Casting Gag / Anime

• The English dub of 91 Days, an anime about gangsters during Prohibition era, was directed by Tyler Walker, the ADR director of the English dub of Baccano!, another anime about gangsters during Prohibition era and even stated to have cast anyone who appeared in the Baccano dub to have their characters get killed off in 91 Days. For example, J. Michael Tatum and Caitlin Glass, who voiced Isaac and Miria in Baccano, played Avilio's deceased parents in 91 Days.
• The English dub of Ace Attorney (2016) has Phoenix Wright impersonator Furio Tigre voiced by Sam Riegel, the voice of Phoenix in the video game series this anime is based on.
• Assassination Classroom:
  • In the anime adaptation, Kana Ueda voices Yuzuki Fuwa, the Class E student with a knack for mystery-solving. She previously voiced Yako Katsuragi, the amateur detective and heroine of the author's previous series.
  • Robot Girl Ritsu is played by Saki Fujita, who lent her voice to the most famous Vocaloid, Miku Hatsune.
  • Terasaka is purposely similar in some aspects to Doraemon's Gian, and they ended up sharing the same voice actor, Subaru Kimura.
  • Asano Gakushuu shares the same voice actor as well as the characteristics of being an Academic Alpha Bitch and an Antagonistic Offspring as another famous genius.
  • Takehito Koyasu, who previously voiced Neuro in Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, got cast in a minor villain role as hitman Gastro.
• Attack on Titan: It's not the first time Yu Shimamura has voiced a blonde girl who ends up encasing herself in crystal.
• Season 2 of Beastars introduces the character of Rokume, a rattlesnake who is also the school’s night guard. She just so happens to be voiced by Kujira, who famously voiced Orochimaru in Naruto.
• In the English dub of The Case Study of Vanitas, Chloé and Jean-Jacques are voiced by Brina Palencia and J. Michael Tatum which isn't the first time they voiced a master and a servant in a 19th century setting. On the other hand this isn't also the first time they voiced a duo where one of them turns into a wolf-like creature.
• An early episode of Cat's Eye saw the sisters face off against a French thief known as Lupin's Bride, who was voiced by Eiko Masuyama, the longtime voice actress of Fujiko Mine in the Lupin III franchise.
• Wormmon is voiced in the English dub of Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning by Christopher Swindle, who voiced another Digidestined's insect Digimon partner.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers: Funimation strikes again with an Aaron Dismuke and Maxey Whitehead casting gag. Maxey plays Sealand, a young male micronation, and, in a nod to both their roles as Al from FMA as well as fully utilizing Aaron hitting puberty, he was cast as adult Sealand in the brief Imagine Spot he appears in.
• In Haganai, Yuka Iguchi voices Maria who is basically Index with lavender hair and a dark blue habit.
• Satomi Arai once voiced a lesbian Pettanko character who admires an older-looking lightning user, specifically Kuroko Shirai, and then voiced a different lesbian Pettanko character who admires an older-looking lightning user, namely Shiroyasha.
• Jun Fukuyama, who is known for playing Lelouch in Code Geass, was subsequently been cast as Ryner Lute in The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, another character who possesses a Magical Eye.
  • Dian has the same power, the same motivation, and even a human form that resembles Lelouch, however, he's more sinister and vengeful (in the first series).
  • The Girl Who Leapt Through Space's Leopard is a Brain Colony, which consists basically of an AI that has full control over his body, which is basically a Gundam's space colony, and Leopard's personality is basically that of Lelouch but in an action-comedy setting here.
• In the English version of Code Geass, Johnny Yong Bosch stars as an intelligent and occasionally Necessarily Evil pragmatist whose ideals clash with Yuri Lowenthal, his passionate and idealistic childhood friend. In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Yuri Lowenthal stars as a passionate idealist whose ideals clash with Johnny Yong Bosch, his intelligent and pragmatic childhood friend. Amusingly, while their roles are the same, the "right" and "wrong" sides are reversed.
• In the Kaito Queen novel series, the titular Phantom Thief is noted to be highly androgynous, with their gender being unknown. As such, the OVA adaptation cast Yuga Yamato, a former Takarazuka Revue star known for playing male roles, to voice the character.
