The Other Darrin / Anime & Manga

As with it's American counterpart, Japanese animation has saw its various voice talents — be it in its original native language or in foreign dubs (namely English) — get replaced from time to time. This is especially prominent in English dubs, either due to the distributors of the dub changing dubbing studios or the actors moving on to bigger projects after their anime stardom and/or becoming union, which prevents them from reprising their roles in non-union works unless the studio/distributor had agreed with the labor union.

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Anime and Manga with their own page

• Digimon
• Dragon Ball
• Lupin III
• Hello! Sandybell
• Naruto
• One Piece
• Pokémon
• Sailor Moon
• Voltes V

Series examples

Gundam Series

• After Gundam SEED ended, Mami Matsui retired and Romi Park took over her character Nicol Amalfi for the Compilation Movies and subsequent video game appearances.
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam:
  • The Zeta Gundam Compilation Movies recast the role of Four Murasame, replacing Saeko Shimazu with Yukana despite Yoshiyuki Tomino's explicit instructions to bring back every actor that they could. This lead to a major controversy in Japan, where some accused Yukana of only getting the role because she slept with the director, a stigma that only lifted when she took on roles like C.C.
  • The Zeta movies recast Katz Kobayashi (replacing Keiichi Nanba with Daisuke Namikawa), Hayato Kobayashi (from Katsumi Toriumi to Nobuyuki Hiyama), and Rosamia Badam (replacing Kayoko Fujii with Yuu Asakawa).
• Hiroshi Kamiya was injured in a car accident after finishing two of three episodes of Gundam SEED C.E.73 Stargazer; Mamoru Miyano took over his character Shams Couza for the last episode and the compilation release. This makes Gundam 00 Hilarious in Hindsight, as it stars both actors and Kamiya's character begins the series hating Miyano's character.
• Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn pulls a twist on this, as two characters return from Gundam ZZ after quite some time both in-universe (8 years) and out (24 years). In this case, Ayumi Fujimura plays Audrey Burne and Yuko Kaida plays Marida Cruz, taking over from Miki Itō and Chieko Honda (as Mineva Lao Zabi and Elpeo Puru and her clones) respectively.
  • Unicorn recast Ken Narita as fan-beloved "Eternal Captain" Bright Noa, marking the first time since Hirotaka Suzuoki's death in 2007 that the character wasn't played with recycled audio clips.
  • Then Dozle Zabi's VA was replaced by Tesshō Genda after Daisuke Gōri passed away.
  • For the remaining episodes of the OVA, this would now be the case for Marida's current seiyuu, as Chieko Honda (Elpeo's original seiyuu) also passed away during their production.
• Generally speaking however, Unicorn typically averts this as the Japanese voice actors all reprise their roles, even for minor parts like Dr Hasan.
• In the English dub of Unicorn, Sean Schemmel was replaced with Patrick Seitz as Flaste Schole after episode 3 due to Schemmel moving to Los Angeles. Bright also got another voice change, this time going from Chris Kalhoon to Christopher Corey Smith. Char and Lalah were also recast, going from Michael Kospa to Keith Silverstein and Willow Johnson to Lipica Shah, respectively.
• On the other side of the Pacific, a voice actors strike in Canada meant that the Ocean Group (who dubbed Wing and the majority of the Gundam titles) was unavailable to dub Zeta Gundam, meaning the entire series had to be "recast" with another VA group, Blue Water (who dubbed G Gundam.) This gets confusing in Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam, which uses both studios and thus has moments where, for example, Amuro switches from Brad Swaile's voice to Matthew Erickson's and back again during a single conversation.
• Over the years, several Gundam actors have left their various reasons, such as Mark Gatha (G Gundam's Domon, retired to become a doctor) and Mark Hildreth (Gundam Wing's Heero, who claims he isn't aware of why he has never been called back to voice the character again). This means that their appearances in video games and the like require Darrins. Heero gets a humorously ironic case in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3, where he's played by Brian Drummond, who appeared in Wing as Heero's Rival and resident Char Clone Zechs Merquise.
• The Gundam movie trilogy was dubbed years before the Gundam TV series, and used a different studio, in a different country with different voice actors. The TV series dub gets a hit-or-miss reception while the movie trilogy dub is considered one of the worst ever, strange considering the voice actors/director usually put out solid work. It happened to the original series again with the English dub of the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin movies, using the same studio that did Unicorn (which does have the fortuitous side-effect of closing a minor Dub-Induced Plot Hole in the latter's final episode now that Char and Frontal are once again voiced by the same actor as in the original Japanese).
• The HD Remaster of both Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny will have brand-new English dubs provided by NYAV Post (as opposed to The Ocean Group for the original ones) due to the edits in the remaster that make syncing the original dub track a nightmare to implement.
• Over the years a total of five talent pools have lent their voices to the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise (Vancouver, Los Angeles, Calgary, New York, Hong Kong).
• While the second trailer and updated official website Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom confirmed that almost the entire returning cast would be reprising their roles from SEED Destiny, it also revealed that the role of Cagalli Yula Atha would be the exception, as the character would be played by Nanako Mori instead of Naomi Shindo.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

• The American voice actor for Tristan changed after episode 9 of the first season, replacing his original, perpetually cold-ridden nasally voice (Sam Riegel) for one less annoying and much more fitting (Greg Abbey). Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series naturally spent an entire episode on it, and it stuck... until the next episode, where the voice actor and writer of The Abridged Series changed the voice back, as he said it was easier to write jokes about it.
  Tristan: My voice gives me super strength!
• Honda's Japanese voice changed too—from Takayuki Kondō to Hidehiro Kikuchi.
• Mai's voice has changed during the series. She was originally voiced by Megan Hollingshead for the first three seasons, and by Erica Schroeder for the fourth season after Hollingshead moved to LA. She was later voiced by Caren Manuel for the short-lived Uncut DVDs.
• Mokuba was recast for his last few appearances in Season 5 with Carrie Keranen when his original voice actress, Tara Jayne, had moved to California, and quit all of her roles in New York. Keranen also voiced Mokuba in the short-lived uncut DVDs. Tara later returned to play as Mokuba in the movie Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions.
• Rex Raptor was originally voiced by Sam Riegel for the first 3 seasons of the series before the role was recast with Sebastian Arcelus for season 4 (and the uncut DVDs). Anthony Salerno filled in as Rex for his few season 5 appearances. Rex/Ryuzaki's Japanese voice actor changed as well, as he was voiced by Kin Fujii in the first two seasons and by Yūichi Nakamura in season 3 onwards.
• On the Japanese side, Rica Matsumoto took over as Bakura for You Inoue, who was diagnosed with lung cancer and shortly after passed away. Notably, this is a case where the other Darrin had a completely different approach—whereas Inoue's Dark Bakura was quiet, calm and sinister, Matsumoto's Bakura had barely any lines where he wasn't shouting, laughing, and in general, tearing the scenery to shreds.
• German Yami Bakura underwent a similar change of character (from a calm and collected villain to a loud, rude and completely insane maniac), but at a different time. In this version, the change occurred when Peter Reinhardt took over the role from David Nathan with the beginning of season 5.
• The "dedication" segment in the Abridged Series also lampshaded the other two characters who had their voices eventually changed sometime during the course of the dub. Mokuba wasn't that bad, but Mai's voice was actually changed mid-episode by 4Kids to make the cast change less noticeable. They did the same for James in Pokemon.
• When Cassandra Morris moved away from New York to California, Yubel received a new voice for the 10th movie as well as the twins from 5Ds from episode 65 onward.
• Carly's Japanese VA (Satomi Toyohara, artistic name Li Mei Chang) was replaced on episode 130 onward (by Aki Kanada) due to unrelated issues with the VA that caused her to resign.
• Anzu (Tea) was voiced by Aki Maeda during Dueliest Kingdom and by Maki Saitou for the remainder of the series.
• It also should be noted that pretty much most of the major early Yu-Gi-Oh characters all underwent this thanks to the original anime from the 90's by Toei. This Yu-Gi-Oh! anime featured big-name seiyuu voicing most of the major characters such as Megumi Ogata as Yugi, Toshiyuki Morikawa as Jonouchi, and Hikaru Midorikawa as Kaiba, while the better known "Duel Monsters" anime moreso relied on VAs who were unknowns at the time and often performers who otherwise had little to no experience with voice acting, including idol singer Shunsuke Kazama as Yugi. Amusingly enough, thanks to the use of this trope it also meant the Crossdressing Voices trope was inverted for Yugi and Bakura.
• On the Latin-American Spanish side, Yamil Atala as Bakura was replaced by José Gilberto Vilchis almost at the same canon point where You Inoue was replaced by Rica Matsumoto.
• In the Italian dub of ZEXAL, Monica Bonetto was replaced with Benedetta Ponticelli as Tokunosuke/Flip's voice starting from the Yuma vs Tron/Vetrix episode. The first voice actress came back for the last few episodes.
• The Italian dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions keeps the original voices for Yugi, Joey and Kaiba while replacing everyone else, as the dub moved from Milan to Rome. Veronica Puccio replaces Debora Magnaghi as Tea, Emanuele Ruzza replaces Gabriele Calindri as Tristan, Lorenzo D'Agata replaces Irene Scalzo as Mokuba, Davide Albano replaces Felice Invernici as Bakura, Silvio Anselmo replaces Enrico Bertorelli as Yugi's grandpa, Alberto Bognanni replaces Maurizio Trombini as Roland and Mauro Gravina replaces Diego Sabre as Shadi.

