If I made Youtube videos, I’d make a meta joke with Pokémon text boxes at the start instead of reading my script out loud. Oh, well.
Anyway, hello, everyone. Gokuzard here, and while I mostly focus on gameplay in games, presentation is important too. While graphics DEFINITELY don’t make a game, as much as some Twitter users disagree, it does help a game if it looks absolutely gorgeous. More importantly for me is the sound design. The right sound effects make hits feel like they hit harder, great soundtracks add to story and gameplay moments and, well, you see the title of the list.
While not every game requires it, voice acting does wonders for bringing characters to life. They add more personality to them, and if I had decent recording equipment and no one else in my house who could hear, you’d be able to hear my emotions when I scream about Tifa and Cynthia.
Speaking of Pokémon, the lack of voice acting in the 28 years of main series games just makes the presentation of the later games feel off, for example, especially the Switch games. F**king Pokémon Masters has voice acting, complete with French accents for Kalosians and British accents for Galarians. Kinda weird how the Alolans don’t have Hawai’ian accents, though, to say nothing of gens 1-4, though having that many Japanese-speaking American VAs would probably be a nightmare.
On that note, English VAs only. I know some people are… passionate about preferring subs over dubs, but personally, I generally prefer understanding what’s going into my ears, being able to focus more on action than words on the screen, and being able to look away and just listen to exposition and the like.
Also, Japanese VAs are just as susceptible to f**king things up as English VAs are, and English VAs are equally as capable of being amazing as Japanese VAs are. They’re all human at the end of the day, and should be treated fairly like anyone else, instead of using emotionless machines instead of human passion.
But more importantly than that, I prefer having less discourse and just letting people experience media the way they want, so respect my jelly-filled donut and I’ll respect your rice ball. Sorry. I had to make at least one mistranslation joke.
Anyway, because video games are my main thing on this website, I want everyone on here to have at least 3 notable roles in games, and I mean characters original to games, not just reprising roles from other media.
So check those mikes, because these are my Top 10 Voice Actors!
Number 10
We’re just starting this list and I’m already pissing people off. Then again, what else do I expect from the Sonic fanbase?
Like many other things, the voice of the Blue Blur has been a constant source of debate in this fandom, for some stupid reason, but I’d say each of them does him well (minus whoever they got for Adventure 1.)
However, I’d say Roger Craig Smith does him the best.
Yeah, I said it, 2000s Sonic fans! I apologize when you do! And by that, I mean when the Sonic fanbase (and the internet in general) apologizes for screaming at people for having even a slightly different opinion.
But before we get to the 3’3 hedgehog-shaped elephant in the room, let’s talk about some other characters RCS voiced. The later entries on this list have a lot of anime roles as well as gaming roles, but outside games, Roger mostly voices in Western animation. In particular, he’s often the voice for animated versions of Captain America, and I find it kinda funny how he voiced, like, half the extras in Regular Show.
Moving onto games, before he voiced rodents, he was Ezio from Assassin’s Creed, Siegfried from Soul Calibur from Legends to SCV, Zagi from Vesperia, and Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 5, 6 and the spinoffs in between, plus any crossovers and cameos they showed up in during the 2010s. I’ve only played 2 of those, but I love the sheer insanity he puts in Zagi. Fits him perfectly.
He’s also Batman in Arkham Origins, N. Brio in Crash 4, and most recently, Kale from Hi-Fi Rush (the latter of which would’ve worked great on the Switch. No, I’m not still salty.)
But aside from the obvious, my favorite of his roles has to be Wonder Blue from Wonderful 101. RCS’ performance is probably my favorite in the game, from his cocky @$$hole-ness from the start of the game to him slowly understanding the real superpower of team- wait. Wrong VA (and I wish I could find footage of the latter without spoiling the game.)
Which leads me back to the rat. So why do I think RCS is the best Sonic voice? Simple. I think he does Sonic’s signature attitude better than Jason Griffith without the slightly annoying nasaliness of Jaleel White from back in the 90s cartoons. Not that I have much to say about Ben Schwartz, since I haven’t watched the movies yet, but I’m getting off topic.