• In the English dub of Cowboy Bebop, Daran Norris voices both as Andy, a comical character who is Spike's rival during one episode, as well as the antagonist Vincent in the movie, who is an Evil Counterpart to Spike. Amusingly, the film is chronologically set immediately after the episode Andy appears in, so Spike had to deal with them one after the other.
• Digimon:
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub of Digimon Data Squad, Rolando de la Fuente provided the voice of both Thomas N. Norstein (Foil to series protagonist Marcus Daimon) and Agumon (Marcus's partner) . . . just like in Digimon Adventure, where Uraz Huerta voiced both Yamato "Matt" Ishida (Foil to series protagonist Tai Kamiya) and Agumon (Tai's partner).
  • Digimon Adventure: (2020) has Yuuko Sanpei play Tai. Yuuko played Melodytchi in the anime adaptation of the Tamagotchi franchise, which Digimon was envisioned as a Spear Counterpart for.
• Doctor Slump has Midori Norimaki (née Yamabuki) who was not only modeled after Marilyn Monroe, she was also voiced by Mariko Mukai who's best known for being the Japanese dub voice for Marilyn Monroe (though Mukai only voiced her in the first anime, her extended cameo in Dragon Ball and the original five movies).
• In Dog Days, both Minako Kotobuki and Kana Hanazawa, well known for their roles as Mugi and Kuroneko respectively, voice Action Girl variants of those characters.
• Dragon Ball:
  • One episode of Dragon Ball GT has Earth's fighters evacuating the planet after it's set to explode, one scene has Vegeta arguing with a teenage punk at an arcade who bears a resemblance to Kazuma Kuwabara from YuYu Hakusho, Christopher Sabat voices the character using the same voice he had used for Kuwabara.
  • Dragon Ball Super: In the English dub, when a copy of Vegeta appears, they don't just have Christopher Sabat voice both of them. Instead, Brian Drummond, the voice of Vegeta from the original Ocean dub of Dragon Ball Z, voices Copy-Vegeta. The two characters then proceed to have an argument over which one of them is the real Vegeta.
• Fullmetal Alchemist:
  • Aaron Dismuke did the voice of Alphonse in the English dub of the 2003 anime, but puberty made it impossible for him to reprise the role for Brotherhood—so he did the voice for Al's father, Van Hohenheim, as a young man.
  • Luci Christian, who played the 2003 anime's incarnation of Wrath, provides the voice of the Truth in Brotherhood. Both characters are strikingly similar in that both meet Edward at the Gate of Truth and end up taking his arm and leg for themselves, keeping them until the end of the storylines they appear in (except Wrath loses both limbs while the Truth keeps Ed's leg). Considering the Truth simply shares the same voice actor as the one it appears before it in the original Japanese language, the fact that they had a single person to portray a character that had something in common with one of her earlier roles in the franchise couldn't be called anything less than a tribute.
• Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, who voiced Major Motoko Kusanagi in the English dub of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex voices Kurtusu in Ghost in the Shell: Arise.
• In Guin Saga, Kenyu Horiuchi plays Guin, an amnesiac hero with an animal head in a world with magic on a quest to restore his appearance and memory. In Dorohedoro, he plays En, the leader of magic users who fight an amnesiac hero with an animal head in a world with magic on a quest to restore his appearance and memory.
• Gundam Build Fighters engages in a lot of this by having several characters played by Gundam veterans. However, the biggest example has to be Mr. Ral, who not only looks identical to and acts a lot like Anti-Villain Ramba Ral from the original series, but is played by the same actor, Masashi Hirose. Since the Gundam anime exists in the Build Fighters, this also creates an odd example of Celebrity Paradox.
• Hunter × Hunter: The English dub of the 2011 anime has a few.
  • Cindy Robinson was cast as the Chimera Ant Queen. She had previously played Queen Beryl in Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal. They pretty much have the exact same voice, too.
  • Max Mittelman is the Chimera Ant King, aka Meruem, who's basically the most powerful creature to have ever existed in the HxH world. This is important, you see, because this means the king could kill everybody else with one punch.
  • Todd Haberkorn and Erica Mendez have both voiced characters named Haruka. In this series, since they're enemies (Todd as Arc Villain Genthru and Erica as The Hero Gon), this means they fight each other. It's pretty amusing to see Haru fighting Sailor Uranus. (May even count doubly since Todd is also in SM, but none of his characters interact with either of Erica's).
