CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Viz recently release a new Death Note trailer featuring everybody's favorite ranting god of justice and quite mastermind detective duo, Light and L, both waxing the obvious about their respective roles ("I am justice!") in the series. Death Note is a very dialogue heavy series, and so the delivery of the voice actors will make or break it's English-speaking popularity.

Click for the trailer

Personally, I'm not all that impressed. They could easily have picked a more suitable voice for Light. I'll withhold judgement on L for the time being, as his voice is deliberately scrambled, but this does not bode well. Why do I have the sinking feeling Misa is the only character they'll cast right?

Then again, there's always Ryuk...

While it could definitely be worse, I take more issue with the fact that Light sounds like generic main character. o_O;

Light's character is more fit as some crazy megalomaniacal freak. As KoDai said, he simply sounds like a regular guy.

Mr. SmartyPants wrote:Light's character is more fit as some crazy megalomaniacal freak. As KoDai said, he simply sounds like a regular guy.

Pretty much. Some random megalomaniac they just picked up off the streets.

"Gainful employment? We've got candy."
"Ooooh, candy!"

Personally, I think Light's voice should sound a bit more subdued...KoDai is right when she says he sounds like a "regular guy". XD L's "unscrambled" voice, though, sounds a whole lot like Steve Blum, and...well, we'll see, if that's who it actually is. XD I don't know how well I can picture him doing L's voice, but who knows.

Crispin Freeman would make an excellent L.

[quote="Kokoro Daisuke"]While it could definitely be worse, I take more issue with the fact that Light sounds like generic main character. o_O]

This is pretty much spot on. He also sounds a bit... nasally? This voice really doesn't fit my mental audio of the character.

Fweeooohh.. I wanna see this!! I have never seen or read Deathnote, but I have heard some pretty good things about the plot...

I am a bit annoyed by the voice, but this is only the trailer, maybe the anime will be better?

It's very hard to judge voices from clips a few seconds long.

For PvP the series I know the preview they showed that had Skull's voice, Skull sounded terrible. I hated the voice.

Now after four episodes I can't imagine any other voice for him.

I know what you mean, Nate. A lot of times, a voice actor has to grow into their role. One VA that comes to mind for me is the voice actor for Rakka in Haibane Renmei. I hated her voice at first, but as time progressed, she grew into her role quite fittingly. The very same could happen for Light's VA(though, granted I haven't heard it)

KBMaster wrote:A lot of times, a voice actor has to grow into their role.

Listen to Homer's voice in the first season of Simpsons compared to his voice in the eighth season.

It does indeed take a while for voice actors to grow into their roles.

I really think Steve would be a good L. He can make his voice not so low. he sounds really cool in his normal voice! I kinda like Lights voice. XD I mean at least 4 Kidz didnt get it. I purfectly happy with this so far!

XD I mean at least 4 Kidz didnt get it. I purfectly happy with this so far!

words every anime fan can live by LOL.

Doesn't 4 Kidz only do kid anime, like One Piece(not technically a kid anime, but was turned into one)?

4Kids Death Note, a.k.a. Taking A Nap Note, or possibly Vaguely Incapacitated Note.

Kokoro Daisuke wrote:4Kids Death Note, a.k.a. Taking A Nap Note, or possibly Vaguely Incapacitated Note.

"WHEN I WRITE YOUR NAME IN THIS BOOK, YOU WILL BE TAKEN TO THE SHADOW RELM!!!! Like in yugioh"

Weak.

I will never watch this in dub.

Kokoro Daisuke wrote:4Kids Death Note, a.k.a. Taking A Nap Note, or possibly Vaguely Incapacitated Note.

What about the death gods? Would they would be a secret society of clowns that overlooks the world?

This gives me horrendously fantastic ideas for both re-dubs and masquerade skits.

Nate wrote:It's very hard to judge voices from clips a few seconds long.

For PvP the series I know the preview they showed that had Skull's voice, Skull sounded terrible. I hated the voice.

Now after four episodes I can't imagine any other voice for him.

It is difficult to make a call on short sound clips. This trailer, however, is quite a bit longer than a few seconds. Though I'll admit, it loses something that it sounds like they're talking to the camera, so perhaps this was simply out of character.

I'll still give them a fair chance to prove themselves, a la Skull or Homer, but this does not bode well.

Oddly...Light sounds how I would invision Nate to sound as a teenager

I do agree that Light's voice could have been much better, but I disagree when people say he shouldn't sound like a normal person.

He should.

He's a random kid that just stumbled upon the Death Note, and as the story increases

[spoiler] he becomes blinded by power and actually believes he can become a god.[/spoiler]

A random kid? Hardly. Brilliant mind, right temperment, resources at his disposal. He might have been picked at random, but Light himelf's not particularly what I'd call "Random."

I don't see anything wrong with Light sounding...well, not like a psychopath. But there is something weird about him sounding generic. Because he most definitely is not.

I heard that these aren't the official voices for the dub but I could be mistaken..

Although I really like L's voice I hated lights voice.