Thankfully Shinsekai Yori comes full circle as a beautiful audio visual experience in that the original dubbing this time around was superb, really breathing life into & capturing the nuance to a multitude of the novels given characters. In that it was a tricky task in how the some of the main cast members had to voice themselves differently as their characters grew up & where Sound Director Satoshi Motoyama & his staff had to cast entirely new Seiyuu's to do so. It's somewhat of a peculiar task that they had to manage and as you might have already imagined, North American anime dubbing companies don't nearly have as much resources nor talent to fill in such odd ends, as Sentai Filmworks is no exception.Where often times in fact as I've seen with many Kyo Ani Eng dubs, they almost always suck, being that a large majority of their series are licensed by Sentai Filmworks. In this case they once again show a rather lazy effort by only casting 1 actor per role, regardless of their age unlike the Japanese Dub, & it really doesn't help the fact that 99% of the time NA voice actors can't voice young Japanese adolescences for the life of them. For a seminal production such as this, it's really ill advised & in fact unacceptable for anyone to spoil their first time for the sake of convenience - Just read subs & pause when you have to, you'll get used to it. The dub is not "horrible" per se, but in comparison it's sub par & quite lazy, as such I'll save myself & your time with this short precursor of what I thought about the Eng Dub & focus more so on the original dub, since it's clearly the better of the two.
Risa Taneda as Saki WatanabeWith Risa Taneda having to voice Saki at 3-4 stages of her life I can imagine it'd be rather difficult to maintain a distinguishable consistency between them that's recognizable as Saki's voice, but are different enough to be able to sell as she ages throughout the story. Thankfully Taneda does an excellent job in doing so, where she's able to capture the somewhat introverted & kind, but the shrewd part of her personality really well. Where like a lot of good protagonists, while she may struggle often times in expressing herself, harbouring a sense of doubt & fear like anybody else, she has a particularly earnest side to her that never fails to pull through in timely manner. As she she never averts her eyes or buckles under pressure. It's important because Risa Taneda is able to nail the more shy & fickle parts about her in how she too can be silly & warm, contrasting the moments when the situation is dire, she's beautifully able to show Saki's sensitivity as a person in how reactive she can be, though having the conviction to voice her true feelings & pull through when it really counts.
There's a level of preparedness to her role as she's quite a transient & developed character that's definitely hard to nail, being that while she's resolved & polite, she's also somehow impulsive in how she always wears her heart on her sleeve. While all at the same time the person has to be able to voice various younger & older versions of herself. Thankfully however she not only has the ability to change her tone & speaking manner, but has a voice delicate enough with the right complexity to nail the roller coaster of emotions that Saki experiences. With her voice tending to broaden & soften with each successive age difference there is, where as a child she sounds more stuffy & her voice is slightly awkward but in a cute way, and as she gets older her voice forms more depth & resonance.
Specifically speaking, she has a rather delicate voice that's also very hard to ignore, in that it's gently high pitched, but can be sibilant & dynamic. As Taneda also has somewhat narrow harmonics & a light mid ranged resonance, that combined with her sense of dynamics, fluent modulation & sense of cadence, makes every aspect of her voice seem deliberate & how pure it is in how she expresses her feelings in a sincere way. In that you can tell very distinctively between how calculated she is when she has more composure, and when she looses it, it's very raw, unpredictable & concise in what messages she wants to send - Taneda is excellent at playing with her level of vocal composure to match with the level of sensitivity & nuance the given scenario has, not to mention she's a great singer & provides excellent vocals for the first half of the season's ending theme insert song. To that respect an excellent casting choice & performance.
Voice Actors as Satoru Asahina -
Kanako Toujô at 12 years oldSatoru's role is also somewhat challenging & requires a pretty specific skill set & modulation to be able to nail it. As 12 year old Satoru, while not the most experience seiyu out there, she did an awesome job in voicing Satoru's very whimsical & embellished personality to a tee. Really seemingly like the kind of braggart & snotty kid that I'd want to slap in the face! perfect for the role. In that she's great at pulling off tricks like extending syllables & vowels to resonate on to act as if Satoru's trying to buy time. As she has voice that's stuffy & harmonically busy enough to sound boyish & coy, with a pitch & resonance that precisely matches the role. Where she's great at expressing denial & guilt, along with Satoru's emotional pacing as a character, she can also talk excited or perhaps be whimsical & indirect in showcasing how Satoru puts up a front & how slick he is in diverting pressure, attention & changing the subject as Kanako Toujo is excellent in her sense of modulation & dynamics.
