Aldnoah.Zero - Voice Actor Appreciation & Discussion

[Kairin]

The purpose of this thread is to discuss, critique and idolize the Voice Actor cast of Aldnoah.Zero. Please remember that the discussion should center on their performances as professional voice actors and not on the show content (which can be discussed in the various Episode threads). Please remember this simple rule when critiquing a VA's performance or reading another forum member's critique:

• Don't take it personally.
  In other words, you’re free to disagree with another person’s opinion, but don’t flame them if they offer a well written and well thought out analysis that differs from your own opinion. Keep it civil.
  
  
• Voice Actors are human.
  Yes, it’s true. They’re human. Therefore, don’t just indiscriminately rip them and their work apart as if they’re inorganic objects. You don’t have to praise them non-stop, but be thoughtful in your criticism.

This thread might duplicate some discussion in the Episode threads, but it can also serve to demystify various VA roles, disseminate VA information (VA Bios, VA photos, etc) and provide cast information of various types as well as discussion about performances.

[justpassingby]

Komatsu Mikako-shi (Inko)
She's the main reason I'm following this anime in the first place (the series itself has a lot to be desired from). And thanks to her and GBF staffs, my interest in Gundam has been renewed.
I can't believe I have the opportunities to hear her voice inside local cinemas. The first one was Majokko Shimai Yoyo to Nene's ED theme, while the second is Neko from the Missing Kings.

Of course, I knew her first from her first main role as Joey in Heroman, but I didn't pay much attention back then, until her role in the adaptation of one of my favorite SF novelist, Sasamoto Yuuichi-sensei. Although Director Satou did mention that the Heroman's staffs were the ones who propelled her to get works in radio programs, anime, and singings, kudos to him for taking her as Marika and allowed her to sing. Thanks to Sensei too for not involving in the seiyuu selection.

Here hoping Inko won't be offed, just like another Mikako-shi's role this season. . She's been twitting as she's watching the anime in real time, and posted the different covers of the scripts.

[karice67]

Not entirely sure where to put these, but since they seem to tell us more about the seiyuu than the show itself, this thread seems appropriate.

Here are a couple of discussions from the Aldnoah radio show that I really enjoyed. It's hosted by Amamiya Sora (Asseylum) and Minase Inori (Eddelrittuo), and both of these are from the section where they answer questions that listeners send in to them.

TL;DR…

 

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I think I understand why Slaine is more popular....

[Thess]

There was a fanart based on Radio #08 somewhere in twitter, but I have no access to my fanart file here and I'm lazy to search. I promise I'll post it when I return home.

[AntonKutovoi]

I find it quite hilarious that Sho Hayami (Cruhteo) practically reprised his role from Fate/Zero here. Just with a little more sadism and snobism.

Usually I leally like Kazuya Nakai's character, so I was hyped, when learned that he will be in the cast. But while his perfomance here is good, I have to say that it's probably one of the least badass Nakai's characters

Spoiler for Some of his other roles:

Overall, cast is good here, but there's no ground-breaking perfomances from any of the voice actors (although Tohru Ohkawa was able to give a few passionate speeches, which always good).

[renuac]

Thank you. That does explain some of the fanart.

Originally Posted by karice67

I think I understand why Slaine is more popular....

[Dr. Dahm]

There's a lot of interesting and really talented multi-generational voice actors of many walks in this show, but I don't really feel any of them have had anywhere near the chance to showcase their full potential like they have in other shows this season. For example Natsuki Hanae and Sora Amamiya double up quite nicely in Tokyo Ghoul and have a lot of chemistry together there but I don't really think they work well together here, mostly due to Inaho being flat as a board personality wise and Asseylum just kind of being the one dimensional selfless polite and friendly princess type. Actually Tokyo Ghoul shows me that both Natsuki Hanae can actually get really into a scene and convey a characters mindset quite well but he's just been given absolutely nothing to work with with Inaho who he's seemingly being told to play as flat and monotone as possible. There's just not enough going on with either his or Asseylum (Amamiya's) characters though to showcase them IMO which is a shame.