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Other examples

A to D

• Ah! My Goddess:
  • The series went through many dubbing crews for the English versions of the various pieces of the franchise, and thus, the series went through many sets of voices. AnimEigo licensed and dubbed the original five OVAs at Coastal Carolina Studios in Wilmington, North Carolina. Geneon licensed and dubbed the movie and the Mini-Goddess shorts at Animaze in Los Angeles (there was even an Other Darrin here as Urd was voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn in the movie and by Wendee Lee in the shorts). Media Blasters licensed and dubbed the first season of the TV series at NYAV Post in New York while ADV Films licensed and dubbed the second season of the TV series with NYAV back with their cast, although this time, the dub was recorded in both New York and Los Angeles. Interestingly, Urd's movie voice was able to come back and voice Hild, and Belldandy's OVA voice came back to voice Peorth.
  • The Japanese version, on the other hand, has stayed pretty consistent, though Kikuko Inoue was briefly replaced by Akemi Okamura as Belldandy in the Mini Goddess series due to Inoue being on maternity leave for its first half. Major Playing Against Type moment, as Okamura often plays Action Girls and not Yamato Nadeshikos.
• Aldnoah.Zero: Since Shinji Ogawa died just before the show could be finished, Takayuki Sugo replaced him as Emperor Reyregalia Vers Rayvers for the last episode.
• Angel Beats!!: The English dub had a few minor characters that shifted actors:
  • Illich Guardiola played Takamatsu from episodes 8-13 after Kalob Martinez had earlier played the role for the first seven episodes.
  • Elizabeth Bunch played Hisako in episodes 3-4, but was later replaced with Jessica Boone for her remaining appearances.
  • Serena Varghese voiced Yusa in the first nine episodes of the series, but was replaced for episodes 10 and 14 with... Elizabeth Bunch due to Varghese moving to Los Angeles.
• Appleseed:
  • The franchise gets a new Japanese voice cast in every project, while the English cast is a bit more consistent. The 2003 film was originally dubbed by Geneon/Animaze in Los Angeles in 2004, but the 2007 Ex Machina film was released by Warner Bros. with a dub by Houston-based Seraphim Digital. When Sentai Filmworks rescued the 2003 film in 2011, they redubbed it for their Blu-ray release with the entire Ex Machina cast. When FUNimation got the XIII TV series in 2013, they got most of the Houston cast back, though there were a few replacements, such as Hitomi, Yoshitsune, and Lance. The 2014 Alpha film (released by Sony) was created in English from the beginning with the Houston cast (though there is a Japanese dub), who also performed the motion capture work. Hitomi was once again recast.
  • Also, the (now obscure) late 80s OVA adaptation, which was dubbed by Manga UK, had a different voice cast in English and Japanese.
• Armored Trooper VOTOMS had two examples of early recasting: Yuri Nashiwa voiced Fyana in episode 3, but was replaced by Kazuko Yanaga afterwards. Meanwhile, Kenichi Ogata initially voiced Albert Killy, but was replaced by Saburo Kamei.
• Assassination Classroom: Several different people have voiced Koro-sensei throughout the franchise: Masaya Onosaka in the VOMIC, Tomokazu Seki in the first OVA and J-Stars Victory VS, Jun Fukuyama in the anime and the 3DS game (Assassination Classroom: Grand Siege on Korosensei), and Ninomiya Kazunari in the live action movie.
• Attack on Titan: While the English dub of Attack on Titan: Junior High retained the original English voice actors from Attack On Titan, Ian Dietrich is now voiced by Garret Storms. His original voice actor, Scott Freeman, was unavailable due to being incarcerated for possession of child pornography.
• Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher is a sequel to Iron Man: Rise of Technovore with many of the voice actors of the returning characters coming back. However, the English dub of the Avengers Confidential saw the titular duo's voice actors replaced with Clare Grant being replaced as Black Widow by Jennifer Carpenter and Norman Reedus as the Punisher by Brian Bloom (The Japanese dub kept Miyuki Sawashiro and Tesshō Genda in the respective roles). Matthew Mercer also replaced Troy Baker as Hawkeye, though that probably has something to do with the character only getting one line, and Mercer already being around to reprise his Tecnhovore role as Iron Man and it just being easier and cheaper to get him to just voice the one line.
• Bakugan: According to an employee at Nelvana, some characters in the first series had this. Naga in particular was bad about this, going through three different actors during the run.
• Berserk:
  • The Golden Age film trilogy replaced the entire Japanese cast from the 1997-98 TV anime:
    • Guts: Nobutoshi Canna —> Hiroaki Iwanaga
    • Griffith: Toshiyuki Morikawa —> Takahiro Sakurai
    • Casca: Yuko Miyamura —> Toa Yukinari
    • Zodd: Kenji Utsumi —> Kenta Miyake
    • Charlotte: Yuri Shiratori —> Aki Toyosaki
    • Judeau: Akira Ishida —> Yūki Kaji
    • Rickert: Akiko Yajima —> Minako Kotobuki
    • Adon: Tesshō Genda —> Rikiya Koyama
    • Gaston: Masahito Kawanago —> Kazuki Yao
  • The English dub, amazingly, mostly averts this (thanks largely to the fandom's insistence) as many of the 1997-98 TV series' English voice actors reprised their roles, including the three leads. However, a few roles were still Darrin'd due to the original VA's having left the business:
    • Pippin: Jeff Ward —> Patrick Seitz
    • Corkus: Mark Sebastian —> Doug Erholtz
    • The King of Midland: Jeff Swarthout —> Christopher Corey Smith
    • Julius: Dick Brunting —> Jesse Corti
    • Princess Charlotte: Rachael Lillis —> G.K. Bowes (except for the first movie when Lillis did return)
  • The German voice actor of Guts was Ozan Ünal in the first movie, but Marcel Collé played him in the second. The second voice actor played him with a manlier voice.
• Bleach
  • In the English dub, Kim Strauss as Sajin Komamura was replaced by JB Blanc due to Strauss retiring.
  • Kaien Shiba's role was also switched from Strauss to Dave Mallow. Somewhat awkward when they had to redub copious amounts of Rukia flashbacks.
  • In the Japanese version, the late Tomoko Kawakami was replaced by Houko Kuwashima as Soifon in 2008 when Kawakami fell ill with cancer.
  • Starting with episode 244 of the English dub, Kenpachi is voiced by Patrick Seitz instead of David Lodge following a pay dispute when a few members of the cast asked for a union salary. The only feuding voice actor that ended up with what they wanted was Michelle Ruff as Rukia.
    • Hiyori was originally voiced by Mela Lee before Laura Bailey took over the role as a result of the same pay-dispute. This caused a case of Acting for Two, as Bailey was already voicing Tier Harribel and Mashiro Kuna, resulting in all 3 characters sharing the same voice during the Winter Battle arc.
    • Doug Erholtz took over for Michael Lindsay as Urahara starting with Episode 231.
    • Marc Worden started off as the voice of Chad, before being replaced by Jamieson Price for the rest of the original series. When it came time for the Thousand-Year Blood War, Price stepped down from the role as he no longer took auditions for non-white characters, and Alain Mesa stepped in.
    • Similarly, Shara Kirby replaced Erin Fitzgerald as Franceska Mila Rose for the English dub of Thousand-Year Blood War.
  • The Netflix English dub of the live action movie recasts everyone except Johnny Yong Bosch, Derek Stephen Prince, Stephanie Sheh (though she uses a more deeper voice closer to her natural speaking voice), and Doug Erholtz.
• Bubblegum Crisis
  • The Japanese seiyuu for Priss Asagiri, the primary focus character of the ensemble, was originally Kinuko Ohmori. Ohmori was already an established synth-rock/J-rock singer, and performed most of the music for the series. When the sequel series, Bubblegum Crash! was made; she chose to focus on her musical career with her band SILK, and was replaced by Ryoko Tachikawa.
  • In both English and Japanese, the entire cast changed for the Tokyo 2040 remake.
• Caligula: Owing to Yuichiro Umehara's hospitalization during the airing of the anime adaptation, his role as Izuru Minesawa was taken over by Tomoaki Maeno for the latter half of the series.
• Cardcaptors:
  • Li's voice actor was replaced around the Star Card arc as the original actor's voice broke.
  • Averted in the Mexican Spanish dub, where Uraz Huerta's voice broke as well but he still returned to voice Li in The Movie. One cannot help but notice that Li's voice got rougher all of a sudden, but it works anyway.
• Case Closed:
  • As Kaneto Shiozawa died in 2000, his role of inspector Shiratori has been replaced by Kazuhiko Inoue.
  • Kogoro Mouri in October 2009, when Akira Kamiya left the show to become a seiyuu trainer instead. He had been the voice of Kogoro Mouri since the show first started in 1996, and the new voice (Rikiya Koyama) is distinctly different.
  • The English dub of Case Closed had a couple of casting changes as well.
    • The most notable was George who was originally voiced by Dameon Clarke for the first 3 seasons and part of the fourth. He also voiced George in the first movie. Because of his move to Los Angeles to focus on live-action media (and subsequent retirement from voice acting), Mike McFarland took over the role of George beginning partway through the fourth season and into the fifth. He also voiced the role in all the remaining English movies.
    • The English voice for Booker Kudo (Randy Tallman) died shortly after finishing production on the fifth season. John Swasey filled in for Booker's movie appearance (The Phantom of Baker Street).
    • For unknown reasons, Melinda Wood Allen (who also voiced Ilene Adler) filled in for Laurie Steele as Vivian Kudo for the same movie.
    • When Discotek Media acquired the rights to the anime, they began to dub various movies and specials using a brand new LA voice cast, not retaining any of the original Funimation VAs. The dub also keeps all the Japanese names intact. Most notably, Griffin Burns plays Shinichi, while Wendee Lee plays Conan.
  • In the Italian dub:
    • Nicola Bartolini Carrassi, Genta's voice actor, was replaced with Luca Bottale after the first 123 episodes.
    • In 2009, when the series returned after a year and half hiatus, the role of Ayumi went from Federica Valenti to Patrizia Scianca for unknown reasosns. Few months later Ai's voice actress, Tosawi Piovani, retired from voice acting, and she was replaced with... Federica Valenti, though Valenti used a different, more mature tone compared to how she had voiced Ayumi.
    • Conan's voice actress, Irene Scalzo, also retired in 2012, and Monica Bonetto took the role in 2013. This was actually a good replacement, since Bonetto's voice is spot on to the Japanese one; however, the dub was stopped in 2016, and Bonetto died in 2017. In 2022, Federica Simonelli took over the role for the second half of Magic Kaito 1412 episodes (as well as redubbing Bonetto's lines in the first half of episodes) and the TV special ''Detective Conan - Episode One".
  • In the Latin-American Spanish dubs:
    • The three dubs of the franchise were done in three different countries: the first 250+ episodes were dubbed in Los Angeles (USA), the fist two movies and later the 18th and 19th ones in Mexico, and the rest of the TV series in Chile. Naturally, every studio switch involved changing the whole casts.
    • When the Mexican dubbing companies regained the rights to the non serial movies, which had been lost several years ago in VERY messy circumstances, almost all the Mexican VA's involved retook their roles. There were some big exceptions, however: Elsa Covián took up Conan (while Víctor Ugarte remained as Shinichi), while Arturo Cataño and Hugo Gómez took up Ninzaburo Shiratori and Genta Kojima respectively after Jesús Barrero's passing.
• Cat's Eye:
  • The 2019 City Hunter movie Shinjuku Private Eyes brought back Keiko Toda and Chika Sakamoto as Hitomi and Ai Kisugi. However, as Toshiko Fujita passed away the previous year, Toda also took over her roll as Rui Kisugi. Rika Fukami would subsequently take over as Rui in both Lupin III Vs Cat's Eye and City Hunter The Movie: Angel Dust.
  • For City Hunter itself, the English dub for Shinjuku Private Eyes has none of the English cast from the ADV dubs, instead being comprised of at-the-time newer and younger actors (for example Ryo Saeba being voiced by Stephen Fu instead of Martin Blacker). Given that the original cast has since moved on to bigger projects/other jobs, were unavailable, and, in the case of Lou Perryman, who played Umibozu in the ADV dub, died, the decision to recast the characters were necessary, though Sound Cadence Studios (who recorded the dub) did initially consider bringing back the OG cast.
• Crayon Shin-chan:
