Fantasy Casting: Fairy Tail

Since Funimation has announced that they have acquired the license for Fairy Tail, and have only announced Todd Haberkorn as Natsu, I think it would be fun to finish something I started a while back. Namely my fantasy casting for the then hypothetical Fairy Tail dub.  What is fantasy casting you ask?  It's kind of like fantasy football, only more conventionally nerdy.  Basically I draw from a pool of voice actors, in this case those that regularly work with Funimation, and assign them roles in an undubbed anime.

Given the news of the upcoming release of the Funimation dub of Fairy Tail, now seems as good a time as any to release my very first fantasy cast list.  That and if I don't post it now there won't be any point in posting it ever, after the rest of the cast is announced that is.

I'll be focusing on the main characters, and assign them voice actors that I think have the right voice for the role.  Obviously I won't bother casting Natsu since...he's already been cast.  But with all the rest of the cast unannounced I can still have my say on who I think would do the best job.

And so, let's see how close I get to guessing who plays who.

Lucy

Seiyu - Aya Hirano

My Prediction - Cherami Leigh 

I was first introduced to Cherami's through the role of Natsumi in Sgt. Frog.  At the time I didn't think anything of her, other than that she was great in her role as Natsumi.  When the time came to finish this article I still was considering Luci Christian for the role of Lucy, since at the time I first wrote this I had little exposure to American voice actors.  While Luci Christian has played some of my favorite characters in some of my favorite shows, and I think she's a great voice actress, she doesn't quite fit Lucy's character so much.  She can do soft tones, though it seems like she's played roles that focused on a lot of yelling, but even when she isn't reading the riot act to other characters, there's something about her voice that just doesn't quite match Aya Hirano's performance as Lucy.  Cherami, while not a perfect match, is much closer I feel, and definitely can pull off the necessary octaves a shonen series demands, while at the same time her regular voice fits Lucy's character much more closely.

That, and there are already enough people complaining about Fairy Tail ripping off One Piece.  The last thing we need is the same actress for both female leads.

Happy

Seiyu - Rie Kugimiya

My Prediction - Brina Palencia 

Speaking of not casting actors from One Piece in similar roles for Fairy Tail, this one was kind of unavoidable.  Happy is the cute mascot character, just like Chopper, and so far Brina Palencia is the best at those kinds of characters.  That I know of so far.  But it isn't so much her Chopper voice that sold me on her, but rather her Tamama voice, again from Sgt. Frog (sorry about that, I've been watching through the series, so it's kind of the first thing on my mind).  I honestly thought it was a different actress doing the voice, so I looked her up.  When I realized Brina did both Chopper and Tamama I was sold.  She just does far too good a job for me to consider anyone else.

Gray 

Seiyu - Yuichi Nakamura

My Prediction - Chris Patton  

Gray is the second leading man of the series, and tends to be the straight man to Natsu's goofball.  Chris Patton's voice is perfectly calibrated for the necessary sarcasm and snark.  Not to mention that considering his range of characters, from Sousuke Sagara to Mr. 9, I don't think I would need to worry about him getting the voice right.  Mostly my choice of him revolves around his Sousuke Sagara voice.  All he'd need to do is go an octave or two lower and he'd be perfect.

Erza

Seiyu - Sayaka Ohara

My Prediction - Colleen Clinkenbeard 

Erza is one of the strongest, and sexiest, female characters in manga.  For someone to play her they need to pull off both sides of the character.  Colleen pulled this off pretty well with Riza Hawkeye, whose personality is very similar to Erza's in the first place.  Overall I'd say she's a good match, as she can also pull off the necessary emotional, introspective voice the role calls for.

Juvia

Seiyu - Mai Nakahara

My Prediction - Christine Auten 

As Sakaki in Azumanga Daioh she does the kind of bland, monotone voice that Juvia had when she was first introduced.  Considering her other roles, I can definitely say that she can leave the monotone voice when necessary.  Juvia is one of the funnier characters, and as such her voice actress has to be capable of switching tones on a dime.  I think Christine should be able to pull this off.

And that concludes my extensively researched article.  And by extensively I mean I either thought of voice actors from shows I recently watched, or I looked them up on youtube.  I have to say, that with Lucy's status as primary source of fanservice I find it uncanny how many boob jokes Cherami's character Cecily, from Sacred Blacksmith, is the butt of.  It's like a match made in heaven.  Or marshmallow hell. 

All that's left to do is wait until Funimation releases the rest of the cast information, and we can see how many I got right.

And for the record, I'm putting my votes on Carrie Savage for Mirajane, Patrick Seitz as Elfman, and Christopher Sabat as Gajeel.  Man, I just can't get away from the One Piece voice actors...