voice actor

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My pick: Toshio Furukawa

 

Reasoning: I love how Toshio Furukawa can sound snarky and arrogant one minute and really serious and sharp the next, depending on Piccolo's mood. He's got that devilish feel to him. However, it's not a "character voice"; it sounds natural in every scene. As far as the English dub(s) are concerned, Scott McNeil's Piccolo edges out the competition by having a wild flare to it, while still remaining solidly rooted. In comparison, Sabat's Piccolo seems a little bland and the others just sound plain bad.

 

Breakdown: Toshio Furukawa > Scott McNeil > Chris Sabat > Unknown #1 = Unknown #2 = Unknown #3

#7 Kei Tomiyama
 

One of the classic anime voices of the 70s and 80s, Kei Tomiyama's tragically short life was nevertheless fruitful in his industry. Already well-known by the seventies for his role as the wrestler eponymous Tiger Mask, an character who has endured as an anime icon for decades, he went on to play a few other very notable roles. His tender, sincere voice at times belied his often firey delivery.

Something a bit less controversial:
Original Video - More videos at TinyPic My pick: NO PREFERENCE, AS THEY ARE ALL AWESOME Reasoning: If one bases Travis Willingham's Roy soley on his performance in Brotherhood (he was okay in the first series, but not great), he surely lives up to either Toru Okawa or Shinichiro Miki in his performance as Roy Mustang. All three are able to keep Roy sounding serious and authoratative, but with a little bit of cockiness, too. Breakdown: Okawa = Miki = Willingham (Brotherhood) > Willingham (First Series) Now TRY not to fuck this up, okay, commentors?

#6: Masako Nozawa It's hard to imagine a voice talent who delivers with more warmth, charm, and sincerity than Masako Nozawa. Though she's basically well-known only for a single character (and his look-alikes), it's that one iconic role and equally iconic performance that makes her worthy of highlight. That role, for those of you in a cave for the past twenty four years, is Son Goku from Dragon Ball/Z/GT. 　 Nozawa has been acting since the age of 2. And at the age of 75, continues to deliver strong as the main hero of the animated version of Akira Toriyama's mega-hit manga, Dragon Ball. It was Toriyama himself that chose her back in the early days of the anime, later finding himself hearing her voice in the role when he was drawing.

#5: Ryo Horikawa A voice actor with a lot of presence, Ryo Horikawa (born Mokoto Horikawa) had a strong presence in the 80s and 90s in Japanese animation. He's probably best known as the wicked prince of all Saiyans, Vegeta, in Dragon Ball Z, but he was acting before and has been doing work since. Starting with his bishonen roles, we have the feminine Andromeda Shun in Saint Seiya and Reinhard von Lohengramm in Legend of the Galactic Heroes. He has a certain gentleness in these roles, though is fully commanding when necessary. His Reinhard especially is full of a sort of confident calmness, but is capable of great anger, too. This great anger is put to good use in one particular role. The role, of course, is Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z.

#4: Yasuo Yamada It may seem silly to highlight a voice talent who's known for playing one particular role, but when this particular VA's performance in the role is so iconic, and has spanned decades in that role, it's perfectly appropriate to me. Especially when the character he's known for playing is a favorite anime character: Arsène Lupin III! How do I describe Yasuo Yamada's Lupin voice? It's hard, because his Lupin adapts to the tone of the feature. The first television series had a bit of a darker tone to it than the rest of the franchise, much like the manga it was spawned from, until later episodes. Lupin's voice changed subtly throughout the show, but Yamada always played him cooly but with a bit of playfulness.

"Bitch, please." So, we all know that I'm not a huge fan of Sean Schemmel, the voice of Goku in Funimation's English dub of Dragon Ball Z. I've said it enough. I just don't think he's that great in the role. In fact, I've said he's pretty fucking terrible. Granted, he's better than the AB Groupe and Creative Product Corp's dub Gokus, but certainly not as good as Peter Kelamis was in the role for Ocean. It's not a controversial opinion. Many people share my opinion. Anyway, apparently this has caught Mr. Schemmel's attention recently. On the Sean Schemmel Fanclub (ahahahaha) page on Facebook, Schemmel said this: In all my ranting about "constructive criticism" vs. "mindless bashing" and all the arguing and debating about new vs.

You will be missed.

Anime Voice Talent Highlight #3 Kotono Mitsuishi #3: Kotono Mitsuishi Throughout the 1990s, Mitsuishi Kotono permeated the voice talent pool. Performing as both the strong heroine, the crazy ditz, or sometimes, both at once, Kotono always delivered strongly, and continues to do so today. But what is more remarkable, the roles she played, or the performances she brought to them? Likely, it's the latter. Starting out as an elevator girl at what was at one time the tallest building in Japan, the Sunshine 60, she eventually became an office lady, but was forced to quit. Then, in 1989 she started doing voice work in an OVA for a popular tennis-themed anime.