Author Topic: What accent do you picture the girls with?  (Read 6354 times)

Lt Colonel Summers

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What accent do you picture the girls with?
« on: November 10, 2014, 09:01:40 AM »
Basically, I'm asking you guys and girls to see what accent do you picture the girls with when they speak.

My portrayals:
Reimu - Japanese, of course.
Marisa - Southern Bostonian. Yes, I know she's Japanese.
Yukari - New Yorker. Gap Hag looked absolutely nothing like a Japanese, and my fanfic "Fantasy Blitzkrieg" Race Lifted Maribel from European to American.
Meiling - Mainland Chinese.
Alice - British. I know some of you don't think she's a Brit.
Cirno - Italian. Don't ask why...
Letty - Also American.

What are your portrayals?
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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #1 on: November 10, 2014, 10:46:20 AM »
But what if you never heart a dialect or accent before? How to even picture it? (Since you mentioned 'New Yorker' and just regular 'American' for Letty.

Also, I am pretty sure China,  Japan, UK, etc has various dialects/accents depending on region/location. (Which pretty much goes for any country). Hell, in NL we have different accents for people from Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The HAGue.

Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #2 on: November 10, 2014, 12:15:20 PM »
I expect them all have the same Japanese accent as ZUN's

Tengukami

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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2014, 01:11:07 PM »
Now here's something I never asked myself before.

When I read the game dialogue, I am reading it in English. So the voice I hear in my head is also speaking English. They don't have different "accents" to me but they do have different vocal affectations: Marisa is a bit gruff and tomboyish, Reimu speaks distinctly, Yuyuko has this kind of light-hearted flighty tone, and so forth.

Also, I am pretty sure China,  Japan, UK, etc has various dialects/accents depending on region/location. (Which pretty much goes for any country). Hell, in NL we have different accents for people from Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The HAGue.

Certainly true, too. It's interesting to see sometimes what people mean when they refer to an "American accent", considering the accents in the US are so varied that some people from different regions would have great difficulty understanding each other. But I think what most people mean by "American accent" is General American, also known as "newscaster English"; that kind of non-regional, non-distinct American English that everyone speaks on TV and in movies from the US.

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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2014, 01:26:53 PM »
In my head most of them don't have accents, but I imagine Remilia and Patchouli as French and Sakuya as British. Everyone else is central American because I mostly read accents dialectically and nobody else is written with an obvious dialect. Except Marisa I guess, Bostonian does make a lot of sense for her.
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aListers

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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #5 on: November 11, 2014, 08:02:39 AM »
It's hard to try and figure out because it changes when you think about it too hard. I'm going to put everybody that I can figure out. Plus these may be biased due to me being Scottish.

Marisa (at least from ESOD) - Some kind of American. It seems casual.
Reimu - a very light British (as in BBC British) accent
Meiling - British
Patchouli - English - received pronunciation
Sakuya - light British with a slight hint of posh Scottish for some reason
Remilia - Queen's English
Flandre - light British with a hint of Scottish again
Alice- BBC British
Youmu - posh Scottish (I think)
Yukari - Queen's English
Suika - Casual American
Letty - BBC British
Lunasa - British
Merlin - British
Lyrica - Posh Scottish
Yuyuko - Received Pronunciation
Wriggle - Hint of American
Mystia - BBC British
Keine - British
Tewi - Some kind of American
Reisen - British
Eirin - American British (as in the British accents that bad guys have in movies)
Kaguya - Received pronunciation
Aya - General American
Komachi - BBC British
Eiki - similar accent to my Grandma who's from Hong Kong.
Minoriko - BBC British
Hina - British
Nitori - American (possibly new York)
Sanae - BBC British
Kanako - American British
Mokou - Scottish (somewhere between posh and polite)
Ran - BBC British
Suwako - Some kind of American
Iku - British
Tenshi - BBC British
Yamame - British
Parsee - General Scottish
Satori - Some kind of posh English accent
Orin - light Southern American
Okuu - British
Nazrin - British
Kogasa - British
Ichirin - BBC British
Murasa - British
Shou - BBC British
Byakuren - BBC British
Star Sapphire - Received Pronunciation
Sunny Milk - A weird mix of British and American
Kyouko - Some kind of American
Seiga - American British
Futo - received pronunciation
Miko - BBC English
Tojiko - Received pronunciation
wakasagihime - BBC British
Sekibanki - BBC British
Kagerou - BBC British
Seija - BBC British
Shinmyoumaru - BBC British.
Akyuu - BBC British
Kokoro - BBC British
Mamizou - BBC British
Yuuka - Received Pronunciation.