Likewise Mikako Komatsu's who first came to my attention playing the main character in Gundam Build Fighters (a boy at that) has the character Inko who is barely used in this show. Kazuya Nakai (Roronoa Zoro) who can just command a scene on his own also isn't given much to do here since his character is stuck in a PTSD situation and just kind of not able to do much as a character thus giving him little to work with bringing to the forefront outside of the first episode where I felt he did fine conveying the sense of foreboding doom.

To me the only ones that have really managed to stand out are Show Hayami (Maximilian Jenius in Macross) as Cruhteo who's character is sadly dead ending any other possible contributions from him, Sachika Misawa (Kuroyukihime in Accel World) who I feel is being given some of the more interesting scenes in the show to work with particularly of late, and Tooru Ookawa (Roy Mustang in FMA and the narrator in Jojo) as Saazbaum who probably had the most commanding voice performance this show has seen to date in the first episode when he was firing up the troops after the assassination. Other than that much there isn't a whole lot that stands out to me. Again a shame as there's so much talent here.

[Thess]

I found it! I'm about to go to bed, but I found it!



Based on the radio show karice6 kindly translated.

Originally Posted by Dr. Dahm

There's a lot of interesting and really talented multi-generational voice actors of many walks in this show, but I don't really feel any of them have had anywhere near the chance to showcase their full potential like they have in other shows this season. For example Natsuki Hanae and Sora Amamiya double up quite nicely in Tokyo Ghoul and have a lot of chemistry together there but I don't really think they work well together here, mostly due to Inaho being flat as a board personality wise and Asseylum just kind of being the one dimensional selfless polite and friendly princess type. Actually Tokyo Ghoul shows me that both Natsuki Hanae can actually get really into a scene and convey a characters mindset quite well but he's just been given absolutely nothing to work with with Inaho who he's seemingly being told to play as flat and monotone as possible. There's just not enough going on with either his or Asseylum (Amamiya's) characters though to showcase them IMO which is a shame.

Likewise Mikako Komatsu's who first came to my attention playing the main character in Gundam Build Fighters (a boy at that) has the character Inko who is barely used in this show. Kazuya Nakai (Roronoa Zoro) who can just command a scene on his own also isn't given much to do here since his character is stuck in a PTSD situation and just kind of not able to do much as a character thus giving him little to work with bringing to the forefront outside of the first episode where I felt he did fine conveying the sense of foreboding doom.

To me the only ones that have really managed to stand out are Show Hayami (Maximilian Jenius in Macross) as Cruhteo who's character is sadly dead ending any other possible contributions from him, Sachika Misawa (Kuroyukihime in Accel World) who I feel is being given some of the more interesting scenes in the show to work with particularly of late, and Tooru Ookawa (Roy Mustang in FMA and the narrator in Jojo) as Saazbaum who probably had the most commanding voice performance this show has seen to date in the first episode when he was firing up the troops after the assassination. Other than that much there isn't a whole lot that stands out to me. Again a shame as there's so much talent here.

I agree with this comment. Komatsu also is sharing the script covers. She's golden.

[karice67]

Originally Posted by renuac

Thank you. That does explain some of the fanart.

I mean, look at how they show their love for him! It's like they love him because he's pretty, earnest, and so much fun to tease!

Originally Posted by Thess

I found it! I'm about to go to bed, but I found it!

Sweet! Thanks for finding that!

Now, did they do some of Slaine cross-dressing?

Originally Posted by Dr. Dahm

There's a lot of interesting and really talented multi-generational voice actors of many walks in this show, but I don't really feel any of them have had anywhere near the chance to showcase their full potential like they have in other shows this season. For example Natsuki Hanae and Sora Amamiya double up quite nicely in Tokyo Ghoul and have a lot of chemistry together there but I don't really think they work well together here, mostly due to Inaho being flat as a board personality wise and Asseylum just kind of being the one dimensional selfless polite and friendly princess type. Actually Tokyo Ghoul shows me that both Natsuki Hanae can actually get really into a scene and convey a characters mindset quite well but he's just been given absolutely nothing to work with with Inaho who he's seemingly being told to play as flat and monotone as possible. There's just not enough going on with either his or Asseylum (Amamiya's) characters though to showcase them IMO which is a shame.

I disagree. I think you're missing what the voice actors are actually achieving here. Because she is a princess, Asseylum has to behave in the 'stately' way that we usually see her in, so she's always going to be subdued and dignified in public. And this is very different from how Amamiya Sora is in real life (or so it seems, going by how she is on the radio show). So in playing Asseylum, she actually has to suppress her normal personality, her normal reactions.

