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Sonic the Hedgehog the Movie Japanese Voice Actor Teaser trailer released... It's not Junichi Kanemaru and fans aren't happy.

Deleted member 5334

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This movie can't catch a break...

So recently there was a Japanese voice actor teaser trailer released for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. Doesn't seem there isn't a lot of new footage, but it gives up an insight to the Japanese dub.

And you guessed it, it's not Junichi Kanemaru, who'd been voicing Sonic since late 1998 in Japan, and this is DESPITE him reprising his role in Wreck it Ralph both times:



Some sample comments:







And the comments expand endlessly about this. Some of which are in English. It mostly boils down to them wanting them to bring back Junichi Kanemaru. Some are also upset about the previous design fiasco and now the voice actor situation isn't looking good either.
 
Ferrs

Ferrs

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Oct 26, 2017
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Certainly weird. Dude has been Sonic there since Sonic Adventure 1, even for the smallest stuff.
 
Buttonbasher

Buttonbasher

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Dec 4, 2017
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Dunno why this is surprising. Its no different from the US release choosing a celebrity rather than the game voice actor.

Edit: the Wreck It Ralph connection is true in the US too. Roger Craig Smith who voiced Sonic in the games reprised his role for that, but has been replaced by Ben Schwartz in the live action movie.
 
Supaidaman

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Buttonbasher said:
Dunno why this is surprising. Its no different from the US release choosing a celebrity rather than the game voice actor.

Edit: the Wreck It Ralph connection is true in the US too. Roger Craig Smith who voiced Sonic in the games reprised his role for that, but has been replaced by Ben Schwartz in the live action movie.
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It's a little different because Kanemaru has never been replaced. He voiced Sonic in pretty much everything post SA1 (if not actually everything) while here we are already on round 3 of VAs

So it's a weird decision.
 
Elephant

Elephant

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Nov 2, 2017
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I wish the West were loyal to our one true Sonic voice too:

83ae1ba51ac2de7a78373a0136c56f2b.jpg
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 5334

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Supaidaman said:
It's a little different because Kanemaru has never been replaced. He voiced Sonic in pretty much everything post SA1 (if not actually everything) while here we are already on round 3 of VAs

So it's a weird decision.
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It's worth also mentioning this also brings up another issue how Hollywood often see's "Voice Actors" in movies, especially if you're not "A List" material. See the Scooby Doo movie as a good example what happened here. Despite Shaggy's current VA being a known Hollywood actor, and Fred's voice actor always reprising his role in animated stuff, including parodies, they were both effectively replaced (With only Fred's voice actor maintaining his role as Scooby Doo, which is the only silver lining but still absolutely infuriating).

June Foray on the Rocky & Bullwinkle live action movie, despite returning and reprising Rocky the Squirrel, she was nowhere on the promotional material and was ignored on the posters. She's was not a small name voice actor either.

I don't know, this whole conversation brings up some issues I have with Hollywood casting for characters who are already well established and the above user's point with mentioning how Sonic hasn't had another voice since Late 1998 (ignoring the Werehog, which another VA handled that side for Sonic in Unleashed, while Kanemaru retained his voice for regular Sonic) is also incredibly important.

I'm just not okay with this sorta thing. Not just with this movie, either.
 
OP
OP

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Derachi said:
When was the last time Sonic fans were universally happy?
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I mean, Sonic Mania, animated shorts, recent comics, and a few other things. I don't know why you need to take a pot shot at the Sonic community here with this kinda post. There's been some good things that have come out despite some mishandling of stuff. But there has been legit problems with how Sonic has been handled, so I mean, they're worth discussing?
 
Buttonbasher

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Mendinso said:
It's worth also mentioning this also brings up another issue how Hollywood often see's "Voice Actors" in movies, especially if you're not "A List" material. See the Scooby Doo movie as a good example what happened here. Despite Shaggy's current VA being a known Hollywood actor, and Fred's voice actor always reprising his role in animated stuff, including parodies, they were both effectively replaced (With only Fred's voice actor maintaining his role as Scooby Doo, which is the only silver lining but still absolutely infuriating).

