Anime News Network reported recently that seiyuu Banjou Ginga would replace seiyuu Ichiro Nagai, who recently passed away, in Nagai's role as Chairman Netero in HunterXHunter.
This reminded me of a few things. I recall hearing once that a certain casting director in Hollywood could remember the faces of literally 10,000 actors. She had to - it was her job.
I was also reminded of how Junko Minagawa replaced the late Tomoko Kawakami as Soi Fon in Bleach. I remember wondering at the time how Bleach's producers decided on Minagawa.
I would think they first thought of Minagawa as sounding similar to Kawakami (both were female seiyuu with low voices), and then had Minagawa audition for Soi Fon. And the same must have happened with Banjou Ginga replacing Ichiro Nagai. (Oddly, Nagai's roles in other anime series are being filled by different seiyuu. In other words, Ginga hasn't been hired to do all of them across the board.)
The voice casting directors in Tokyo must have 10,000 seiyuu voices memorized in their heads, ready to get a group of suitable actors together to audition in case the worst happens.
I recall watching the ludicrous (but enjoyable) Ixion Saga a few years back and recognizing Akira Ishida as the character Variation.
I was busy patting myself on the back for recognizing Ishida by his voice alone. However, when I looked at Ixion Saga's cast list, I got a big surprise.
It wasn't Akira Ishida - but Yuki Kaji who voiced Variation.
Kaji (also known as Eren in Attack on Titan) sounded a dead ringer for Akira Ishida as Variation in that series. I mean, he completely fooled me. It makes me wonder if anime casting directors keep a list of which seiyuu sound like other seiyuu - just in case of the unthinkable.
And then sometimes - seiyuu who sound similar present a different potential issue altogether.
In the long-running One Piece series, Hiroaki Hirata plays Sanji, one of the main characters. I've loved Hirata's rough masculine voice ever since I first heard him as Gojou in Saiyuki all those years ago.
But strangely enough - there's another seiyuu with an almost identical rough masculine voice to Hirata's - who also plays a main character in the same series.
Kazuya Nakai plays Zoro in One Piece. If you close your eyes and listen to Hirata and Nakai, their voices are almost exactly the same in terms of lowness of pitch, deepness, timbre and intonation and everything else.
I have to say I've heard Hirata and Nakai in numerous other roles, but I actually don't watch One Piece so I can't say when they're playing Sanji and Zoro whether or not they sound like each other. But judging from hearing their voices in other roles, it seems impossible that they wouldn't sound similar as Sanji and Zoro in One Piece. XD
So I wonder what One Piece's producers were thinking all those years ago when the show was being cast. If God forbid something ever happens to either Hiroaki Hirata or Kazuya Nakai, the remaining seiyuu will be unable to stand in for the other - unless they think no one will notice both Sanji and Zoro being played by the same seiyuu! :-O!