• In Jewelpet (2009), Mamoru Miyano voiced the Deadpan Snarker secretary agent Keigo Tatewaki. His Comically Serious demeanor brings back Setsuna F. Seiei's portrayal in the CD dramas.
  • Miyuki Sawashiro as well. Her portrayal of Opal in Kira Deco oozes Catherine. Even better, she's the voice of Twilight Sparkle (who'll become an alicorn) in the Japanese dub of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Jotaro, Josuke, and Giorno's voice actors in the anime all share the same surname: Ono (Daisuke Ono for Jotaro, Yuki Ono for Josuke, and Kensho Ono for Giorno).
• In Lucky Star, Konata works in a Cosplay Café and dresses as Haruhi Suzumiya, both characters having been voiced by Aya Hirano, as well as Wendee Lee in the English dubs (though Lucky Star as a whole is full of shout-outs and other things like these).
• Lupin III:
  • Daisuke Jigen, modeled by creator Monkey Punch after the great James Coburn of The Magnificent Seven fame, has been voiced in almost every anime production until 2021 by Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Coburn's designated seiyuu.
  • The English dub of Part 6 has the redheaded waitress from episode 4 (actually Fujiko in disguise, with the real waitress Bound and Gagged in the back of the diner) voiced by Dorothy Elias-Fahn, who previously voiced Fujiko Mine in the Manga Entertainment dub of The Castle of Cagliostro.
  • The prequel Lupin Zero sees Lupin's father voiced by Toshio Furukawa, who infamously Other Darrin'd Yasuo Yamada as Lupin in The Fuma Conspiracy. His grandfather, meanwhile, is voiced by Yoshito Yasuhara, who nearly succeeded Yamada as Lupin's primary seiyuu before losing the role to Kanichi Kurita.
• Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid:
  • Mutsumi Tamura previously played Dejima in Seitokai Yakuindomo, a maid who was in love with her mistress. She ends up playing Kobayashi, a woman whose maid is in love with her.
  • Yūko Gotō is known for playing Mikuru, who was often forcibly dressed up as a maid. Her role as Georgie loves to dress up as and pretend to be a maid.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Graham Akre/Mr. Bushido is played by Yuichi Nakamura, the voice actor. In the 2020 run of the 00 stage play, Bushido is played by...Yuichi Nakamura, the live-action actor best known for his roles in the Kamen Rider franchise.
• My Hero Academia: Hiroshi Tameda, the "can't you see" kid, looks a lot like Natsu Dragneel in the anime. Funimation evidently noticed this and cast Todd Haberkorn as his voice in the dub.
• The English dub of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! gives us Jeannie Tirado who voices Catarina Claes and also voiced Android 21 from Dragon Ball Fighterz. The two characters are very endearing and dorky girls with addictions to sweets in initial villainous roles. The main difference between the two is that Android 21's sweet addiction is played up as Horror Hunger.
• In Naruto, the voice actors of the six dead Jinchuurikis also play their six Bijuus. But they mix up the roles, so none of those Jinchuurikis share his/her voice with his/her own Bijuu. For example, Yondaime Mizukage Yagura's voice actor Miyu Irino plays him and the Rokubi Saiken, Utakata's Bijuu.
• In Neon Genesis Evangelion:
  • A relatively early example of this was the casting of Kotono Mitsuishi as Misato. Hideaki Anno stated that Misato was basically Usagi Tsukino (Mitsuishi's most famous role) if she'd grown up to be a very unhappy adult.
  • Another came when they cast Kyoko Zeppelin (Asuka's mother). Asuka is often seen as a Spiritual Successor to Jung Freud from Gunbuster, so they got Maria Kawamura to play Asuka's mother.
• In One Piece:
  • The Japanese voice actors for the Straw Hat pirates also provide the voices for a group of impostors trying to gain infamy by posing as the Straw Hats. They also mix up who is who, such as Sanji's voice actor playing the fake Luffy or Chopper's as the fake Nami.
  • The Funimation dub maintains that gag with the English voice actors but goes a step further. The voices for Fake Sanji (Christopher Sabat) and Fake Robin (Luci Christian) mimic the voices of the characters from the earlier 4Kids dub (David Moo and Veronica Taylor).
