England's Voice Actor and 2 Seconds of America

[americanheroal.livejournal.com]

So Scott Freeman landed the role of Arthur Kirkland. This is Scott's first major roll and has been working as a background voice actor for a while with Funimation.

Youtube and FB is buzzing with comments and opinions and so it's our turn. What do you think of the English voice for England? (Or "Bri'en" as America seems to call him)

By the way, if you enjoy watching Hetalia online then I suggest you get the DVDs. It chalk full of extras including interviews with the Japanese voice actors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR6gyYMUESE

Comments

[ekazoo.livejournal.com]

Yep, politically we're the UK. As in Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland are all under the same government. My headcanon for England is that he is the anthropomorphism of only England, but he represents the UK/Britain at meetings etc, however he is not the anthropomorphism of the UK/Britain. I think Himaruya confirmed that he is referred to as the UK at meetings, but just England to his brothers. Which basically confirms that he's just the anthropomorphism of England XD

[ekazoo.livejournal.com]

I should add that even if he represents the UK at meetings, I still think that the other countries would call him England, since he is just England.

[haro.livejournal.com]

This, absolutely.

And many of them have known him since long (read: centuries) before the UK even existed.

I kind of think he'd prefer going by England as well, given his apparent feelings toward his brothers.

[ekazoo.livejournal.com]

It also feels much more natural to say England instead of UK or Great Britain. It sounds natural to say "Hey Igirisu!" in Japanese, but in English "Hey UK!" just sounds awkward XD So since he obviously speaks English, he would call himself/want to be called England.

Yeah, a lot of people seem to miss this :/ As he lived and the UK was formed etc I think that he would always be called England, but then allow himself to represent/be called the UK as well.

Haha, yeah totally XD Somehow I don't think he would willing want to be associated with that lot :')

[kuromitsu.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I think he'd prefer going by Britain/UK. He'd probably enjoy it, in a "I'M MORE THAN YOU AND YOU JUST HAVE TO ACCEPT IT, BEHAHAHA" way.

[ekazoo.livejournal.com]

Knowing his brothers they would not accept it. At all. :'DDDD They're implied to bully him, so he is completely buggered if he starts calling himself that XD

[kuromitsu.livejournal.com]

I think Himaruya confirmed that he is referred to as the UK at meetings, but just England to his brothers.

No, what he said was: "Britain is Britain. He's only England when his older brothers, Scotland, N. Ireland and Wales are present." Which is a bit weird because uh, how could N. Ireland be his older brother? Anyway, this is what he said. And it makes sense to me, after all, the UK acts as a single entity in international affairs and even a number of domestic ones.

[ekazoo.livejournal.com]

Um, that's not what he said. He said that he is England to his brothers, but the UK to everyone else. This must mean that he is the anthropomorphism of England, and not anthropomorphism of the UK/Britain. As long as Scotland and Wales are proven to exist, he cannot be the anthropomorphism of the UK/Britain. All he does is represent them all at meetings/to other nations. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are anthropomorphisms in their own right.

It is also not possible because there are times in history where the UK did not exist.

The reason he represents them is because that's how our political system works, like you said. But his proper name is not 'UK' or 'Britain', it has to be 'England' because that is what he the anthropomorphism of.

[kuromitsu.livejournal.com]

Do you have a source for that? This is the only instance I have of Himaruya mentioning the topic (from the Japanese England wiki):

2008年6月
　>イギリスはイングランドか？
イギリスはイギリスです。
スコットや北アイル、ウェールズ兄ちゃんズ出てくるときだけはイングランドにあたります。

Even if he's technically only the anthropomorphism of England, he still represents the UK therefore he is the UK as well as England. He's called Britain in Japanese so I see no problem with the translation calling him Britain. In fact, I remember only two instances of Himaruya calling him England, and neither of them was in the manga or in his blog... and both looked, to me, the usual mistake of saying England to refer to the UK. In the manga, every single country calls him Igirisu. He refers to himself as Igirisu.

I know this is a tricky issue, but really, Himaruya calls him Britain. From the translator's POV there are three possibilities: 1) follow fandom and call him England, and then have people complain about inaccuracies (why is he using the Union Flag, England wasn't the only UK country present in WWII, England =/= Britain, etc.); 2) try to follow his various name changes during the centuries (which would be a dramaturgical catastrophe); 3) just follow what the original says (and put any blame on the author).

[ekazoo.livejournal.com]

It was on the English wiki, and I read it on the comm somewhere too.

I don't think that he is the UK though, he only represents it and calls the shots for his brothers as well as his own. Which is exactly how out government works IRL. The other countries would know that he is England, but also know that he is calling the shots for his brothers as the representative of the UK. Well, according to official merch, my japanese teacher and Himaruya, igirisu can mean both. And as I said in my comment below, Himaruya has called him England in canon- and this was no mistake. The UK is not a country and therefore does not have a football team, in the strip he is wearing the England kit and there are England flags.

Another point, and possible the most important considering the whole basis of the series, is the stereotypes. Arthur is 100% stereotypically English. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the stereotypes for Scottish, Welsh and Irish people, but they are very different. Some do cross over, but overall they are not the same. The most important one of course is the accents, but the way in which they behave and behave towards each other is also very important. The whole posh gentleman thing? complete opposite of the stereotype for Scottish people. He does not account for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland stereotypically at all.

1) Just because he gets called England doesn't mean that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland didn't exist at this point though. They could be off somewhere else fighting or something. Again, he'll just speak for them but he isn't the UK. 2) Majority of his history takes place before the UK was formed, so everyone would be calling him England for ages anyway. How are the other countries supposed to know that he will eventually become the UK or Britain? They can't see the future. 3) If Arthur is England then he will speak English and UK or Britain just sounds plain awkward in it. I can't imagine America saying "Hi UK!" or "Hey Britain" because it doesn't sound right. The whole sticking to the igirisu = UK thing would not work at all because of history and the fact that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exist.

Fandom chooses to use England because a) It does not sound awkward. (I am not sure how it good it sounds in other languages though) b) It is always accurate, he has always been England, but not always been representing the UK and c) The stereotypes that the character is based on are English ones.

If Funi had called him England, they would be accurate. Calling him England does not mean Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland didn't participate in the war. It just means that they are separate countries/characters (which they are), but England is only present in the Hetalia strip about the war.

As long as wherever the Union Jack is used, I think they should always write UK; because this is when he is representing it. However he should be called England by others, because that is who he is the anthropomorphism of.