Character Voices

[U.N. Owen]

So when you read/write fanfics, who do you exactly hear for characters who have never had a voice (aka: every single character never used in the anime, ever)? How does this affect your characterization of these characters?

 

[shoz999]

One particular character that's never really been utilized well in the anime is Giovanni. When reading the manga, I always imagined Ron Pearlman's voice work of Slade from Teen Titans, that cold but calm hollow ghost-like voice of a mentor that echoes across the hallway, fitting incredibly well with Giovanni when he steps into the abandon gym, hands deep into his pockets, holding that devilish smirk on his face as he carefully watches his opponent's every move, from the opponents hands onto his Pokeball to where his eyes are looking as opposed to his James Bond-villain style voice in the anime where he... doesn't really do anything... at least compared to his game and manga counterpart. If they ever make Pokemon Adventures into anime, they should get Ron Pearlman to voice Giovanni. IT WOULD BE PERFECT!

 

[Kutie Pie]

One particular character that's never really been utilized well in the anime is Giovanni.

:( This makes me sad, but that's probably because I like Ted Lewis as a voice actor, he was just never properly able to shine on his own for years for whatever reason--I think bad scripts are to blame, personally, but New York dubbing companies were really weird back in the day. He oddly enough sounds like he tried hard to imitate the Japanese voice in some aspects while still having that New York accent, then he voiced Tracey and so sometimes you can hear that in his voice.

Anyhoo, I try to have a consistent voice for characters, both those who have a canon voice or don't, but I fail so badly at it lol. Think it's only worked fully with Digimon, but then that was until I heard the Tri dub, and now Kari sounds weird in my head and makes me sad. (Not helped that she has four different voice actresses that I'm aware of for the character, two Japanese, and two English. She's a mess in my head.)

Funnily enough, Mewtwo alternates back-and-forth between Philip Bartlett and Dan Green for me, even though I prefer the former's performance, and yet for some reason sometimes I get a blending of the two and don't mind it at all. It's weird, I don't know how to explain it, but I just get a "different" Mewtwo in fan fiction because of that (which is stupid to say because this is fan fiction we're talking about and even the best writers have a hard time getting his character down right, but it's just a weird feeling).

For the characters who don't have voices, that's a bit of a hard one when it comes to Pokémon fics, since a majority of them have voices, so I turn to the Pokémon themselves. I don't have any specific voices in mind, but every time I read Lugia's lines from anywhere, I don't think of the 2000 Lugia's voice, think of Kyle Hebert, and his voice goes all over the place, too. It's kinda funny to me.

In my own writing, Cresselia is Monica Rial. I have no idea why, but that's the face that comes to mind, doesn't matter what I'm writing which isn't much 'cause of Forsaken, but I've tried a few unrelated one-shots. She's versatile, too, so she's not always having a scratchy voice.

 

[Namohysip]

Considering I'm writing in a PMD setting with entirely original characters, everyone has no official voice in terms of media that they're depicted in (that is, none). But every character I write has a voice in my head! Sometimes I wonder what they sound like to others. Off the top of my head, Trapinch Gahi has a voice very similar to Zangetsu / White Ichigo from Bleach, in the English Dub. Somewhat airy,a little high pitched, but still with hints of masculinity, and a teensy bit unhinged.

Another one is an incoming character, Joltik Willow, whose voice I attribute to a high-pitched Lissa from Fire Emblem.

Everyone has a voice. The way they talk, in conjunction with how they sound and how they present themselves, is a strong factor in the way their character works--and is possibly a contributing factor to my strength in dialogue. Voices in my head. Yay! When I phrase it like that, I sound just a bit crazy~