History Main / AnimeAccentAbsence

* In "Manga/SoulEater" and "Manga/SoulEaterNot! it's established that Death City is located in the United States, and it's implied that many the students of the DWMA are multi-national, so this trope is in affect for the original Japanese version. There also doesn't appear to be any language barrier whenever characters are travelling the world.

* In "Manga/Soul Eater" and "Manga/Soul Eater Not! it's established that Death City is located in the United States, and it's implied that many the students of the DWMA are multi-national, so this trope is in affect for the original Japanese version. There also doesn't appear to be any language barrier whenever characters are travelling the world.

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', the language barrier seems to be non-existent: British-descended American Joseph Joestar has absolutely no problem talking to his Italian companion Caesar Zeppeli, his Japanese grandson Jotaro Kujo, Japanese student Noriaki Kakyoin, Egyptian Mohammad Avdol, or French Jean-Pierre Polnareff.
** ''[=JoJo=]'' basically requires this, considering almost every member of the cast comes from a different country. Even British characters talking to each other in London will speak Japanese. Of course, almost every character has at least one catchphrase or line spoken in their native language, most famously Joseph's "OH! NO!"
** Generally averted in the dub of season 1, where most of the characters are given the appropriate accent. However, Stroheim has an Austrian accent instead of the German one he's supposed to have.
** Additionally, in Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable, Joseph is explicitly said to have a decent enough grasp of spoken Japanese to be conversational, but struggles to read kanji; this leads to him asking manga artist Kishibe Rohan if he has considered publishing in English.
** Surprisingly averted with Tonio in the Anime, where his accent makes it clear Japanese is not his first language.

* The anime adaptation of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' normally plays this straight, with characters such as American-born Holly Kujo displaying no accent or lack of fluency, but [[AvertedTrope averted]] in regards to Antonio Trussardi. He's an Italian chef who sets up shop in Morioh during Part 4, and he speaks with a pronounced Italian accent that shows that Japanese is not his first language as well as sprinkling various Italian phrases into his speech.

* In the first episodes of ''Anime/JokerGame'' we see John Gordon, an American, who speaks English with terrible pronunciation, as well as grammar, and speaks Japanese much more fluently.

** Indeed, the language barrier between English and Japanese is quite prevalent. Although a bunch of the smarter Japanese characters and even Sena (who has just below-average grades) can speak English pretty well, a lot of the time the two are unable to communicate with each other (which can lead to hilarity - see Panther trying to challenge Shin...). This is most apparent in the handful of incidents where the characters write down stuff using the Roman alphabet, like when Monta tries to hitchhike with a sign reading "Sutopu" (which is noted to be incorrect). While the dialogue that the NASA Aliens speak is originally written as Japanese, it is implied that they're really speaking English and it's just being auto-translated for the audience.

* All characters in ''Anime/ProfessorLaytonAndTheEternalDiva'' have normal Japanese accents, despite the fact that the script relies on over-the-top English stereotypes to generate humour. If I were Japanese, the lines 'I am the spirit of Scotland Yard!' and 'Even British gentlemen have to sweat!' would both sound much more hilarious in a plummy BBC accent.

** Taken UpToEleven in ''VideoGame/SakuraWarsSoLongMyLove''. Although it takes place in New York City, EVERYONE, even the burglars, speak fluent Japanese. Averted in the English dub.

* Taken UpToEleven in ''VideoGame/SakuraWars: So Long My Love''. Although it takes place in New York City, EVERYONE, even the burglars, speak fluent Japanese. Averted in the English dub.
* In the ''VideoGame/SakuraWars'' franchise, squadmates are made up of multi-ethnic soldiers who can communicate with each other in spite of different members haling from Japan, America, Russia, France, China, and Vietnam.

