Underappreciated Performances

[Critic Chris]

What performances in the world of anime dubbing do you feel are unfairly overlooked and underappreciated? I'll start us off.

Luci Christian as Wrath in Fullmetal Alchemist-Christian already appeared in FMA as the sexy thief Psiren/Clara and a little girl in Episode 5 (I believe she is the girl Ed and Al meet on the train), but she really knocks Wrath out of the park. She often finds herself cast as young children or spunky tomboys, but she gives one of the best performances of her career as Wrath. Christian manages to perfectly balance the more childish aspects of Wrath's personality (tendency to cry, endless curiosity) with his mad temper and barely-concealed, uh, wrath and loathing. When Wrath finds himself in an unusual position in Conqueror of Shamballa (that is, helping Al), Christian tweaks her performance accordingly; she gives us a great, poignant exit for an unexpectedly awesome character, screaming "DO IT!" as Al reluctantly transmutes the bodies of Gluttony and Wrath to open the Gate.

[Splitter]

She sent chills down my spine in that role, especially the scene when Wrath gets his memory back and tells Ed how he's the one that took his arm and leg... Luci is always freakily good though :P

There are plenty of underappreciated performances out there, but rather than mention a single one, I'd like to mention an entire series dub with no awards to it's name yet completely blew me out of the water and delivered stellar performances from all it's players; Gantz

One can't even start to speak of the Gantz dub without speaking of Chris Ayres' first lead role as the nihilistic constantly-horny Kei Kurono. Delivered with as much brazen passion and unbridled vulgarity as one would expect from any high-school kid in today's day and age, Chris nailed every single line of his without shame or restrain. Full-on gusto here where it matter most, and in many cases, it made the show.

Though the supporting cast was solid, I must give props to ADV legends Chris Patton and Greg Ayres as Jouichiro Nishi and Hajime Muroto. Both went outside their comfort zones for this one, playing what could basically be summed up as homicidal maniacs. Patton's monologue about watching people die has always stuck with me as the top skin-crawling moment by actor alone. And Greg was just phenomenal in the final volume, even outdoing his brother and cranking up the psychosis to maximum. It was just insane.

Seriously, Gantz deserved so much more than it got, and everyone here owes it to themselves to watch the dub if they haven't already. One of ADV's finest outings I've ever seen.

[Orihimes_Boyfriend]

Yeah the first time I heard her as Wrath I couldn't believe it was her. She was terrific. Also Tiffany Grant as Marta was a good one a lot of people may over look.

[Profweasel]

David Vincent's performance of Van from Gun X Sword
It was an amazing how there were some of the quiet scenes that had a unique subtly to it. Slight inflection changes. That and the ability to on cue scream "WHERE IS HE? WHERE IS THE CLAW?"