  • The first dub was started by Los Angeles-based Vitello Productions in 2001, when TV Asahi and Lacey Entertainment decided to market the series worldwide. Even though Vitello bowdlerized the series to a small degree, it was still unable to reach a TV deal in the US but found success overseas airing on Fox Kids UK (later Jetix), Fox Kids Australia and RTÉ Two in the Republic of Ireland. This version featured some California voice talent who were prominent around the time in American cartoons^note  Eric Loomis, Anndi McAfee, and Russi Taylor being among the names, with Shin-chan and his mother both voiced by Kath Soucie. Grey DeLisle most notably made her debut in the dub as Shin's friend Cosmo. 52 21-minute episodes have been produced by Vitello and at least 78 by Phuuz. Various other dubs that aired overseas ^note Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Greece, France, Italy, (Spanish) Latin America, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal used Vitello's version as the basis for their scripts.
  • In 2003, Lacey Entertainment decided to give the series another chance, and contracted Phuuz Entertainment, also based in Los Angeles, to continue where Vitello left off with Diane Michelle voicing Shin. The other characters were all recast with current LA actors. These episodes also aired on Jetix UK until Lacey's license to Shin-chan expired in 2005. Some European countries after airing a translation of the Phuuz dub also aired a translation of the Phuuz dub.
  • In 2006, Funimation would license the title and their more adult-oriented dub that was completely different from the Japanese original was shown on Adult Swim, with Laura Bailey now providing the title character's voice and the rest of the cast coming from their talent pool. This covered 78 episodes and three "seasons" of material.
  • In 2015, a fourth English dub has been produced in Hong Kong commissioned by LUK Internacional, the company that commissioned the Spanish and Portuguese dubs of Shin Chan and produced the Doraemon dub that aired on Boomerang UK (different from the dub that aired in the U.S. on Disney XD). The dub was released in the European and South African Nintendo 3DS eShop on December 22, 2016, consisting of 14 episodes.
  • In the Malay dub of the cartoon, the titular character is played by an actor who voices him with a deep voice (much like the original Japanese actor). In the dub of the movie "The Storm Called: The Battle of the Warring States" he is instead played by an actor who voices him with a higher-pitched voice.
  • While the first part of the Italian dub, as mentioned above, used the Vitello dub for its scripts, later they changed to a translation of LUK Internacional's Spanish dub, which is close to the original Japanese version, in order to go further. When this happened, the voices of Shin and his parents were replaced, while everyone else kept their voices.
  • When Crayon Shin-Chan Spinoff was dubbed in 2022, a brand new Miami-based voice cast was used, although they appear to be using the Funimation voice cast as a reference (Christina Jopling's Shin is a very close voice-match for Laura Bailey).
• Cyborg 009:
  • Only the actors of 002, 004, 005, 007, and Dr. Gilmore were carried over from the first two '60s films to the '68 TV series. Even then, 004's actor changed mid-run from Hiroshi Otake to Kenji Utsumi (who had previously voiced 008 in the films), likely due to the character's very sporadic role. The '79 TV series brought in a new cast to voice the characters, although Keiichi Noda had previous experience with the franchise (having voiced 008 in the '68 series, but now cast as 002).
  • "The Legend of the Super Galaxy" carried over the cast from the '79 series due to a fan popularity vote, save for the voice actors for Dr. Gilmore, 008, and 001. While Gilmore was voiced by Kosei Tomita in the TV series, his original voice actor Joji Yanami was brought back specifically to voice him in the film. 001 followed a similar theme, being voiced by Sachiko Chijimatsu in the series but his film voice actor being Fuyumi Shiraishi, reprising her role from the '68 series. Meanwhile, 008 was voiced by Koji Totani in the series, but Kazuyuki Sogabe in the film. The reason behind that casting remains unknown.
  • When it comes to the English dub of the 2001 series (recorded in Los Angeles by Animaze), Joshua Seth voiced 009 in all episodes save for 5 and 9 where Derek Stephen Prince filled in for the role, making for a very noticeable difference in the character's voice. This was actually due to Seth retiring from voice acting altogether and being replaced. After Prince was given the role and recorded about a dozen episodes, the higher-ups at Sony decided that his voice sounded "too wimpy", and that they wanted Seth back. The ADR director was able to convince Seth to briefly come out of retirement to finish the show, and so he did. They attempted to re-record all of Prince's episodes, but 5 and 9 were ones they simply couldn't get to.
    • When it came time to dub the 009 RE: Cyborg film (recorded in both New York and LA by NYAV Post), none of the 2001 anime cast cast returned, except for Michael Sorich, although he's now playing 006 instead of 007.
    • Cyborg 009 vs. Devilman had almost no returning voice actors in any language. However the English dub (recorded in LA by Spliced Bread Productions) had Michael Sorich reprising 006 from 009 RE:Cyborg; Stephanie Sheh also returned from that film, although now voicing 003 instead of 001.
    • Cyborg 009: Call of Justice also had a brand new voice cast acoss all languages, despite the English dub once again recorded in LA (this time at Bang Zoom).
    • The first Cyborg 009 property to be dubbed in English was Cyborg 009 The Movie: Legend of the Super Galaxy, recorded at the Tokyo-based Frontier Enterprises around 1987, with another completely different voice cast.
  • Before the '60s animated films were produced, Asahi Sonorama produced a vinyl record with a voice drama that contained a very early, different theme song and a different voice cast (although only 009, 003, 007, and 006 spoke). Sachiko Chijimatsu voiced 009, in a much more higher, androgynous and youthful voice than what the character would come to be associated with in the films and on.
  • In Latin-America there are Spanish dubs for the 60's film Monster Wars, the 2001 series, the RE: Cyborg film and the Call of Justice film trilogy. Each dub has completely different casts. i.e, 009 has been voiced by Manuel de Llata (Monster Wars), Irwin Daayán (2001), Uraz Huerta (RE: Cyborg) and Carlo Vásquez (Call of Justice)
• Danganronpa:
  • Nobuyo Oyama originally played the role of the Big Bad Monokuma. However, Oyama had to retire from voice acting due to suffering dementia, so her fellow VA Tarako Isoyama (better known just as TARAKO) took her place in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School and Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.
  • In FUNimation's dub of Danganronpa: The Animation, they replaced all the game's voice actors except for Bryce Papenbrook (who had worked with FUNimation before, on Attack on Titan one year earlier) as Makoto Naegi. These actors are kept in their dub of Danganronpa 3, though many of the original actors show up as other characters.
• Dear Brother: Yuko Mizutani played Nanako in the pilot episode. However, in the proper series she's voiced by Hiroko Kasahara instead.
• Death Note:
  • Masumi Okamura originally voiced Kiyomi Takada in her earlier appearances (in the L arc), but was let go for unexplained reasons. Maaya Sakamoto provided the character's voice for the rest of the series. This was averted in the dub, with Heather Doerksen voicing the character for the entire run (although Lisa Ann Beley voiced her in the film adaptation's dub).
  • Kelly Metzger voiced Sayu in the earlier episodes in the English dub, but was replaced with Kristie Marsden in Sayu's later appearances (and in the dubbing of the live-action films).
  • The dub of the live-action Death Note films attempted to retain the same voice cast as the anime, but a few changes cropped up:
    • Watari: French Tickner —> Ron Halder
    • Naomi Misora: Tabitha St. Germain —> Nicole Oliver
    • Rem: Colleen Wheeler —> Michael Dobson (due to Rem being male in that adaptation)
  • An early test dub trailer by Viz (before they decided to have the dub produced in Canada by Ocean) was done in California, and featured L and Light with completely different, unknown voice actors. When the dub officially premiered, a redubbed version of the trailer was produced to promote it, with Alessandro Juliani and Brad Swaile voicing the characters.
  • The TV drama, uses a completely different cast, even for the Shinigami; Ryuk is voiced by Jun Fukuyama instead of his original voice actor, Shido Nakamura.
• D.Gray-Man had this happen. The original series ran from 2006-2008, before being cancelled at 103 episodes. However, a continuation started up in 2016, 8 years after the previous series ended. All of the Japanese voice cast has changed, to the disappointment of Western fandom.
  • Averted with the English cast, where everyone returns... except Travis Willingham, who was replaced by Ian Sinclair as Yu Kanda for both this season, and the second half of the original series.
  • Also, during the recording of the original season, Jason Liebrecht was in a bad motorcycle accident that left him unable to work, so Chris Patton filled in his role of Lavi during episodes 27-39, while Todd Haberkorn (Allen's voice) took over as the Millenium Earl in the same period.
• Di Gi Charat:
  • For the franchise's tenth anniversary in 2008, Broccoli, Inc. decided to recast Dejiko, Usada, and Puchiko. Dejiko went from Asami Sanada to Satomi Akesaka, Usada from Kyoko Hikami to Rieka Yazawa, and Puchiko from Miyuki Sawashiro to Nao Minakami. The recast proved to be unpopular, and the fifteenth anniversary in 2013 saw Broccoli revert to using the original actresses and retconning the tenth anniversary redesigns as imposter versions of the characters in a comic.
  • The many different anime series for the franchise were licensed by several different companies in the US- the original anime series and Leave It To Piyoko-pyo! by Synch-Point (Sentai Filmworks now licenses the former following Synch-Point's closure), Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat by ADV Films, and Di Gi Charat Nyo! by Bandai Entertainment. As their dubs were not recorded in the same area (the Synch-Point dub in Los Angeles, the ADV dub in Houston, and the Bandai dub in Vancouver), the characters had different voices depending on where it was recorded (while Sentai Filmworks licensed the TV specials following the original anime and Winter Garden, their releases are sub-only):
    • Dejiko was voiced by Jessica Gee-George in the Synch-Point dubs, Luci Christian in Panyo Panyo, and Chris Simms in Nyo!.
    • Usada was voiced by Michelle Ruff in the Synch-Point dubs and Carol-Anne Day in Nyo!.
    • Puchiko was voiced by Karen Strassman in the Synch-Point dub of the original series, her Japanese voice actress Miyuki Sawashiro played her in the first six episodes of Leave It To Piyoko!'s English dub, though Karen Strassman played her for the last two episodes due to scheduling conflicts, Hilary Haag in Panyo Panyo, and Mariette Sluyter in Nyo!.
    • Gema was voiced by Stephanie Sheh in the Synch-Point dubs, Tiffany Grant in Panyo Panyo, and Lucas Gilbertson in Nyo!.
    • Piyoko was voiced by Sandy Fox in the Synch-Point dub and Kira Vincent-Davis in the Panyo Panyo dub, and Leda Davis in Nyo.
• Dirty Pair had this happen when the movies were (re-)dubbed years after the OVA series. Jessica Calvello had left Texas and wasn't available to reprise her role of Yuri, so Alison Sumrall took her place. However, Pamela Lauer was able to return as Kei. Of course the movies' original dubs had a different voice cast, and so did Dirty Pair Flash (in both languages). Calvello returned to voice Yuri when the original TV series was finally dubbed in 2022, while Lauer also returned to voice Kei.
• Doraemon:
  • In 2005, the entire voice cast was replaced by younger actors. The main cast had played their characters for 25 years.
  • The initial Nippon TV version of Doraemon, aired in 1973, had a completely different cast of its own where compared to the more popular 1979-2005 series. Doraemon himself went through two actors in the short-lived adaptation (Kosei Tomita, then Masako Nozawa), while the voice actress for Nobita's mom (Noriko Ohara) would go on to voice Nobita himself in the 1979 series.
• Duel Masters: Every dubbed season replaced the entire voice cast, apart from one or two returning actors. Being the kind of show that it was, later seasons made jokes about this.
• Durarara!!:
  • The English dub featured two characters from Baccano! make a cameo appearance in episode 11 of the first season. The characters were Isaac Dian and Miria Harvent, who were both voiced by Sam Riegel and Jennie Kwan instead of J. Michael Tatum and Caitlin Glass. This was because Baccano was dubbed in Funimation, located in Dallas, whereas Durarara was dubbed in Bang Zoom! Entertainment, located in Los Angeles^note Oddly enough, Glass did some of the ADR Script for the anime's second season (and both she and also Tatum have worked in LA-based dubs after Durarara).
  • Averted in the second season's English dub, three characters got recast.
    • Ran Izumii, Doug Erholtz was replaced by Robbie Daymond.
    • Kasuka Heiwajima/Yuhei Hanejima, Blake Lewis was replaced by Vic Mignogna.
    • Mika Harima, Carrie Savage was replaced by Kira Buckland.