June Foray on the Rocky & Bullwinkle live action movie, despite returning and reprising Rocky the Squirrel, she was nowhere on the promotional material and was ignored on the posters. She's was not a small name voice actor either.

I don't know, this whole conversation brings up some issues I have with Hollywood casting for characters who are already well established and the above user's point with mentioning how Sonic hasn't had another voice since Late 1998 (ignoring the Werehog, which another VA handled that side for Sonic in Unleashed, while Kanemaru retained his voice for regular Sonic) is also incredibly important.

I'm just not okay with this sorta thing. Not just with this movie, either.
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Just wanted to say that I agree that I dislike the practice of replacing talented dedicated voice actors with "a name" as well. Was just saying that it was true on the US side as well, which is unfortunate.
 

Deleted member 35077

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Buttonbasher said:
Dunno why this is surprising. Its no different from the US release choosing a celebrity rather than the game voice actor.
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Japanese are really serious about their voice actors; unless a series is rebooted or just been absent for a very long time (like 8+years), you are generally stuck to your character until you retire or die. When the latter happens, sometimes they show respect by retiring the fictional character altogether.
 
OP
OP

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Buttonbasher said:
Just wanted to say that I agree that I dislike the practice of replacing talented dedicated voice actors with "a name" as well. Was just saying that it was true on the US side as well, which is unfortunate.
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Gotcha, apologize for misreading that then.

EDIT:

Derachi said:
Well it was a genuine question (I had forgotten about Mania) but ok
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Sorry, that probably came off ill intended. Just we've had people use that as a way to take a pot shot at the community. So I apologized if I assumed the worst there. My bad.
 
Yappa

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Oct 25, 2017
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Rightfully upset.
Pretty ununusal for the japanese market, considering how usually roles in games/anime are reprised by the same voice actors.
 
MrWindUpBird

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Mendinso said:
It's worth also mentioning this also brings up another issue how Hollywood often see's "Voice Actors" in movies, especially if you're not "A List" material. See the Scooby Doo movie as a good example what happened here. Despite Shaggy's current VA being a known Hollywood actor, and Fred's voice actor always reprising his role in animated stuff, including parodies, they were both effectively replaced (With only Fred's voice actor maintaining his role as Scooby Doo, which is the only silver lining but still absolutely infuriating).

June Foray on the Rocky & Bullwinkle live action movie, despite returning and reprising Rocky the Squirrel, she was nowhere on the promotional material and was ignored on the posters. She's was not a small name voice actor either.

I don't know, this whole conversation brings up some issues I have with Hollywood casting for characters who are already well established and the above user's point with mentioning how Sonic hasn't had another voice since Late 1998 (ignoring the Werehog, which another VA handled that side for Sonic in Unleashed, while Kanemaru retained his voice for regular Sonic) is also incredibly important.

I'm just not okay with this sorta thing. Not just with this movie, either.
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Just because you have voiced a character for so long doesn't mean you should expect to automatically be considered for the role in a new movie/game/etc. Even without all the fervor around this movie, this could be a relatively big break in opening voice roles for Ben Schwartz, while Roger Craig Smith has been established in the industry for a long time and has no trouble getting roles.

Stop getting attached to voices. Let other actors/actresses take a shot at these characters.
 

t26

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Oct 27, 2017
4,559
Castile said:
Japanese are really serious about their voice actors; unless a series is rebooted or just been absent for a very long time (like 8+years), you are generally stuck to your character until you retire or die. When the latter happens, sometimes they show respect by retiring the fictional character altogether.
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Unless it is Saint Seiya
 
TheDinoman

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Yeah if they didn't bring back RCS for the western version, no way they were gonna bother with Kanemaru for the JP version.

This kind of reminds me of something: we all know how the Micheal Bay Transformers movies brought Peter Cullen back into the limelight as the voice for Optimus Prime, but the neat thing is, the Japanese dubs of those movies did the same thing and brought back Optimus' JP VA from the Japanese dubs of G1, TesshĹŤ Genda. Always thought that was cool.
 
J75

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Since Adventure 1? That's impressive. Sonic voice has changed so much in English since that game.
 

