Female Voice Actors in Male Anime Roles

[Michael McCaskey]

When I was doing a class on "Samurai X" recently, I realized for the first time that the Kenshin Japanese voice is that of a female voice actor.

All of the Japanese Kenshin voice roles were done by Sukukaze Mayo. But when Sukukaze appears in live action films, she plays female roles. Her other anime voice roles are also as women - except possibly in the anime Blackjack: The Movie (1996), where she does the voice of Joe Carol Brain, and I'm not sure yet whether that is a male or a female part.

The English Kenshin voices are done by Richard Hayworth, and in some cases by another male voice actor.

The only other similar case I can readily think of is Otomo's anime "Steamboy," where the lead young male role of Ray Steam is voiced in Japanese by Anne Suzuki, and in English by Anna Paquin.

Does anyone know if it's fairly commonplace to use female voice actors for male anime character roles? Or is it quite unusual?

One of my students wants to know, and I have no satisfactory answer for him as yet.

Maybe 15 years ago, I used to hear a female storyteller on NHK, I think once a week. She voiced both males and females in her stories. I realize now that the male voicing I heard was close to the Kenshin voice.

Michael McCaskey
Georgetown Univ.