Is the hatred for the vA's being replaced over?

[PokeDot517]

As any longtime Pokémon anime fan would know the voice actors from the first eight seasons was replaced with new ones in (if I'm correct) 2006. Most of us was pretty upset because of performances of the new VA's being outright terrible to listen to and just the simple fact that the old ones were replaced. Well now it's been (if I'm correct) 8 years since then.

What I would like to know is that are any of you out there still upset about the VA's being replaced? Have you gotten used to them or just stopped watching the show all together? Now as for me I got into watching the show when season 11 (Battle Dimension) was new so I grew up with the NEW VA's instead of the OLD ones.

Also the quality of the voice acting has jumped up significantly since Battle Frontier.

 

[みさあき]

I don't know but people getting their tits in a wrangler about voice actors is nothing new. Fans complain, writers replace voice actors, fans want old voice actors back.

I guess with this current one, it can be the same ;p

 

[farmerluk]

People complained because the Kalos Mewtwo had a different VA to the one in the first movie...

I've gotten used to the "new" VAs a long time ago now, plus they seem more confident in the roles. When they first started back in 2006 they did seem of a lower quality, but I had grown up watching the anime so that could just be me.

 

[Gligarman]

Might as well comment before this thread gets locked. As someone who has been with the show since the very beginning the VA change was, to put it kindly, jarring. Frankly most of the acting just wasn't up to par with the original cast because they hadn't quite gotten the hang of their characters. Grant it, that's pretty much the case with most cast changes. Some never recover from quality loss (cough cough DBZ). Over time not only has the new Pokemon cast improved but some of them I actually think sound better than their originals. I much prefer Brock's new voice because he actually manages to capture the energy of his Japanese counterpart. Now if only we can get the localization team to stop changing the BGM then we'd have a pretty good dub on our hands.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I remember how bringing up the voice actor issue on practically any forum I went to around that time led to a lot of heated and tensed discussion for a couple of years. There were so many headaches as a result of those conversations and I remember that the topic was banned from this section for quite a few years before it was unbanned. It was dark times indeed. Luckily, I think most of that tension, if not all of it, has disappeared. There are some people who still don't like the dub voices, but I've grown used to them. I still prefer the 4Kids cast, but the TPCI has improved quite a bit since the Battle Frontier season. Ash and Brock's voice improved the most of for me. I remember that I tried to stop watching the show after the voice cast change, but that didn't work out too well, although I still haven't seen some of the Battle Frontier because of that. While I still see that people don't like the fact that the voice actors were changed in the first place and I can understand that feeling completely, I don't think that there's hatred for it exactly. Or at least I haven't really seen much signs of that for awhile.

 

[BigDocFan]

Still prefer the likes of Eric Stuart, Rachel Lillis and Veronica Taylor but they have improved admittedly

 

[PockyAddict]

^^ This, I do prefer the old voices, but i can't deny that they new ones have improved.

 

[Lysson]

I honestly don't care about voice actor changes as long as it isn't in the middle of a season. If you think about it people are always changing jobs its only because they are in the public eye that people throw a fliddy.

 

[Solayoh]

I still prefer 4Kids cast, but have grown used to TPCI.

I remember May's new VA was just awful, she sounded so horrible and high pitched, no one will ever be able to compare to Veronica Taylor.

 

[Shadow Yoshi]

I have no problem with the new voices, but if given the choice I would've never replaced them in the first place. If I'm correct, the main reason the voices were changed was due to financial reasons (i.e. we'll just get soundalikes because they're cheaper), and then TPCi ended up having enough money so they started bringing back the old VA's. What they should've done was just have the new VAs for Battle Frontier (or however long it was before they realized it didn't matter) and then replaced them with the old cast ASAP.

But then we get into the issue of 4kids vs. TPCi themselves - Veronica/Eric/etc. seemed to embrace their characters and bring them to life more. Sure, this may cause a few problems because in the end this is nothing but a dub, but I don't think there's anything wrong with "Americanizing" it a bit. TPCi is more like the Japanese anime, of course, but 4kids just seems more...warm. I feel like the new VAs are just placeholders - they go in, do some voice acting, and leave. In my eyes, Sarah Natochenny is an actor whereas Veronica Taylor is Ash. Was this facilitated by 4kids' Americanization? Perhaps, but I still liked it.

I'm not quite sure how I would feel, though, if they completely restored the old cast. It would bring back Veronica Taylor, but it would also kick out Sarah Natochenny.

Also, as an interesting note - I grew up mainly watching Advanced Battle on Cartoon Network, so it was technically after the switch but I was still listening to the old VAs because they were reruns. I would watch them every morning at 7AM, and then I would watch Battle Frontier on Saturdays. I don't remember noticing a voice change at all.

 

[Johtohfiller]

I hated the new voice cast at first, but they've improved a LOT over time. My main problem with the dub these days (other than music) is that TPCi takes a really bland approach to dialogue.

 

[Umbreon Freak]

I was pretty upset when the voice actors were first replaced, and I didn't watch the show again until a few years after. I decided to give the show another chance, and by then, the voice actors had improved immensely. I still prefer the original 4Kids cast, but that's probably the nostalgia talking. That, and the acting in those early Battle Frontier episodes was pretty terrible.

 

[Psychotic]

Battle frontier was unbearable because of the abrupt voice acting change. Ash/May/Pokemon/Guest stars were all terrible but anytime you have a curt change like that you expect some difficulty getting started. The actors got better, especially Sarah Natochenny who I feel has caught up with Veronica Taylor's Ash.