E to H

• Elfen Lied:
  • The OVA had a few key changes in the English cast since it wasn't dubbed until the series was released on Blu-ray in 2013.
  • Lucy/Nyu, previously played by Kira Vincent-Davis, is now played by Carli Mosier.
  • Bando, previously played by Jason Douglas, is now played by David Wald. Justified since Douglas now lives in Dallas, plus the fact that he spends a good portion of his acting on Live-Action TV series shot in Dallas.
  • Kouta, previously played by Adam Conlon, is now played by Blake Shepard.
• Eureka Seven: Due to Bob Papenbrook's death from chronic lung complications, his role as Ken-Goh was replaced by Kyle Hebert for the rest of the series.
• Excel♡Saga:
  • In the American dub, after Jessica Calvello strained her voice doing Excel for the first 13 episodes, Larissa Wolcott took over the role for the rest of the series.
  • Interestingly, Wolcott even re-dubbed bits during the Pedro flashback episode so that her voice was heard instead of Calvello's. This is good for consistency, but it meant there were two different voices for the same scene.
  • There were apparently some contract issues as well, as Jessica's contracted stated that she was allowed a four-month rest between volumes. When ADV Films didn't follow up on this, Jessica's contract was terminated, her voice was left strained and her career was put on hold. She was also replaced (this time with Allison Sumrall) as Yuri in the Dirty Pair franchise, and lived in New York for about a decade doing some voice work, but her career was arguably not nearly where it used to be. She's now healed her wounds with ADV, and is now living in Austin and providing voices for Funimation and Sentai Filmworks since 2013.
• Fairy Tail:
  • The English dub had to replace several characters' voices after Season 1 and beyond, since no-one was certain that Funimation would continue dubbing it beyond Season 1 at that time. It keeps getting more complicated when even minor roles do return several arcs later, even for one line.
  • Corey Cleary-Stoner replaced Michael Chinnici as Jet starting at Season 2.
  • Lindsay Seidel replaced Kayla Carlyle as Romeo only halfway through Season 1.
  • Also in the dub, Magic Council member Leiji went from Jim Johnson to Keith Kubal when the new council is formed in episode 96.
  • Plue was voiced by Majken Bullard in Season 1 before being replaced by Monica Rial for the rest of the series (she is also Mirajane), because Majken moved.
  • And now, Eric Cherry has replaced Shelton Windham as Max Alors in Season 3.
  • Goldmine was originally voiced by Steve Summers before being replaced with Chris Ryan in episode 157.
  • Lyra's voice actress moved after Season 1, so expect her actress to be a different one after the Tenrou Island arc ended in the dub. Also the narrator died, so expect that voice to change too. Also, Bixlow's voice change because his voice actor was arrested for child pornography.
  • In Japanese, Mai Nakahara, Juvia's actress, briefly replaced Satomi Arai as Bisca during the Fighting Festival arc due to the latter's pregnancy, with Arai returning to the role soon after.
• Fate Series:
  • With Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works], the only English voice actors to reprise their roles from the original Fate/stay night series and movie were Mela Lee (Rin), Stephanie Sheh (Illya), Julie Ann Taylor (Taiga), and Tony Oliver (Lancer), who also took over as voice director. For everyone else, Bang Zoom! Entertainment, and Oliver, chose to completely re-evaluate the cast, and the following replacements happened:
    • Saber: Kate Higgins —> Kari Wahlgren
    • Shiro: Sam Riegel —> Bryce Papenbrook
    • Archer: Liam O'Brien —> Kaiji Tang
    • Gilgamesh: Grant George —> David Vincent
    • Kiritsugu Emiya: Kirk Thornton —> Matthew Mercer
    • Kirei Kotomine: Jamieson Price —> Crispin Freeman
    • Sakura: Sherry Lynn —> Cristina Vee
    • Caster: Tara Platt —> Megan Hollingshead
    • Shinji Matou: Doug Erholtz —> Kyle McCarley
    • Assassin: David Vincent —> Todd Haberkorn
    • Tokiomi Tohsaka: Michael McConnohie —> Marc Diraison
    • Rider: Karen Strassman —> Melissa Fahn
    • Soichiro Kuzuki: Patrick Seitz —> Lex Lang
    • Ayako Mitsuzuri: Jennie Kwan —> Brina Palencia
    • Issei Ryudo: Lex Lang —> Robbie Daymond
    • In addition, Saber had already been replaced for the UBW movie with Michelle Ruff, who was replaced by Wahlgren for the new anime. This results in an interesting case of The Other Darrin and Role Reprise when Ruff returned to voice Saber's cameos in Fate/Apocrypha over Wahlgren.
  • The Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA spinoff series is dubbed by Seraphim Digital Studios instead of Bang Zoom, and every returning character has a different voice actor:
    • Illyasviel von Einzbern: Cynthia Martinez (instead of Stephanie Sheh)
    • Rin Tohsaka: Carli Mosier (instead of Mela Lee)
    • Luviagelita Edelfelt: Shelley Calene-Black (instead of Lauren Landa)
    • Sella: Beth Lazarou and later Tiffany Grant (instead of Rachael Lillis)
    • Leysritt: Meaghan Avacado (instead of Brianna Knickerbocker)
    • Shiro: Patrick Poole (instead of Bryce Papenbrook)
    • Taiga Fujimura: Allison Sumrall (instead of Julie Ann Taylor)
    • Irisviel von Einzbern: Maggie Flecknoe (instead of Bridget Hoffman)
    • Waver Velvet/Lord El-Melloi II: Leraldo Anzaldua (instead of Lucien Dodge)
    • Saber: Elise Moore (instead of Kari Wahlgren). Her fourth North American voice actress.
    • Berserker: John Swasey (instead of Michael McConnohie from the original Fate/stay night)
    • Caster: Allison Sumrall (instead of Megan Hollingshead)
    • Kiritsugu Emiya: Kyle Colby Jones (instead of Matthew Mercer)
• Free!: Rin Matsuoka is voiced by Austin Tindle in Funimation's dub of the 2020 movie, as Vic Mignogna was fired in early 2019.
• Fruits Basket: When it was rebooted in 2019, the entire Japanese voice cast was replaced (for instance, Yui Horie was replaced with Manaka Iwami as Tohru) because Natsuki Takaya wanted a complete reboot without any trace of the 2001 anime adaptation, which had a lot of behind-the-scenes drama involving Takaya and that show's director, Akitaro Daichi. However, she didn't exude such control over the English dub, which mostly brings back the original anime's English cast, including Laura Bailey as Tohru, Jerry Jewell as Kyo, Eric Vale as Yuki, and John Burgmeier as Shigure, but the following replacements have happened:
  • Akito Soma: Chad Cline —> Colleen Clinkenbeard
  • Kagura Soma: Meredith McCoy —> Tia Ballard
  • Momiji Soma: Kimberly Grant —> Mikaela Krantz
  • Arisa Uotoni: Parisa Fakhri —> Elizabeth Maxwell
  • Saki Hanajima: Daphne Gere —> Jad Saxton
  • Kyoko Honda: Julie Mayfield —> Lydia Mackay
• Fullmetal Alchemist
  • The second anime gets this in force, as the only main cast members of the Japanese version reprising their roles from the first series are Romi Park (Edward), Rie Kugimiya (Alphonse), Kenji Utsumi (Armstrong), Keiji Fujiwara (Hughes), Hidekatsu Shibata (Bradley), Shoko Tsuda (Izumi), Miyoko Aso (Pinako), Yoshino Takamori (Trisha), Shin Aomori (Basque Grand), Kazuki Yao (Yoki) and Seiji Sasaki (Sig). Some of the new arrivals include Shin-ichiro Miki as Mustang, Fumiko Orikasa as Hawkeye, Megumi Takamoto as Winry, Kikuko Inoue as Lust, Minami Takayama as Envy, and Kenta Miyake as Scar.
  • Somewhat ironically, the English cast is not nearly as affected. But changes still happened with Al (Aaron Dismuke to Maxey Whitehead, justified since Aaron went through puberty), Scar (Dameon Clarke to J. Michael Tatum), Marcoh (Brice Armstrong to Jerry Russell), Hohenheim (Scott McNeil to John Swasey), and Breda (Josh Berry to Jeremy Inman). Note that the now teenage Aaron still got a role — young Hohenheim.
  • Chris Patton returned to reprise his role as Greed in the first half of the dub. For the second half, he was replaced by Troy Baker. It's kind of justified, considering it happens when Greed gets a new body, and they still use Patton's voice for flashbacks of his original body, even though in Japanese, Greed was portrayed by Yūichi Nakamura for the whole series.
  • In the Hungarian version of the original anime, both King Bradley and Envy had their voices changed — Bradley's new actor became Rókus Varga after the dubbing team realized that his original voice, András Faragó, was more fit to play the role of Alex Louis Armstrong; and Envy swapped Erika Lázár for a male voice, namely Gábor Seder. Much of the same cast continued to voice their roles in the second series, some of the notable exceptions being Hawkeye (from Bea Nyírő to Andrea Makay), Barry the Chopper and Trisha Elric (from Eszter Nyírő to Mónika Fehér). Characters that have changed voices within the series include young Hohenheim (Károly Moser to Attila Király, Hohenheim's adult voice), the ruler of Xerxes, Bido, and for the last episode, which got dubbed a bit later than the rest of the series, Maria Ross and the real Selim Bradley also received new voices.
  • In the Latin-American Spanish side, almost all the original VA's reprised their roles. The execptions were: Riza (Giannina Jurado -> Rocío Mallo), Winry (Yensi Rivero -> Melanie Henríquez), Izumi (Minerva Hernández -> Citllaly Godoy), Nina (Lidia Abbout -> Leisha Medina), Selim (Mercedes Prato -> Karina Parra), Hohenheim (Carmelo Fernández -> Héctor Indriago), Falman (Antonio Delli -> Jesús Fernández), Fuery (Ezequiel Serano -> Paolo Campos) and Denny (Kaihiamal Martínez -> Emerson Gutiérrez)
  • The Brazilian dub for Brotherhood kept most of the voices of the previous series, save for Scar, Barry, Breda, Bido, Selim, Hohenheim (whose previous VA was given to Knox) and Pinako's (who had passed away in 2007). In a weird twist, Trisha and Tucker's actors got replaced midway through the 2003 series, but when the Brotherhood dub came around, their first voice actors were called to reprise their roles.
• Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid: Averted. While ADV had handled the first season and Fumoffu, FUNimation took over for Second Raid. They initially suggested that Hilary Haag would NOT be reprising her role of Tessa, since her day job kept her from driving to Dallas-Ft. Worth for recording. However, Kadokawa USA stepped in and outsourced the entire localized production to ADV in Houston (even the translation/subtitles), and the entire cast (including Haag) was able to return after all. FUNimation just acted as distributor.
• Future GPX Cyber Formula: Tatsuya Matsuda has been the voice actor of Ryohei Sumi in the TV series, 11 and ZERO. In SAGA, he was replaced by Naoki Tatsuta, who also voiced Bootsvortz.
• Gegege No Kitaro: The show had 4 different voice actresses playing the main character over the course of 5 TV series. The movie Japan Explodes, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the anime, opened with a unique scene which brought together all incarnations of Kitaro (and his co-stars) with each of them voiced by the original voice actress.
• Genshiken:
  • The English cast stayed remarkably consistent considering that each batch of episodes (1st season, 3 OVA episodes, 2nd season) was separated by a two-year gap in recording. The only major replacement was Sasahara's sister Keiko – played by Jessica Calvello in the first season but by Anna Morrow later.
  • Genshiken's Show Within a Show, Kujibiki Unbalance, did a complete replacement of its Japanese cast when the in-show OVA was made into a full series, with only Yūko Gotō reprising her role. Oddly, the English dub retained nearly all of its cast between incarnations, with Jessica Calvello's President being the only significant change (to Anna Morrow).
• Getter Robo: Akira Kamiya voiced Ryoma Nagare for decades. When the Armaggedon OAV's came, Hideo Ishikawa replaced him and tried to give his own spin to the role due to the Darker and Edgier settlement.
• Ghost in the Shell:
  • For the English dub, Motoko Kusanagi was voiced by Mimi Woods in the original movie, but by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn for everything else, due to Woods moving away from Los Angeles. In addition, Togusa was played by an actor under the name "Christopher Joyce" in the first movie and Crispin Freeman in everything else.
  • Bandai Entertainment decided to send the compilation OVA's – "Laughing Man" and "Individual Eleven" – to The Ocean Group in Vancouver (because Animaze had gotten far too expensive), so the entire voice cast is different, despite being basically the same animation.
  • In both English and Japanese, the entire voice cast was replaced for Ghost in the Shell: Arise, the official explanation being that the characters are younger. Atsuko Tanaka was replaced with Maaya Sakamoto as the Major in Japanese (Sakamoto had previously voiced her in a child's body in the original film). In English, FUNimation got Arise and cast Elizabeth Maxwell as the Major, while McGlynn returned to voice Kurutsu instead. Christopher Sabat took over Richard Epcar's role as Batou while Alex Organ was now Togusa.
• Gintama: The movie was dubbed by Sentai Filmworks in 2011 with a Houston-based cast starring Chris Patton as Gintoki. Six years later, Crunchyroll and The Ocean Group began dubbing the TV series with episode 266 and a Vancouver-based cast starring Michael Daingerfield as Gintoki.
• GTO: The Early Years: Takumi Yamazaki voiced Tsuyoshi Tsukai for the first two episodes, but was replaced for some reason by Toshiyuki Morikawa in the fourth. Morikawa also voiced the villain of the fifth and final episode, Kunito Nakajo.
• Gunslinger Girl Teatrino: When this came out four years after the original anime, everyone got a new voice in Japan. The English dub opted for Role Reprises.
• Haruhi Suzumiya: Shamisen, the cat briefly given the ability to speak, was voiced by Steve Kramer in the English dub of Season 1, and Michael McConnohie in the more expanded appearance in Season 2.
• Hellsing Ultimate:
  • In the Japanese version, Norio Wakamoto replaced the deceased Nachi Nozawa as Alexander Anderson.
  • The only notable recast in the English dub is Zorin Blitz, who was voiced by Hellena Taylor in episode 4 and by Rachel Robinson in episodes 5-7 following a gap in dubbing and Taylor having moved back to the UK. Ironically, it's Robinson's take that's become the more well-known one, and it's a big part of what put her on the map in the anime dubbing scene.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers had a few changes in its cast:
  • Chibiromano was initially voiced by Daisuke Namikawa, but was later voiced by Aki Kanada when he got more focus. The FUNimation dub follows along this pattern, with Chibi-Romano first being voiced by Ian Sinclair and later by Colleen Clinkenbeard (although unlike Kanada, Clinkenbeard doesn't voice Chibitalia).
  • Latvia was initially voiced by Rie Kugimiya in his first drama CD appearance, but the role was given to Kokoro Tanaka for the anime and later character CDs.
  • In the Funimation English dub, Poland was first voiced by an actor named Ryan Bijan. Joel McDonald took over the role for World Series, the movie and beyond.
  • Due to Cassandra Hodges's untimely death via suicide, the role of Seychelles was recast for the dub of Hetalia: The Beautiful World, with Caitlin Glass taking over.
  • Although the child version of Austria was initially voiced by Aki Kanada, he was later voiced by Akira Sasanuma (the actor of adult Austria) in Hetalia: World Series for unexplained reasons. The dub averts this by having Chuck Huber always voicing Austria at both ages.
  • Jeanne d'Arc was originally voiced by Michiko Neya in her cameo in an early episode, while her Beautiful World voice actress is Hekiru Shiina. Averted in the dub, where both Jeanne d'Arc and Lisa were both voiced by Dana Schultes; this was lampshaded in a commentary for season five.
  • The revolutionary-war era incarnation of England was voiced by a different actor (Sho Sudo) in the early commercial Hetalia drama CDs, while young America was voiced by Ryoko Shimizu. In the anime, Noriaki Sugiyama voices all versions of England, while young America was recast with Ai Iwamura.
  • Before the official drama CD releases, Himaruya had produced an independent CD with his own hand-picked amateur voice actors (from a group called "Code for the Flower of Iris"). Needless to say, none of these actors made it past this version.
  • Denmark's dub voice actor switched from Montgomery Sutton to Greg Ayres by the time of Beautiful World due to the delay in production.
  • After Scott Freeman was arrested and convicted for possession of child pornography, all his roles were given to other actors. In the case of England, Taliesin Jaffe was cast as his replacement for The World Twinkle.
• High School D×D: The English simuldub of season 3 recast Issei (Scott Freeman to Josh Grelle) and Akeno (Teri Rogers to Bryn Apprill^note Under the pseudonym of Kelly Angel). A lot of fans blamed the rushed schedule of simuldubbing for the change, but FUNimation confirmed that time was not the reason for the changes. It was later revealed that Freeman was convicted of possessing child pornography, and thus FUNimation had to sever ties with him. Rogers' absence remains unexplained.
• Himitsu no Akko-chan: Voice actress Noriko Tsukase (Gammo) died of cancer during the filming of the second series in 1988. She had to be replaced by Yuuko Mita.
• Honey and Clover: Takemoto was voiced by Kenji Nojima in the final episode of the second season of the Japanese version because the original voice actor, Hiroshi Kamiya, was hospitalized, Kamiya re-recorded the episode for the DVD version.
• Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere had a few changes in the English cast in season 2:
  • Tenzou, previously played by John Gremillion, is now played by Mike Yager
  • Naito Margot, previously played by Kris Carr, is now played by Allison Sumrall
  • Noriki, previously played by John Gremillion, is now played by David Matranga
  • Innocentius, previously played by John Swasey, is now also played by David Matranga
  • Azuma, previously played by Jennifer Alyx, is now played by Molly Searcy
• Hunter × Hunter: all voice actors who worked on the 1999 series got recast for the 2011 series, in both English and Japanese.
• Hyperdimension Neptunia the Animation: When Funimation picked up the rights to dub the series, they also agreed to bring back the cast from the games, as the games the anime was based on were recorded at Bang Zoom! Entertainment in Los Angeles while FUNimation is Texas-based. However, a few of the game's cast were replaced with FUNimation's regulars.
  • IF: Kate Higgins —> Megan Shipman
  • Peashy: Sandy Fox —> Tia Ballard
  • CFW Trick: Derek Stephen Prince —> Josh Grelle
  • Rei Ryghts: Julie Ann Taylor —> Morgan Garrett
  • 5pb.: Julie Ann Taylor ^note  Who herself replaced Mela Lee from the first game. —> Caitlin Glass
  • Warechu: G.K. Bowes —> Sara Ragsdale
  • Linda: Unknown ^note  While some sources state that Erica Mendez voiced her in mk2/Re;Birth2, all of them have been debunked by the actress —> Morgan Berry

