CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Has anyone else noticed that many anime VA's wind up being type-casted? Let's see some examples:
Wendy Lee--usually plays the well-endowed characters
Crispin Freeman--usually plays brooders
Brianne Blevins--although a girl, usually plays boys

What other examples can you guys come up with?

rocklobster (post: 1209594) wrote:Has anyone else noticed that many anime VA's wind up being type-casted? Let's see some examples:
Wendy Lee--usually plays the well-endowed characters
Crispin Freeman--usually plays brooders
Brianne Blevins--although a girl, usually plays boys

What other examples can you guys come up with?

Wendee Lee was also cast as Myojin Yahiko in Rurouni Kenshin, not to mention Umi in Magic Knight Rayearth. Neither of those characters are "well-endowed." XD

Also, Crispin Freeman played the character "Straight Cougar" from s-CRY-ed, which, as I recall, was not a "brooding role" in the least. XD

So, while some of their roles may be similar, I'm not sure it's safe to say that all VAs are typecast. It mostly depends on the VA and their range of talents.

I said USUALLY!

Moneca Stori and Kelly Sheridan both usually play The Girl Next Door types.
That is as far as I have seen of anime that they have been in.
I think since Wendee Lee has been around since the '80s that she has probably played more types of characters(remember when she started she was Wendee SWANN).

VAs typically audition for rolls they know they can play usually... I don't think it's type casting.. XD just a type of character they choose to play. >_>

With those first two I don't think it's so much that they're typecast but that they're in virtually everything their company dubs. With that much work they're bound to have some overlapping roles.

"Hey, we need a voice actor for this new series. Character is in his early thirties, brooding, kinda cool, a real bad a--"

"Just get Steve Blum."

"That's your answer for everything."

Ingemar (post: 1209821) wrote:"Hey, we need a voice actor for this new series. Character is in his early thirties, brooding, kinda cool, a real bad a--"

"Just get Steve Blum."

"That's your answer for everything."

He played Guilomon in "Digmon Tamers" so he's not completely typecast. Guilomon is hardly "brooding".

::throws in his two cents::

With regard to Crispin Freeman, if memory serves, he played Hideki Motosuwa in "Chobits"--and he was anything but brooding. He did a great job on it.

Honestly, it depends on if the voice matches the character at that time. It's not really based on characters they've played in the past. If that were true, than Veronica Taylor would never play Yukino on "His and Her Circumstances" becuase for the last +10 years, she's played Ash on Pokemon. Greg Ayres would never have been chosen to play Hideki on "Nerima Daikon Brothers" because, for the most part, he's always played teenage characters. Laura Bailey would never have been picked to play Marlene Angel on "Blue Gender" because she played Laura on "Hamtaro" and other random girl voices.

The Actor finds the character, not vice-versa.

Remember also that voice acting itself is a specialization and so companies will look for someone who is good at playing a certain type of role.

What you may perceive as actors being type-cast could also be partially a result of the existence of stock characters in anime. There's usually always a few archetypes that pop up, and certain actors just excel at those types of characters. I would recommend http://www.tvtropes.org if you're interested in said archetypes. Mind what links you click, although if you're headed in an iffy direction, it will be easy to tell.

.rai//

I'd also take a stab at it that there's a considerably smaller pool of talent available for Anime VA than other entertainment branches.