Cross-dressing international voices

[BlankSlate]

I'm rather fascinated with them. Especially when women are voicing male characters, when in English dubs they're voiced by men themselves.

[CatsTuxedo]

I've voiced this opinion a number of times, but I really hate it when a character that was voiced by a woman in the original Japanese version of something is voiced by a grown man in the English version. I always have a feeling that the Japanese voice director cast a woman in the role for a reason; even if I don't know what that reason could be, if the work is really good as a whole I trust the creator behind it enough not to question it. Thusly, I feel that casting a man in the role completely goes against whatever the original artist aimed for. Maybe they wanted to emphasize the character's youth or feminity by putting a woman in the part, so when a man is cast in the same role in the dub, that message is all but shot down, and therefore I feel that it's effectively sacrelige against the intent of the author.

For some reason, I don't feel as strongly when a woman is cast in a role originally by a boy or man, but I wish I could so that I don't come off as hypocritical.

[mewmanga88]

I do believe it is against the initial intent of the artist when the recasting is done in another language. Then again it is in the best opinion of the casting director for the dub, so ultimately it is their decision on who is cast in such a role.

[NCZ]

Ultimately, dubbing as a whole is "against the creator's intent", but creators rarely mind them. As long as the voice fits, I don't see what's wrong with it.

[Beaux]

Women voicing teens is one of my pet peeves, considering I'm a teenager myself and I don't know any of my classmates that still sound that feminine. It doesn't help that seiyuu don't even always even do kid voices... Still, some like Megumi "Shinji Ikari" Ogata do excellent jobs at sounding masculine and still delivering a good performance, as far as my non-speaking-Japanese ears go. So while I'm OK with females voicing males, I prefer to have a male actor in the dub, just out of personal preference. A general rule of thumb is that if the kid is 15 or older, he should always be voiced by a guy, while 13-14 can be done by either. Greg Ayres gets the 8-12 portion.:p

[mewmanga88]

Originally Posted by Beaux

Women voicing teens is one of my pet peeves, considering I'm a teenager myself and I don't know any of my classmates that still sound that feminine. It doesn't help that seiyuu don't even always even do kid voices... Still, some like Megumi "Shinji Ikari" Ogata do excellent jobs at sounding masculine and still delivering a good performance, as far as my non-speaking-Japanese ears go. So while I'm OK with females voicing males, I prefer to have a male actor in the dub, just out of personal preference. A general rule of thumb is that if the kid is 15 or older, he should always be voiced by a guy, while 13-14 can be done by either. Greg Ayres gets the 8-12 portion.:p

Generally female seiyuu do young male voices under 16, maybe even 18. Any male voices after that are done by male seiyuu, though this is not always the case.
Luckily male seiyuu don't do female voices, that would be a switch off.

[Beaux]

Originally Posted by mewmanga88

Generally female seiyuu do young male voices under 16, maybe even 18. Any male voices after that are done by male seiyuu, though this is not always the case.
Luckily male seiyuu don't do female voices, that would be a switch off.

I'm aware of this. I was saying that it's one of my pet peeves, and that I prefer dubs to get male voice actors to replace the female seiyuu.

[mewmanga88]

*too lazy to quote*

Male seiyuu can manage to play teens, it's all on the choice of the producers for the show.
I really don't like dubs with females who play male teens.

[thomwim]

Originally Posted by mewmanga88

Generally female seiyuu do young male voices under 16, maybe even 18. Any male voices after that are done by male seiyuu, though this is not always the case.
Luckily male seiyuu don't do female voices, that would be a switch off.

It appears that the Japanese dub of Kids Next Door has Numbuh 5 voiced by a man, which is an inversion of the norm.

There's also one thing that bugs me: Why Tweety from Looney Tunes is almost always voiced by a woman.

[Trami0501]

Are you sure Kirby's voice is sound like an asian girl from Kirby series and Super Smash Bros. series WTF!