However she's also able to contrast that with what's actually beneath the surface when things get serious, because of how brilliant she's able to correlate how his angsty nature correlates to his rash temper, desperate attitude & reckless decision making in more dire situations. Acting with a more intense enunciation & a harder tone, along with more conspicuous dynamics. A great casting choice & performance, in that she truly fulfils the purpose of seeming annoying & rash.
Yuuki Kaji at 14 ~ years oldThe transition between the two was seemless, as Yuuki Kaji's & Kanako Toujô's voice we're discernibly similar, but progressively different enough to communicate the fact that Kaji's voice is just a more mature version of Satoru, even despite the two being completely opposite genders, which is probably a testament to Toujô excellent ability to voice herself as younger character of the opposite gender. As 14 the year old Satoru his role is far less complex than Satoru 2 years prior, being that he's matured quite a bit, and although his voice is quite different, it just shows how much puberty can change a person, as it's right in line with my experiences in witnessing my friends voices change in a matter of months like say over summer break, so the degree of change is accurate in my eyes. This time around his voice is quite a bit deeper, though Yuuki Kaji is able to depict the exact same casual & forgiving nature that Toujô was able to.
However as you can imagine his voice is quite a bit more dry, and less open and fluid in his ability to modulate his tone, which of course I find fitting. His voice is somewhat mellow & balanced in it's undertones, however his voice sound somewhat more saturated & potent when younger, & as adult it's mildly drier & breathy. It makes his character seem more resigned, but slightly a bit more optimistic as an adult, and that's really important. Being that in the more innocent times during the story, he of course can be flirty & playful, as Yuuki Kaji does a perfect job in being the kind of person that Saki would be jealous of. He just nails it, because even I think he seems obnoxious (which is the point) in how desperate, clingy and suffocating his personality can be, not to mention his queasy optimism.
Kana Hanezawa as Maria AkitsukiOnce again an unmistakable voice that if you dare call yourself an anime fan, you've probably heard her voice at least once, in that Kana Hanezawa is an industry veteran who's reprised a multitude of roles over well many that I can actually count, in that she's one of most famous for her history as an idol and her ability to sing, along side her acting and of course her voice acting career's. She has a very distinct resonance & voice profile that regardless of the situation, it's really one of the hardest voices to miss. Often times Hanezawa plays very similar roles each time, I mean I've seen her in The Monogatari Series, March Comes Like a Lion, Nagi Asukara, Nisekoi, I mean the list just goes on, and on, and on and on. She's in EVERYTHING - Period, & with Shinsekai Yori it's no different. She has the same iconically clueless & bubbly modulation, with her signature coy and stuffy tone, that's high pitched, sweet & everything nice. As I also highly suspect she was chosen because of her additional ability to sing, in that like Risa Taneda she provides vocals for the second half of the seasons ending theme insert song.
As a younger Maria, her delivery sounds quite a bit more airy & stuffy, in that she's much more coy when she's younger. However as an older Maria her voice sharpens quite a bit & instead of seeming shy, Hanezawa is able to make her seem modest & careful, but jovial & playful as well. Being that as Maria matured, her personality grew quite a bit more complex. In that it particularly shows with how she gives Saki special treatment & how she plays with others. Though she's also much more astute & deferential in acknowledging the dark ongoing history & the practiced way of life that villages still lead. As such she's more subtle & soft spoken as she grows older, having a far more careful sense of dynamics as well. It's clever in how Kana Hanezawa showcases how Maria is able to use that to her advantage to slowly get closer & on better terms with people.