Some people might not have liked the series’ writing in the 2010s, but aside from his first time as Sonic (which, to be fair, was Free Riders, of all things,) Sonic is often the best part of the writing, and sometimes, the only good part of the writing (aside from Eggman), and RCS’ performance as him enhances the experience. Wish I could say anything about Frontiers, but I haven’t played it yet.
Besides, Jason Griffith voiced this image Brawl online vets can hear…
while RCS voiced this.
Your argument is invalid.
Number 9
This may have been the hardest list for me to decide my number 10. Limiting this list to just 10 meant there were a lot that I had to leave off. Erica Lindbeck, Laura Bailey, Steve Blum, Jen Taylor, Xander Mobus, all of them were number 10 at some point. Even the likes of Nolan North and Troy Baker barely missed the cut.
But up until I decided on Roger, my number 10 was Johnny Yong Bosch.
Not only a voice actor, but also a live actor for a bit, if you’ve watched Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, you’d recognize him as the Black Ranger from season 2. Dude even did his own stunts in the movie after his stunt double broke his leg. This would be his first major role, but his first credits go back to the dub of Akira from back in ’89, and after that, his career spiraled into a LOT of anime.
Just as a few examples, we’ve got Rossiu, Vash the Stampede, Lelouch, Tomioka, Broly, Jonathan Joestar, and, oh, yeah, Ichigo! Out of these, I’ve only caught up with Gurren Lagann and almost caught up with Demon Slayer, but I will say I like how he does the edgy, but sensitive tone of Tomioka.
Moving onto games, I know I have a lot of Trails fans in my audience. It’s a series I started in, like, 2022 and I’m still on chapter 2 of Sky 1 and haven’t started any of the other games, but I do like Basch’s voice for Joshua.
That’s the reason I put him at only number 9. Most of the game series I saw him credited in that I have played, are series I’m not very experienced in. Another example is Soul Calibur 5, which I haven’t played since 2014, but he voices Xiba, one of the few new characters I remember from the game in a positive light. He does goofballs well too.
Though even without playing Persona 4 (or any Persona game, mind you,) I’ve heard enough about it to know the irony of him voicing both Yu Narukami and Tohru Adachi. That’s just hilarious to me. And being a fan of BlazBlue Tag and sometimes playing both Narukami and Adachi, I have heard his voice as them in some form of context, so don’t scream too loud at me.
Watching a lot of Marvel 3 tournaments though (and being a filthy casual Smash player,) I have heard him as Zero pretty often. Now raise your hand if you want Johnny Yong Basch to voice “What am I fighting for.”
Also, remind me to start Bleach this year. Maybe then, Basch would’ve been higher.
Number 8
Next up, we have probably the most memetic voice actor of the modern era, Matthew Mercer.
No seriously, half the characters he voices have memes attached to them, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Before his career got big, some people from back in the late 2000s and early 2010s may have recognized him as the director and producer of the web cartoon There Will be Brawl, as well as the voices for Kirby, Meta Knight and Ganon in that web comic. Before that, his career started as background noise for anime dubs, and for all you D&D nerds out there, he’s the Dungeon Master for Critical Role. I haven’t seen any of that, so let’s go back to the focus of this list.
But before we get to the memetic side of his career, he’s voiced Law from One Piece and Levi from Attack on Titan, and in the games department, he’s been Stryker in Mortal Kombat 9, back before Warner Bros had Hollywood actors do voice actors’ jobs, as well as Fei Long in Street Fighter 4 and its updates. I’m gonna laugh so hard if he voices someone from City of the Wolves. My money’s on Gato.
Speaking of fighting games, he’s Zato in modern Guilty Gear, Deadshot in Injustice 2 (as well as Lego DC Supervillains,) and while I know I’m probably the only one who cares about this one, he’s Tokiya in Phantom Breaker Omnia.
And NOW we can get to the memes. We have Chrom (and I wish I could find the voice clip I was thinking of by itself)
Hit…
McCre- I’m sorry. Cole Cassidy…
Jotaro, Majima, Espio and Yusuke, where their respective forms of media have been memes in and of themselves, or half the internet simping Ganon in TotK (kinda ironic,) and Vincent in FF7 Rebirth. Or Vincent in general, but spoilers: Steve Blum isn’t on here.
