Pokemon voice actor role(s) that took you by surprise?

[AgedVeteranofShow]

The Ice Drive Genosect in the Genesect film English dub being voiced by a Japanese VA, Yuko Minaguchi. She was studying in New York at the time, so they cast her.

Really rare in any English dub to have a Japanese VA in it.

This reminds me of when the dub of Jirachi Wish Maker had a duet with Asuca Hayashi, just that it was a music choice 4Kids made as opposed to a vocal choice here from TPCi.

That said, I think 4Kids left in Haruka’s humming for KAORI too, in M06 so this and M16 are interesting dubbed in that way.

 

[R.O.B.]

Lillie's english VA, Laurie Hymes, voicing Caillou in Caillou's New Adventure
lmao

Same, also Mike Pollock voicing his dad.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

Same, also Mike Pollock voicing his dad.

Something else I learned is Haven Paschall being a ton of voices in Shrek the Musical in 2013.

 

[Poke Trey]

Zeno Robinson as Goh, but really most the JN cast has been very much unexpected and appreciated. I like them.

 

[Emelie]

I heard that Mamoru Miyano (Cilan's Japanese voice actor) is going to voice Mario in the movie which is kind of funny. I remember when his die-hard fans would obsess over Cilan during the BW era. Almost makes me feel nostalgic lol.

 

[DigitalGen6]

I heard that Mamoru Miyano (Cilan's Japanese voice actor) is going to voice Mario in the movie which is kind of funny. I remember when his die-hard fans would obsess over Cilan during the BW era. Almost makes me feel nostalgic lol.

Wait, is that who voiced Mario in the Japanese dub of the Super Mario movie? Huh. I only saw the English one. Mamoru also voiced Tamaki in OHSHC, Death the Kid in Soul Eater, and Okabe/Houoin?? in Steins Gate.

Zeno Robinson as Goh, but really most the JN cast has been very much unexpected and appreciated. I like them.

Zeno also voices Remy in Big City Greens, Max and Nino in Miraculous, and (I know this isn’t an anime, I just wanted to point this out) Cecil from Rune Factory 5 (I know because I have it, and I immediately knew it was Zeno because Cecil sounded JUST LIKE Goh).
Edit: I got on Zeno’s Wikipedia page and read his Filmography; turns out he has also voiced Cyborg in Young Justice (2019), a character in Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2021), and he’ll be the voice of Nino in the MLB movie coming 2023!

 

[R.O.B.]

Today I learned Bill Rogers was the voice of King Rhoam (of Hyrule) in Breath of the Wild.

 

[DigitalGen6]

Today I learned Bill Rogers was the voice of King Rhoam (of Hyrule) in Breath of the Wild.

And he voiced both the red and yellow M&Ms in the M&Ms Kart Racing game (2007).

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

And he voiced both the red and yellow M&Ms in the M&Ms Kart Racing game (2007).

He also voiced Heathcliff in The Fast & the Furriest, IIRC.

I heard that Mamoru Miyano (Cilan's Japanese voice actor) is going to voice Mario in the movie which is kind of funny. I remember when his die-hard fans would obsess over Cilan during the BW era. Almost makes me feel nostalgic lol.

He voiced Light Yagami in Death Note too, interesting.

 

[DigitalGen6]

He voiced Light Yagami in Death Note too, interesting.

He also voiced Death the Kid in Soul Eater.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

I was surprised to learn that Veronica Taylor would be the Viz Media dub VA for Sailor Pluto, after being basically the 4Kids dub VA for Ash Ketchum (the original English one from OS through late AG/early BF): that she has more votes as saying Ash Ketchum on BTVA was her best VO role of all the roles she's done in her career, and it came from a (better than usual and somewhat faithful in comparison to all other properties they handled in comparison) 4Kids dub rather than a strictly faithful Viz Media dub, says a lot about how solid the vocal direction was in the earlier years for this Series IMO.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

I never knew Eric Stuart was Hamato Yoshi in the 2003 TMNT Series, impressive: he had a lot of vocal range & I wish he would VA more often, a shame such a talented actor retired and only does reprisals of Gourry Gabriev (2010), Marco (2021), and Seto Kaiba (2017; 2022). This was done in a "pre-lay" style, where they basically animated the role based on his voice, different from the ADR they did for Anime dubs. Also, playing off against Sean Schemmel (Cyrus & Archie in the Pokémon Series) who is the current FUNimation English dub VA of Goku in the Dragonball Series, as Mashimi, very cool.

TMNT 2003: Hamato Yoshi (All scenes)

Included Splinter's nightmares/visions because Yoshi is important character to him. Plus it makes their final scene better.

www.youtube.com

Also, 4Kids keeping any Asian culture in a Series is shocking (I think this & Pokémon are the only Series they didn't 100% Americanize everything they handled and let some Japanese references slip in-- especially in the Johto Era of their dub).

 

[BananaButter]

Christopher Sabat appearing in that episode where Meowth was part of the gang, the character he voices was named Cliff.
I looked at the episode credits and yeah he's uncredited, darn.

Also, Alejandra Reynoso, the nick voice of Flora from Winx Club and Crispin Freeman being Horizons was a shock to behold.

 

[BigDocFan]

Christopher Sabat appearing in that episode where Meowth was part of the gang, the character he voices was named Cliff.
I looked at the episode credits and yeah he's uncredited, darn.

Also, Alejandra Reynoso, the nick voice of Flora from Winx Club and Crispin Freeman being Horizons was a shock to behold.

I don't know if Pokemon Horizons being unionized allowing more actors to take part and/or be credited for roles but it is always nice to see some fresh talent on Pokemon

 

[snowmint]

Hopefully Andrew Paul is still in the dub...

 

[DigitalGen6]

Hopefully Andrew Paul is still in the dub...

You have summoned me-
And yeah I hope so, too

 

[Vengeful Ghost]

J Michael Tatum as Tobias

I can't even watch that episode without expecting him to go make a bunch of hand chopping motions because I associate his voice with Tenya Iida

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Sean Schemmel voicing Ash's Dracovish.

 

[MrDarkcatify]

I personally find nice surprising to hearing Cherami Leigh voicing Chole when cast of Journeys first announcement.

 

[Dr. Gro 3001]

Casey Mongillo as the Scorbunny line was a pretty neat role to hear them as. I am not really familiar with their work outside of the protagonist in Shin Megami Tensei 5, but Casey gave the line a pretty expressive voice.