 

[XYZ Nexus]

I'd say I'm still a little mad over the dub cast switch. And before anybody plays the nostalgia card, I've been watching the anime since DP so I heard the TPCi cast first. I've got to say that I prefer 4Kids's cast. I mean if you try and compare Veronica Taylor and Sarah Natochenny, you'll see which one sounds like a real 10 year old boy. Watching the Battle Frontier at first was very hard, the cast there was just so, odd to hear. I do think that the TPCi cast there was better than they are now in terms of voice. BF Ash sounded hollow, but had a decent voice IMO.

 

[Dogasu]

I mean if you try and compare Veronica Taylor and Sarah Natochenny, you'll see which one sounds like a real 10 year old boy.

...neither one?

 

[XYZ Nexus]

I mean if you try and compare Veronica Taylor and Sarah Natochenny, you'll see which one sounds like a real 10 year old boy.

...neither one?

So funny, not. I have actual experience with a 10 year old (my sister), and I'd say she and her classmates all sound like Veronica Taylor the most, I don't know if any 10 year olds have a voice like Sarah's. Her voice feels hollow and lacking any life to it. Which is the total opposite of Ash's personality.

Although I'll just give up right here knowing this will turn into a circular debate with no winner.

 

[Yoshi1001]

I was never all that bent out of shape by the change over, but I was probably well-conditioned by Rock Star INXS the year before (no, really). I would assume some of the bitterness has died down, probably due to the passage of time, the VAs themselves moving on, and possibly also due to some of 4Kids's later issues.

 

[BlazeKicker]

As any longtime Pokémon anime fan would know the voice actors from the first eight seasons was replaced with new ones in (if I'm correct) 2006. Most of us was pretty upset because of performances of the new VA's being outright terrible to listen to and just the simple fact that the old ones were replaced. Well now it's been (if I'm correct) 8 years since then.

What I would like to know is that are any of you out there still upset about the VA's being replaced? Have you gotten used to them or just stopped watching the show all together? Now as for me I got into watching the show when season 11 (Battle Dimension) was new so I grew up with the NEW VA's instead of the OLD ones.

Also the quality of the voice acting has jumped up significantly since Battle Frontier.

I'm still actually very upset, honestly: I got used to them, but I actually couldn't disagree more on one thing: the quality of the acting has deproved since Battle Frontier to me, and if anything is WORSE now than it was back then.

In particular, the TPCi cast are unbearably bad to listen to in the DP and XY Sagas in English for me. The current VAs, unlike the 4Kids VAs, have gotten much WORSE with time, IMO: I mean, Bill Rogers' Brock is absolutely awful now, and the voice he uses is way too deep and gravelly (the proof is in 22:12-22:22 of Bill Rogers Interview - The Voice of Brock, Seguchi Tohma, and LOTS of Pokemon - YouTube: I mean, heck, even the interviewer says his Brock sounds like he's in his 50's, whereas the fact is Brock is a 15 y/o teenager), whereas in BF, he was just doing a raspy imitation of Eric Stuart's Brock-- that wasn't nearly as bad as what he uses nowadays.

Carter's James is extremely nasally, and goofier than ever, in XY, whereas in BF, he was okay even though he was doing a somewhat nasally imitation of Eric's James back then.

Meanwhile, Michele's XY Jessie is even worse than how she was in DP, Carter's Meowth is getting worse with every passing saga he's in, Sarah's Ash is too deep and chainsmoker-ish for a 10 y/o boy, Sarah's BW142 Delia was her worst performance yet as the character as she made Delia sound like Johanna, Carter's Professor Oak voice has gotten worse and worse now sounding more like a combination of his Gary voice with his James voice and it doesn't sound like any old man now, etc.

My main problem with the dub these days (other than music) is that TPCi takes a really bland approach to dialogue.

You mean the script writing, and yes, TPCi's scripts are a lot worse than 4Kids' were, particularly with Ash and Team Rocket, so I agree-- that's actually my biggest problem with the TPCi dub. 4Kids may not have been as strictly faithful in meaning, but their scripts at least made logical sense in terms of writing and they were quite witty with several lines, and their dialogue flowed MUCH better. 4Kids never made Ash say, "I'm not a noob/Nathaniel reminds me o'me/O'course/ya see/I got me the x symbol/Froakie, time to put your foot on the gas" at the very least, unlike TPCi.

I mean if you try and compare Veronica Taylor and Sarah Natochenny, you'll see which one sounds like a real 10 year old boy.

...neither one?

So funny, not. I have actual experience with a 10 year old (my sister), and I'd say she and her classmates all sound like Veronica Taylor the most, I don't know if any 10 year olds have a voice like Sarah's. Her voice feels hollow and lacking any life to it. Which is the total opposite of Ash's personality.

Although I'll just give up right here knowing this will turn into a circular debate with no winner.

To add to this, Rica Matsumoto's Satoshi sounds nothing like any 10 year old boy I've heard, either: Veronica Taylor, however, did. It's the only reason why I haven't converted to the ORG JPN Version already, tbh.

Then, to make matters worse, I can't even watch the show in English thanks to the TPCi cast now: they're just that awful to me these days, and they keep getting worse. Sorry, but the 4Kids cast was infinitely better, and the show is unwatchable for me now because of the dub switch.

 

[blowsave]

I think they're still pretty bad for the most part, but at this point it's not really something worth getting upset over (not that it ever was, really).

 

[Flynn]

I got over the VA switch pretty quick, but I think its because I wasn't a fan of 4kids voice acting past Kanto. I've kinda grown to dislike the TPCi voice acting tho when I liked it OK in DP, but that was the last time I watched the dub regularly so that might be why.

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You sound exactly like that Pokemon Master Ash guy who's banned here.