* Averted in ''LightNovel/TheCaseFilesOfYakushijiRyoko'', where JerkWithAHeartOfGold [[TheOjou Ojou]] Ryoko Yakushiji's (literally) French {{Meido}}s, while apparently able to understand what other characters are saying in Japanese, do not speak the language themselves. They converse with Ryoko and each other in near flawless French (which is subtitled for the Japanese audience).

* Averted in ''Manga/TheCaseFilesOfYakushijiRyoko'', where JerkWithAHeartOfGold [[TheOjou Ojou]] Ryoko Yakushiji's (literally) French {{Meido}}s, while apparently able to understand what other characters are saying in Japanese, do not speak the language themselves. They converse with Ryoko and each other in near flawless French (which is subtitled for the Japanese audience).

* Taken UpToEleven in ''SakuraWars: So Long My Love''. Although it takes place in New York City, EVERYONE, even the burglars, speak fluent Japanese. Averted in the English dub.

* In ''InazumaEleven'', all the foreign characters, (with the exception of Dylan of Pegasus, the team representing the United States, who ''peppers'' his sentences with GratuitousEnglish) speak perfect Japanese for no explained reason whatsoever. While justified for the Japanese Hide Nakata, all the others have no excuse. Fubuki (from Hokaido), speaks regular Japanese as well - though curiously that doesn't apply to his teammates, and Kogure(from Kyoto) and Tsunami (Okinawa) also noticably lack accents. Rika ([[KansaiRegionalAccent Osaka]]), however, averts it wholesale, using a thick to the point of stereotypical Kansai accent.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

[[folder: Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/RoninGalaxy'': Despite being on the Moon in the future, the places the characters visit are clearly reminiscent of Japan and so are the people. Though there isn’t any language barrier between anyone; specifically with Giancarlo, Taylor and Leona, who are foreigners.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Heavily averted with Nelly Smith from ''WebVideo/SenpaiClub''. She is a [[ButNotTooForeign half-Japanese half-American]] girl who moved to Japan last year. Her fluency is perfectly fine but she has an incredibly thick accent [[RuleOfFunny and mispronounces her own name]].
* Tsuki explicitly says Yukari from ''WebAnimation/TsukiDesu'' speaks fine Japanese despite until recently living in Honduras,

* One episode features a group of American thugs, at least one of whom averts this trope. ''Only'' one.

* Eclair, the French girl introduced at the end of ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub'', who has no trouble conversing with anyone despite there being nothing to indicate that she has lived in the country or by some other means has learned to speak Japanese like a native.

* A particularly obvious aversion occurs in ''WitchHunterRobin''. The titular hunter was raised in Italy and is transferred to Japan. Her Japanese is so bad it often gets laughed at by her fellow hunters.

* Kiyomaro Takamine and Gash Bell, the main characters of ''KonjikiNoGashBell'', travel to many different countries battling different demons. However, no matter where they go, everyone can speak perfect Japanese - most notably in England, where nobody seemed to even hint that they knew English at all.

* Everyone in ''{{Eyeshield 21}}'', regardless of background, can speak fluent Japanese. Even average Americans when the Devil Bats go to America. There's a bit of a hint that the characters are speaking other languages; Only Watt and Mr. Don actually speak Japanese, so implicitly the other American players are all actually speaking English. Also, when Chuubou confronts Rodchenko, Rodchenko remarks that he can't understand his words, but his body language is crystal clear.

* The ''{{Hellsing}}'' dub is very careful to place accents in for color. This doesn't seem to be present in the original.

* In ''{{Shaman King}}'', the entire cast outside of a rather minimal amount of characters are not Japanese, even more so when they move for the majority of the series to America. Despite characters being from a great deal of countries, and despite covering a great deal of specific dialects within that, there is little effort made to distinguish them with voice. Foreign characters speak in fluent, if not at times refined, Japanese except for random sprinklings of their native languages (consisting of perhaps a word or two, maybe a sentence; though this is mostly used for minor characters, and is dropped when the character becomes more important plot-wise). This wouldn't have been such a point of contention were it not for the fact that the vast majority of said international cast had only about a week to realize that they needed to learn Japanese at all; and even then would only have had to use it for a period of maybe 2 weeks.