I may add more when I have time to figure out what they are.

Of course, these are Based soley on their dialogue (or the translation at least) and the look of their character causing an initial impression on me. My prejudice caused these accents to be placed on the characters. I haven't thought long and hard on what their accent should be - this is simply prejudice.
« Last Edit: November 11, 2014, 08:06:37 AM by aListers »
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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #6 on: November 11, 2014, 08:54:28 AM »
Reimu, most Youkai: Japanese. Varying dialects. Traditional styles.

Sanae: More modern Japanese dialects

Marisa: American Accent since she is western-themed.

Meling: Chinese

Alice: French

Remilia/Flandre: Romanian. Because of Remi's claim of Vlad Tepes, she'd probobly ham it up to make it seem more real. And Flan would imitate her.

Youmu: Traditional Samurai-style speech

Sakuya: 1880's London [Jack the Ripper...]

Kaguya: Formal Japanese

Mokou: Informal Japanese


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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #7 on: November 11, 2014, 01:54:56 PM »
Seiga - American British

What the great googly-moogly is American British.

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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #8 on: November 11, 2014, 03:26:20 PM »
What the great googly-moogly is American British.

As explained earlier, it's movie bad guy british. I was told by sombody that it didn't actually sound british so I've put it down as american british to avoid confusion.
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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #9 on: November 11, 2014, 03:32:12 PM »
So you mean a poorly acted and contrived British accent? OK.

Oh, also:

Remilia/Flandre: Romanian. Because of Remi's claim of Vlad Tepes, she'd probobly ham it up to make it seem more real. And Flan would imitate her.

Just out of curiosity, do you know any Romanians? Because their accent isn't like Bela Lugosi or other Hollywood vampires. It sounds very Latin (as it should, being Latinate and all).

You guys have some pretty active imaginations!

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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #10 on: November 13, 2014, 11:31:49 AM »

Mokou: Informal Japanese
Considering Mokou was the daughter of a noble, I would think that her Japanese would be fairly formal as well.

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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #11 on: November 13, 2014, 12:00:22 PM »
Considering Mokou was the daughter of a noble, I would think that her Japanese would be fairly formal as well.
Same could be said about Chiko as well. But yea, the dialogues speak for themselves.

Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #12 on: November 13, 2014, 06:54:01 PM »
I don't have many specific ones. I don't know the varying dialects of Japan and all the dialogue I read in have is in English so the girls get accents I'm familiar with.

I've read Orin and Kogasa's dialogue with a Southern belle accent. Not Yeehaaw! Texan southern, that's for Marisa.

And Sanae, too, gets a Southern accent, like Georgian but more Valley girl. "Like, miracles and stuff, y'all!"

Eirin gets a German mad scientist inflection.

Youmu gets whatever accent that Inigo Montoya had from The Princess Bride movie.

Oddly, I don't see any of then having a British accent. Except maybe Futo.