Oh, and apparently, Mercer and his dad used to stutter, so the latter got a speech therapist, and that definitely helped. Nowadays, only some words trigger the stutter. Don’t let limitations hold you back. You might end up voicing memes someday.
Number 7
You know it’s not a Gokuzard list if I’m not screaming about my waifus. Now I don’t have any crushes on anyone in real life as of now, let alone any VAs, but someone has to voice… most of my waifus.
And the first of several on the list is Kira Buckland.
Similarly to Mercer, Kira started out with web series, in her case, Newgrounds animations, including the princesses and Medusa from Castle Crashers, as well as radio shows, all the way back in 2004. Girl is such a weeb that she got a degree in Japanese (alongside knowing some Spanish,) founded the first Alaskan anime convention, and even has the Joestar mark on the back of her neck, which is kinda funny, considering where she is now.
I just realized while writing this segment that we’re 3 for 4 so far with Jojo protags. Having been a fan of the series, voicing Jolyne was one of Kira’s dreams, so I can imagine how ecstatic she was when she got the role.
Onto anime I’ve watched, and going back to my waifus, I love the high-pitched voice she has for Mitsuri from Demon Slayer. Fits her perfectly, if you ask me. Not so much with Rebecca from Edens Zero, but I’m guessing they didn’t want her to sound like Lucy. More on her later.
But let’s get back to games before I start dwelling on anime too much. Several modern voice actors got their start in Dust: An Elysian Tail, and while Kira didn’t, she is the mama mud lady in that game. That was something I wasn’t expecting when researching.
Then there’s Kyoko from River City Girls. Honestly, I can’t think of anyone who can do her airheaded-ness and angy-ness better. Well, maybe one, but we’ll get to her.
We’ve also got Honoka from Dead or Alive, where her voice matches her cheerful attitude…
Heart in BlazBlue Tag, who has a similar energy…
Lyria from Granblue, the obligatory innocent sweetheart with magic summoning powers, and she also voices Shinobu from Genshin and Eirika from Fire Emblem. Not that I’ve played either of those last 2, aside from 3 Houses. Which Eirika isn’t in.
And to end this segment, we have Marie from Skullgirls. So what flavor would you like your main villain’s voice? We have intentionally boring, repetitive and monotone for the boss version, Kira’s regular high pitch for the playable version, or unfeeling and basically given up on everything for the goth voice pack.
Now remind me to finish Nier Automata. I would’ve, but my Pokémon addiction took over. Even with gen 9’s 50 billion glitches.
Number 6
The great thing about this list is I can briefly talk about anime in… most segments on this list, and not worry too much about copyright. I bring this up because unlike in video games with their silent protags, every character in anime gets a voice. Usually. So you’re generally gonna hear the performance from the protagonist the most.
And to me, few English VAs do shonen protags better than Yuri Lowenthal.
Now I could go briefly over his history pre-voice acting, but there’s too much voice acting to go over here, to the point where his filmography is a whole page on Wikipedia!
Just to name a few, we have Suzaku from Code Geass, Pip from Hellsing Ultimate, Ben 10, dude is even Sasuke! I could go on more about his anime career, but there’s WAY too much gaming to cover. Though if there are any games that they (or most of his other characters that aren’t in games) end up in, he, of course, voices them in those games.
And speaking of games, his first major role in a game I’ve played is Cecil from the DS version of FF4. Sadly, you don’t hear his voice that version very often, but I do like how he does the shift from Dark Knight to Paladin.
Amane is FAR from my favorite character in BlazBlue, but Yuri does flamboyance just as well as your average shonen protag. But we can complain about Central Fiction’s lack of a dub later.
Then there’s Wonder White from Wonderful 101. I appreciate how he didn’t just repeat his voice for Sasuke (or Hayate from DoA) and went full fake Japanese accent. I’d be upset at the fake accents overall if this game wasn’t so over-the-top.
Other major roles he’s done include the Prince of Persia, Luka from Bayonetta, That Man in Guilty Gear 2, Yosuke from Persona 4, and many others from games I haven’t played.
However, he did voice Patroklos from SCV, which is why he’s not in top 5 (I hate that f**ker,) and he voiced Beck from Mighty No. 9, which… yeah, but you may have seen I’ve skipped 2 elephants in the room.
