Seeing Kazuha's release in Genshin Impact is right around the corner, let's take a look at his English and Japanese seiyuu, Mark Whitten and Nobunaga Shimazaki, and the various roles they've did so far.

Note that I am not here to tell you the Genshin Impact Japanese dub is better than the English one (It is). Everyone has their own preferences. This isn't a comparison, but a study to see how talented the seiyuu are, managing to nail very different roles.

5 Game and anime roles by Nobunaga Shimazaki

Shidou Itsuka in Date A live (2013)

One of the things setting apart Date A Live from other harem fantasy romcom anime is definitely its voice acting. And besides Asami Sanada's stellar performance with Kurumi, Nobunaga Shimazaki's portrayal of Shidou, and his growth over the seasons, is one of the most satisfying elements of the series. Shidou gets more and more badass and interesting through the arcs, with Shimazaki's voice morphing, especially when Shidou ends up fighting himself alongside the Spirit girls.

Haruka Nanase in Free (2013)

Free! was one of the best sports anime of the last decade, and that's regardless of whether you're into bishonen anime with BL undertones or not. Nobunaga Shimazaki's portrayal of Haruka, calm and composed, is overall pretty close to what we've seen and heard of Kazuha in Genshin Impact so far too. This is the typical calm but intense role that Shimazaki really nails down.

Ritsuka Fujimaru (male) in Fate/Grand Order (2015)

This is Nobunaga's main role in the Nasuverse, making him a regular in the various anime adaptations FGO has been getting lately. Nobunaga also voices Arjuna and Edmond Dantes in FGO. This is definitely one of the roles that cemented Shimazaki as a high profile seiyuu seeing how popular FGO is in Japan.

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Eugeo in Sword Art Online (2018)

Eugeo is by far my favorite character in the Alicization arc, and while I only read the novels and barely watched the anime adaption, I'm familiar with Shimazaki Nobunaga's portrayal of Eugeo thanks to the various SAO games out there. And he did great. Eugeo has both a calm side and a burning sense of justice, so Shimazaki was the perfect choice for those Stay Cool vibes. While the Alicization arc is over, we'll definitely hear Shimazaki as Eugeo again in future SAO games.

Arthur in Shin Sakura Taisen (2019)

Arthur is the captain of the London Combat Revue and one of the rivals we meet in Shin Sakura Taisen. This is a niche game and I bet most of you haven't played it. Still, Nobunaga Shimazaki showed with Arthur he's perfectly comfortable in typecast roles with a twist. Arthur is pretty close, and yet very different from Eugeo in SAO. They both even share the same character designer, Bunbun/abec. Sega saw SAO's popularity, and decided to inspire itself, as it always happen in Japanese pop culture. I'm hoping a possible sequel will be fully voiced.

There you have it for Nobunaga Shimazaki, let's move on to Mark Whitten and some of his best roles.

5 Anime and game characters voiced by Mark Whitten

Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba The Movie Mugen Train Kyojuro Rengoku

Kyojuro Rengoku in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (2019)

Rengoku is the most important character in the Mugen Train movie, which is literally the highest grossing anime movie of all time. So Mark Whitten's performance definitely left a big impression on those who watched the English dub. It's by far his most popular role now, and shows he can nail hot-blooded shonen characters pretty well.

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Leslie Kyle in Final Fantasy 7 Remake (2020)

Leslie Kyle is among the several new characters added in FF7R, adding a new side to the Don Corneo arc in Midgar. He's a very cold character in contrast to Rengoku, which is close to Kazuha's demeanor in Genshin. It shows once again miHoYo really did it's homework for the voice casting.

Seteth in Fire Emblem Three Houses (2019)

Encompassing Mark Whitten's performance, Fire Emblem Three Houses' English dub overall is excelent. Most notably thanks to how it was recorded in optimal conditions: Thanks to the game being fully voiced, the English cast had access to the whole game script and the context for each line. You'd be surprised at how rare that actually is, even though English dubbing for a Japanese game is usually done when the game's development was finished or is near completion.

Meanwhile seiyuu in Japan tend to dub games very early in development, and while they have access to the full script, sometimes they don't even know what the character they're speaking to looks like.

Van Reichnott in Log Horizon (2013)

With his pretty bishonen looks clearly inspired from Card Captor Sakura and Clamp's Clow Reed, Van is a pretty peculiar character. Most notably how despite playing an important part in the early volumes of Log Horizon, he only got an actual name reveal with the anime adaptation. Van was one of the first calm and composed archetype of characters Mark Whitten did.

Mikitaka Hazekura in Diamond is Unbreakable (2016)

Definitely one of the weirdest roles Mark Whitten portrayed. With his "is he really an alien of not" thing, Mikitaka is one of the most memorable side characters of JoJo Part 4. And shows how Mark Whitten manages to adapt his voice for even the wildest situations.

There you have it. Nobunaga Shimazaki and Mark Whitten are both incredibly talented and it's intersting to compare some of the roles they did. Personally speaking, I've always been more into Japanese dubs, especially when it's the original dub. But at the same time I don't believe English dubs should be dismissed. Especially when you consider how much they've improved now compared to most 80s and 90s English anime dubs.

Are you looking forward to Kazuha's release in Genshin Impact? You're also into seiyuu? You can always hit me up on Twitter @A_iyane07 to chat more.