The reasons many anime fans are upset with western voice actors goes beyond the decades old Sub v Dub debate. That used to be just a critique on performance; a stab at the very campy beginnings of dubbing anime.

Fans, & industry people/VAs like myself feel betrayed... (thread)

...the assumptions I had of cronyism from events I experienced 5+ years ago as an up & coming VA, I once thought was me being maybe a bit too negative. My first VA class in 2009 taught how the anime VA industry was NOT like Hollywood & was more supportive...

..that might have been true then & I know there are indeed still good VAs & teachers in the industry, but we the fans have seen otherwise. Heck, the very sites I was told to use in that very first class, what later got me roles in VA, became vilified in classes I took years later

The industry was changing, the rules were changing and the Hollywood-ness was creeping in. Instead of doing things like what Japan does, like public auditions, group recordings to allow better acting (not just walla), maintaining the same VA for a character, more time to...

..learn the background of the characters: the single booth, union-drama driven, increasingly gate keeping, quick to blacklist mentality took over as the popularity of anime grew. Despite anime voice acting being the second toughest branch of voice acting, it's the least paid*...

..and toughest to get into. *You know that $80 amount CR pays translators? $80 is what anime VAs make an hour. Sounds like a lot but most weekly sessions are maybe 4 hours long. The dream to become an anime VA creates a grooming path of potential financial ruin & pure obedience

You are told to drop $300-$500 for a class, $1500+ for a studio made demo (a demo that usually can only be made after 3+ classes with a studio). If your demo is found to not be from a studio...you are invalid in the eyes of the industry. Don't have the $3K to join SAG? invalid

Live on the East coast or anywhere not Southern California or Dallas Texas (where Funimation is)? No, you need to uproot your life to do what covid proved can be done from home. Go wait tables & maybe we'll let you in a walla group if you are obedient to the company's every whim

...This is why we see many anime voice actors parroting eachother. If they don't, they get put on blacklists; blacklists that are passed around like Pokemon cards were when I was in grade school. Blacklists that are getting easier to get on every year for pure non offenses

So, think about it. You uproot your life for that honest dream, struggle to get in through auditions & the various gates put up that really don't have to be there.

The company says jump and you have to say "how high?" or you are stuck in the streets.

Company/or senior VA: "ugh, look at these toxic fans, right everyone?"

Everyone else: "Yes! "

You: "some fans can be bad but the fans are mostly great & we need them"

Blacklisted

I saw this beginning 5+ years ago. As of about 2 years ago, the fans started to see this...

...they see it in the political script rewrites & overreaching localization. They see it in how once beloved VAs taunt fans & out of the blue have some very unhealthy obsessions with polarizing & demeaning politics...we can even now HEAR the smug in the anime dubbing performances

So, the solution? Well, the PR is a dumpster fire now. To repair it takes weeding out the snakes, respecting the fans, being ACTUALLY 'inclusive': no discriminating on a potential VA's race, wealth, union/nonunion, location or political views & mimic what Japan dubbing does.

Anime fans are not only some of the most diverse fandoms in all of entertainment, they are some of the smartest and most passionate around. Internet culture & the very public adoption of the internet can be attributed to them

...thus why they are also the last group to cross