I to L

• Ikki Tousen:
  • The show had an inconsistent English cast. The first season was dubbed by Geneon and Los Angeles-based New Generation Pictures. The second season was licensed by Media Blasters who opted to use a different studio (New York-based Headline Studios) with an entirely different cast. Seasons 3 and 4 were later licensed by FUNimation, who got New Generation Pictures back to handle the dubbing, which mostly brought back the Season 1 cast, however recording was also done in New York's DuArt Film and Video to reunite the Season 2 voice actors for most characters that debuted in that season (such as Chou'un). A few characters also got entirely new voice actors (notably Kanu) where NEITHER of their original voice actors could return.
  • Likewise, a few Japanese voice actors ended up changed as well in between Seasons 1 and 2 such as Genpou, Genjou, Bunwa, Kanu, Yojo, Ganryo, and Bunshu.
• Initial D:
  • Miki was voiced by Wataru Takagi (who is also the voice of Kenji) in First Stage, but was replaced by Takumi Yamazaki in Third Stage. Yamazaki would return as Miki in Arcade Stage 8 Infinity.
  • There was a dub cast change for Third and Fourth Stage after FUNimation acquired the rights from Tokyopop (including Joel McDonald, Brina Palencia, and J. Michael Tatum), and they also redubbed the seasons Tokyopop did the "tricked out" dub on.
  • For the rebooted Initial D movie trilogy, the entire Japanese cast was replaced with younger voice actors. Sentai Filmworks licensed the three films in North America, and mostly brought back FUNimation's English cast, but the following replacements happened:
    • Bunta Fujiwara: Kent Williams -> Bill Wise
    • Takeshi Nakazato: Chris Burnett -> Brian Mountbatten
    • Keisuke Takahashi: Todd Haberkorn -> Gray G. Haddock
    • Mako Sato: Colleen Clinkenbeard -> Amber Marie Flores
    • Yuichi Tachibana: Chuck Huber -> Charlie Campbell
    • Kenta Nakamura: Greg Ayres -> Jeff Collins
    • Hiroshi Fumihiro: Chris Cason -> Michael Federico
    • Shingo Shoji: Vic Mignogna -> Christopher Wehkamp
• Inuyasha:
  • The Viz/Ocean Studios dub has the following:
    • Sota Higurashi/Eri: Saffron Henderson —> Rebecca Shoichet
    • Kohaku: Alex Doduk —> Danny McKinnon
  • and their dub of Inuyasha: The Final Act has:
    • Kagome Higurashi: Moneca Stori —> Kira Tozer
    • Sesshomaru: David Kaye —> Michael Daingerfield
    • Kaede: Pam Hyatt —> Linda Darlow
    • Kohaku: Danny McKinnon —> Aiden Drummond
  • The reasons for these recasts vary. Kaye confirmed early on that he declined to return as Sesshomaru because he had moved away to Los Angeles and was unwilling to commute back to Vancouver. It's unknown exactly why Kagome was recast, but it's believed that Stori had also moved away, and appears to have retired from voice acting altogether. Ocean has always cast real children to voice Kohaku, and his voice is obviously changed when the actors go through puberty.
  • Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon:
    • For the spinoff, Bang Zoom! Entertainment in Los Angeles took over ADR production from Ocean Studios, but they still managed to bring back the original Ocean cast to reprise returning characters through seperate recording in Vancouver (with Tozer still replacing Stori as Kagome). However, this scenario allowed David Kaye to return as Sesshomaru, and Kohaku was recast yet again, this time with Alan Lee taking over the role.
    • Unfortunately, due to the untimely death of Kirby Morrow, the English dub has had to recast Miroku. Interestingly enough, it's with Ian James Corlett, the original Goku from the Ocean dubs of DBZ, who was replaced by Peter Kalemis, who was then replaced by Morrow.
  • On the Japanese side, Katsumi Suzuki replaced the late Ginzo Matsuo as Kagome's grandfather.
  • It happened twice in Latin-America. First, the TV series was dubbed in Mexico but the movies were dubbed in Venezuela, meaning all the VA's were recast. Later, when Final Act was picked up, some of the VA's were replaced: Naraku (the late Luis Alfonso Padilla -> Alan René Bressant), Kana (Lupita Leal -> Diana Nolan), Tsubaki (Mónica Manjarrez -> Diana Huicochea), Jaken (Carlos Íñigo -> Alfredo Gabriel Basurto), Hakkaku (Carlos Hurtado -> Gerardo Ortega), Ginta (Gabriel Ortiz -> Román Abreo), Yuuka (Xochitl Ugarte -> Diana Huicochea).
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders: The anime's English dub has an interesting situation with Star Platinum. Because Matthew Mercer's (Jotaro's English VA) Star Platinum ORA ORA ORA voice wasn't good initially, Viz Media decided to use the ORA ORA ORA voice clip recorded by Patrick Seitz during the test dub. Eventually as the dub progresses, Mercer's version of the ORA began to improve, and thus Seitz's ORA was slowly phased out with Mercer's version. Both versions of ORA ORA ORA are still used though, with fans generally considered that if the ORA scene is more intense, they're more likely to use Seitz's version instead of Mercer's.
• Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple:
  • The English dub expirienced this when the actor for Hermit (Jason Liebrecht) was replaced with Eric Vale for Season 2 following Jason's motorcycle accident, which left him hospitalized and out of voice acting for over a year.
  • The Japanese voice actress of Miu (Tomoko Kawakami) passed away after the series ended and was replaced with Rie Kugimiya for the OVA.
  • Likewise, Yuzuru Fujimoto (Hayato) replaced the deceased Hiroshi Arikawa.
• Kimagure Orange Road: The roles of the three main characters were changed from the pilot episode to the main series. For Kyosuke, Yuu Mizushima was replaced by Tōru Furuya, Hiromi Tsuru replaced Saeko Shimazu as Madoka and Yōko Ogai was replaced by Eriko Hara for Hikaru. The Drama CD's would also bring new seiyuu: Ryō Horikawa as Kyosuke, Tomo Sakurai as Madoka, Yuka Imai as Hikaru, Yuko Miyamura as Kurumi and Emi Motoi as Manami.
• KonoSuba: As the English dub of the first season of Isekai Quartet was released after only the dub of the first season of Konosuba, Vanir was voiced by Anthony Bowling. For the dub of season 2 of Konosuba proper, Robbie Daymond was cast as Vanir.
• La Seine No Hoshi:
  • Korean dub: Simone was originally voiced by Seyeong Yujin and then by Jeyong Miyeon.
  • French dub: Danton was voiced by Jackie Berger and then by Odile Schmitt.
• Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Since voice actor Kei Tomiyama died on September 25th 1995, his role as Yang in his last appearances was replaced by Hozumi Gouda.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War:
  • Alan Lee replaces the late Billy Kametz as Wallace Bardias.
  • Rean and Altina's voice actors Sean Chiplock and Xanthe Huynh were originally announced to be reprising their roles from the games, but were recast at the last minute. There is also speculation that Valerie Arem, who voices Aurelia Le Guin in the games, was also replaced.
• Little Lulu: The title character was voiced by Eiko Masuyama in the anime's first three episodes, and by Minori Matsushima from the fourth episode on.
• Love Live!: Tomori Kusunoki, the voice of Setsuna Yuki from the Nijigasaki High School Idol Club unit since 2017, retired from the role in 2023 following a diagnosis of hypermobile Ehler-Danlos syndrome, a genetic disorder that prevents her from continuing live stage performances due to chronic joint pain. The role was succeeded by Coco Hayashi, who began voicing the character in Love Live! School idol festival 2 MIRACLE LIVE!.
• Yasuo Yamada, most recognizable as the voice of Lupin III, died of a brain hemorrhage in 1995, a month before the release of Farewell to Nostradamus, the movie that would mark the series' return to the big screen in ten years. Fortunately, his will stated that, if he were to pass away, the baton should be passed to Kanichi Kurita (a popular comedian and impersonator), who voices Lupin from that movie onwards. In honor of Yamada, a message was placed at the end of the film's credits: "To Yasuo Yamada, Eternal Lupin the Third: Thank you!".

M to P

• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha: When the show was spun off from Triangle Heart 3: Sweet Songs Forever and was turned into an anime, nearly every character received a new seiyuu, with Kyouya Takamachi (Hikaru Midorikawa), the main character of Triangle Heart 3, and Shirou Takamachi (Kazuya Ichijō) being the only characters to retain their original voice actors.
  • Nanoha Takamachi: Hitomi —> Yukari Tamura
  • Shinobu Tsukimura: Yukiko Iwai —> Miyu Matsuki
  • Momoko Takamachi: Aki Fujisawa —> Erica Amano
  • Miyuki Takamachi: Satomi Kodama —> Ryouko Shiraishi
• Maison Ikkoku: After the English dub stopped production after Ep. 36 in 1998 and came out of hiatus in 2004, many main voices were changed for the remaining 60 episodes:
  • Yusaku Godai: Jason Gray-Stanford -> Brad Swaile
  • Hanae Ichinose: Daphne Goldrick -> Kathy Morse
  • Yotsuya Ichinose: Gerard Plunkett -> Ron Halder
  • Kentaro Ichinose: Saffron Henderson -> Sharon Alexander
  • Kozue Nanao: Rochelle Greenwood -> Anna Cummer
  • Ikuko Otonashi: Andrea Libman -> Nicole Bouma
  • Ritsuko Chigusa: Kathleen Barr -> Patricia Drake
  • Mr. Ichinose: Campbell Lane -> Robert O. Smith
  • Notably the only regular voice actors that DID return were Ellen Kennedy (Kyoko Otonashi), Janyse Jaud (Akemi Roppangi), and John Payne (Shun Mitaka).
  • The Italian dub also initially stopped production after episode 52, and the rest of the series was dubbed a few years later with another cast. Unlike the English dub, none of the old voice actors returned in their roles.
• Mazinkaiser: When the original version was released (the first major Mazinger-based anime in nearly 30 years), the only two original voices from the Mazinger trilogy was Hiroya Ishimaru (Kouji Kabuto) and Haruko Kitahama (Baron Ashura's female half). When Shin Mazinger was made, the two were replaced with Kenji Akabane and Kaori Yamagata respectively
• Negima!:
  • This happened to quite a few characters in the English dub of the anime between Seasons 1 and 2 following a two-year gap in dubbing:
    • Setsuna Sakurazaki: Dana Schultes -> Cherami Leigh
    • Nagi Springfield: Troy Baker -> J. Michael Tatum
    • Akira Okouchi: Jenny Phagan -> Cherami Leigh
    • Satomi Hakase: Jayme Westman -> Carrie Savage
    • Anya Cocolova: Kate Bristol -> Brittney Karbowski (despite Kate still voicing Sayo)
    • Madoka Kugimiya: Susan Huber -> Mary Morgan
    • Dean Konoemon Konoe: Randy Tallman -> R. Bruce Elliott (because Randy passed away)
  • From the first Negima! Magister Negi Magi anime, Negima!? (second season), and all the way till the third episode of the OVA series, Hazuki Tanaka was the voice for Ku Fei in Japanese. When the fourth OVA was distributed, she was replaced by the more popular Kana Asumi. Similarly, Chao's original actress Chiaki Oosawa was replaced by Megumi Takamoto around the same time.
• Neon Genesis Evangelion
  • Through the various movies, recuts, and compilations that have been made in the last 15 years, several of the English cast have changed. For example, Gendo has had two separate VAs, Touji has had three, and Kaworu has had a different voice actor for the series, movies, and director's cut. It's become something of an in-joke in Eva fandom that the cast has a habit of vanishing off the face of the earth.
  • In the Rebuild movies, only Shinji's, Asuka's, and Misato's voice actors^note  Spike Spencer, Tiffany Grant, and Allison Keith, respectively reprised their roles (though Gendo's voice actor from the Director's Cut episodes also reprised his role).
  • One that really irked some fans was the English dub of Rebuild replacing Amanda Winn-Lee with Brina Palencia as Rei. The official reason was Lee taking time off to look after her ailing son, and years later, she did indeed confirm that she didn't think it was worth her while to travel back to Texas, and wanted to move on from the franchise anyway (she also co-directed the original TV series and movie dubs).
  • Maya is probably the worst. She's had a different VA in every installment of the series (Series, End of Eva, Directors cut, and Rebuild). While all of them fit her character, most of them sound totally different from one another.
  • None of the English actors of the TV series and Rebuild films reprised their roles for the 2019 Netflix release, due to the dub being recorded at VSI Group instead of ADV Films, which had filed for bankruptcy 10 years prior.
    • Shinji: Spike Spencer —> Casey Mongillo
    • Rei: Amanda Winn-Lee —> Ryan Bartley; the former having retired from voice acting at the time.
    • Asuka: Tiffany Grant —> Stephanie McKeon
    • Misato: Allison Keith —> Carrie Keranen
    • Gendo: Tristan MacAvery ^note  John Swasey in the Director's Cut —> Ray Chase
    • Kōzō: Guil Lunde —> JP Karliak
    • Ritsuko: Sue Ulu —> Erica Lindbeck
    • Ryōji: Aaron Krohn —> Greg Chun
    • Kaworu: Kyle Sturdivant ^note  Greg Ayres in the Director's Cut —> Clifford Chapin
    • Pen Pen: Amanda Winn-Lee ^note  Mandy Clark in the Director's Cut —> Cherami Leigh
  • Only Shinji (Victor Ugarte) and Gendo (Humberto Solorzano) kept their original voice actors from the first Latin American dub. I.e., Rei is voiced by Victor Ugarte's sister Gaby in the second dub, which becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when recalling that Rei, as a clone of Shinji's mother Yui, is essentially his half-sister.
    • When Rebuild of Evangelion was dubbed for theatrical release, Touji's VA Enrique Mederos had passed away so he was replaced by Jesús Barrero. At the same time some actors from the first dub retook their roles, most noticeably Ernesto Lezama as Kaworu and Circe Luna as Rei though in the third movie, Luna does not voice Rei-Zero; she's voiced by Ana Lobo instead.
    • And speaking of Rebuild, when Amazon Prime picked up the license for the final film, they decided to also redub the first three films, but with an interesting twist: Shinji, Asuka, Misato, and Gendo retain their voices from when Rebuild was first dubbed, Amanda returned to voice Rei, and the actors of Toji, Maya, Aoba, Fuyutsuki, Hikari, Keel, and Yui from Manga Entertainment's dub of End returned to reprise their roles. All the others, including Mari, get new actors; keep in mind that, except for Shinji, Asuka, Misato and Gendo, ALL the characters that appeared in the first three films had their actors replace pre-existing ones. Only one actress from Funimation reprised her role for Amazon: Felecia Angelle, who did Sakura.
• Noragami: Caitlin Glass said on her Twitter that she will be taking over Shelby Lindley as Aimi "Ami" Tabata in the second season simuldub Aragoto due to the latter's lack of time and availability. Lindley returned to redub Glass's lines for the DVD/Blu-ray release.
• Nurse Witch Komugi: Averted. The anime is a Spin-Off/Self-Parody of The SoulTaker. ADV got the rights to dub Nurse Witch Komugi, but didn't dub its predecessor (the Ocean Group handled that job for the returning characters). Instead of using new actors, ADV got the original dub cast to reprise their roles, thus ensuring consistency. The new characters introduced in the series, however, were dubbed at Houson.
• Ginzo Matsuo, the voice of Oyajide from Ojamajo Doremi, died a day before episode 29 of Mo~tto! aired. His role would be replaced by Nobuaki Kanemitsu.
• Pani Poni Dash!: The English dub had everyone able to play their roles throughout the whole series with the interesting exception of Mike Macrae as the Alien Captain, who he voiced for the first 14 episodes before being replaced by a then-unknown Andrew Love for the remaining 12 — the reason being that Macrae went off to be involved on The Late Show with David Letterman.
• Patlabor has four English dub casts: The TV series and OVAs were dubbed in New York City by Central Park Media, the first two movies were dubbed in the UK by Manga Entertainment, and the first two movies were redubbed and third dubbed in California respectively by Bandai Visual USA and Geneon (albeit with different casts).
• Persona 4: The Animation:
  • Troy Baker reprised his role as Kanji Tatsumi from the game for the first half of the dub; for the second half the character is voiced by Matthew Mercer (Baker had to drop out for personal reasons).
  • Mary Elizabeth McGlynn also replaces Anna Graves, who voiced Naoto in the games.
• Pretty Cure:
  • In Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star, Foop and Kaoru were originally voiced by Yuka Imai. When Imai went on maternity leave, Akemi Okamura took over the roles for the remainder of the series.
  • In the Finnish dub of Glitter Force, Kelsey was voiced by Amy Burgess in Season 1, and Viivi Tamminen in Season 2.
• Pop Team Epic: With the series being the balls-to-the-wall firestorm of insanity that it is, the show manages to take this trope and stretch it far beyond its logical conclusion, with Popuko and Pipimi being recast every half-episode (each episode consists of a 12-minute series of skits played twice, with one having Popuko & Pipimi voiced by women, and the other having them voiced by men); typically, each pair of voice actors has some sort of connection. Even within the same episode, Popuko & Pipimi change voices for certain skits: for instance, the "Bob Epic Team" shorts has them voiced by said segments' animators.
• Project A-Ko: The first movie was dubbed in the UK by Manga Entertainment UK, but the three sequel OVAs were all dubbed in Vancouver by The Ocean Group with Central Park Media:^note This was still in the early 90s, before CPM dubbed their shows in New York.
  • A-Ko: Stacey Gregg -> Teryl Rothery
  • B-Ko: Denica Fairman -> Venus Terzo
  • C-Ko: Julia Brahms -> Cathy Weseluck
  • Miss Ayumi: Liza Ross -> Lynda Boyd
  • Captain Napolipolita: Jay Benedict -> Scott McNeil
  • Spy D: Marc Smith -> Robert O Smith
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie: Rebellion
  • The English dub saw all of its main cast return with the exception of Junko Kaname, played by Carrie Savage in the TV series and now played by Julie Ann Taylor due to Savage living in New York City at the time.
  • In the Italian dub, Emanuela Damasio replaced Alessia Amendola as Homura, thus spoiling Actor Allusion to the Italian dub of Zoey 101.

