boggling the mind

[kaigou]

Watching a bit of Towa no Quon, ep5, over lunch, and there's a very short scene with two VA I can't recall seeing in the same scene together, before. I know they've worked together, they have to have had, but this is the first time I can recall seeing just the two of them: Toru Ohkawa and Shinichiro Miki. Also known as Roy Mustang #1, and Roy Mustang #2, respectively.

It's a little odd. It's like Roy Mustang, in stereo... and I'm going to have to say that although Miki did a fairly good job, in the end, as Mustang, that everything else being equal, I still prefer Ohkawa's version. Miki's voice manages the sexy, just as well as Ohkawa, but Ohkawa manages one thing really well that Miki doesn't: the amiable, guy's guy, kind of easy-going tone. And by that I mean, it's a kind of delivery that doesn't load on the sexiness, but sounds just like some regular guy, the kind of guy who'd have beer and chips to watch the game, and order too much pizza with the notion of having it cold for breakfast the next morning. Probably while standing at the sink in his boxers, still half-asleep. Miki's delivery always sounds like he's up to something, or would like to be up to something. Ohkawa's able to dial that down and just sound like the only thing on his mind is that pizza, and maybe another beer.

ETA: Ohkawa can also pull off the military a helluva lot better than Miki, who always sounds just this edge (if not all the way into) insubordination. And while Mustang may be ultimately insubordinate, plans-wise, he spends a whole lot of the storyline not showing it. Ohkawa manages that dutiful military respect a great deal better.

Still. Dual Mustangs. I swear, there's a fanvid in there.

Comments

[chibidrunksanzo]

Except with that title the fanvid would have to be to "Dueling Banjos," and I just don't want to get into Roy saying to Roy, "You sure have a purty mouth."

[kaigou]

Seeing how neither say that, I think we might have to stick to who has the bigger... bouquet of flowers.

[alas]

So much agreement on your points on Ohkawa vs Miki- the change in voice actors was one of the reasons I bounced quite hard off Brotherhood.

[kaigou]

Roy's voice definitely bugged me, and it took about half the series to finally mentally block out the original Roy. Crazily, it was Hawkeye's voice that never worked for me. The replacement VA tried, at first, to mimic the original Hawkeye's delivery, but then she slowly tried less and less. I think if she'd approached it as Miki did with Mustang (not trying to mimic the original but to put his own spin on it), I could've eventually accepted it. But having the first ten or so episodes with her coming this close to the original Hawkeye's dry, amused delivery -- and then giving up on it -- made the differences all that much more apparent.

Plus, those two voices -- as a kind of pair -- are crucial, in their delivery, because they are two characters working side-by-side, so their chemistry (not necessarily romantic/sexual, but definitely a kind of chemistry all the same) is as crucial as the chemistry between Ed and Winly, or between Ed and Al. As a pair, I thought the original Roy/Hawkeye relationship just felt far more like the manga's delivery, but the second attempt wasn't nearly as balanced. Hawkeye was too flat, and didn't have the range to equal Mustang, even though the range was there in the script. Hawkeye's VA didn't hold her own against Miki, and I think that's the other half of the reason why Brotherhood's voices sometimes failed for me.

(But that said, I still wouldn't give up on Brotherhood, because it's the only place to find General Armstrong, and the world needs more General Armstrongs, damn it.)