Now the only Spider-Man game I’ve played is I believe Raimi Spider-Man 1 or 2 on PC (I forgot which one,) but just the fact that outside MvC, Yuri’s voiced Peter Parker for most games in the 2010s onward, says a lot.
However, I have watched the other elephant in the room, and I know I said I wanted to focus on games, but I had to save a bit of time to talk about Yuri’s performance as Simon from Gurren Lagann. The way he does his growth from wimpy kid to total bad@$$ was just perfect. Love every time he says the line. You know the one. (If only I could find that line without it edited.)
Lastly, he’s married to Tara Platt, which I find kinda funny, because that means Sasuke is married to Temari, GG2 That Man is married Xrd I-No, and OG Makoto and Nyx Avatar are married to Elizabeth and OG Mitsuru! Would’ve been even more hilarious if he voiced anyone from 3 Houses, but he does voice Marth and Eliwood.
Number 5
And now we go back to VAs of my waifus. In particular, the VA for my top 2 anime waifus.
In other words, Cherami Leigh.
But before she got to anime, she started out in live acting, kinda similarly to Bosch. In her case, she was a child actor in Walker, Texas Ranger. Yeah, the one with Chuck Norris before we memed him above gods. Meme culture has always been weird.
Now I first knew Cherami’s voice through Natsumi from Sgt. Frog, and while I haven’t seen that anime in years, not to mention the dub cut off halfway through season 2, her performance sticks out in my mind. Let’s hope that if they dub the upcoming revival, they keep Cherami as Natsumi. On that note, as soon as I heard Lucy in Fairy Tail, I was like, “Why does she sound exactly like Natsumi?” Then I pulled up IMDB and was like “Oh. That’s why.” But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Back to gaming. Persona 5 fans know her as Makoto (at least those who played dubbed.) Of course, again, I didn’t play Persona 5, but she’s half the world’s waifu in this game, so good for you.
Recently, you can hear her as Manon in Street Fighter 6 and Sonia in TotK. I haven’t played either of those yet, but I at least watch SF6 tournaments. She does a fake French accent pretty well, tbh.
She also voices plenty of Fire Emblem characters, namely Caeda, Celica and Rhea. Of course, I only played 3 Houses, but I love how she portrays Rhea’s mostly calm demeanor. And also when she gets pissed. And since I’ve only finished Crimson Flower so far, I’ve heard plenty of the latter.
Then there’s Rottytops, which is something I didn’t know before researching. I didn’t see who voiced her in Risky’s Revenge or Pirate’s Curse, but honestly, Cherami does her a lot better.
If that were it, I’d say putting her at top 5 above Johnny Yong Bosch and Yuri Lowenthal is a bit generous, but I’m biased and it helps Cherami’s spot on the list that she voices my current top 2 anime waifus, especially with how she does both Lucy and Asuna, with both of them snapping at their dads, and especially the tender moments, particularly with their anime’s respective protags, for example. These 2 are so similar, now that I think about it.
Number 4
Now for the inspiration for the list. With the announcement of his retirement from voice acting having come out last year, I felt like I had to make this list to give a shoutout to Charles Martinet.
Being the longest-lasting voice of one of the most famous characters in any form of media, and a voice I’ve heard for most of my life, I had to put him in at least top 5! If you’re screaming about bias, I just put Cherami Leigh below this because she voiced my top 2 anime waifus.
Anyway, I love Martinet’s voice acting origin story. Born in California to a French father and a Spanish mother, he grew up in San José, moved to Spain at 12, then moved to France 3 years later. Yeah, dude’s trilingual, and also picked up a bit of Italian from his time in Europe. Do the bros actually speak Italian in Mario & Luigi or is that gibberish that just sounds Italian?
Moving back to Cali for law school, of all things, he eventually said “F**k it! Too much regurgitation,” and a friend of his convinced him to take up voice acting to get over his fear of public speaking. Needless to say, that went very well. He also swore never to do offensive jokes after he learned one of his classmates got PTSD because he saw a live performance in Vegas of a comedian who made a lot of offensive jokes. Also very appropriate for mostly squeaky-clean Mario.