Because of it, she's really one of my favourite characters despite her not having that much screen time, in that I find it interesting in how much life Hanezawa was able to breath into the role that wasn't necessarily entirely there in the original source material. Specifically, it's her way of controlling the conversation, and always having the advantage over others, as she's particularly subtle about it & how she often doesn't reveal her fullest intentions or the way she feels. As it's that dynamic Hanezawa in particular was able to breath into the character that came across as a pleasant surprise. So when she does it's sincere & it's hard not to take her seriously because the of contrast, and that's why I feel her role seems particularly genuine & interesting, because there's much more to it than meets the surface.
Voice Actors as Mamoru Itō -
Haruka Kudou at 12 years oldConsidering how bare a character like Mamoru is & what few lines he does have, I can't really put much fault on the likes of Haruka Kudou. However for some reason, I find that Kudou's voice as the pre pubescent Mamoru is baffling forgettable, I mean unless I have something to reference from, I just can't remember Mamoru's 12 year old voice for the life of me. Suffice to say, he sounds dangerously close to a little girl & is incredibly meek sounding, what's more I think he just annoys me really. His voice, his character both in the novel and the anime, his role in the story, pretty much everything about him is annoying & not in a good way like Satoru can be. I mean I'll acknowledge that not all characters have to be proactive & likeable, being that the bottom line for me is that they should at the least feel & act somewhat real. But I really just can't shake the feeling that his character is just so.. vain & pointless. Not only that be he really isn't all that likeable, but he's annoying and always serves just to be a problem in how simple minded he can be.
This of course as you can imagine translates over to the dubbing, in that like the role Kudou's rendition of Mamoru Itō is simplistic, forgettable & just irritatingly pointless. The only significance he does have as I've mentioned before is serving as a plot device, to be a catalyst of further events and nothing more.
Motoki Takagi at 14 ~ years oldAnd again, another punchable face in the the 14 year old Mamoru, where it's one of those rare occasions that I can't help but berate Mamoru as an utter pussy. I guess that's the point but I just hate his schizophrenic & frantic personality in trying to do anything possible to run away from reality, and in the end really, he's just someone who can't get a grip and control his emotions. Every time I hear him whine or complain I just think WEAK & the fact that he has a child with that someone* just pisses me off even more - It's like REALLY?!?! TF you see in him?? However I'd actually have to admit that this time around Motoki Takagi did an excellent job as a voice actor, as I think she breathed new life in an otherwise pretty bland and well stupid role.
While I think his personality is annoying, Takagi definetly does her job - an excellent one at that. She did wonders in fooling me with a very convincing male voice, in that she has a raw mid ranged grit to her voice that doesn't remotely seem like a woman would be able to voice. Even though Mamoru's character & general build is indeed on the more feminine side of things, Takagi was excellent in achieving the perfect balance between the Mamoru's soft and meek side, with a soft & wavering voice, but have an unmistakable resonance and voice profile that'd you'd undoubtedly think was male. As it's shocking how she's able to have a stuffy resonance & undertones, while also having a soft enunciation, the correct amount of dynamic range & modulation to truly seem like the meek adolescent boy that Mamoru is, especially since she does a damnedest job at freaking out like a paranoid freak incredibly well - Excellent casting choice & performance.
Voice Actors As Shun Aonuma -
Mai Toudou at 12 years oldLike most of Group 1's members asides from Saki & Satoru, Shun & the rest have pretty limited roles in the first part of three parts in the story where they are 12 year olds. However I still think he played a decently important part to the story due to his guidance over the group & his relationship with Saki. Mai Toudou was quite good at capturing the collected & amicable personality that Shun has. While it's somewhat of a simple role, I think it still needed a degree of subtlety being how Shun is quite reserved about his own personal feelings. Though Toudou does a great job in her open sounding delivery with a small mid ranged voice and balanced undertones, while keeping Shun's worries & personal feelings beneath the surface, as her cadence & modulation is quite carefully delivered in addition to Mai Toudou's soft sibilance to make Shun seem masculine but young enough to depict his age.
Ayumu Murase at 14 ~ years oldAgain a pretty seamless transition between the two actors, as these were pretty good casting choices relative to one another. Being that Ayumu Murase & Mai Toudou we're able to have remarkably similar voice profiles, but of course be different enough to match their corresponding ages. Where Murase in this case has the more mature voice, as it's a little deeper & more rough sounding, though he's able to have the same careful sense of cadence, steady modulation & soft delivery. However as an older Shun he's able to express the lack of optimism that he's lost over the years & how he's grown wiser to a fault, resigning himself to the facts and his fate with how terse his words are, where he speaks under his breath trying to stop the feelings brimming inside of him, that all can't help but escape in his wavering composure & lack of strength.
