Anime has developed a lot over the years, and the origin of its popularity can be attributed to Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball franchise. It was one of the first works in Shonen anime to break global barriers and captivate the global audience.
Dragon Ball inspired the ‘Big 3’, the trio of Bleach, One Piece and Naruto. When it comes to the ranking of these three, it has long been a divisive conclusion. But what is accepted is that Bleach is a step inferior to One Piece and Naruto.
Why do male protagonists often have female voice actors?
Be as it may, Bleach broke a major trend that had persisted in Shonen anime for decades. Ichigo Kurosaki, Bleach‘s protagonist, who was a 15-year-old high schooler, was the only main character among the Big 3 to be voiced by a male voice actor.
In comparison, Luffy (One Piece), Naruto (Naruto), and even Goku (Dragon Ball) were all played by female voice actors. Many fans do not know this fact and are surprised by it.
But why was this happening? There was no dearth of male voice actors, in fact, they were a majority in the voice actor industry, so what led to the decision to have female voice actors play roles of major focus and responsibility?
Turns out this is because of a fundamental reason rooted in physiology. The voices of men experience multiple changes, in their teens, it is youthful, then it starts to break and become masculine, and as they grow older, the voice turns gruff and changes yet again.
In contrast, females have a constant vocal pitch and are able to sound youthful for a very long time. So when adapting a legacy series (like any of the Big 3), the production team knew that changing voice actors multiple times could cause a problem, so they chose to have female voice actors take on the roles of voicing their protagonists.
Did this choice impact Bleach‘s identity?
To have a consistent identity and be recognized more, it worked, considering for a very long time the voices of the protagonists did not change. But Bleach did not do this and had Masakazu Morita voice Ichigo Kurosaki.
By having a male actor voice, Ichigo, his persona of being a delinquent and a brutish teen made sense. It brought a deeper and more natural masculine tone to Ichigo, which is what lends a different flavor to him compared to the relentless optimism of characters like Luffy and Naruto.
This meant that he would play a more serious role, which makes sense, considering the narrative Tite Kubo had planned. Bleach stood out from the other two in the Big 3 by having a male voice actor voice a child, this ensured that it would have a masculine touch and change and evolve accordingly with the story (and changes in Ichgo).
Mayumi Tanaka has voiced Luffy since 1999, becoming the voice that the fans remember, while Junko Takeuchi has portrayed Naruto throughout the series. Their voice remains the same and unchanged due to this very fact.
Bleach‘s audience and future direction might have been influenced by this decision of voice casting. It focused more on a mature audience since Ichigo himself takes a serious demeanor from the beginning, setting it apart from the Shonen counterparts, which targeted kids more.
You can stream Bleach on Crunchyroll and Netflix.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
