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Should Nomura Have Telephoned Hayden?



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Face My Fears

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Honestly, my heart broke when I found out that Nomura didn't telephone Hayden Panettiere to come back in KHIII to be Kairi. They had the budget to afford her and it was finally the KH game where Kairi got to do stuff. I get that they were in a rush and maybe Hayden's schedule was packed, but it's sad that they didn't even attempt to reach out. So now we're at MoM - the Kairi game - and they didn't even ring Hayden to come back.

Does that mean this new person Alyson will be Kairi moving forward? How do you all feel about that? Should Nomura have telephoned Hayden to at least see if she was interested?
 

Henryp

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I don't think it is Nomura's role to phone any english voice actor. I might be wrong, but it doesn't feel like the director's job.

I see a lot of people asking for Hayden, and I think Alyson did a good job overall? Like I do miss Kairi from KH1, but I always get the impresion it was more because of the voice direction and dialogue itself.

Either way, judging by Panettiere's wikipedia, she hasn't done anything apart from Nashville since 2015/2016. And even Nashville ended on 2018, so even if she said she wasn't asked for KH3, we don't know what happened between 2012 and 2016, as she didn't came back as kairi in 0.2 either.

Alyson have now been voicing Kairi and Xion more than Hayden, so even if Hayden was "the original", I think she deserves to be in Kairi's game.
 

The_Echo

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It's not Nomura's fault. That'd be the localization team.
And if you haven't noticed, SENA doesn't really care as much about KH as we do.

There is a justification in that Kairi and Xion have the same voice actress in Japan, but if that's the case, then they should've made that Hayden, since she's a better fit for Kairi and a better actress overall.
They actually did have her back as Kairi and Xion in BbS and DDD, which were incredibly minor roles.

So when KHIII rolls around and they don't even bother to ask her, I really have no idea what's going on over there.
One of many decisions they've made with this series that I simply don't understand.
 

Foxycian

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I remember Hayden saying that she was told many times that she have to try and sound like a princess whenever she reads the scripts as kairi, that was just unnecessary of the Dub team to suggest that thinking they know what we want.
 

Oracle Spockanort

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Nomura might have initially hand-chosen the voices and does so every now and then if he has a vision of what he wants, but the blame is on Disney and SENA here. They should have reached out to her rather than assume she didn’t want to do the role.

And if this happens to be a situation where they did reach out to her agent/agency and she wasn’t aware, then that’s the fault of her agent keeping her from work.

Nomura doesn’t just pick up the phone and call actors lol
 

Deliverance

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Look at it this way, Hayden will always be remembered for voicing the only good portrayals of Kairi.
 

Elysium

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Look at it this way, Hayden will always be remembered for voicing the only good portrayals of Kairi.
But I'm sure there will always be a subset of the fandom who will argue the lifeless replacement is better than the original, like what happened to Billy Zane.
 

SweetYetSalty

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Look at it this way, Hayden will always be remembered for voicing the only good portrayals of Kairi.
Good portrayals? Kairi has never been a fan favorite whether Hayden voiced her or not. She had many criticisms before Alyson voiced her.

As far as who is voicing Kairi, I have no real preference either way. My favorite Kairi is Manga Kairi where she has no voice at all. That said, I love Hayden's KH1 Kairi, but I grew to enjoy Alyson's Kairi too. I don't know why they didn't contact Hayden, but at this point it's old news.
 

Foxycian

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Good portrayals? Kairi has never been a fan favorite whether Hayden voiced her or not. She had many criticisms before Alyson voiced her.

As far as who is voicing Kairi, I have no real preference either way. My favorite Kairi is Manga Kairi where she has no voice at all. That said, I love Hayden's KH1 Kairi, but I grew to enjoy Alyson's Kairi too. I don't know why they didn't contact Hayden, but at this point it's old news.
Kairi criticisms didn’t really start until after kh2, at the era of Kh1 and kh2 Kairi was loved by many and was a fan favorite to many fans, only when girls like Xion and Aqua (who had more screen time then her) were introduced that people started losing hope in Kairi calling her useless for not doing anything much all These years, tbh kairi’s role started in Kh1 and it felt like it ended in kh2 and we also thought Kh ended in kh2 but the story still goes on, that’s why Kairi needs back her relevance to stand equally with Sora and Riku, MoM is a Good step forward for her, a game story that revolves around her.
 

SweetYetSalty

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Kairi criticisms didn’t really start until after kh2, at the era of Kh1 and kh2 Kairi was loved by many and was a fan favorite to many fans, only when girls like Xion and Aqua (who had more screen time then her) were introduced that people started losing hope in Kairi calling her useless for not doing anything much all These years, tbh kairi’s role started in Kh1 and it felt like it ended in kh2 and we also thought Kh ended in kh2 but the story still goes on, that’s why Kairi needs back her relevance to stand equally with Sora and Riku, MoM is a Good step forward for her, a game story that revolves around her.
I don't think Kairi is useless at all, but I don't think her portrayal in the first two games is better then her portrayal in future games either. For example what did she do in those games that is so iconic compared to KH3? She has always had the same role if the voice actress playing her really makes the difference, then okay. Personally I find KH3 Kairi a improvement over KH2 Kairi.
 

