Should the Shenmue Anime bring back the original voice actors for Ryo?

[Tsukuyomimagi99]

It really doesn't matter to me whether they keep the original voice actors or replace them. The fundamental flaw with the English dub has always been poor localization and voice direction. Even the best of voice actors will suffer from bad localization and vice-versa. Take Briana Knickenbocker for example as a good actor suffering from a bad script.

In other words, just focus on creating a solid script with natural-sounding dialogue along with good voice direction and the rest will take care of itself.

 

[Down by Law]

Corey has always sounded good to me in the games dramatic scenes - I love when he demands to see Lishao Tao in II, roughing up the Travel Office goons in I, and all the stuff with Lan Di in III. He sounds awkward during conversations with NPCs, but so do most 18 year olds. I think he'd be good with a script that is pure storytelling and less about asking people where the south carmain qtr is.

 

[Demon's Triangle]

Corey has always sounded good to me in the games dramatic scenes - I love when he demands to see Lishao Tao in II, roughing up the Travel Office goons in I, and all the stuff with Lan Di in III. He sounds awkward during conversations with NPCs, but so do most 18 year olds. I think he'd be good with a script that is pure storytelling and less about asking people where the south carmain qtr is.

I think in general, get someone who sounds more like a teenager's, Corey sounds a bit too deep.

 

[Dehone]

Been rocking with Corey since day 1

 

[VukBZ2005]

I am on board with replacing the original voice actors for the ENG & JP versions. Anime fans are quite selective about their preferences. So, success means meeting those they consider relevant.

 

[Rydeen]

It really doesn't matter to me whether they keep the original voice actors or replace them. The fundamental flaw with the English dub has always been poor localization and voice direction. Even the best of voice actors will suffer from bad localization and vice-versa. Take Briana Knickenbocker for example as a good actor suffering from a bad script.

In other words, just focus on creating a solid script with natural-sounding dialogue along with good voice direction and the rest will take care of itself.

I don't think that's really much of a concern for the animated series. When Matsukaze was interviewing Suzuki on his radio show (I think it was) they were talking about why Ryo sounds a bit standoffish. Originally I was kind of upset that Shenhua started to sound the same way in Shenmue III, when she sounded much more vibrant and lively in Shenmue II, but it makes sense when considering what they were talking about.

Basically, in order to cut down on the number of times they would have to record Ryo saying essentially the same thing in a bunch of different conversations, they recorded just a couple different lines to string into those conversations. So instead of having Matsukaze do multiple takes (potentially) of 200 or more instances of Ryo saying, 'sou desu ka,' they have him do maybe three or four different patterns of it, and splice it into NPC dialogue (this is just an example of one of the many phrases Ryo repeats all the time, though). Then, in order to keep his tone sort of consistent throughout the games, most of Ryo's unique lines are delivered more monotone.

I came to the realization recently that they did the same thing for Shenhua in Shenmue III, simply due to the massive increase in similarly patterned dialogues between her and Ryo, in Bailu. It still sounds a bit stilted, but the delivery is overall better in Japanese, just by virtue of not having that layer of translation in the way.

At any right, I feel like there's a pretty slim chance that they actually direct the VA for Ryo and Shenhua (whoever they end of being) to mimic their game counterparts (or themselves in game form), but I guess we'll find out.