Sonic X Shadow Generations announced, releases Autumn 2024

"Trying too hard" usually means "it felt natural and real to me as a child but feels exaggerated and fake to me as an adult".

Although there is something to be said for a voice sounding too "anime". That it is a thing in voice direction. They will tell actors to be more or less "anime". It's something they understand but can't quite put into words. Basically it means being overly projective and enunciated.

 

in this case, I mean they are trying to do a stereotypical anime girl voice, being overly cutesy and baby-ish, not succeeding in the effect they are going for in being appealing or cute, and the the end result sound forced and ingenuine rather than natural.

It actually isn't that hard to understand, and I feel like I am expending more effort in explaining it than it is worth, which is why I didn't.

 

@Technically Inept She sounds less like an angelic being and more like a stereotypical anime girl. Is that what you're saying? I agree, but I don't have any gripes with that or the acting. It's the direction the series is taking now. Maria is Maria. I think that's enough to get Shadow's support.

 

I don't really care that much about it either, just mildly disliking it. And I think I'm done commenting on that.

 

If I may jump in real quick with an example that we've all heard before, I'd say Cream the Rabbit, especially her VA from Sonic X. I'm with Technically Inept, maybe it's because I grew up with things like Peanuts, Arthur or even DiC cartoons like AoStH casting actual kids (or even as a more contemporary example, The Amazing World of Gumball), but there is something about anime dub casting and young characters that has never sat well with me. I can't get past the fact that it does sound like someone trying either too hard or not hard enough to sound like the idea of a child (usually squeaky or overly airy/bubbly) without actually sounding like a child (which is a bit more androgynous, a little mushmouthed and stumbly if they're really young). Cream does not sound anything close to an actual six year old. I figure Sally from Peanuts would be a closer idea to that.

That all said, I'm aware of all the arguments for using adult casting. I'm sure it was even suggested to Sonic Team back during the production of Heroes or something. It'll just never sound sincere/authentic, but I understand it's a me issue considering very few others find it intolerable.

Allow me to present another example:


This may or may not be what @Technically Inept is talking about, but even if it's not entirely on the mark, it does annoy me. Heck I even thought the same thing watching the short. I just don't say it because it's a losing battle haha. If he's done talking about it, though, just continue on with the thread.

 

When boys (or sometimes girls) hit puberty, they either get replaced with another kid or be voiced by an adult. It's that simple.

 

Oh I know, that's why I said it's a losing battle.

 

It's like the argument for using CGI animals over real animals in movies. Sure it looks like shit, but it's better than the alternative of fucking up their psyches and subjecting them to abuse.

 

I've gotten so used to "anime kid voices" that it doesn't even register to me.


I guess if you're used to "natural" kid voices, it makes sense. I think that was an old dubbing preference for Sonic early on too, using actual child voice actors. But for obvious reasons, that's not tenable long-term.


But that kind of goes back to my previous point. We're talking about animated cartoon animals here, I think it's fine to suspend our disbelief just a little bit and accept that maybe they're not going to sound like real life people.

Using child actors only really works when the characters they play are growing up along with them to accommodate for puberty. But Sonic characters never age, to the point where they straight up got rid of the ages of the cast, so that's out of the windows.

 

I like the voice acting in this promo. Surely an uncontroversial statement.

 

"I never knew her, but I still take that personally" actually hits hard.

 

Honestly yeah! The video starts out with the kind of goofiness that characterised Eggman in Boom, but once he starts talking about what happened on the Ark, they do a phenomenal job of selling his bitterness. Deem Bristow was great in his own way, but Mike will, I think, always be the definitive Eggman.

 

It's funny how it's better acted than his work in Frontiers. Between this and the Lego commercial, I think the games just have a different (and worse) voice direction.


As for the video itself; man they are really going all in with the Shadow marketing. This is after essentially ignoring him and putting him on the sidelines for years, it's a little jarring.

They didn't even shy from Black Doom or 06, things they've tried to bury and forget about for years.

 

I'm surprised that about half the video was taken up by 06 footage. Glad they're becoming less and less ashamed of that game. Hopefully we'll get an official remaster some day... But we'll have to settle for Project 06 for now.

 

Better yet, bring the guy in house with actual resources and remake the cutscenes (and please remove that awful kiss...)

 

I dunno, while I'd certainly like to see the work that went into Project 06 acknowledged and made available in an official capacity, I still think there's too much regular 06 DNA in it for it to be the explosion of positivity and forgiveness that fans expect.

 

Yeah that was my first impression playing P06. It's such a faithful rendition of Sonic 06 that it doesn't feel fun to play.

 

If they're going to make a game like '06, they should just make a game like '06. There's no point in actively remaking '06 except to redeem that game specifically, when they could just use its ideas and execute it better next time.

You can't just remaster or fix bugs, you'd have to put a lot of effort into making this old game good and that's effort better put towards making a better, new game.

 

In the amount of effort it would take to truly make 06 into a grandiose experience, you could've just made a new 06/SA1-styled 3D Sonic that actually would have a chance of being an 8/10 or higher...How did we seriously just say the same thing at the same

 

Personally, I don't really care about Maria's voice, but I think getting her to sound less "Anime dub" is a matter of voice direction, not casting. To illustrate my point, Bart Simpson is a 10-year-old boy that has always been voiced by an adult woman, but his voice doesn't feel over-exaggerated to me.