Lots of new info incoming from the NicoNico Chokaigi 2 event

[Abriael]

Nah I think they'll be the "usual" and by usual there's Steve Blum, Kirk Thorton, Ali Hillis, Troy Baker, etc. Those people are on the "same level" as the Japanese crew. Hell maybe David Hayter can voice someone since they let him go from the MGS series. Which I am pissed about.

yeah, no, we're talking about a different level. The ones you mentioned are all great voice actors, and they're very popular especially between the game anime/crowd (the few that still watch anime in English at least), but the Japanese cast includes several star-level actors that can easily be compared to hollywood actors in terms of excellency in their trade.

There simply is a large cultural difference between voice acting in Japan and in the west. In Japan voice acting is part of the top tier of someone's acting career, so the best actors overall are also voice actors, or even exclusively voice actors.

That's because in Japan top Anime and Games are considered equally or even more prestigious roles than live action.

In the west the best actors simply don't work in voice acting, or do so as a very secondary part of their career. There are a couple countries that are an exception to this rule, but the US isn't one.

[Rorn]

thx Abriael
It is a honor to serve you!

This list something that was analyzed to sign on display
Let me show you the Source
Rather than the power of the only I, but also by the power of the VA fans in Japan

[Abriael]

thx Abriael
It is a honor to serve you!

This list something that was analyzed to sign on display
Let me show you the Source
Rather than the power of the only I, but also by the power of the VA fans in Japan

Wow, that's an awesome research right there. I'm gonna add a link to this post so that all my readers can see it

I'm absolutely amazed that you guys managed to identify ALL the autographs. I tried for a bit when we first saw them, but had to give up almost immediately.

[LlenCoram]

thx Abriael
It is a honor to serve you!

This list something that was analyzed to sign on display
Let me show you the Source
Rather than the power of the only I, but also by the power of the VA fans in Japan

Thank you for posting these again, I've been looking. I'm still shocked at some of the names in there, some of them are big names.

I'm going to make predictions right now!
Aki Toyosaki will play an airheaded girl who is a big clutz but always means well and has a big heart. Prolly a miqo'te.
Miyuki Sawashiro will play a straight talking seductive woman who can use her words to get what she wants. Prolly a hyur.
Eri Kitamura will play a short-tempered girl who has a hidden soft side.
Emiri Kato ditto.
Aya Endo will play the sweetest girl you've ever met.

EDIT: Sawashiro would probably be a good Admiral Bloefhiswyn actually .

EDIT2: A friend of mine pointed this out!

Three signatures = Three city leaders. We already know Rie Tanaka is Kan-E-Senna. Sawashiro, in my mind, would be the best fit for Merlwyb, and Rikiya Koyama has the perfect voice for Raubahn. Prepare squealing!

[Yrusama]

If I could choose the english voice cast .... It would go something like this.

Merlwyb = Mary Elizabeth McGlynn

Raubahn = Christopher Sabat

Kan-E-Senna = Kim Mai Guest

Minfilia = Amanda Winn Lee

Cid Garlond = Steven Blum

Thancred = Crispin Freeman

I'd love to see Liam O'brien play some random Roegadyn or Elezen. He has that great deep voice.

IMDB lists a lot of really big names in 1.0's cast list, like Nolan North. I wonder who he played.

[Yrusama]

^ true. The Japanese VA cast is turning out to be very impressive indeed - many big names in the industry and a few who I've already been a fan of. However, I will also say that while the English actors in ver 1 were no names (to my knowledge), I thought they were done nicely considering English dubbing over Japanese is usually below par. Y'shtola and Thancred were done especially nice imo and I think SE does a pretty good job with English VA in general for their games.

In the end there's no right or wrong language to use. It's whatever floats your boat and I'm very grateful to SE for giving us the choice for which language/subtitle to use. I'm confident SE will do an excellent job in every language.

*mentioned in another post* Nolan North is best known for playing Nathan Drake in the Uncharted games, voice and motion capture. Crispin Freeman is in the list, too, and he's all over the anime dubbing community. I know him for doing Haji in Blood+

I don't know who these actors played in 1.0, but I know they're in the cast list.

[KaMuiSouZou]

Wow thanks Rorn for putting that list of Japanese VA together (both the text list and photos)! And awesome catch here:

EDIT2: A friend of mine pointed this out!

Three signatures = Three city leaders. We already know Rie Tanaka is Kan-E-Senna. Sawashiro, in my mind, would be the best fit for Merlwyb, and Rikiya Koyama has the perfect voice for Raubahn. Prepare squealing!

Excuse my ignorance of Japanese pop-culture; are the VAs listed Japanese A-list movie stars or just Japanese A-list voice-actors? I don't quite have the context of the discussion.

Really? Check IMDB - if you don't recognise some of the names immediately, do clicky and I'm sure you will be aware of the characters they've played in various shows. Yeah, they're not A-list movie stars, but a large number of them have been in supporting cast roles in movies and TV (not just animations).

I'm looking forward to the English language cast announcement (if there is one lol).

First off, calling the English VA "no-names," was too harsh a term so I apologize for that. I didn't know who they are and that's why I wrote "to my knowledge" in my first post. I don't mean to put down their talent at all, but as you mentioned they're only well known in the American VA industry and are supporting roles in live action shows.

In America we view actors in movies as "A-list" and view animation/video game voice actors as less glamorous and desirable ("B-list" if you will). Because of this, the best talent often goes to acting. Think of how big name actors here only VA for large animations by Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks. In Japan though it's different, where the VA industry is highly revered. This leads to a larger talent pool that is trained earlier and treated more in the limelight. The resulting cream of that crop is overall better talent that deals regularly in anime and video games.

*EDIT* A bit redundant, but Abriael explained what I was talking about very well here:

yeah, no, we're talking about a different level. The ones you mentioned are all great voice actors, and they're very popular especially between the game anime/crowd (the few that still watch anime in English at least), but the Japanese cast includes several star-level actors that can easily be compared to hollywood actors in terms of excellency in their trade.

There simply is a large cultural difference between voice acting in Japan and in the west. In Japan voice acting is part of the top tier of someone's acting career, so the best actors overall are also voice actors, or even exclusively voice actors.

That's because in Japan top Anime and Games are considered equally or even more prestigious roles than live action.

In the west the best actors simply don't work in voice acting, or do so as a very secondary part of their career. There are a couple countries that are an exception to this rule, but the US isn't one.

[Abriael]

First off, calling the English VA "no-names," was too harsh a term so I apologize for that.

Yeah, I wouldn't call most of the usual VAs SE uses "no-names", they're most definitely popular and very skilled in their niche. They're not star-level actors though.

Way better than those used by Atlus, Xseed and others (for budget reasons, it's not really their fault), most definitely.

The new voice they used for Chie in persona made hair stand on my neck...

[finiteHP]

I too hope we get some really good English VAs since I will be playing with English voices no matter what. Personally I would prefer they spend the probably large amount of money they're paying these actors to make the whole game better instead. A fantastic game with no voice acting is better than a great game with voicing.

[Mjollnir]

A fantastic game with no voice acting is better than a great game with voicing.

We're lucky we're going to get a fantastic game with voicing then!