Actually, Martinet’s first time voicing Mario wasn’t even a game. It was actually a lip syncing tech demo, of all things. The guy crashed the audition, and he originally was gonna do a stereotypical raspy voice, but then he thought of the kids and went for something high-pitched. Nintendo was so impressed with his performance that they brought him along for Mario Teaches Typing 2, and the rest is history.
Except history often forgets that alongside both Mario Bros, he also voiced their baby versions, Wario, Waluigi, Toadsworth and the male Piantas. Usually, he only uses short sentences and grunts when he voices these characters, but I’d still say he was a lot better than Mario’s previous VAs, though. His actors from the Super Show, Hotel Mario and the live action movie, and to a lesser extent, Chris Pratt later, all decided to give him a comparatively low voice, which… well, at least it wasn’t as bad as when Link opened his mouth.
Meanwhile, Martinet did the aforementioned higher-pitched voice that’s easier for kids to enjoy for Mario, like Mickey Mouse, but not as squeaky. Usually. And be it race car driving…
getting f**ked over at his own parties…
or launching through space…
I couldn’t think of anyone who could do it better. There have been close attempts last year (more on those later,) but no one could match up to Martinet’s whimsy imo. You can tell how much fun he had voicing the red boy.
And that goes with any Mario character he voiced. Unlike with the early N64 days, where Luigi’s voice clips were just modified Mario voice clips, he goes a bit deeper for the green boy than the older brother, but still enjoyable by kids. A much younger me was too accustomed to his voice in Mario Party 1, but Martinet’s voice for the younger bro from Tennis onward was just perfect. I love the stammering and screaming Mario’s name in Luigi’s Mansion.
Wario and Waluigi, unlike the plumber bros, don’t have a comparison, aside from the guy who did the commercial for Mario Land 2, but while I question the decision of having the former speak German in Mario Party 1, whoever Nintendo gets for the Wa bros also has some big shoes to fill.
Same with Toadsworth, if they decide to bring him back outside the TTYD remake. Definitely a lot better than if Jen Taylor tried to talk like an old butler man. Why did I put that image in my head?
And then there’s the Piantas. They may have had an even shorter screentime than Toadsworth, but not gonna lie, those guys sound hilarious.
But Martinet’s more than just a bunch of Mario characters. Here’s a reminder that he’s also Orvus, the keeper of time from Ratchet and Clank, the muscular, womanizing Vigoro from Skies of Arcadia, and my favorite, just for sheer contrast, Paarthurnax from Skyrim!
Of course, everyone knew him best as Nintendo’s plumber mascot, until his final voice acting role in the Illumination movie, where he was both Mario’s dad and Guiseppe, and you know what? I couldn’t think of a more fitting sendoff. At the start of the movie, his character’s playing Donkey Kong on the arcade in a voice similar to his Mario voice, one of his last voice lines is his character pointing at the bros and yelling “These are my boys!” and his final sendoff is one last “Wahoo!”
And they basically are his boys. Even if Chris Pratt and Charlie Day did a good job in the movie, and Kevin Afghani is a nice replacement, Martinet will always be the best Mario to me.
I think I speak for all of us when I say, “Thank you so much for to playing-a Mario!”
Number 3
In complete contrast to Mario, many protagonists in the 2000s were dark and edgy. Probably as an attempt to cash in o- I mean appeal to the typical 2000s teen demographic that listened to Linkin Park and Avenged Sevenfold.
So a lot of these characters had either soft-spoken tones or deep, growly voices, and to me, the latter is done best by 2 people: Steve Blum, and our number 3, Patrick Seitz.
We’re hitting the top 3 and we’re finally getting to someone pulling multiple duties in the dubbing industry. Not only is Seitz a voice actor, but he’s also a re-recording director and a script writer, writing the dubs for the OG Naruto series, Steins Gate and Tales of Phantasia, as well as the voice director for Soul Calibur 5 (where he also was a face capture director) and on a more positive note, Aggretsuko, Scarlet Nexus and 3 Houses. And yes, he did also voice in most of those.
