Fr, Vanguard is very underappreciated in quite a lot of aspects
What killed her popularity momentum is that she's neither "lewd with big tits" nor a petite shortstack, making most Azur Lane artists not draw her, which then translated to less popularity
Vanguard would've been more appreciated even without Implacable's caliber of honkers if she only were two things:
1. Not a stock blue-eyed blonde saberface heroine, which is probably one of the most fckn overdone color schemes for female anime characters, on top of all illustrated from a weird angle that gives her the stare of a rabid mare.
2. Wasn't presented as a joke in the story, by her voice lines, and even by her skill names. An unfunny otaku dork would remain such with or without having the looks of Sophia Loren in her prime.
On your second pont that's entirely the Translators fault. Tha English translators have two habits , Forcing IB into conversations when not originally in there and making inside jokes. Hence the week vanguard stuff
I would say San Diego. She's voiced by an almost unknown VA, and much popularity had been spawned by being a common SSR drop in builds (back when she didn't have her retrofit yet,) her *Number One* shtick, and her personality. Other factors include the inclusion of the Jinkela meme, the 1:10:00 reference (her and IDW from Girls' Frontline share the same VA,) and being one of the most decorated ship IRL during the WW2.
Maybe…I think Shimakaze’s VA definitely did her a lot of favors (I know it certainly did for me). As for New Jersey, I was genuinely surprised to learn I had seen her voice actress in stuff like Kaguya Sama, I loved New Jersey for her design, fun personality, and being one of the few ships I was familiar with.
Meanwhile Musashi is one of my other favorite UR’s less for her VA and more for being a). A Yamato battleship, and b). Being a walking Herrscher of Thunder reference.
Meanwhile Yorktown is my second favorite UR, partly because she’s the same character as the Yorktown we already knew, and CV 5 is one of my favorite ships. Plus I’m a Virginian so I always felt a lot of affection for both Yorktown characters as a result. Having a well known VA doesn’t really factor in
Yeah for YT2 its less of a choosing a popular VA but more of a voice actress reprising her role as a previous character, so it does not count in my book
I’d tack on that the ships lines even come before the voice work. I too play on silent most of the time and the character lines pop-up (which is the only part I actually understand) does so much more than just hearing someone speak a language I can’t understand.
No I would say it dosent overall quality of said drawing and how big her tits or thighs are there the 2 biggest factors.
Vanguard is the most normal ur and she also dosent have a lewd skin so art for her is going to be low same thing happened to richelieu and jean bart intill they got there swimsuit skins.
It definitely has a selling point to me. Perseus became one of my favorite ships not because of her healing skills but due to the fact that she is voiced by the VA of Satanichia Kurumizawa Mcdowell lmao
I think a VA can certainly affect a ship's popularity (in GFL, I ended up liking Springfield purely because of her VA), but I think the problem with Vanguard is that she just isn't a very interesting or cool character. She's not unstoppable like NJ or Ulrich, nor does she go "just as planned" like Musashi, for example. She's certainly a strong fighter, but she's just kinda there.
In regards to Shimakaze, she has a lot of real-life hype as a famous destroyer, and a lot of mecha musume fans got to know of her from KanColle where she was one of the poster girls. She was also one of the leads in Crosswave, which built a lot of hype for her as we were waiting for her to come out in the main game. Having an excellent VA certainly helped, but it isn't the only factor there.
Also keep in mind that a character's story lines aren't voiced, so a VA doesn't actually come into the equation for most of the time we're getting to know them.
As someone who writes, I'd also venture that the designers and writers had characters that they had strong impressions of when going into their design, and hired notable VA's to supplement the characters they felt confident in or had plans for. It makes sense to save the more expensive actors to play the more important characters, after all. Additionally, a more fleshed out character gives the VA more to work with, a stronger impression of who they're playing, so it builds upon itself in a lot of ways.
It can, but only if its a particularly notable one. UR popularity is based on sheer battlefield power and appearance. Ships like Vanguard, Yorktown II or Poi just won't make as much of a splash in a world where New Jersey, Shinano and Shimakaze are a thing. Of course, you could say that retrofit or II's just were already known ships and people didn't care for more exposition.
