasn't Michele's decision.

I know technically it’s also them that later decided to get rid of Loeffler and Corallo, too.

I shouldn’t slam Ed as much as I do because it’s likely TPCi would’ve just hired another musician to do dub music for them, but this is an archaic practice in this day and age just to make them royalties as it was for 4Kids, Saban, DiC, Nelvana, and FUNimation in their early days so I wish they’d stop here with the new Series. They also don’t need to replace so much of the OST, too.

 

[PokeFanForever1]

I know technically it’s also them that later decided to get rid of Loeffler and Corallo, too.

I shouldn’t slam Ed as much as I do because it’s likely TPCi would’ve just hired another musician to do dub music for them, but this is an archaic practice in this day and age just to make them royalties as it was for 4Kids, Saban, DiC, Nelvana, and FUNimation in their early days so I wish they’d stop here with the new Series. They also don’t need to replace so much of the OST, too.

Was it? I always assumed that they just decided to leave since they'd done it for some time so it makes sense but I do agree, I would rather all the original music just be kept in tact.

 

[snowmint]

I'm surprised the Japanese side doesn't force them to keep it...

 

[lmaodawg]

forsen should voice liko and xqc should voice roy

 

[R.O.B.]

Who are those actors/which actors voice Forcen and XQC?

 

[RetroPokeFan]

This week welcome back the Squirtle squad... but wait? They're working for Team Rocket now?

Bulbasaur and Charizard also return and you'll also hear Jason Griffith, Billy Bob Thompson, Lori Gardner, Marc Thompson and Jenny Yokobori in this one.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

This week welcome back the Squirtle squad... but wait? They're working for Team Rocket now?

Bulbasaur and Charizard also return and you'll also hear Jason Griffith, Billy Bob Thompson, Lori Gardner, Marc Thompson and Jenny Yokobori in this one.

I hope Charizard never gets a dub voice and they leave it alone like Pikachu, as Lisa Ortiz is the most prone to giving Pokemon dub voices that kept their Japanese voices prior the most of any of Pokemon's dub VO directors (she's a better person than Wayland too, at least, much as I don't like TPCi's handling of the Series one of the best things they did was kicking him off the Series after it was revealed what he possibly did).

Ironic that Tara Jayne Sands is back in the additional cast and they'll still stick with Michele Knotz as Bulbasaur when once again, the original dub VA is right there for it like w/James (when Knotz has always just been imitating what Sands did, much like she's just emulating Stuart's Squirtle performance once TAJ/PUSA stopped using stock archive audio of Eric Stuart's Squirtle voice later on...of course, without his permission, the late TAJ dub also had them using Maddie's "Gotta Dance" in "King and Queen for a Day" in BF too w/o her consent IIRC).

 

[snowmint]

"They signed the contract" on the use of the reused audio. Even Lillis seems made her Jigglypuff clip keeps getting reused to this day.

 

[PokeMasterLA]

I honestly didn’t mind Knotz’s Squirtle during the Battle Frontier era as it sounded very close to Eric Stuarts’.

But her Squirtle as of XY-Present sounds more high pitched and raspy. Also Tara Sands’ Bulbasaur voice had more personality and emotion, and I wished she would’ve been allowed to reprise the role during Journeys.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

I honestly didn’t mind Knotz’s Squirtle during the Battle Frontier era as it sounded very close to Eric Stuarts’. But her Squirtle as of XY - Present sounds more high pitched and raspy.

Michele Knotz didn't actually take over Squirtle until the BW dub era, to clarify, it was still TAJ/PUSA using stock audio archive of Eric Stuart in Season 9's dub from Seasons 1-most of 5 dubbed at the time:

Ash's Squirtle - Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia

bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net

(The late TAJ dub had a lot of slimy VA/VO practices, in general, before Goldfarb showed up & everything started to head back downhill in general w/the dub for me, I think the lowest point for me personally with the dub was S9-10 overall PRIOR to XY+ for this reason- they used Stuart's Squirtle audio without his permission in Battle Frontier + Diamond and Pearl Season 1 while they used Maddie's Meowth from PS06 "Gotta Dance" singing in AG165 dubbed too).

"They signed the contract" on the use of the reused audio. Even Lillis seems made her Jigglypuff clip keeps getting reused to this day.

They "didn't" actually do that, to clarify, but the only three 4Kids VA performances for Pokemon that have survived the TPCi recasting purge in video games are three to this day indeed: Rachael Lillis' Jigglypuff only in video games as in the Anime they opt for Michele Knotz instead (Rachael confirmed on Twitter she wasn't asked to return to do so for it or Goldeen, they used stock audio archive w/o her consent for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in 2018 and it's interesting because Sarah Natochenny's Chansey was used in that game), Michael Haigney's Snorlax (again, recycled), and Sean Schemmel's Lucario only in video games (Bill Rogers only does the role in the Anime post-4Kids nowadays, as he lost Lucario in the VGs and they reverted back to Sean Schemmel who was the original dub VA for him ironically in the last production 4Kids did for Pokemon, once he got to return back to the franchise in mid DP proper).

 

[snowmint]

Her Jigglypuff was in detective Pikachu...

 

[BigDocFan]

I hope Charizard never gets a dub voice and they leave it alone like Pikachu, as Lisa Ortiz is the most prone to giving Pokemon dub voices that kept their Japanese voices prior the most of any of Pokemon's dub VO directors (she's a better person than Wayland too, at least, much as I don't like TPCi's handling of the Series one of the best things they did was kicking him off the Series after it was revealed what he possibly did).

Ironic that Tara Jayne Sands is back in the additional cast and they'll still stick with Michele Knotz as Bulbasaur when once again, the original dub VA is right there for it like w/James (when Knotz has always just been imitating what Sands did, much like she's just emulating Stuart's Squirtle performance once TAJ/PUSA stopped using stock archive audio of Eric Stuart's Squirtle voice later on...of course, without his permission, the late TAJ dub also had them using Maddie's "Gotta Dance" in "King and Queen for a Day" in BF too w/o her consent IIRC).

If Knotz does leave at the end of Journeys and Tara remains, I would love to see Tara reprise the role of Bulbasaur and any others