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troperville

A form of Type Casting where a voice actor is irrevocably linked to a certain personality type they play, especially the character who made them famous. Extremely common in Japan, where merely seeing a picture of the character and knowing the name of their actor can sometimes give you a fairly accurate idea of what they'll be like. Actors wary of this sometimes do "breakout roles" to subvert this.

This is a controversial situation, because some animation buffs consider versatility more impressive than anything (a major legacy of Mel Blanc), whereas others consider certain Western voice actors with long resumes to be subpar as they usually take a few episodes to really get the hang of their character. Keep in mind that Tropes Are Not Bad. In fact, there are some voice actors whom fans feel are typecast into roles that are appropriate for their range.

Aside from name recognition, this may be another factor in choosing a Hollywood actor to do voice work in a movie where they are essentially playing themselves and will fall into the role naturally.

Compare Hey, It's That Guy! and Hey, It's That Voice!. If it's two voice actors in a pigeonholed relationship, it becomes Relationship Voice Actor. Contrast Man of a Thousand Voices, although do note that it is possible for some of the typecast voice actors to have a wide range that they can't use, for obvious reasons.^note If the actor's later roles are specifically designed to imitate an earlier, successful role, the first one is a Fountain of Expies.

Note that this does not refer to there being at least one more character than there are actors, thereby forcing at least one actor to play the role of two or more characters.