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One Winged Slayer
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Mendinso said:
Seiya's voice actor literally stepped down because Toei intended to replace everyone except him, and he wasn't comfortable continuing without them. It would be a bit before he'd come back as him.
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Pretty sure that Furuya said Kurumada himself asked to change the rest of the cast except for Furuya, which as you said he wasn't comfortable with so he stepped down too.

So yeah he is to blame for that one.
 
Buttonbasher

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Castile said:
Japanese are really serious about their voice actors; unless a series is rebooted or just been absent for a very long time (like 8+years), you are generally stuck to your character until you retire or die. When the latter happens, sometimes they show respect by retiring the fictional character altogether.
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Interesting. Thanks for sharing!
 
MarvelousIntent

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Japan takes its voice actors surprisingly seriously. I think I remember hearing that the reason that loud-mouth Phil doesn't have a single line in KH3 is that his Japanese voice actor died in 2014 and they wouldn't replace him.
 
MrWindUpBird

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Ferrs said:
I don't disagree, but in Japan VA are a way WAY bigger deal than in the West, they are basically THE characters, so I'm not surprised at the reactions there.
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Oh trust me, I'm fully aware of that haha. And I do think it's a bummer that the voice actors for English and Japanese Sonic are different here, but I just have never understood getting so attached to a particular voice. I mean...Voice actors don't have infinite time, they get old, some will pass, and some will retire. It's the way things are. Kasey Kasem is still the best Scooby/Shaggy there ever was, but I've also enjoyed every other voice actor who has brought those characters to life as well.
 

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Ferrs

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Kafkaa said:
Oh trust me, I'm fully aware of that haha. And I do think it's a bummer that the voice actors for English and Japanese Sonic are different here, but I just have never understood getting so attached to a particular voice. I mean...Voice actors don't have infinite time, they get old, some will pass, and some will retire. It's the way things are. Kasey Kasem is still the best Scooby/Shaggy there ever was, but I've also enjoyed every other voice actor who has brought those characters to life as well.
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Yeah sometimes it can be a good thing, like, Sonic for example, he always had the same voice for the cartoons here in Spain (AosTH, Satam, X...), and when they finally dubbed a game in Spanish (Generations) they used a new VA instead of the one doing since Âż1992? but guess what? I actually like him more. So sometimes it can be good to change too.
 
Adamska

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As someone who was fine with how he looked in the first trailer (though I do recognize the new look is better, if unnecessary), I don't get this sort of mentality. Let someone else voice Sonic for a change. I mean, to this day I've made my peace with them dismissing Ryan Drummond anyway.
 
MrWindUpBird

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Ferrs said:
Yeah sometimes it can be a good thing, like, Sonic for example, he always had the same voice for the cartoons here in Spain (AosTH, Satam, X...), and when they finally dubbed a game in Spanish (Generations) they used a new VA instead of the one doing since Âż1992? but guess what? I actually like him more. So sometimes it can be good to change too.
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Exactly. Anytime a character has been recast I almost never have an issue with previous ones, but like you said, it leaves open the possibility that I could enjoy the new voice actor even more. Sonic Adventure 1 Sonic was my favorite Sonic voice, but even in just the few trailers we've seen Ben Schwartz has been growing on me a lot, and If the whole movie is anything like the trailers I'd be okay with him voicing Sonic for the future.
 

ookiimarukochan

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Nov 6, 2017
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Castile said:
Japanese are really serious about their voice actors; unless a series is rebooted or just been absent for a very long time (like 8+years), you are generally stuck to your character until you retire or die. When the latter happens, sometimes they show respect by retiring the fictional character altogether.
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I've heard western fans claim this and it's really not true - I mean it's always a shock when drama CD actors play the characters in an anime. They've stunt cast different actors as Kenshiro's voice in all sorts of Fist of the North Star stuff. Even with something like Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro's Medama-Oyaji who was almost synonymous with his actor Isamu Tanonaka there've been a bunch of things using other actors before he died (and indeed the rest of the cast is different in every version)
If we're talking about Japanese property -> Hollywood adaptions, I think the only time they got (most of) the original Japanese cast back was for Ghost In The Shell, and that was a super last minute thing due to how badly the adaption had been received in Japan (and of course GITS has had several casts)
 