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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #13 on: November 13, 2014, 09:52:47 PM »
Might give this a gander, though admittedly this is more tied to character voices than actual dialects. GJ me. U:

Marisa: Tomboyish impressions of western movie cowboys. I can also imagine some Spanish loanwords being thrown in there.
Meiling: Hong Kong English + Cantonese.
Sakuya: Femspy.
Remilia: Dutch as her primary language, with a Brussels dialect.
Alice: Definitely a British one, probably a Northern English or Manchester-area dialect.
Yuyuko: I can't decide between a Heavy-like or Coach-like voice.
Suika: Demoman, enough said. :V
Tewi: Max from Sam & Max.
Reisen: Sam from Sam & Max.
Eirin: MEEEEEEDIIIIIIIC!
Yuka: I like calling her Irish or Bavarian. No clue why.
Eiki: Makes sense to me....
Sanae: Relaxed and cheery west coast American dialect.
Kanako: Harsh and calculating voice, possibly raspy - the Administrator maybe? Also add some of Father Grigori's ranting.
Yuugi: Saxton Hale. No question about this.
Koishi: Why is it that I want to associate her voice with that of the Earl of Lemongrab?
Kogasa: For some reason I put her with a rural Kansai dialect.
Seiga: MERASMUS IS HERE! I have no idea why....:V
Miko: Formal and ancient Japanese, such as that spoken in historical TV drama.
Kagerou: Rural Canadian English. Maybe I'm taking too much of a cross-reference with Wolverine. :V
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Bad command or file name

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KrackoCloud

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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #14 on: November 13, 2014, 10:54:46 PM »
Am I the only one who doesn't think of Marisa's accent as American? Maybe more like... Scottish, or something. <:U

And Hatate gets valley girl. Nothing else will do.

achicken

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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #15 on: November 14, 2014, 07:12:59 AM »
I don't normally picture accents, I picture what kind of speech patterns they'll have and match them to the closest character. It's more useful that way since the majority of the mythos is oriental.

Off the top of my head:

Reimu - Hotaro Oreki (Hyoka main character)
Marisa - New Orleans, or Salem. She most possibly had a Rastafarian ancestor, which fits her 'Da Ze'.
Sanae - Suzumiya Haruhi
Sakuya - Currently Sebastian, the Black Butler. In EoSD, she was Gotoh, the Zoldyck family chief butler. There are many maids and butlers with subservient attitudes, but these two match the best.
Youmu - is Sanger Zonvolt, the sword that cleaveth evil^H falsehood. (Not his alter universe equivalent, Wodin)
China - Jet Li's interpretation of Huang Feihong
Patchy - Ruri Hoshino (Nadesico)
Remilia - she decidedly has a transylvanian accent, and wouldn't be out of place in Dracula. Once in awhile she loses her patience and degenerates into Agito from Air Gear.
Flandre - also has a transylvanian accent. She's Elmira from Tiny Toons.
Cirno - Dan Hibiki :3
Daiyousei - Mikiru
Rumia - Painis Cupcake, (TF2 freak fortress monster)
Kanako - BRIAN BLESSED
Suwako - Konata (Lucky Star). This sort of thing is family :3
Yuugi - Yes I agree she's SAXTON HALE
Suika - Dic Soupcan (TF2 Freak Fortress)
Koishi - Eric Idle (Monty Python)
Satori - Professor X from the 90s X-men cartoon
Nitori - Inspector Gadget
Aya - April O' Niel (TMNT)

Yukari - Once I realized she was Mary Poppins...

« Last Edit: November 14, 2014, 07:17:01 AM by achicken »

Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #16 on: November 16, 2014, 05:52:29 PM »
Great idea, I think whoever wants to do a fandub with Touhou animes can come over here to have some advices :)

By the way, I think Marisa's accent will be somewhere about Europe, since I guess they're more familiar with the image of witches than American
Also, the Komeji sister can have the accent like nobles from the Mid-Age in Europe (Since Chireiden is described as a Western castle, if I remember correct)
People from Eitei, Senkai and Myouren will speak acient Japanese, like most of Gensokyo residents
The Moriya residents will speak mordern Japanese (Sanae may know English, since she went to school, maybe)
Alice can speak English, but I'm not sure if it is modern English or acient English (They're diferrent)


IDe

Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #17 on: November 17, 2014, 04:38:04 PM »
As said before I haven't really pictured them speaking, but if I had to assign accents, they'd all be general Japanese, aside from those who are older or high class like Remilia/Sakuya on the other hand I really can't imagine even relatively old ones like Mokou or Kaguya speaking classical Japanese. And no one is speaking Osaka/Kansai/etc. -ben.