R to U

• Ranma ½ was the very first anime TV series to receive a straight uncut dub into English, and it took 10 years to dub all 161 episodes (plus all three movies and eleven original OVA episodes), so naturally there were a few people that left at some point in that duration. The show is lucky it didn't have even more recasts.
  • Between Seasons 3 and 4 (episodes 63 and 64), the North-American dub voice for Ranma abruptly changed from Sarah Strange, a woman playing a boy's voice, to Richard Ian Cox — a man playing a boy's voice after the former wanted to move on with her career (although this can also be interpreted as Ranma's voice maturing). Because the series was dubbed out of order, Sarah's voice is also heard in episode 69 and all the movies/OVAs.
  • After the first six episodes Ranma's female voice actor also changed from Brigitta Dau (who also voiced the character in the first two OVA episodes) to Venus Terzo following Dau's move to the US, but the change was arguably more subtle since it was fairly early on in the series, and the voices were similar.
  • When Angela Costain, the English voice of Nabiki Tendô, wanted to attend flight school, her sister Elaina Wotten-Costain took over the character for Season 6. (Unlike many vocal Darrins, the difference between the two performances was virtually nil — many viewers never noticed the change). Angela returned for Season 7 when her schedule worked out.
  • Kodachi Kuno was the only unlucky character with three voice actors, being voiced by Teryl Rotherly for the first four seasons and later by Erin Fitzgerald for Season 5 after Teryl became too busy with her live action work. Later Erin moved to the US and the role was recast again for Seasons 6-7 with Sylvia Zaradic (who ironically sounded much closer to Teryl than Erin).
  • Both the Jusenkyo Guide and Dr. Tofu were recast beginning in Season 6 with new voice actors (Michael Donovan and Kirby Morrow respectively) when their original voice actor, Ian James Corlett, quit all voice acting for anime following a nasty fallout with Ocean Studios.
  • Cologne was voiced by Kathleen Barr in the OVAs and movies (which were among the first things dubbed), and by Elan Ross-Gibson in the TV series.
  • On the Japanese side of things, Kouji Tsujitani filled in for Hirotaka Suzuoki for three episodes as Tatewaki Kuno. For the 2008 OVA, Tsujitani once again filled in, as Suzuoki had passed away a few years earlier.
• Reborn! (2004): The seiyuu voicing the character of Dino goes from Kenta Kamakari to KENN from episode 34 on.
• Record of Lodoss War:
  • Most of the Japanese cast for the cast of the OVA series was changed for the TV series, Chronicles of the Heroic Knight: For the latter, Nobutoshi Canna replaced Takeshi Kusao as Parn, and Shiho Niiyama replaced Yumi Touma as Deedlit (who herself was later replaced with Junko Noda after her death). The TAJ Productions English cast, on the other hand, remained the same for these characters...
  • ...at least until the second half of the series. Crispin Freeman originally played both the protagonist Spark and Maar; as time passed, the voices for Gaberra, Groder, and Garrack had all dropped out, so Freeman played all three of them, along with his original two roles.
  • A few members of the English cast were also temporarily replaced for a couple episodes due to the quick pace in dubbing, leaving little opportunity for scheduling conflicts. For instance, Lisa Ortiz was sick with a cold for a very short period of time, and AJ Parks filled in as Deendlit for 3 episodes instead.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades:
  • Kiba Walker stood in for Dallas Reid as Carlos Whitrow in the English dub of "Reversi".
  • Mariko Higashuichi (Japanese) and Tristan Bonner (English) voice the younger Joseph Albright in his Troubled Backstory Flashback in "Duty".
• Restaurant to Another World: While Adelheid's voice actress in Japanese, Reina Ueda, remained the same for both series, her English voice actress changed between seasons, going from Jeannie Tirado in Season 1 to Alexis Tipton in Season 2.
• Revolutionary Girl Utena:
  • The dub stayed pretty consistent despite a gap in dubbing, except for a few minor roles that changed once the characters became important:
  • The role of Mamiya was played by Crispin Freeman (Touga's voice actor) for episode 13, and by Liam O'Brien for everything else.
  • Likewise, Dios was voiced by Crispin Freeman for his brief line in Episode 1. Later on, Josh Mosby (Akio's voice) took over.
  • The Shadow Girls were were voiced by Sharon Becker (Anthy's voice) and Mandy Bonhomme (Juri's voice) in the Student Council saga, but for the Black Rose saga, Carol Jacobanis (Mari's voice) took over Becker's role as the first girl while Bonhomme kept on playing the second and the new third one. For the Apocalypse saga, Kerry Williams (Kanae's voice) took over the third girl. For the movie, Bonhomme voiced two of the girls while Roxanne Beck (Wakaba and Kozue's actress) voiced the third.
  • In addition, two of Nanami's friends (Aiko and Yuko) didn't have fixed voice actresses for a while (sometimes within single episodes), with Rachael Lillis, Mandy Bonhomme, Sharon Becker, Roxanne Beck, Kerry Williams, and Carol Jacobanis voicing at least one of them at different points until they finally settled on Jacobanis as Aiko and Williams as Yuko with episode 21 (the only episode where they were important), and they only appeared one more time. Keiko however, was consistent with Mandy Bonhomme voicing her for all of her appearances.
  • Shiori was voiced by Lisa Ortiz once she became a larger role, but her early appearance in a flashback had Rachael Lillis (Utena's voice) filling in.
  • Kanae was voiced by Mandy Bonhomme for her very brief appearance in the movie and Kerry Williams for her more expanded appearance in the anime.
  • The Japanese version of Utena replaced the voice actor for Akio for the movie with a celebrity on-camera actor.
• Re:Zero:
  • English:
    • Julius Juukulius was voiced by Christopher Niosi in Season 1. After several allegations of emotional and sexual abuse went public in 2019, and him confirming they were true, he stepped down from the role and was replaced by Alejandro Saab. Niosi did congratulate Saab on the role, though.
    • Frederica Baumann's cameo appearance in Season 1 had her initially voiced by Faye Mata, but after becoming a major character in Season 2, she is now voiced by Dawn M. Bennett.
    • Wilhelm was initially voiced by Marc Diraison, but he was unable to reprise the role for Season 2 and has been replaced by Brock Foster Powell.
  • Japanese:
    • Aldebaran was voiced by Keiji Fujiwara in Season 1, but due to his declining health in 2016, Tomokazu Seki replaced him for the game Death or Kiss, and later became his permanent replacement after Fujiwara passed away on April 12, 2020.
• The Rising of the Shield Hero: After his diagnosis for (and eventual death from) colon cancer, Naofumi's original English VA Billy Kametz was replaced by Stephen Fu for season 2.
• Ronin Warriors:
  • Episode 2 was dubbed first as a test pilot, but when the series was picked up, a few voice actors changed, and the episode was not re-recorded with the permanent voice actors. These changes were:
    • Kento: Ward Perry -> Jason Grey-Stanford ^note Despite Ward still voicing Rowen.
    • Mia: Teryl Rothery -> Lalainia Lindbjerg ^note This one was arguably the most glaring; Teryl's voice was much deeper and mature-sounding than Lalainia's, and made the character sound a good 15-20 years older than she was supposed to.
    • Cale/Annubis: Peter Wilds -> Richard Newman
    • Dais: Peter Wilds -> Matt Smith
  • Scott McNeil also filled in for Richard Newman as Annubis for episodes 31, 32, and 35.
  • When the OVAs were dubbed later in 2003, several voice actors were replaced:
    • Kento: Jason Grey Stanford -> Andrew Francis
    • Mia: Lalainia Lindbjerg -> Maggie Blue O'Hara
    • Sage: Michael Donovan -> Matt Smith ^note Despite Michael still voicing Cye.
    • Ully: Christopher Turner -> Danny McKinnon
• Rozen Maiden was dubbed by Geneon/BangZoom for the first two seasons, but they went under. When Sentai Filmworks rescued the show, they reunited the cast for the two-part prequel OVA. However, they opted to dub the third season in-house at Seraphim Digital, replacing the entire cast.
• Saber Marionette J, Saber Marionette J Again and Saber Marionette J To X, while all licensed by Bandai Entertainment in North America, were each dubbed into English at different studios (Vancouver-based Ocean Studios, Los Angeles-based Animaze and Calgary-based Blue Water Studios). The entire cast changed between each series (although Saber Marionette R did share some cast with J). For a more concrete example, Otaru was originally voiced by Brad Swaile, then by Mona Marshall in J Again, and then by Jonathan Love in J To X, while Lime went from Maggie Blue O'Hara to Julie Maddalena to finally Mariette Sluyter.
• Saint Seiya:
  • The series had the same seiyuu cast for almost 20 years, including the original TV series as well as the movies. Then came the Hades Saga and several actors were replaced (i.e.: the late Kaneto Shiozawa was replaced by Takumi Yamazaki as Mu, the also deceased Kazuyuki Sogabe was followed by both Ryōtarō Okiayu and Akio Nojima as the twins Saga and Kanon, Toshihiko Seki as as Milo instead of Shūichi Ikeda, Takeshi Kusao as Shura and not Kōji Totani, etc.)
  • Then came the Tenkai-hen movie, after which practically everyone (including Tōru Furuya aka Seiya, replaced by Masakazu Morita until reprising his role in Saint Seiya Omega) was changed.
  • In the Latin American dub, the Hades Saga had two parallel dubs. The original cast led by Jesús Barrero only returned for the DVD dub, but the TV version included a whole cast change led by Irwin Daayán as Seiya.
  • Dubhe Alpha Siegfried was first voiced by Akira Kamiya in the original and by Mario Raúl López in the Latin-American dub. When Kamiya retired and López died of illness, Mitsuaki Madono and Ricardo Mendoza took over the role for the game Soldier's Soul.
  • Brazilian voice actor Antonio Akira, known for playing Dragon Ryuhou in the local dub of Saint Seiya Omega, succumbed to meningitis in July 26th, 2015. This, along with the passing of veteran voice actress Maralisi Tartarine, who played Ophiuchus Shaina, left the state of the second season's dub up in the air for some time. It resumed in 2016, with Fred Mascarenhas replacing Akira and Patricia Scalvi replacing Tartarine.
• Due to its long run, Sazae-san had numerous casting changes throughout, with Sazae herself (Midori Kato) being the only exception:
  • Katsuo was the first to be recast, after Nobuyo Ooyama voiced him for just 12 episodes in 1969. Kazue Takahashi voiced him until 1998, when Miina Tominaga took over.
  • Yoshiko Yamamoto voiced Wakame from the beginning until 1976, when she was replaced by Michiko Nomura. She retired from the role in 2005, after which Makoto Tsumura took over.
  • Masuo was voiced by Shinsuke Chikaishi until 1978, after which Hiroshi Masuoka voiced him until his retirement in 2019. Hideyuki Tanaka now voices him.
  • Namihei was voiced by Ichirō Nagai until his death in 2014. Chafurin would take over from then on.
  • Fune was voiced by Miyoko Asō from the beginning until her retirement in 2015 (except for one episode in 2009 when Ikuko Tani substituted for her due to illness). She is now voiced by Yorie Terauchi.
  • Takako Sasuga, the longtime voice actress for Tarao Fugata, passed away in early 2023. As a result, the role of Tarao was filled in by Rikako Aikawa.
• Science Ninja Team Gatchaman:
  • In the first English adaptation, known as Battle of the Planets, fans generally associate the voice actors Ronnie Schell and Alan Dinehart with their respective characters of Jason and Tiny. But in the first episode dubbed by Sandy Frank, Jason had a much different and lower voice provided by an unspecified actor while Tiny was voiced by Schell and had a gruffer, raspier voice than the slow "big guy" one that Dinehart would make famous. To this day, it remains unknown who was the original Jason, though it is suggested that it was likely David Jolliffe (who was credited for the episode, with the Jason voice sounding identical to his "Larry" voice from Clue Club).
  • The green Spectra commander that appeared in the first two episodes was first voiced by Alan Oppenheimer, and then by Keye Luke (who also voiced Zoltar and the Luminous One). This switchover was due to the fact that the second Gatchaman episode was actually sent over and translated as the sixteenth in line, and the dubbing team had likely forgotten that Oppenheimer had previously voiced the character, or that it was intended to be the same character for that matter (as the first dub script calls the commander "Octo", while the script for the latter episode called him "Commander Gorok").
  • The USA-exclusive creation 7-Zark-7 was voiced by Alan Young in the original Battle of the Planets adaptation, although the character was recast in a 2002 compilation movie by Sandy Frank, which had his segments redubbed by David Bret Egen (who gave him a more robotic sounding voice).
  • G-Force: Guardians of Space:
    • In the case of the second English adaptation, the characters of Hooty, Dr.Brighthead, and Computor were alternatively voiced by Jan Rabson or Gregg Berger, depending on the episode. As this dub lacked credits for the cast, it's become a chore for fans to pick out which episodes are "Berger" ones and which ones were done by Rabson.
    • Cam Clarke was unavailable for the recording of at least two episodes (39 and 40), with Dirk being voiced by either one of the other actors in the voice pool or a stand-in actor only for those sessions.
  • One particular character in the original Gatchaman series went through at least three actors, due to her limited role. The female Galactor commander aka Katse's female form was first voiced by Hiroko Mori when she formally debuted in episode 31, but was then voiced by Toshiko Sawada for her next four appearances (in episodes 32, 33, 46, and 70). By the time of her final appearance towards the end of the series, Aiko Konoshima voiced her. ADV's dub of the series had Laurie Gallardo voicing her for the first three appearances, then the role briefly shifted to Kira Vincent-Davis for her fourth cameo. Gallardo would resume voicing the commander for episodes 70 and 102.
  • With the sequel Gatchaman II: The auto-pilot robot Pimer was voiced by Kazue Komiya when he appeared in the first episode, but was then voiced by You Inoue for all episodes afterwards.
  • The three-episode OVA remake was initially dubbed by Harmony Gold (through Urban Vision) in 1997, using a Los Angeles-based cast of voice actors for the characters ^note Eddie Frierson as Ken, Richard Cansino as Joe, Lara Cody as Jun, Mona Marshall as Jinpei, and Richard Epcar as Ryu. After Harmony Gold's license expired, the OVA was included in Sentai Filmworks' deal with Tatsunoko and was redubbed in 2013 with the voice pool from ADV Films' dub of the series ^note Leraldo Anazaldua as Ken, Brian Jepson as Joe, Kim Prause as Jun, Luci Christian as Jinpei, and Victor Carsrud as Ryu. The only voice actor from ADV's version who did not return was Laurie Gallardo, who had her role (the female Galactor commander) passed to Claire Hamilton. However, despite popular belief, Leader X did NOT undergo this trope. He was always voiced by Charlie Campbell, the ADR director. However, he used an alias (Winston Parrish) for the original TV series switching to his real name for the OVA.
  • The original Japanese version of the OVA series recast the characters, to have a more modern and younger pool of actors (as well as taking into account that Ryu's original voice actor, Shingo Kanemoto, had passed away a few years prior).
  • Aside from the various actors that voiced their dubbed counterparts in previous English adaptations of Gatchaman (pre-ADV Films), Ken and Jun's cameos in the original dub of the Time Bokan OVA were voiced by two obscure New York actors, Todd Garbeil and Ami Shukla (as the dub was done in New York City). Although Sentai Filmworks originally intended to redub the Time Bokan OVA with a Texas cast (presumably to have Ken and Jun's ADV VAs reprise the roles), this plan fell through.
• Seiyu's Life! has an in-universe example that's Played for Drama. Futaba had a part in a Drama CD and was looking forward to the anime adaptation since it'd mean that she could work with Rie Kugimiya again. Then she finds out that Rin was given the role instead.
• Shakugan no Shana: The entire English voice cast was replaced for the second and third seasons when Funimation opted not to reunite the original Geneon/Ocean cast, likely as a cost-cutting measure. It's not the first time FUNi has replaced an Ocean voice cast.

