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

[kuromitsu.livejournal.com]

Er... Unless everything I've read and heard so far was wrong, including The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/b) and the Foreign Office (http://digitaldiplomacy.fco.gov.uk/en/guidance/content/editorial/style/uk-britain), "Britain" is synonymous with the UK as a political unit. (Which is why Northern Ireland residents are officially British - whether that title is appropriate or not is a different issue.) I'm not British so I might be wrong, but I'm not going to argue with the UK Foreign Office.

Nevertheless: Igirisu = a popular, sort of informal shorthand for "United Kingdom" = Britain. (The formal/official shorthand is Eikoku, which is used by the British Embassy, but at Wikipedia even Eikoku redirects to Igirisu.) Himaruya said that he was the UK/Britain (pick one). In the manga all characters call him Igirisu, all the time, even Sealand. Even in early medieval times when he's just England. As well as simplicity, I think this also has to do with his historical strips being the history of the UK and not just England, but my understanding of the Japanese treatment of UK history is shaky to say the least so I'm not sure about this. (However, don't forget that when he first meets little America, he's already England and Wales, called England because Wales was regarded as a part of the Kingdom of England after England conquered it in the late 13th century, which is why it's not represented on the Union Flag. So...)

Yes, those pictures say "England," but they also depict him with the Union Flag. Himaruya always depicts him with the Union Flag, too, except for the football strip and the one where he destroys Spain's Armada - both for obvious reasons. And seeing how many people say "England" when referring to the UK, either because they don't know that it's incorrect or because they're lazy and think it's okay because it's informal usage... well, yeah. Btw, to my best knowledge most languages have a word for the UK - French, Russian, Spanish, German and Italian definitely do, and yet in volume 3 they said England while other languages said UK. (I actually laughed at Hungarian, of all languages, being correct because in Hungary "Great Britain" is the most widely used term for the entire UK, even though we have a term for "United Kingdom." It just sounds way too formal.)

Anyway, I'm not trying to say he's not England, he obviously is. I'm trying to argue that going by canon and Word of Himaruya, he is also Britain/the UK (pick one) by virtue of him representing the entire state, even during various stages of its development, and as such, the translator was right to call him Britain. The backlash is inevitable, anyway - "Britain" will have backlash in historical strips, but "England" would have backlash in strips set after the Act of Union.

[ekazoo.livejournal.com]

Well it's just that when people say Britain, they mean Great Britain and therefore the island that contains England, Scotland and Wales. When people say UK they mean The United Kingdom Of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Though I myself am not 100% sure, if it's true that it's synonymous then it's probably because it's simpler that way. Because at the end of the day, Britain will always be one island and Ireland is a separate one. In my experience I have never heard an Irish person refer to themselves as British though... I'll have to find out more. Come to think of it, we never actually use Britain that much here. On the BBC news they say the 'UK news' and then later it splits off into the actual countries. I never hear people say 'I'm from Britain', because we would always say either England, Scotland or Wales. I think that this is why it sounded so odd to me, we just don't say it here.

According to my kanji dictionary, 英国 means England but also UK and Great Britain. My japanese teacher told me that if I said I was from igirisu or that I was igirisujin, then people would think I was English, not British, Scottish or Welsh. If I wanted to say these things I would have to use the separate katakana for Scotland etc. I think it's for simplicity, but you do realise that England fought with his brothers back then though? Even if it hasn't been shown, it still happened so it's impossible to show the history of the UK via one character. This issue really needs to be addressed in a lot of languages and countries really. When Himaruya introduces England's brothers then he's going to have a bit of a problem on his hands, but oh well. (Technically yes. But Wales won't cease to exist will he? They'll still beEngland and Wales, but England will represent them both. We know this through canon that the brothers exist whenever the UK does or not, but England is always the one taking the burden of representing them.)

The reason being that he is representing the UK to others. I do wonder why they didn't just use UK though? It's still Igirisu in Japanese, and yet they changed it to England for these pieces or merch. I does annoy me when people use England and then the Union Jack. I am not bothered if they call him UK and then use the Union Jack, but calling him England when using it? lol, it's offensive. I heard a rumour that Himaruya will be releasing designs for the UK brothers by the end of the year, so this may push people in the right direction of using the English flag when calling him England. (Hm that is actually really odd. Part of me thinks that it wasn't a mistake, and that there is an actual reason that we don't know about for it. Oh well, who knows XD)

There wouldn't be a backlash if he was always called England though. Even after the Union, England still exists and is it's own country. Therefore Arthur would still 'be' England, but then take on the responsibility of representing the UK for his brothers. Fandom knows this because of the notes. People don't get stressed about calling him England in canon even though at the meeting he has the Union Jack, because they know that he's representing it to the others thanks to the notes (but it must say UK under it in this situation).