Why aren't foreigners "allowed" to be voice actors?

[MMM]

Originally Posted by tokusatsufan

The thing is,you have foreign characters that are supposed to be from the Anglosphere in anime and,I hate to say it,but they can't speak English.

Sean Connery played a Russian sub captain in "The Hunt for Red October". Trust me, the Japanese actors are doing fine.

[Realism]

Originally Posted by tokusatsufan

The thing is,you have foreign characters that are supposed to be from the Anglosphere in anime and,I hate to say it,but they can't speak English.

Ever heard of Hollywood?

Tom Cruise and his whole German crew spoke perfect, non-accented English in Valkyrie

In Memoirs of a Geisha they spoke English

All those movies like Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator all spoke English

[RobinMask]

Originally Posted by Realism

Ever heard of Hollywood?

Tom Cruise and his whole German crew spoke perfect, non-accented English in Valkyrie

In Memoirs of a Geisha they spoke English

All those movies like Troy, Kingdom of Heaven, Gladiator all spoke English

Ah, Hollywood . . . I have a feeling the awful accents shall outweigh the good ones. Such as the German accent in the new "Indianna Jones", or the awful so-called English in the recent "Robin Hood" . . . the ammount of Indian and British accents butchered in Hollywood, and the American accents butchered in English films, are a dime a dozen.

It's the same everywhere though. In Japanese anime they fail a lot to do foriegn accents . . . "Gravitation" is cringe-worthy in the flashbacks in America.

I wonder why casting directors pick people who aren't used to certain accents, or sound awful in imitating them, but it's pretty common. It's very rare I come across someone and go 'really, they aren't actually x-nationality?' or 'wow, that sounds realistic' :P

[tokusatsufan]

Well then someone's gotta be the one to move forward. Kamen Rider Psyga and Mac Windy are the best!

[RickOShay]

Originally Posted by tokusatsufan

The thing is,you have foreign characters that are supposed to be from the Anglosphere in anime and,I hate to say it,but they can't speak English.

Dude, they are just cartoons. Calm down.

And why would they need to speak English in a Japanese anime?

Are they like trying to speak English in some scenes, and you find it offensive or silly or something?

[myk]

Originally Posted by RobinMask

It's the same everywhere though. In Japanese anime they fail a lot to do foriegn accents . . . "Gravitation" is cringe-worthy in the flashbacks in America.

Yeah in Evangelion 2.0 there was a guy that was supposed to be speaking English. Couldn't even understand wtf he was saying.

I wonder why casting directors pick people who aren't used to certain accents, or sound awful in imitating them, but it's pretty common. It's very rare I come across someone and go 'really, they aren't actually x-nationality?' or 'wow, that sounds realistic' :P

Don Cheadle is one of those guys. He's real good with accents.

[Ryzorian]

Availability of voice actors that are both anglo and actually speak japanse well enough to be understood is probably very low..like hardly any. For the various reasosn stated. I would also think Most American actors anyway never considered voice acting as much as film work..Anime was and is a big part of japanese entertainment and serious drama is done through that medium. In the USA, cartoons are cartoons.

[RealJames]

I asked a few of my Japanese friends here (in Kansai area) and they all felt that it was far more strange that non-kansai people were voice acting kansai accents, some of them even get irritated when they hear the rubbish accent ><

One of them thought the reason foreigners aren't voice acting the foreign roles is cuz it's a shit job apparently except for the very few who make it to the top

[RTyokohama]

How about "甲斐田ゆき(Yuki Kaida)"?
She did foreign student from USA in "げんしけん2".
I'm native Japanese speaker, so I don't know how her English is good.
but she studied abroad many years

[tokusatsufan]

Thank you for pointing me to that example. I might have a look at that.