Face My Fears

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I don't think Kairi is useless at all, but I don't think her portrayal in the first two games is better then her portrayal in future games either. For example what did she do in those games that is so iconic compared to KH3? She has always had the same role if the voice actress playing her really makes the difference, then okay. Personally I find KH3 Kairi a improvement over KH2 Kairi.
Hayden performed Kairi with more spunk and attitude, while this new girl sounds high pitched and way too nice/princessy. Hayden managed to sound elegant, but also tough.
 

SweetYetSalty

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Hayden performed Kairi with more spunk and attitude, while this new girl sounds high pitched and way too nice/princessy. Hayden managed to sound elegant, but also tough.
I get that. While I never got a 'tough' vibe from her, she did have the spunk and attitude in her take on Kairi. Especially in KH1. I really like Hayden's Kairi and Kairi in general, but in truth she's been such a secondary character so far, her voice isn't as iconic as say Sora or Riku at least to me.

Say what you will about KH2 Kairi, but I don’t see any other version squaring up against Siax and two Berserker nobodies with no weapon or battle experience.
A animal, regardless how small, will defend itself when backed into a corner against whatever is attacking it. That does not necessarily make the animal amazing. That's survival instincts. KH2 Kairi squaring off against Saix and two Berserker Nobodies does not make her a better portrayal then Kairi actually fighting in KH3.
 

Sign

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I'm uh, pretty sure we've had this discussion before, Face My Fears.

What makes you think Nomura is going around personally contacting overseas actors about being involved in these games? It's not only not his job, but he has tons of other things to do and he doesn't understand or speak English. If you have a bone to pick, take it up with the casting director at SENA, or even Hayden's manager/agent in the off chance that they did reach out and the role was refused without her knowledge.

Hayden performed Kairi with more spunk and attitude, while this new girl sounds high pitched and way too nice/princessy. Hayden managed to sound elegant, but also tough.

"This new girl" lol what year is this?

You don't have to like Alyson's performance but show a little respect.
 

Oracle Spockanort

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Hayden performed Kairi with more spunk and attitude, while this new girl sounds high pitched and way too nice/princessy. Hayden managed to sound elegant, but also tough.

Can we not call Alyson Stoner “this new girl” when she’s been around forever?

"This new girl" has been around for 11 years and has a much broader voice acting career than Hayden. Alyson was fine, the problem isn't with her performance but the direction she received from the voice director who has been trying to push for that nice/princessy sound since KH2. They don't want Kairi to sound spunky and have attitude or sound tough. They want her to sound cutesy and soft.

Alyson's performance as Xion is great, so this isn't a lack of talent but a guided choice by the Japanese voice director who sits in on the recordings and Bob Buchholz.

I don't agree with it, but can we stop pinning blame on all of the wrong parties here?
 
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SweetYetSalty

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Can we not call Alyson Stoner “this new girl” when she’s been around forever?

"This new girl" has been around for 11 years and has a much broader voice acting career than Hayden. Alyson was fine, the problem isn't with her performance but the direction she received from the voice director who has been trying to push for that nice/princessy sound since KH2. They don't want Kairi to sound spunky and have attitude or sound tough. They want her to sound cutesy and soft.

Alyson's performance as Xion is great, so this isn't a lack of talent but a guided choice by the Japanese voice director who sits in on the recordings and Bob Buchholz.

I don't agree with it, but can we stop pinning blame on all of the wrong parties here?
I didn't know they actually wanted Kairi to sound cutesy and soft. In the original Japanese version of KH1, was Kairi spunky and attitude like she was in the English version?
 

Oracle Spockanort

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I didn't know they actually wanted Kairi to sound cutesy and soft. In the original Japanese version of KH1, was Kairi spunky and attitude like she was in the English version?

She just sounds like any other excitable kid in the first game. They wanted her to sound more soft and princessy in KH2, which was clearly done to show how she became more mature while Sora and Riku were gone.

Here is Hayden's interview where she briefly mentions how they kept telling her to raise her voice up to make it more airy and princessy.

 

NoWay

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Just a side note: Kairi’s German voice is really sexy. And I mean it. She sounds so attractive and mature in the German version of KH2. Her voice is also a lot deeper than the English versions.

I’m also okay with Alyson and Hayden. I really don’t mind who voices Kairi because I couldn’t even tell the difference because she has so little screentime.
 
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Foxycian

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I Do like Alyson and I admit I didn’t enjoy her performance as Kairi before to the point I thought she ruined the character but now I do like her voice (I still prefer Hayden as Kairi) Alyson is a great voice actress, the problem is that Kairi sounding cutesy and girly feels out of character specially when you see her in Kh1 (and kh2 manga Kairi) but realistically Kairi did grow, her being Girly does also happen to many girls in real life so we can’t dismiss this fact that people do change With time, well let’s be grateful Hayden replacement is actually a talented voice actress.
 
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