Alongside several other VAs on this list, Seitz is one of the few VAs I can tell just by voice alone. As I said, his voice gets deep and growly, so he ends up voicing a lot of edgelords, like Laxus from Fairy Tail. His voice works so well for Makarov’s grandson who became a rebellious edgelord because his dad got kicked out of the guild.
And aside from being a dub writer for the first few seasons of Naruto, he also voiced Kenpachi from Bleach and Franky from One Piece. The latter of which is the only of the big 3 I’ve watched any of, and that was only up to the end of Arlong Park, so what do I know?
Aside from edgelords, he can also do a bombastically evil villain like Dio. Not that I’ve watched too much Jojo, not to mention it’s one of the few anime I watch subbed, so again, what do I know?
What I do know is his voice for Jiren, mostly through DBFZ. Granted, it’s often agreed that he’s not that interesting personality-wise, so let’s get back to games.
So for stuff I haven’t played, we have Scorpion pre-MK1, Hugo from Street Fighter 4, Hector from Fire Emblem, Olberic from Octopath 1, TJ Combo from Killer Instinct 2013, Ladiva from Granblue Versus and… Bob from Tekken? Now that’s something I didn’t expect while researching. Then again, it’s basically his usual edgelord voice with less growls, now that I think about it.
Speaking of characters I didn’t expect on Seitz’ wiki page, alongside other Namco fighters, we have Cervantes from Soulcalibur 5 and 6, the former of which, as I said before, he helped with voice direction and facial animation direction. I mean, does this guy sound anything like (redacted)?
One I forgot about before researching was Abobo from River City Girls. Because of course. How could I have forgotten?
One I did know, but probably no one else here did, is Gaito from Phantom Breaker Omnia. I’ve seen a lot of zombies that can’t talk, but this one does, but with simple enough sentences that you can believe his brain isn’t there. Y’all slept on this game, but I’m not going on that rant today.
Then there’s Samson from Skullgirls, and be it dragging Filia wherever he wants, or beefing with literally anyone in the area, he does hair-infesting parasites perfectly too.
But hands-down, the best role for him imo, and one of my favorite leading roles in all dubbing, has to be Ragna. His voice is even more perfect for a pissed edgelord who’s had enough of the $h!thole world of BlazBlue. Whether he’s annoyed with everyone’s $h!t, pissed that nothing he did worked on Terumi in Continuum Shift, being a sarcastic joker, or his occasional genuine soft moments, Seitz is probably, like, 10% of the reason Ragna made top 2 on my BlazBlue character list.
Too bad Central Fiction AXED THE DUB! Would’ve loved to hear him and [redacted] in the ending! Are you serious, Arcsys!?
Number 2
So there were 4 main reasons I made this list. First off, like I said before, I wanted to give Charles Martinet a shoutout since he retired from voice acting last year. Secondly, as a reminder that human voice actors are FAR better and more passionate than AI will ever be. Third, as a reminder that English voice actors can be as good and deserve as much recognition as Japanese voice actors. And number 4: voice actors are human and just like any other normal person, don’t deserve to be told to kill themselves!
I almost put Erica Lindbeck on here as an example of a fantastic VA who didn’t deserve to be chased off of Twitter, but not only was that temporary and more because of Billy Kametz’ death than the stupid Futaba AI music video, it wouldn’t feel right to put her on here when I haven’t played or watched a full playthrough of Persona 5.
But to me, the one who deserved it the least, would be Cristina Vee.
This would be an opportunity to rant about cancel culture, but we don’t have time for that on this list. Just be nice to each other and don’t scream at people when they’ve said nothing about an issue. People don’t always have time to say something the moment they found out something happened.
And seriously, Cristina Vee did not deserve to be harassed off of Twitter! She’s done nothing wrong! But before I ramble further, let’s get back to the topic of this list.
Like Martinet, Cristina initially didn’t even want to be a VA. At first, she wanted to be an animator, but she found her passion for voice acting through watching Sailor Moon as a kid. Similarly to Kira voicing Jolyne, I imagine she was overjoyed to voice Sailor Mars in the Viz dub, but this was 7 years after her first major role as Kanaria from Rozen Maiden. Another series I never heard of until researching.