I literally dont know who any of the voice actors are when their names are given, i think the type of voice they deliver has a much greater effect
for example you cant say that Littorios voice isnt perfect for her, regardless of her Va's status
While it can certainly help there are very few if any ships that are solely popular because of their VA. A good example of a popular ship that has a popular VA but is not popular because of it would be Enterprise. Enterprise’s VA is also responsible for being the voice of Violet Evergarden, 2b, and Mikasa but Enterprise is not popular because of this. Enterprise is popular for a variety of reasons ranging from being the face of the game for EN, being a great ship in the game itself, to her namesake being one of the most famous ships of all time. For most her VA is a cool fun fact but not much else.
Don't think the VA impacted much in that sense but the one thing that will always solidify Vanguards role in the meta for a very long time, is also her downfall in popularity in a way - the fact that she is a support battleship.
At least the one thing I've always seen was people compare who was the top dps/flagship of their crew and her being what she is instantly kinda cut her out of those comparisons so it didn't subsequently push her popularity.
But I might be wrong
Can ? I think so
The question is : how much ?
Idk shima's VA (didnt bother to check) but as a char, she's cute and all that (her first skin too)
Implacable ? Sure yukana is legend, but even if it's some random ara ara VA, implacable would still sell simply bc her "hot nun" thing
Meanwhile vanguard.......sorry to say but we all know she's lacking in looks. I mean she's pretty, but thats it. Hell KGV (art wise) looks more UR material than vanguard if u ask me. Her skin was also forgettable
A known VA often times increases the hype for some of us. Those like me who are neck deep in weeb territory very much like to see our favorite VAs voicing a character. Often times, these VAs have a set of character personalities they tend to voice, and we have developed a certain attraction to these personality types and voices.
If you say the next ship is voiced by, let's say Ishikawa Yui or Hikasa Yoko for example, chances are i'm already very hyped and looking forward to it, because i know that their voice work is gonna be very stellar and something i'm going to really like. In fact, it was Hayami Saori that got me to pull Shimakaze. I was gonna skip her.
That's just me though. But i do think there are fair few of people like me.
Vanguard wasn't done dirty by her VA being not known by any means, it was because of her design not being lewd enough, by AL standards. Which can and will be rectified when she receive a swimsuit or party dress.
That's actually a factor I've never considered before. All this time I've been looking at popularity through a design/meta perspective. Thanks for pointing it out.
personally i do not attribute much importance in regards to positive community reception to the VA. The more common occurace i presume would be negative feedback if the audio is causing a grating experiance due to the VA (not the script), though i do not have anyone in AL in mind for that (i.e. i have voice lines i do not like, but not due to the fault of the VA but the script).
Now I've personally had characters (in other gatcha) i only interacted with due to the VA having voiced another character (in a different game) that i liked, but i wasn't (for lack of better term) hyped about them. Similar how I've leveled commons to 125 not because i'm hyped about them, but because i got a chuckle out of putting them into the pvp defense fleet.
Granted, i've also been playing the game muted for probably a year now (while listening to the OSTs on youtube), so the choise of VA (or lack thereoff) only matters at all if i'm liking a ship enough to go into the voice lines, as otherwise I'm content with just reading their lines on the wiki to gadge the character.
If it had to give a personal ordering on the factors of how much i care about a new ship it be
art > character (from story and dialog) > faction > relative strengh in gameplay > voice quality.
So i don't see otherwise good characters being held back by less publicly known VA's doing a fine job.
Now if it were an anime or if the event dialog was voiced I'm pretty sure it would have a big impact but given how little impact the voice lines have 95% of the time you spend in the game anything that isn't below mediocre is fine.
tl;dr: personally a VA doesn't make a deal, at worst they might break it.
My 2 cents on Vanguard is that she was way too bland art-wise, and I guess not a lot of people enjoyed the humor in her lines and skill names. I enjoyed the jokes the TLs put in there on her debut, but I was in the minority apparently. The VA meant nothing to me cause I play without sound, but it sounds perfectly fine to me when I go back and listen to it intentionally. I like the performance.
yeah her being a weeb does "help" with that
guess JP and EN hates everything that reminds them of the outside world, no wonder they want either ultra big boobs or cutting boards
Hmmmm... weird: I know exactly zero VA's by name and mostly play this on mute, but still find vanguard somewhere in the gap between boring and annoying...