Some people have said that it's actually more difficult for actors/seiyuu to play someone similar to themselves because then it's more difficult to figure out where the character starts and ends. But in practical terms, I think that it's easier to go OTT to convey a character's extravagant personality than to have to pull back to play someone who's more understated. And I don't know about you, but Asseylum comes across very much like a Princess who has to suppress her natural, girlish/childish personality (shown to us in episodes 1, 4 and 8). So I personally think Amamiya is doing ok here...

The same goes for Hanae Natsuki and Inaho. He's quite expressive and fun on the one radio show I've listened to (and based on a comment by the host and the preview show "Count to A/Z"), he strikes me as quite a cheeky guy. So playing someone as quiet and unexpressive as Inaho has got to be difficult, especially since he has to convey the character's emotions with some very slight differences in tone and emphasis (e.g. episode three, which that he was being driven in preparing and executing that plan by Okisuke's death). Maybe it's easier for people who understand Japanese to pick up on, but there are some very subtle changes in Hanae's tone of voice that convey a fair amount of meaning, especially because the norm for him is a monotone.

However, the seiyuu I'm most interested in listening to in this series is Kayano Ai as Darzana. Her work as Sayaka in Hyouka already surprised me because I remember her mostly for the childish, ditzy type that is Menma (AnoHana), but she's gone even further here to play a really mature female character. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about her performance yet, but the range she's shown is enough to keep me listening.

[karice67]

'scuse the double post.

Amamiya and Minase on the ending of the first cour:

From Radio #13 (section "Aldnoah Headlines")

TL;DR…

 

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[ID555]

Thanks. Good to know that the seiyuus, especially the one playing Slaine himself, have normal interpretations of the ending, lol.

[~BC~]

Thanks for this karice. These guys sound hilarious. I feel kind of bad for Slaine's VA though. The negativity will probably be short lived though. Unless he becomes a villain...In which case he has my condolences in advance.

[karice67]

Glad you two find it fun too ^^ (I was starting to think I was weird in enjoying the madness)

Also thought I should probably explain something:

"ToroKen" probably comes from combining "toroke" (which means 'bewitched, charmed') with (Ono) Kenshou. They first used this nickname in the radio that aired after episode 10, when they gave listeners a bit of a taste of their appearance on the radio CD.

(NB: Whoever uploaded this show (radio #11) onto the nico site noted that there's a spoiler about the final episode in it, but I wonder if it was actually this bit about the radio CD instead... I'd originally thought that this bit was about the final episode because of that note, but just realised that they were talking about the radio CD then, so I'll have to listen again to check...)

[renuac]

Thank you for the translation. All four of them sound adorable, like they're really having fun together and actually do care about their characters It's also reassuring that Hanae (Why Hanaho though? A reference to his character?) and Amamiya don't sound overly worried about not appearing next season...

[karice67]

They are really adorable...I didn't think I'd enjoy listening to the radio so much, mostly because I don't normally like listening to the high voices of female seiyuu going crazy...

Yup, Hanaho comes from Hanae (Natsuki) + Inaho.
Everyone in the cast has been given a so-called Vers name (mostly courtesy of Minase - who revealed the rest in radio #08), in case they guest on the radio show. Hanae guested just after the first episode (radio #02) and they've been calling him Hanaho ever since.

Well...I didn't translate the parts of the show where Amamiya and Minase wail over what happened to Asseylum and Inaho...

[renuac]

Originally Posted by karice67

Yup, Hanaho comes from Hanae (Natsuki) + Inaho.
Everyone in the cast has been given a so-called Vers name (mostly courtesy of Minase - who revealed the rest in radio #08), in case they guest on the radio show. Hanae guested just after the first episode (radio #02) and they've been calling him Hanaho ever since.

If it's not too much of a bother, would you have the rest of these "Vers names"? (Minase sounds like quite the character.)

Originally Posted by karice67

Well...I didn't translate the parts of the show where Amamiya and Minase wail over what happened to Asseylum and Inaho...