Where Murase is able to showcase Shun's rare outbursts of anger & frustration, in that while he's almost always tolerant & composed, it's in these impulsive episodes that really displays both Shun's fragility and strength as a character in his struggle against his indecisiveness. As Murase is able to occasionally break from Shun's reserved personality & have transient out bursts that catch you off guard, revealing the his angst & disquiet feelings beneath the surface - A truly heart-stopping contrast during the climax of his arc if you want to call it that. Excellent casting choice & performance.
Yoshiko Sakakibara as Tomiko AsahinaThough she's a supporting character in the realm of the few, she's without a doubt one of the most memorable. Tomiko's role in the story of course is that akin to the village elder, where she specifically gives guidance to Saki as well. In that Sakikibara indefinitely has the perfect voice for the role that I was easily able to imagine when reading the novels. Where she has a very soothing resonance & undertones to her voice that can easily carry across a room, though she also has a careful sense cadence & enunciation of words that always seem disarming. Which of course is incredibly important for her role as the most respected of the village leaders, where she later on plays a seminal part in intervening with the other leaders ongoings in the villages where Sakakibara was beautifully able to sell her stern but disarming demeanour with her ability to brush off a room full of adults and treat them like children. Really just excellent voice acting & a great casting choice.
Daisuke Namikawa as SquealerOn the Queerat side of things of course we have the likes of Squealer, and this was casted really quite well, being how Namikawa was great at voicing the subservient facade that he employs when speaking to humans where he speaks under his breath & as genteel as possible. However he doesn't exactly sound human since his voice is rather wary & dry, though you could say he sounds like an old man with how deliberate his speech is, where it's as if he has trouble speaking being how his delivery mostly comes from his diaphragm & the particular lisp that he has. However beneath the surface Daisuke was great at capturing his more frenzied side & and how rather calculated he is, particularly with his eccentric speech, outbursts of anger or outright fear that makes him seem like an animal in his own right. It's how measured his cadence can be & how he's devilishly clever with his enunciation of words, where he can easily slip a lie or two past the likes of others.
In that a key part of his character is how he's a professional ass kisser & an expert at weaselling out of tough situations with his excellent wordplay in that his sense of modulation is rather irregular & suspicious as a result. Being how complex his character is & how he serves as a seminal catalyst to the story, he turned out to be one of the most memorable parts of the experience.
Hiroaki Hirata as KiroumaruKiroumaru on the other hand is much more stoic, as he's not nearly as eccentric with his choice of words or speech, but is rather terse & humble. His voice has broad undertones & a deep voice resonance that carries quite well, and although he's a queerat of few words, what he does say resonates, as he has a very straightforward & clear sounding delivery. Though his voice is fairly rough as Hiroaki does a great job in depicting his wisdom & age in showing how neutral & observant he can be, while also being able to have a progressively dynamic voice of fury & anger. As I found that Hirata is quite keen on his steady changes in his dynamics where he normally sounds composed with his low speaking & monotonous voice, that fades in & out as he speaks & pauses quite often between his sentence fragments. Definitely a voice that I could easily picture in my mind while reading the novels, and in that a great casting choice & performance.
Segment Conclusion -
Indefinitely quite good dub that was intricately casted for the various changes in age, as the original dubbing includes proven industry veterans & some new faces & talent alike. And really, without the proper dubbing, it'd be hard to imagine selling the script to the audience with how nuanced some of the characters & how transient the dialogue can be. As the novel has several emotional peaks that'd you'd really need really skilled voice actors to have the confidence, the skill & the right profile of voice to it pull off. Definitely an excellent experience & one of the most memorable aspects about the anime.
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Article Contents - Comments Section
- Plot & Narrative Aspects [The Novel & The Anime]
- Character Analysis
- Production Aspects [Cinematography | Animation | Art Direction]
- Voice Actor Choreography
- Sound Direction & Original Soundtrack
- Addendum
