code_geass ◾ On the subject of deep voices... (Reply)

I was reading the comments on the first dubbed episode stream when I came across a couple of comments about how American males, as a norm, don't have deep enough voices. The younger ones, anyway. This sparked an interesting thought in me head.

Most of you probably already know this but FukuJun doesn't actually have a naturally deep voice. He had to force it for the role of Lelouch. In a recent interview (links of the video provided at the end of the post), he revealed that when he was first approached about the role, he was sweating bullets and was all, "WTF? You /know/ my voice tends to be on the high end of the scale right? You've heard my other roles, right? Whyever did you pick /me/?" to Taniguchi, the director (in the polite way that the Japanese are brought up to speak, of course, but that's more or less the essence of what he meant), but he didn't have any other choice cos this was a huge career-defining opportunity and the director backed him into a corner by first humbly implying that he's a pro so he should be able to handle it and then bowing while pushing the script to his side of the table and going "Please". >.>;; Good thing it worked out. ^.^

However, it kinda led me to think that when he went for the auditions (if he went for any, that is, sometimes VAs are picked based on their portfolio...but I imagine there's still an audition to see if they'll really work), he most likely actually auditioned for something else. Suzaku, maybe. Or Rivalz. Or Ougi. That, or he /was/ picked based on his portfolio of mostly higher-pitched characters and the strange inkling that Taniguchi may have had that if he were to deepen his voice, it'd work perfectly for the kind of Lelouch he had in mind. He /was/ rather confident and insistent when the actor himself was doubtful.

Before this role, FukuJun's never used deep voices for all the other characters he's ever done. Not that I know of, anyway. Now he uses it every once in a while. Only thing is, he has a huge range for high voices but for low voices, he only has two. Which is why everytime he uses it with other characters, you tend to either think Lelouch or Zero.

Which brings me to the point of this post (yeah, finally). Maybe that's what the director was hoping when he selected JYB but it didn't work out quite as well, unfortunately. That, and I don't think he had a very long list to choose from to begin with cos, to my knowledge, stock VAs in the US tend to be a small group so constant recycling is inevitable.

For what it's worth, I feel at least they've made an effort. But my final verdict remains: American anime localizers still have a long way to go.

Anywayz, here are the links to the videos of FukuJun's interview like I've promised. Crossposted (albeit a few days ago) to

fukuyama_jun, so I'll just copy and paste my post:

[start copy&paste]
Anime Giga - Fukuyama Jun interview 1/4
Anime Giga - Fukuyama Jun interview 2/4
Anime Giga - Fukuyama Jun interview 3/4
Anime Giga - Fukuyama Jun interview 4/4

Summary:
Quite a revealing interview. You get to find out what spurred his choice in career, what were the early days of his career like, his thoughts during a job, and the like. It basically gives a pretty clear idea on what Fukuyama-san is like as a person.

From what I could glean, Fukuyama-san himself seems to me very humble and forthcoming with information about his past, his ideals and principles. He also shares quite a bit of wisdom he'd gotten from experience. Plus, you'd also get an idea on what his family is like (interesting bunch of people, imo. Kansaijintte yappa omoshiroiwa! Eheh.).

Anyway, it's a very entertaining and enlightening watch. You'd most likely enjoy this if you're a fan.
[end copy&paste]