Ah... Thank you for not translating that, it keeps hope alive and all that

[Lhklan]

Originally Posted by karice67

Well...I didn't translate the parts of the show where Amamiya and Minase wail over what happened to Asseylum and Inaho...

If it's not too much trouble, could you translate that part too? I want to know how Seylum's actor deals with that.

[karice67]

Originally Posted by renuac

If it's not too much of a bother, would you have the rest of these "Vers names"? (Minase sounds like quite the character.)

You're in luck. I wrote them up the other day cos I decided I'd collect some of the amusing bits of the show for a blog post...

revealed in #01 and #02
Amamiya Sora (Asseylum): Soram
Minase Inori (Eddelrittuo): Inorittuo
Hanae Natsuki (Inaho): Hanaho [This one was decided by Amamiya?]

revealed in #08
Ono Kensho (Slaine Troyard): Onoraine TroyKensho, which for some reason turned into ToroKen, as noted above...
Komatsu Mikako (Amifumi Inko): Komafumi Inkoshi [NB: seems like her RL nickname is Mikakoshi]
Murata Taishi (Calm Craftman): Murata Taishiman
Misawa Sachika (Rayet Areash): Sachiet Misawaash
Kakuma Ai (Nina Klein): Kakuma Ailein
Kayano Ai (Darzana Magaredge): Darnon Kayabaredge [Kayano's known as Kayanon in RL]

revealed in #09, when Hayami Shou guested
Cruhteo: Cruhteo Show

Originally Posted by renuac

Ah... Thank you for not translating that, it keeps hope alive and all that

Originally Posted by Lhklan

If it's not too much trouble, could you translate that part too? I want to know how Seylum's actor deals with that.

LOL...so which should I go with?

(Though we already got a bit of Amamiya's reaction in the Spoiler thread:

Originally Posted by karice67

...this was from Anispa (2014-08-30), hosted by Asano Masumi and Washizaki Takeshi. Both Amamiya Sora and Hanae Natsuki were guests for an Aldnoah special.

And the full conversation snippet was:

Spoiler:

Asano: "Speaking of, how far as the recording gone?"
Amamiya: "Well the dubbing has finished up to episode 12"
Hanae: "We've finished the first cour"
Asano: "So the both of you don't know what happens after that?"
Amamiya: "No we don't know what happens after that."
Washizaki: So, when you finally see the (next) script, you might be like "Ah...so I (died)"
Amamiya: Something like that.
Hanae: "Oh but something crazy happens in episode 12!"
Amamiya: "Yes! it's like ___ happens."
Washizaki: From your facial expression...no, not quite getting it. Could you put it into words?
Amamiya: Like, WHAT . THE . HECK . HAPPENED?'"
Washizaki: Like: "How's this going to turn out?!!!"
Amamiya: (laughing) yes, that.

[Lhklan]

Originally Posted by karice67

You're in luck. I wrote them up the other day cos I decided I'd collect some of the amusing bits of the show for a blog post...

revealed in #01 and #02
Amamiya Sora (Asseylum): Soram
Minase Inori (Eddelrittuo): Inorittuo
Hanae Natsuki (Inaho): Hanaho

revealed in #08
Ono Kensho (Slaine Troyard): Onorayne TroyKensho, which for some reason turned into ToroKen, as noted above...
Komatsu Mikako (Amifumi Inko): Komafumi Inkoshi [NB: seems like her RL nickname is Mikakoshi]
Murata Taishi (Calm Craftman): Murata Taishiman
Misawa Sachika (Rayet Areash): Sachie Misawaash
Kakuma Ai (Nina Klein): Kakuma Ailein
Kayano Ai (Darzana Magaredge): Darnon Kayabaredge [Kayano's known as Kayanon in RL]

revealed in #09, when Hayami Shou guested
Cruhteo: Cruhteo Show

Cruhteo Show? I thought he would have used Shouteo.

LOL...so which should I go with?

(Though we already got a bit of Amamiya's reaction in the Spoiler thread:

Well if the other guy really don't want to see it then can you send it by PM? Thanks.

[renuac]

Originally Posted by Lhklan

Cruhteo Show? I thought he would have used Shouteo.



Well if the other guy really don't want to see it then can you send it by PM? Thanks.

I wasn't really being serious Who in their right mind would turn down extra translations made at the sweat of someone else's brow? (Sorry karice67)