• Slayers
  • The English version had several cases of this. After episode 13, the dubbing was put on hiatus for Software Sculptors and Central Park Media to evaluate video sales. The hiatus lasted nearly two years, during which time TAJ Productions lost contact with all but a few of the voice actors. When dubbing finally continued (with a different studio but same production company), only leads Lisa Ortiz (Lina) and Eric Stuart (Gourry) returned to their old roles. The most notable replacements were Crispin Freeman replacing Daniel Cronin as the voice of Zelgadis, and Veronica Taylor replacing Joan Baker as the voice of Amelia. With them are Zangulus (Ted Lewis replacing Liam O'Malley), and Prince Phillionel (Jimmy Zoppi replacing Matthew Black). The only other characters who got to keep their original voices were Vrumugun (Jimmy Zoppi) and Rezo (Peter Davis). The voices were consistent for the rest of first three seasons. ^note Except one time in Season 2 when Anthony Salerno filled in for Matthew Sussman for as King Moros for an episode where he had one line. In an example of Tropes Are Not Bad, the replacement voices in this show are almost universally considered better than the originals.
  • In addition to this, ADV Films handled all the Movies and OVAs and used their Houston-based talent pool instead of the original New York cast for the series. They tried to get Lisa Ortiz back as Lina, but they were unable to, so Cynthia Martinez notably replaced her, and in Slayers Premium, Chris Patton filled in for Eric Stuart as Gourry, Luci Christian filled in for Veronica Taylor as Amelia, and Kurt Stoll filled in for David Moo as Xellos; however, Crispin Freeman returned to play Zelgadis since he was in the area at the time anyway.
  • When Funimation outsourced the Slayers Revolution and Evolution-R dubs to NYAV Post (who records in both New York and Los Angeles), Ortiz, Stuart, Taylor, and Freeman all returned to play the four leads. Pretty much everyone else however, was replaced: Michael Sinterniklaas replaced David Moo as Xellos, Stephanie Sheh replaced Stacia Crawford as Sylphiel, Liam O'Brien replaced Peter Davis as Rezo, David Brimmer replacing Jimmy Zoppi as Philionel, and Marc Thompson replacing Roger Kay as Shabranigdo. The only other character to keep their original voice was Gaav (Dan Green), as well as Hellmaster Phibrizzo (Wayne Grayson) for his brief cameo.
  • The Japanese cast has stuck through for the most part; however, Minoru Inaba would become Prince Phil's second Japanese voice in the third season after his first, Masahiro Anzai, was incapacitated by a severe case of diabetes.
• Soul Eater:
  • Mostly averted for the English cast of Soul Eater Not!, where the entire original Soul Eater cast reprised their roles for the returning characters, even Laura Bailey as Maka. The one exception was Mira Naigus, who was voiced by Shay Moore in the original series, and instead by Anastasia Muñoz in the spinoff.
  • Barely averted for Harvar D. Eclair, who was voiced by the above-mentioned Scott Freeman. Reprising the role ended up being one of his very final projects before his career-ending arrest.
• Star Blazers: The third season had a completely different dub cast from the first two seasons, since the dubbing was taken over by Peter Fernandez and his Speed Racer voice team.
• Squid Girl: The first season was dubbed at Bang Zoom! Entertainment in Los Angeles by Media Blasters. After their license expired, Sentai Filmworks rescued the entire series, but dubbed the second season and OVA at their local studio in Houston, with a brand new cast. However, Christine Marie Cabanos returned as Squid Girl herself due to fan demand.
• Strike Witches: When the second season was being produced, Saeko Chiba was on maternity leave, so Saori Seto was brought on board to play Mio Sakamoto in the Japanese version. Kira Vincent-Davis reprised her role in the English dub though.
• Super Dimension Fortress Macross:
  • When this received an English dubbed release in 2006, all of the old Robotech cast was replaced. A peculiar and startling aversion, however, came from the character of Lynn Minmay. Perhaps remembering how much Minmay's lackluster actress in Robotech had contributed to making her The Scrappy, the producers went out of their way to hire Mari Iijima, the original Japanese actress, for the dub (although not even she was safe from that dub's criticism, mostly due to her Japanese accent standing out sharply among the otherwise American cast).
  • Though he's only performed the role in video games ^note Shoji Kawamori hasn't had any interest in revisiting Hikaru, Misa and Minmay since 1987's Macross Flashback 2012, Kenji Nojima has taken over portraying Hikaru Ichijyo since the 1996 death of the character's original voice actor, Arihiro Hase.
• Tenchi Muyo!:
  • Notably after Tenchi Universe, Mihoshi, Kiyone, Tenchi's Father, Tenchi's Grandfather, Tsunami, Misao, and minor characters Kazuhiko, Azaka, and Kamidake were all recast at the same time for various reasons:
    • Wendee Lee took over the voice of Kiyone Makibi despite the fact that her original VA, Sherry Lynn, was still active as Sasami and Tsunami. Ironically, she does later voice a Kiyone in the later OVAs — Kiyone Masaki, Tenchi's mom, who was originally voiced by Petrea Burchard (Ryoko's original voice) for her brief appearance in the original OVAs.
    • Sherry was also briefly replaced as Tsunami as well, for the final two episodes of the Magical Girl Pretty Sammy OVA, where Lara Cody voiced the character instead.
    • Also in Pretty Sammy, Misao was recast after the first episode from Susan Turney Cray to Debi Derryberry. Yuka and Yuma (Ayeka's assistants) also went from Ellen Gerstell and Kate T. Vogt respectively to Lara Cody and Wendee Lee at the same time.
    • The big recast was Rebecca Forstadt taking over for Ellen Gerstell as Mihoshi in 1998 following Gerstell's retirement.
    • Also, the late Bob Papenbrook took over the roles of Tenchi's father and grandfather after Jay Hopper moved away.
  • When Funimation was set to have episode 18 of Tenchi Muyo! GXP recorded, which reintroduced the original OVA cast, none of the original cast members could return for time and budget reasons and thus everyone got new voices (one could say Mihoshi and Tenchi's grandfather were the only ones to return, but they were already Other Darrins; it was their second voices that returned).
  • The third OVA series:
    • When FUNimation got ahold of the third OVA series, they were able to get most of the voices back. However, Ryoko's voice actress (Petrea Burchard) notably couldn't return for unknown reasons (rumor says it was a pay dispute), so the studio ended up using her GXP VA (Mona Marshall) to reprise her role. To their credit, though, they tried to make her sound like the original, but not even that could save this recast from being one of the most notoriously controversial ever in English anime.
    • Tokimi and D3 also found themselves with new voices for this. Tokimi's was odd, as her original VA, Jennifer Darling, had returned as Ayeka. Also, Noike was voiced by Kari Wahlgren in OVA 3 after Mona Marshall had voiced the role for her brief appearance in GXP. However, Sherry Lynn did get her role of Tsunami back.
  • When Sasami: Magical Girls Club was being made, the decision was made not to use Chisa Yokoyama, Sasami's Japanese seiyuu since the Tenchi franchise began, in favor of an actual child. Likewise, Funimation didn't rehire Sherry Lynn for the English dub either, however instead of casting a real kid, they cast an adult actress, Alison Viktorin, who had experience voicing children. Mihoshi, Washu, and Misao also found themselves with all-new voices (Colleen Clinkenbeard, Luci Christian, and Monica Rial respectively). They were all also recast in Japan.
  • Ai Tenchi Muyo!:
    • With the release of Ai Tenchi Muyo!, all but one of the original Japanese cast returned with Haruhi Nanao replacing Yumi Takada as Ayeka, who retired years ago. When the 4th Tenchi OVA debuted in 2017, Mihoshi was also recast with Michie Tomizawa, due to Yuko Mizutani's untimely death in the previous year.
    • The English release of Ai Tenchi Muyo is an interesting case as they got back Petrea Buchard as Ryoko, but they couldn't get back Kate Vogt as Washu or Jennifer Darling as Ayeka (though Jennifer's case makes a little more sense as she's over 70 at this point)
• Tekkaman Blade: The show has two English dubs (both titled "Teknoman") produced by Saban, one for international broadcast (Australia and other countries) and one for the USA, the latter airing on UPN. An actor named David Thomas voiced the lead in the international version, but his lines were redubbed by Bob Bergen for the UPN version (the character's dub name also shifted from being Nick Carter/Teknoman Blade, to Ness Carter/Teknoman Slade). Ringo Richards' actor also changed between dubs, from Kerrigan Mahan to Michael McConnohie.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: While almost every other character kept the same voice actor after the Time Skip in the dub, (except Simon and Rossiu in the Distant Finale) Nia went from being voiced by Hynden Walch to Bridget Hoffman (though the fact that it happens over the Time Skip makes it less noticeable as characters frequently change actors over such periods) It was later explained in a press release that Hynden had to drop out of the show for personal reasons.
• Tokyo Mew Mew:
  • In the Italian dub, Tart's voice actress in the last ten episodes was changed without any reason.
  • The Blue Knight was voiced by Ryo's voice actor for most of his appearances, then it was replaced with Masaya's voice actor some episodes before The Reveal.
  • Same happened with Deep Blue. Made even more jarring because the first voice is a female one.
  • The entire Portuguese cast of Tokyo Mew Mew was replaced for the second half of the series since the first half was based off the 4Kids English dub, and the company doing the second half completely ignored everything that was done for the first half. Not only was the entire voice cast different (despite the same voice pool being used), but the character names and attack names were changed as well. The only voice that carried over was Mark/Aoyama's, but this is usually assumed to be a coincidence, since he was not instructed to use the same voice.
• Transformers: Cybertron:
  • Megatron himself is voiced by a different actor in the English pilot. Lori is also played by a stand-in in three episodes.
  • Both of the Hungarian dubs suffered heavily from this. The first was subjected to a major recast near the end of the Speed Planet arc, which also saw the character Override changing his/her gender, and the rest of the episodes kept switching around the voices of side characters randomly. In the second dub, which is just a tad less inconsistent, there are oddities like Backstop getting a different voice in the final episode, even though his original VA was still there playing his other role.
• Trigun: Badlands Rumble: For the English dub, any character from the original series who showed up, except for Vash, got a new voice actor. This was due to the TV series being dubbed in Los Angeles by Geneon/Animaze, and the movie being dubbed in Texas by FUNimation. Dorothy Elias-Fahn and Jeff Nimoy, who voiced Meryl and Wolfwood respectively in the TV series dub mentioned that they did inquire about returning, but FUNimation refused to pay their travel fees. After they asked for salaries that would compensate these costs, both were quietly replaced. However Lia Sargent, who voiced Milly, retired from voice acting years ago and wasn't expected to return anyway, and Johnny Yong Bosch was able to return as Vash because of his regular work at FUNimation. Bosch was also able to reprise his role in Stampede making him pretty much the only actor who appeared in all three iterations of Trigun.
  • Speaking of which, all of the Japanese voice actors have been recast in Stampede:
    • Yoshitsugu Matsuoka replaces Masaya Onosaka as Vash the Stampede.
    • Junya Ikeda replaces Tōru Furusawa as Millions Knives.
    • Sakura Andou replaces the late Hiromi Tsuru as Meryl Stryfe, after Tsuru died in 2017.
    • Yoshimasa Hosoya replaces Show Hayami as Nicholas D. Wolfwood.
    • Kōki Uchiyama replaces Toshihiko Seki as Legato Bluesummers.
    • Maaya Sakamoto replaces Aya Hisakawa as Rem Saverem.
    • TARAKO replaces Hiroshi Kamiya as Zazie The Beast.
  • Same can be said with the rest of the English voice actors:
    • Austin Tindle voices Millions Knives instead of the late Kirk Baily, who died in 2022.
    • Sarah Roach replaces Luci Christian^note who herself replaced Dorothy Elias-Fahn for Badlands Rumble as Meryl Stryfe.
    • David Matranga replaces Brad Hawkins^note who replaced Jeff Nimoy in Badlands Rumble as Nicholas D. Wolfwood.
    • Emily Fajardo voices Rem Saverem instead of Bridget Hoffman.
    • Madeleine Morris voices Zazie The Beast instead of Derek Stephen Prince.
    • Daman Mills voices Legato Bluesummers instead of Richard Cansino.
• Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-: The German voice actress of Sakura is Manja Doering, who played Sakura Kinomoto in Cardcaptor Sakura. On the other hand, Syaolan's voice actor is someone else, Konrad Bösherz. However, in the movie, Sakura is voiced by another voice actress, but Doering reprises her role in season 2 and in Tsubasa Tokyo Revelation. In season 2, Syaolan's voice actor Bösherz was replaced by David Turba, who played Shaoran Li in Card Captor Sakura, but in Tokyo Revelation, Bösherz reprises his role as Syaolan. The odd part is that David Turba, who also played Nataku in X1999 (movie, OVA and series), reprises his role as Nataku in Tokyo Revelation. Toya and Yukito's voice actors from Card Captor Sakura reprises their roles in Tsubasa, except that Yukito's voice actor is replaced in season 2. However, many characters got different voice actors in season 2.
• Unico:
  • In Japan, Unico has been voiced by seven different voice actors in anime and other media. He was originally voiced by Hiroya Oka in the 1979 pilot Unico: Black Cloud and White Feather by Sanrio Animation. When Sanrio decided to turn the manga into two feature films (The Fantastic Adventures of Unico and Unico in the Island of Magic) in the early 80s, the titular foal was replaced by Katsue Miwa. When Unico returned to animation in 2000 with the anime short Saving Our Fragile Earth: Unico Special, Katsue Miwa was replaced by Akiko Yajima for the short film. In the 2005 animated short Dr. Pinoko's Forest Adventures, Rumiko Tezuka (daughter of Osamu Tezuka) was chosen to voice the character.
  • Similar to Japan, Unico was originally voiced by late voice actress Matilde Vilariño in the 1984 dub of The Fantastic Adventures of Unico. In the 2010 Spanish dubs for Unico in the Island of Magic and Unico Black Cloud and White Feather, Rosa Romay would take over the role as the character due to retiring from voice acting due to old age.
  • In Italy, the 2022 Italian dub of Unico in the Island of Magic replaced the original Italian voices of Unico and The West Wind. This is due to a 36 year gap between the 1986 Italian dub of the first movie and its sequel. Alongside the first Unico movie getting a second Italian dub in 2022.
• Urusei Yatsura:
  • While Megane is usually voiced by Shigeru Chiba, Naoki Tatsuta filled in for his absence for episode 3.
  • Chibi was originally voiced by Tomohiro Nishimura for his appearances in episodes 1, 3, and 5, but was voiced by Issei Futamata for the rest of the series and the OVAs.
  • Ran was first voiced by You Inoue, and then by Kazue Komiya.