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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #18 on: November 24, 2014, 05:50:56 AM »
I sometimes picture Suika with an irish or scottish accent. I don't know why.

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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #19 on: December 10, 2014, 10:03:43 PM »
It'd be easier to list what ethnicity I think they are than the accent.  Plus I figure most characters would use a unique, Japanese-based dialect due to how long Gensokyo has been disconnected from the rest of the world.

Remi & Flan -- Danish
Sakuya -- North German
Patchy -- North Italian
Meiling -- Chinese
Alice -- Romanian
The Prismrivers -- English
Parsee -- Persian

Sanae, Kanako, & Suwako -- Toukai?Tousan dialect, Shinshuu variant
Mamizou -- Hokuriku dialect, Sado variant

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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #20 on: December 10, 2014, 11:30:09 PM »
Given the fact that I don't know much about different accents (aside from the fact that me pronouncing water as "wahter" instead of "wutter" is unnatural for the area I live in), I can only imagine Marisa with a southern accent and Sakuya and Remi with British ones. What can I say, I like those accents.

Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #21 on: December 10, 2014, 11:51:01 PM »
When I read the game dialogue, I am reading it in English. So the voice I hear in my head is also speaking English. They don't have different "accents" to me but they do have different vocal affectations: Marisa is a bit gruff and tomboyish, Reimu speaks distinctly, Yuyuko has this kind of light-hearted flighty tone, and so forth.

This, pretty much. I read them with sorta accentless english with variations mostly coming from the tone, inflection, pitch, and speech style (informal, gruff, refined, etc).
Marisa naturally uses an energetic, gruff, tomboyish style, with a lower-than-average pitch (that part comes from the tendency for her to be voiced as such in fan made stuff like fantasy kaleidoscope), informal and casually disrespectful, youthful rather than girlish;
Yukari uses that refined japanese noblewoman style of speech that endeavours to reveal nothing about what they actually think or feel, affected, obvious fake surprise/confusion, that sorta thing. The kind that makes communication sound like a verbal spar instead of a conversation. When she's in a lighter mood, its the same thing but with a more affectionate and/or teasing tone. Yuyuko is similar to Yukari with added mirth, and so forth.

The only one I can think of that I wouldn't assume is just the typical reading would probably be Orin, who reads as using "cliche delinquent Japanese" for some reason.

If I had to assign actual accents to them, the mentioned four work with "anime japanese" since those speech styles are pretty prevalent in that medium.

I think I'll just give everyone accents next time I play through one of the games. Yukari as upper class British, Marisa as some American casually in-your-face accent, Alice as either upper class British or Northern Irish (that one with the soft lilt) except for in IN, where it'd be more of a valley girl thing, and gaelic for the Oni, why not.
I'd probably say French for the vampire duo, though given their spell cards a norse-derived accent would be neato. Oh, and Patchouli using lazy Australian (start with a mild english accent, then kinda push the words out instead of properly enunciating, drop any unnecessary phonemes, make up words or phrases to fill the gap when you can't immediately think of the proper one, and expect the other party to figure it out from context. If they can't keep up, eh, their loss) shall verily be a thing.

Also Russian Eirin because Yagokoro.