But for other games and series I haven’t watched or played, but I’m certain other people reading this have heard her in at least one of, we have Sakura from Fate Zero onward, Killua from Kill la Kill, Darkness from Konosuba, Miraculous Ladybug, Verosika from Helluva Boss, Charlotta and Ferry from Granblue, Ophilia from Octopath, Merrin from Fire Emblem Engage, and Velvet Crowe from Tales of Berseria, just to name a few!
My first experience with Cristina was her as Homura from Madoka. Honestly, I need to rewatch it before movie 4 comes out, because I forgot a lot of it aside from Homura being gay af for Madoka to the point of looping the timeline over and over just to have her, like the Amaterasu unit from BlazBlue. More on that series later.
And I know I’ve said it twice on this list already, but y’all slept on PBO. I didn’t know she voiced Waka either, but she does resolute shrine maidens about as well as her usual way too f**king precious.
Speaking of characters I didn’t know she voiced until after I looked it up (albeit when I was doing my Skullgirls list,) we have Cerebella from Skullgirls, and I didn’t expect raspiness coming from Cristina, but it works.
Recently, you can hear her as Rosalinde from Unicorn Overlord or the battle lines for Nitara in Mortal Kombat 1. While I haven’t played too much Mortal Kombat, let alone MK1, I do watch online tournaments, and while I don’t see Nitara often, the difference between her pre-battle voice and battle voice is SO easy to tell. Warner Bros should’ve had voice actors do the voice actors’ jobs the whole game.
Anyway, like Seitz, Cristina has also been a voice director, specifically for Indivisible, the Advance Wars remake, the aforementioned Skullgirls, and River City Girls 1 & 2, where she also voiced Hasebe, one of the mean girls, oddly enough, and also sung the themes for both games.
And speaking of her singing…
How could I talk about Cristina Vee without talking about Noel Vermillion?! Or, more accurately, the Murakumo units in general. With Lambda, she rivals GLaDOS in portraying a bunch of emotions in a robotic monotone voice. With Nu, she goes in HARD with the whole yandere thing whenever Ragna’s within sensor range, and lack of emotion everywhere else. But Noel is her real chance to shine. Girl is absolutely precious most of the time, and even when she does go full godslayer mode, she doesn’t go full boring monotone. And again, I was so upset when I found out Central Fiction didn’t get dubbed! Imagine her, Seitz and David Vincent in the finale!
But you can already guess who my favorite role of hers is.
It took 9 whole entries for any VAs of my video game waifus? Yeah, I’m about as surprised as you are, but ignoring the at least 3 video game roles per VA rule, Cristina would get top 5 for Shantae alone, not to mention Risky or Harmony in Seven Sirens! Not to knock on Meghan Glaser in Risky’s Revenge, but re-casting her for Cristina Vee during Pirate’s Curse’s development is one of the most perfect castings I’ve ever heard. Girl absolutely crushed her role as the half-genie heroine from day 1!
I just hope Risky Revolution will have voice acting. I mean, some GBA games do, but maybe at least in the modern console versions. Please?
Honorable mentions:
Nolan North. To be fair, I never played Uncharted.
Erica Lindbeck. I kinda robbed myself by reading the Granblue manga instead of at least watching the anime.
Xander Mobus. I hear this guy at least a few times a day nowadays.
Laura Bailey. On one hand, Chun-Li and Blaze from Sonic. On the other hand, Omochao.
Jen Taylor. She’s both Cortana and Peach in Mario 64, though she also made Toad scratch on chalkboard.
Jennifer Hale. Almost put her on the list, but then I looked her up on IMDB and didn’t find too many characters I recognized.
Troy Baker. See above. At least in games I played.
And Steve Blum. SO close to making the list, but it just came down to who I wanted to keep on the list.
Number 1
Not gonna lie, this was my hardest number 1 spot to decide since Top 10 Soundtracks back in 2022. It was like I was playing musical chairs with the top spot every other month.
At first, I was thinking Charles Martinet because it’s hard to get more iconic than Mario (despite what whoever voted Lara Croft over him in that BAFTA poll would suggest,) then I was thinking Yuri Lowenthal for so many leading roles, and then Patrick Seitz because him as Ragna was probably one of my favorite leading roles in dubbing, and for the longest time, Cristina Vee was my top spot for both Noel and Shantae.