V to Y

• Vampire Princess Miyu:
  • Miyu went from being voiced by Kimberly J. Brown to Dorothy Elias-Fahn after 7 episodes. In addition, Pamela Wielder had earlier voiced the role in the AnimEigo dub of the OVA, and Annemarie Zola voiced her in the (now rare) Manga UK dub of the OVA.
  • Since the TV series was made almost a decade after the OAV, in the Japanese version, Miyu's role went from Naoko Watanabe to Miki Nagasawa. Similarly, Kaneto Shiozawa had already passed away, so Shin-ichiro Miki took over as Larva.
• The Vision of Escaflowne:
  • For some reason, Van's German dub voice actor, Byorn Schalla, didn't reprise his role in the movie, and was replaced by Robin Kahnmeyer.
  • In the Ocean English dub, a number of secondary characters had voices changed for various reasons. Yukari was first voiced by Willow Johnson at the start of the show, but was later replaced by Saffron Henderson (she was also the voice of Eriya and Celena Schezar). Willow returned as Yukari for the movie, however.
  • The Dragon Slayers under Dilandau were especially notorious for this. Dallet, Shesta, and Gatti all had at least three (actors/actresses) per man. Sometimes their voices would change in the same episode! All three were voiced by Venus Terzo (Millerna) at various points while in others actors, such as Brian Drummond (Allen), Andrew Francis (Dilandau), Cathy Weseluck, Terry Klassen (Moleman), and even Van's voice actor Kirby Morrow provided their speaking parts. Shesta even got a fourth voice in the movie (Trevor Devall, in case you were wondering).
  • Two of the three Zaibach generals (Zodia and Getin) had multiple actors as well — Michael Dobson and later his brother Paul Dobson for Zodia and Drummond, Don Brown (Balgus), and Richard Newman (Dornkirk) for Getin.
  • Young Van was voiced by Andrew Francis in the TV series but was changed to Jocelyn Loewen (Merle) for the movie dub.
  • The new FUNimation redub of the series will invoke this yet again with an entire new voice cast. This isn't the first and second time FUNi has replaced an Ocean voice cast.
• Voltes V:
  • Italian dub:
    • The Narrator was voiced by Valeriano Leo (episodes 01-26), Ribaudo Ermanno (episodes 27-37) and Cosolo Carlo (episodes 38-40).
    • Ippei Mine was voiced by Allegrini Carlo, then by Pannofino Francesco and then Ioannucci Marco.
    • Hiyoshi was voiced first by Andreini Gabriella, and then by Cadueri Monica.
    • Daijiro was voiced first by Pescucci Gastone, and then by Cosolo Carlo.
    • Like Daijiro, Jangal was voiced first by Pescucci Gastone, and then by Cosolo Carlo.
    • Kentaro Go was voiced first by Valeriano Leo, and then by Santi Giulano.
  • Greek dub:
    • Matina Karras voiced Megumi, Hiyoshi and Katherine, but those roles later went to Katerina Petousi.
• X1999:
  • The entire Japanese and English cast of The Movie was replaced in the series.
  • This is almost averted with the German cast. Most of the characters were voiced by the same actors, except Kotori, Sorata (who got Shogo Asagi's voice actor; Sorata's movie voice actor played Daisuke in the series) and Arashi. And for some reason, the German cast for the OVA, aka episode 0, is exactly the same as the movie's cast.
  • Some of the voice actors still play their characters in Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE- with some changes. Shogo got two different voice actors in two seasons, Sorata and Arashi got different voice actors in season two, Kusanagi got a different voice actor. Later in Tokyo Revelation, Kusanagi is still played by the same who played him in the Tsubasa series, Yuuto got Sorata's voice actor from the X the series and Tsubasa season 1, who still plays Sorata in Tokyo Revelation, Yuzuhira is suddenly played by Satsuki's voice actress despite Yuzuhira's voice actress played her in the Tsubasa series while she's playing Mokona the time whole time, Karen got different voice actresses in the Tsubasa series and in Tokyo Revalation, and Kakyo got a different voice actor.
• Yo-kai Watch:
  • In the German dub, Whisper was initially voiced by Oliver Krietsch-Matzura. Following Oliver's death from cancer on September 29, 2016, Martin Bross continued as the role of Whisper following episode 14.
  • In the Italian dub, Monica Bonetto was the voice of Komajiro until episode 37, when she died after a brief illness. Komajiro is now voiced by Cinzia Massironi.
  • The English dub switched from Bang Zoom! Entertainment to SDI Media in its third season, leading to the following roles being recast:
    • Nate / Keita goes from being voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch to Griffin Burns .
    • Katie / Fumiko goes from being voiced by Melissa Hutchison to Morgan Berry.
    • Eddie / Kanchi goes from being voiced by Brent Pendergrass to Bryce Papenbrook .
    • Bear / Kuma goes from being voiced by Paul Greenberg to Tony Azzolino.
    • Whisper goes from being voiced by Joey D'Auria to Michael Sorich.
    • Jibanyan goes from being voiced by Alicyn Packard to Kira Buckland.
• YuYu Hakusho:
  • A minor version of this was experienced when Funimation licensed the series after Central Park Media and Media Blasters had each dubbed a movie (the short first movie had been dubbed in Los Angeles by Animaze, and the main second movie had been dubbed in New York by Taj Productions). Two different casts were used for them alone, and when Funimation dubbed the series, their own Dallas-Ft. Worth talent was used instead, essentially a third cast that ended up becoming the officially known English voices (due to their dominance in the TV series). Funimation later redubbed the first movie, and also dubbed the OVAs, but the second movie remains the only part of the franchise without their voices. A fourth English cast from Hong Kong was used for the Animax dub of the TV series for South-East Asian broadcast (but it, like almost all Animax dubs, is entirely unknown in North America).
  • The Philippine dub of Yu Yu Hakusho had this due to a change in TV stations. It was particularly glaring since the change in voice happened after a Heroic Sacrifice with Genkai's spirit speaking through another character. Viewers took a while to realize that this was the new voice for Genkai. (Yusuke's change in voice-actors was less obvious but disconcerting for a while.)
  • The Japanese dub has a confusing example with Kurama. Usually voiced by Megumi Ogata, he was voiced in his Yoko form by Shigeru Nakahara. After the Dark Tournament arc, however, Ogata voiced Kurama in both forms (with the exception of a flashback in the last arc, where Nakahara provided a single line).

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