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ookiimarukochan said:
I've heard western fans claim this and it's really not true - I mean it's always a shock when drama CD actors play the characters in an anime. They've stunt cast different actors as Kenshiro's voice in all sorts of Fist of the North Star stuff. Even with something like Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro's Medama-Oyaji who was almost synonymous with his actor Isamu Tanonaka there've been a bunch of things using other actors before he died (and indeed the rest of the cast is different in every version)
If we're talking about Japanese property -> Hollywood adaptions, I think the only time they got (most of) the original Japanese cast back was for Ghost In The Shell, and that was a super last minute thing due to how badly the adaption had been received in Japan (and of course GITS has had several casts)
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You are correct that it really depends on the property. GitS had the same cast since the first movie (with the exception of the PS1 game) and people did complain when Arise changed everyone (didn't help that Arise sucks but I digress) and guess what, it seems like they are bringing back Atsuko Tanaka for the Netflix SAC sequel.

Something like Lupin III had different voices for the first adaptations until they settled on a cast (for the most part), they changed some of the cast relatively recently and nobody complained because it was a understandable change. Dragon Ball never changed the cast except in situations like when a actors passed away or retire, other times like with Saint Seiya or Fruits Basket the creator themselves ask for a change in the cast.

In the case of Kanemaru he has been the voice of the character for 20 years now in everything, to my knowledge, so it's understandable why fans would complain about his absence.
 
Camjo-Z

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I just saw Yuji Naka tweeting about this. I imagine it's probably a bigger deal to Japanese audiences who have only known the character as Kanemaru, but Western fans who have already been through multiple Sonic voices are a little more used to it. Personally I've warmed up to Ben Schwartz a bit, not my favorite take on Sonic but I think most of my initial dislike of his voice was due to the fact that it was coming out of a disgusting little gremlin that it did not remotely fit.

Kafkaa said:
Just because you have voiced a character for so long doesn't mean you should expect to automatically be considered for the role in a new movie/game/etc. Even without all the fervor around this movie, this could be a relatively big break in opening voice roles for Ben Schwartz, while Roger Craig Smith has been established in the industry for a long time and has no trouble getting roles.

Stop getting attached to voices. Let other actors/actresses take a shot at these characters.
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Let's not pretend this was a generous move on the part of Paramount, established voice actors from games/cartoons frequently get the shaft whenever a property makes the jump to the big screen and it's always a dick move. Ben Schwartz has also voiced major characters like Dewey on Ducktales and Leonardo in TMNT before this, so while I'm sure he's grateful for the job, it's not like he was struggling before this.
 
MrWindUpBird

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Camjo-Z said:
I just saw Yuji Naka tweeting about this. I imagine it's probably a bigger deal to Japanese audiences who have only known the character as Kanemaru, but Western fans who have already been through multiple Sonic voices are a little more used to it. Personally I've warmed up to Ben Schwartz a bit, not my favorite take on Sonic but I think most of my initial dislike of his voice was due to the fact that it was coming out of a disgusting little gremlin that it did not remotely fit.



Let's not pretend this was a generous move on the part of Paramount, established voice actors from games/cartoons frequently get the shaft whenever a property makes the jump to the big screen and it's always a dick move. Ben Schwartz has also voiced major characters like Dewey on Ducktales and Leonardo in TMNT before this, so while I'm sure he's grateful for the job, it's not like he was struggling before this.
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I didn't say it was a generous thing on Paramount's part lol. But again, I see no problem with changing a voice actor in long running properties, it isn't a big deal. It's not a "dick move" to go with another actor or actress, because again, just because you've voiced a character doesn't mean that other actors shouldn't be allowed to have a crack at said character. I know Ben Schwartz hasn't been struggling as an actor but it's not like he's some huge name that everyone knows, and you can also count his roles in animated films on a hand and a half versus 90% of RCS's filmography being animation/video games. He's not going to be struggling just because he's not voicing Sonic this time. He has plenty of other roles.
 
Mars People

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It's the same shit they pulled for Michael Bay's craptastic Transformers movies.

They got Peter Cullen for Optimus Prime, but did they get Frank Welker for Megatron?
Did they fuck.

And this is Frank Welker who is pretty much a living legend with regards to voice acting.
 
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