* All the ethnic characters in ''{{Beyblade}}'' from the Chinese team to to the European team have no trouble communicating with one another and have no audible accents. In the German dub, Enrique has a crazy over-the-top Italian accent. It's cute.

* All the non-Japanese characters in ''Anime/{{Mai-HiME}}''. Particularly obvious when the PhenotypeStereotype-afflicted but otherwise nondescript foot soldiers of the American AncientConspiracy invade the school grounds and have no trouble being understood by anyone.

* ''{{Shenmue}} 2'' takes place in Hong Kong and China, but the main character Ryo Hazuki from Japan has no trouble speaking to anyone.

* This is especially odd in ''ShadowHearts: Covenant''. Since the game takes place during [=WW1=] the other characters decide that they should refrain from using Karin's obviously German name (Koenig)...but don?t even bother to explain why she both understands English in the first place (and Russian, and Japanese, and French...) and speaks it without even the hint of an accent.

* In ''StrikeWitches'', there is absolutely no language barrier between the members of the multinational strike team. Written material is in English, yet at one point characters bicker over use of Japanese honorifics. Even if we assume that they are actually speaking English or their world's equivalent, it is odd that 14-year old rural schoolgirl Yoshika is fully fluent from day one. One possible handwave is that their magical powers automatically translate for them.

* Anthony from ''DokiDokiSchoolHours'' speaks perfect Japanese, especially for a foreign exchange student.

* ''{{Genshiken}}'' features a main character, Ohno, who lived in Massachusetts for roughly 10 years of her youth before returning to Japan for university, and her two American friends Angela and Sue. Ohno's seiyu proves to be particularly bad at speaking in English, not withstanding the translation inconsistencies. Angela and Sue's [=VAs=] are more well-versed in English, but neither of them use an American accent. If anything, Angela sounds more vaguely Eastern European than American. Funnily enough, the best English accent belongs to Kasukabe's seiyu, whose character had been studying at a difficult and prestigious English language school in preparation for her career in the fashion business. It really is amazing how bad the English accents are for these characters, both hilarious and pitiable.

* Averted with Abner Doubleday in ''SamuraiChamploo''. In the original and the dub, he's voiced by Doug Stone, and thus his Japanese is heavily accented.

** [[RebuildOfEvangelion Mari]] who is part-British, doesn't have an accent either. Then again, since little is known about her backstory and she is more comfortable thinking in Japanese (which is why she had the EVA's interface set to Japanese in her first battle), [[JustifiedTrope she might've spent more time in Japan or something like that.]] However, she does get to speak English briefly in one scene, and depending on you much you're willing to suspend disbelief, you could kinda convince your brain that it sorta sounds like a British accent.

** In ''Genshiken Second Season'', all the [=VAs=] are returning characters [[TheOtherDarrin replaced]], and Angela reappears for one episode, forcing Ohno to speak English once again. This go 'round, though, her English is far better; she actually sounds closer to what you'd think a Japanese person who spent ten years in the States would sound like. Angela at least doesn't sound Eastern European anymore... because now she sounds more like a Japanese VA imitating how she ''thinks'' an American would speak based on some old American movies she saw once. Sue has also become a main character by this point, but she too sounds as Japanese as ever.

** In ''Genshiken Second Season'', all the [=VAs=] are returning characters [[TheOtherDarrin replaced]], and Angela reappears for one episode, forcing Ohno to speak English once again. This go 'round, though, her English is far better; she actually sounds closer to someone who has spent ten years in the States. Angela at least doesn't sound Eastern European anymore... because now she sounds more like a Japanese VA imitating how she ''thinks'' an American would speak based on a couple American movies she saw once. Sue has also become a main character by this point, but she too sounds as Japanese as ever.