Longtime fans of the English dub Pokémon. While that may seem like a natural shift in over 25 years, the reality is that the show at one point dropped its entire voice cast for very controversial reasons.
The original Pokémon anime was voiced by 4Kids Entertainment, a now-defunct company that localized many anime series and re-released them for younger children, much to the dismay of some fans. While many fans were extremely upset with 4Kids, they quickly got used to the existing voice cast. That’s why there was an uproar in 2006 when it was reported that 4Kids had lost its license to produce Pokémon and had plans to re-cast almost every voice actor in the series. Recasting has always been a controversial decision, even for single characters, so removing the entire voice cast at once is almost unheard of. Why did The Pokémon Company International (then Pokémon USA) do this?
The Dark Truth Behind Pokémon Recasting
As one might expect, most of the current voice actors are quite saddened by the news and while some have remained silent, others have spoken out to the fans who have contacted them, explaining Love that Pokémon USA is looking to cut costs by replacing voice actors with “sounds”. -a-like”, who wouldn’t need such a high salary. According to rumors, this is done because the popularity of anime is dwindling in the Ruby and Sapphire era, and the expired 4Kids license offers the perfect opportunity. A new voiceover company, TAJ Productions, took over the process and launched a special “Mastermind of the Mirage Pokémon” to test out its new alternate voice actors.
The rerun was met with massive negative reactions from fans, which eventually led to Ash being recast once again alongside Sarah Natochenny, who would go on to play him for the rest of the series. movie. Despite fan campaigns, the new voice actors were eventually retained, but it took a while for them to gain a foothold, leading to many dilemmas in the early days after the replacement. change. TAJ Productions went bankrupt in 2008, transferring the show to another studio willing to bring in some of the original voice actors. While most never returned to their original roles, some, like original narrator Rodger Parsons, did. The series was reportedly getting better ratings at the time, after switching to Cartoon Network, thus justifying the larger budget that allowed some of these actors to return.
The firing of the voice cast that gave the film the popularity it received from 1998 to 2006 was undeniably a mistake in the Pokémon anime; it not only betrays those actors, but it also upsets fans and gives the impression that the series is nothing more than a cheap commercial for the Pokémon USA franchise, despite their overt claims. opposite thing. It was a mistake that could lead to a death spiral for the dub, and the film was fortunate to avoid such a fate, as so far there are plenty of fans who are still bitter about the cast. again. Although this change is in the past for everyone now, there will always be a radical change in voice for everyone. Pokémon anime is still the result of this controversy.