But after several re-orders, with one character in particular cementing this spot, number 1 is Allegra Clark!
Look, I know this one is probably bias, but aside from who she’s voiced, there’s one main reason I decided to place Allegra at the top.
To put it simply, let’s compare the voice I know her for, to other women on this list. The likes of Kira and Cristina often go high-pitched and adorable, and Cherami does a slightly less high-pitched voice that’s appropriate for the teenage and sometimes early 20s girls she often voices, but Allegra often does a deep, smooth and, let’s be honest, very sexy voice, making characters like Dorothea and Rosetta from Granblue even hotter.
Especially the former. Makes sense that a former opera singer has such a lovely voice. From my ears melting from her first few lines, to her support conversations, especially her S-support with Byleth (because I married her in my one full playthrough so far, and I haven’t seen too many other support conversations because I was rushing to put 3H on my favorite games list,) Allegra’s performance as Dorothea propelled her from one of my top 15 waifus to darn near top 10! Also, she’s Shamir, my second-best 3H waifu at the time of writing.
And I honestly kinda cheated myself reading the Granblue manga instead of at least watching the anime, because judging by the Rosetta trailer in Relink, Allegra would’ve melted my ears again.
And I wish UNI 2 had a dub option, because aside from Erica Lindbeck as Yuzu, her voice as Hilda in BBTag was the one UNI rep that stood out most for me. Probably to numb the pain of getting projectiles spammed at me.
And I know a LOT of people who simp Beidou from Genshin, Maki from Jujutsu Kaisen, Mitsuru from Persona 3 and Acheron from Honkai Star Rail, and I bet those who watch/play dubs cite Allegra’s voice as part of the reason. Except maybe Mitsuru, since Tara Platt voiced her before Reload, but I know who I’d rather have.
Speaking of attractive anime women, when I watched Sister’s debut episode in Edens Zero, I thought she was voiced by Julie Ann Taylor because she sounded SO similar to Kokonoe. Sorry, Allegra. I wasn’t familiar with your game.
But then again, there’s Marisa from Street Fighter 6, and Allegra does gruff, muscly women trying to find love, about as well as she does her conventionally attractive voice. Her Critical Art doesn’t sound right to me in Japanese, tbh.
And there’s also the mother spider demon from Demon Slayer, you know, the one that begged to be put out of her misery and Tanjiro gave a gentle death? And on that note, she also voices an even younger Tanjiro in flashbacks.
But again, bias for my favorite character voiced by her put her at number 1.
She’s f**king Cynthia in Pokémon Masters! And in my opinion, she does her a lot better than her anime VA.
In case you’re wondering about Britt Baron, by the way, she’s not even an honorable mention. Aside from Remake Tifa, I haven’t heard her voice in anything else. Same with Litchi’s VA, whose name I forgot anyway.
But back on topic. I mean, Emily Jenness worked for the sillier side of her, especially with how they ramped her ice cream obsession up to 11 in the anime, but I love the way Allegra does her bad@$$ery. While also adding a bit of sexiness to her voice for the millions of simps the Sinnoh Champion got in the past 17 ½ years. It’s me. I’m the millions of si-
And with Volo getting in Masters shortly after writing this segment, I can imagine Cynthia would be pissed when she finds out he tried to usurp Arceus, and I will definitely be there for Allegra voicing that. Eventually. Especially if we get another Sygna Suit for her. Yes, I know we got 3 alts for her already, but it’d be too perfect not to. Shut up. Either way, Allegra’s voice for Cynthia made me love my already number 1 waifu even more.
Which is something I’d never be able to say about machines failing to replicate everything creatives do better. Could AI do “Wahoo”s like Charles Martinet, or “Ret-2-Go”es like Cristina Vee, or “Just who th do you think I am”s like Yuri Lowenthal? No, it can’t.
So while many otaku ignore English voice acting (for some reason,) I appreciate the effort that Cherami Leigh, Patrick Seitz, Allegra Clark, and all the other voice actors put into helping bring their characters to life. Ya know, in a language I understand.
I’m Gokuzard, and that’s enough about real-life people who voice the characters. Next time, the characters put on a show for you.
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