VIZ’s announcement of the main cast of theBLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood WarEnglish dub comes with news of a change to the portrayal of the character Yasutora Sado, affectionately known as “Chad”. The character’s former voice actor, Jamieson Price, took to Twitter to explain the reasons behind his stepping down from the role, with well-wishes to his replacement Alain Mesa who will take over going into the new arc.The reasons Price cited for his decision open up the door to the issue of representation in media as well as behind the scenes, given his personal decision to no longer voice characters of color. The voice actor shared the news in a short tweet thread detailing his stance on the issue, and thanked fans for their support throughout his career. The conversation is particularly important, especially in light of themultiple controversies regarding the low pay and precarityexperienced by voice actors in entertainment media.RELATED:6 Anime Characters Who Have Had Multiple Voice Actors
Price states that it was a difficult decision to turn down the offer to reprise his role from the originalBLEACHseries; however, the voice actor’s personal values did not align with this project, and encourages fans to embrace Alain Mesa as Chad going forward. Price cited the history of the inequal access to opportunity in the anime industry as part of the reason behind his decision to longer voice characters of color and hence, in his words, “give opportunity to an actor who can represent Yasutora Sado with the same love and pride and imagination but with more life experience”.
The act of Jamieson Price stepping down from thisBLEACHrole is in the spirit of changing the industry andallowing access where there wouldn’t have beenbefore, and in the tweet thread, he detailed feeling satisfied with how his career has turned out so far, having had access to a wide variety of roles, something that he understands is not the case for the vast majority of voice actors in the industry. VIZ briefly showed appreciation to Price for his decision, sending him “much love and appreciation” as he steps down and welcoming Mesa to his new role.
Various other voice actors have lauded Price’s decision and also took to Twitter to talk about their experiences regarding access in English dubbed anime, including his successor Mesa, who is of Cuban descent. Other voice actors who are in support of Price’s decision include Anairis Quiñones, who is best known for her roles as Mirko inMy Hero Academiaand Maki Zenin inJUJUTSU KAISEN 0.
Quiñones went on to briefly tweet about her tokenization in the industry in response to fans mentioning her in conversations about how black people work in voice-over in the anime industry. She described Price’s decision as a “chad move” to make room for the character to be properly represented, adding that it is deserving of “all the respect”. Quiñones was also vocal in September during the conversations surrounding how severely underpaid voice actors are in the industry, afterthe controversial decision by Crunchyrollto recast the role of theMob Psycho 100protagonist, Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama.
BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood Waris the anime adaptation of the final arc of volumes 55 to 74 of Tite Kubo’s hit manga, originally serialized in Shounen Jump magazine from 2001 to 2016. The anime premiered in Japan on October 10 on Tokyo TV and affiliated networks, as well as the streaming platforms Hulu and Disney+, which have made the series available to the US and internationally.
The series is the return of the TV anime of theBLEACHfranchise after a ten-year absence and has been highly anticipated since its announcement in 2020. The series is set to run for four cours, a run culminating in 52 episodes. The majority of the series' main cast in both the Japanese and English dubbed versions have returned to reprise their roles from the original anime, with the characters introduced in this arc being voiced by theirBLEACH: Brave Soulsvoice actors reprising their roles for the anime. The series has boasted a cast of 80 voice actors in the original Japanese version to give life to the massive roster of characters who are introduced in this climactic arc.
Jamieson Price’s decision to not be a part of a moment this big not only in the history of theBLEACHfranchise but in the history of Shounen anime is a hugely gracious one, and it enables a relative newcomer to have a chance at being part of this history in a very profound way; however, fans on the internet have been very divided over the news, questioning Price’s intentions and even trying to nullify the significance entirely. Wherever it is that one stands on this matter is one thing; however, the agency of voice actors to be a part of projects that they can align with should never be understated, and fans should never be quick to assume that they are in full understanding of what the industry can be like from the inside, especially for minority groups.