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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #22 on: December 11, 2014, 12:52:38 AM »
I think I'll just give everyone accents next time I play through one of the games. Yukari as upper class British, Marisa as some American casually in-your-face accent, Alice as either upper class British or Northern Irish (that one with the soft lilt) except for in IN, where it'd be more of a valley girl thing, and gaelic for the Oni, why not.
I'd probably say French for the vampire duo, though given their spell cards a norse-derived accent would be neato. Oh, and Patchouli using lazy Australian (start with a mild english accent, then kinda push the words out instead of properly enunciating, drop any unnecessary phonemes, make up words or phrases to fill the gap when you can't immediately think of the proper one, and expect the other party to figure it out from context. If they can't keep up, eh, their loss) shall verily be a thing.

Also Russian Eirin because Yagokoro.

I like this idea. So, going with Imperishable Night Magic Team:

Marisa: Deep South. Twangy and nasal as hell.
Alice: Posh south England accent.
Wriggle: Caribbean English.
Mystia: Catalan.
Keine: Polish (Warsaw dialect).
Reimu: West African French (e.g. Ivory Coast, Cameroon).
Tewi: Central American Spanish.
Reisen: Urdu.
Eirin: Sure, why not Russian.
Kaguya: Turkish.

For whatever reason, I imagine Chen talking with a lisp ("th" for "s" variety), kind of like Sylvester from Looney Tunes.

"Human history and growth are both linked closely to strife. Without conflict, humanity would have no impetus for growth. When humans are satisfied with their present condition, they may as well give up on life."

Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #23 on: December 11, 2014, 10:15:50 PM »
Everyone speaks with a boring American accent.
This is a consequence of my brain always reading English in a boring American accent, regardless of the nationality of the writer or character.
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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #24 on: December 15, 2014, 12:35:40 AM »
Most characters wind up sounding British or American when I read their dialogue, though there are some exceptions:

Australian: Seija (speaks like Crocodile Dundee), Sekibanki, Cirno, Sunny Milk, Yoshika (whose accent is very phony)
Scottish: Marisa (with a hint of German), Mamizou, Patchy
German: Futo (exaggerated for comical effect), Alice, Eirin, Tewi
Russian: Wriggle, Momiji

Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #25 on: December 30, 2014, 05:43:38 AM »
Most with Japanese or American accent
Alice: British
Prismrivers: German
Yuyuko: Swedish
Nitori: Chinese...

Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #26 on: January 02, 2015, 03:54:44 AM »
Now that I really pay attention, they all have the same accent as me. Wait, no, they all have the exact same voice as me. How creepy -_-

Exceptions!
Patchouli is voiced by Lady Bernkastel
Cirno talks as she does in Cirno's Perfect Math Class
Marisa has something of a gruff voice, I can't explain it
Sanae is voiced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Kanako is voiced by Galadriel
Remilia, Flandre, Suwako, and Koishu are all voiced by Nui Harime
Nitori talks as she does in that "Nitori, Nitori, get more than you payed for with Nitori" video
Satori is voiced by Yuki Nagato
Ichirin is voiced by the Safe Side Super Chick
Mamizou is voiced by Lady Beatrice
Seija is voiced by Ryuko Matoi
My name is Tres. It sounds like "Tray". Tressert is "Tray-zurt"; like Tres dessert.
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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #27 on: January 02, 2015, 07:14:18 AM »
Seija is voiced by Ryuko Matoi

You mean Ryuko is voiced by Seija. Seija existed since August; Ryuko existed since October.


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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #28 on: January 02, 2015, 08:45:44 AM »
You mean Ryuko is voiced by Seija. Seija existed since August; Ryuko existed since October.
Except that it was reversed, meaning it was wrong right. This is confusing.

Personally I can see her voiced by Ladd Russo!Keiji Fujiwara in some parody MAD
Also Satori comes across more as a Haibara from Detective Conan than a Rei clone

There needs to be a voice actor thread somewhere
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Re: What accent do you picture the girls with?
« Reply #29 on: January 02, 2015, 12:09:10 PM »
There needs to be a voice actor thread somewhere
Here you go.