  • When Nami's regular voice actress Akemi Okamura was out on maternity leave, she was temporarily replaced by Wakana Yamazaki, who had already been cast in the series as Nami's sister Nojiko.
• One-Punch Man:
  • There is a minor villain early on who is an ordinary human who has been turned into a hulking giant. Naturally, the English dub got Bryce Papenbrook to play him.
  • Another English dub moment has Vaccine Man, who bears more than a slight resemblance to Piccolo, voiced by Christopher Sabat.
• Atsuko Ishizuka, the director of the anime adaptation of No Game No Life, has previous experience on The Pet Girl of Sakurasou. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and Ai Kayano, who voiced the lead pair of lovers in Sakurasou, would be once again cast to play, in No Game No Life, a pair of gamer-siblings. The gag went further due to the names of the characters involved: Sorata and Mashiro^note "Sky-the-eldest" and "Pure-white" in Sakurasou, and Sora and Shiro^note "Sky" and "White" in No Game No Life.
  • In addition to that, when Sakurasou got an English dub 8 years after its first release, Caitlynn French (Shiro's English voice) also manages to be the voice of Mashiro.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Satoshi Hino provides the voice of Alvin "Purgatory" Godfrey, who is famed for his abilities with fire powers. Godfrey's Nom de Guerre is "Rengoku" in Japanese. Only a couple years earlier, Hino voiced Kyōjurō Rengoku in the anime of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, who likewise has fire-related elemental powers.
• In The Rising of the Shield Hero, Ren Amaki, the Sword Hero, is a Corrupted Character Copy of Kirito from Sword Art Online, being a teenager who enjoys playing VRMMO videogames, has a preference for swords and dresses up in black clothing. Both characters are voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka in their respective anime adaptations.
• When Rurouni Kenshin was first adapted into a Radio Drama, Kaoru, the tomboyish, blue-haired female lead was played by Tomo Sakurai, but the anime recast her with Miki Fujitani. Flash forward to the Kyoto arc, when Kaoru is initially left behind in Tokyo and Kenshin meets up with a tomboyish, blue-haired teenage girl named Misao who the author explicitly pointed out was filling Kaoru's narrative purpose in the meantime... who happened to be voiced by Tomo Sakurai.
• In Sailor Moon Cosmos, Keiko Kitagawa, whose Star-Making Role was Sailor Mars in the live-action Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, voices Sailor Cosmos.
• Seitokai Yakuindomo has Furuya, who enjoys old-world snacks, uses '80s slang, and does her calculations on an abacus . . . even her fanservice is old-school. She's played by Fumi Hirano, best known as the voice of Lum in the '80s series Urusei Yatsura.
• In Spy X Family, Loid and Yor Forger are voiced by Takuya Eguchi and Saori Hayami. AKA Hachiman and Yukino. And to make things more complicated, Fiona Frost (who has a crush on Loid) is voiced by Ayane Sakura who also voices Iroha in OreGairu.
• Stephanie Griffin voiced Himeko Se in AnimEigo's dub of the Vampire Princess Miyu OVA and went on to voice Yukari in Tokyopop's dub of the TV series years later.
• The 2022 remake of Urusei Yatsura brought back Fumi Hirano and Toshio Furukawa, the original voices of Lum and Ataru, respectively, as Lum's mother and Ataru's father.
• The Vision of Escaflowne: the new Funimation dub has decided to cast Vic Mignogna as Folken, who is the older brother of Van. Van is voiced by Aaron Dismuke, who has some experience being the younger brother to Vic's character. In addition, Caitlin Glass plays the love interest to Aaron's character instead of Vic's (in which he and Caitlin voice love interests in Fullmetal Alchemist).
• In Yatterman Night, Eri Kitamura voices a descendant of the original anime's villain, Doronjo. She seems to have switched sides, as just six years earlier, she voiced none other than Doronjo's enemy Yatterman-1 in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. It gets deeper than that: Leopard's mother Dorothy is played by Shizuka Itō, Ai-chan's voice actor from the 2008 series.
• Takehito Koyasu voiced Takuma Saiou from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, who uses a Tarot Cards-based deck filled with the Major Arcana. His particularly favorite card is The World and he enjoys saying and using it a lot. Koyasu would later be the voice of Dio Brando from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, whose minions have Stands related to the Major Arcana and has the power of The World who also enjoys shouting its name and using its power multiple times.

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