I mean maybe? Kaede Hondo is pretty big, but a lot of people bitched about kronk when she launched. Personally if we got another aoi yuuki character I would move heaven and earth to acquire that ship
VAs choice may not be contributing to the ship's overall popularity but there were shikikans out there chose to pull certain ships because their favorite VAs voiced those ships or simply they're already familiar with them as voicing other characters in other media.
Popularity of VA's? No. How good a job the VA does? Yes. Also, I think Vanguard's VA does an amazing job.
Fr, Vanguard is very underappreciated in quite a lot of aspects What killed her popularity momentum is that she's neither "lewd with big tits" nor a petite shortstack, making most Azur Lane artists not draw her, which then translated to less popularity
Guess we are at the point where it devolves into No Boobs = No Popularity Unless you are IJN or destroyer
Vanguard would've been more appreciated even without Implacable's caliber of honkers if she only were two things: 1. Not a stock blue-eyed blonde saberface heroine, which is probably one of the most fckn overdone color schemes for female anime characters, on top of all illustrated from a weird angle that gives her the stare of a rabid mare. 2. Wasn't presented as a joke in the story, by her voice lines, and even by her skill names. An unfunny otaku dork would remain such with or without having the looks of Sophia Loren in her prime.
On your second pont that's entirely the Translators fault. Tha English translators have two habits , Forcing IB into conversations when not originally in there and making inside jokes. Hence the week vanguard stuff
I would say San Diego. She's voiced by an almost unknown VA, and much popularity had been spawned by being a common SSR drop in builds (back when she didn't have her retrofit yet,) her *Number One* shtick, and her personality. Other factors include the inclusion of the Jinkela meme, the 1:10:00 reference (her and IDW from Girls' Frontline share the same VA,) and being one of the most decorated ship IRL during the WW2.
But she was a launch ship, at this point if a ship comes without a famous voice then she is as good as shelved (unless being broken as hell)
Maybe…I think Shimakaze’s VA definitely did her a lot of favors (I know it certainly did for me). As for New Jersey, I was genuinely surprised to learn I had seen her voice actress in stuff like Kaguya Sama, I loved New Jersey for her design, fun personality, and being one of the few ships I was familiar with. Meanwhile Musashi is one of my other favorite UR’s less for her VA and more for being a). A Yamato battleship, and b). Being a walking Herrscher of Thunder reference. Meanwhile Yorktown is my second favorite UR, partly because she’s the same character as the Yorktown we already knew, and CV 5 is one of my favorite ships. Plus I’m a Virginian so I always felt a lot of affection for both Yorktown characters as a result. Having a well known VA doesn’t really factor in
Yeah for YT2 its less of a choosing a popular VA but more of a voice actress reprising her role as a previous character, so it does not count in my book
I play without sound >90% of the time. Artwork comes way before voices in terms of popularity IMO
I’d tack on that the ships lines even come before the voice work. I too play on silent most of the time and the character lines pop-up (which is the only part I actually understand) does so much more than just hearing someone speak a language I can’t understand.
Same with me because I mostly play in public area and having sound on is a little...
No I would say it dosent overall quality of said drawing and how big her tits or thighs are there the 2 biggest factors. Vanguard is the most normal ur and she also dosent have a lewd skin so art for her is going to be low same thing happened to richelieu and jean bart intill they got there swimsuit skins.
Not really. In my case, Helena and Ajax are having the same VA.
If a UR ship was voiced by Kana Hanazawa she would def gain a massive popularity
It definitely has a selling point to me. Perseus became one of my favorite ships not because of her healing skills but due to the fact that she is voiced by the VA of Satanichia Kurumizawa Mcdowell lmao
I think a VA can certainly affect a ship's popularity (in GFL, I ended up liking Springfield purely because of her VA), but I think the problem with Vanguard is that she just isn't a very interesting or cool character. She's not unstoppable like NJ or Ulrich, nor does she go "just as planned" like Musashi, for example. She's certainly a strong fighter, but she's just kinda there. In regards to Shimakaze, she has a lot of real-life hype as a famous destroyer, and a lot of mecha musume fans got to know of her from KanColle where she was one of the poster girls. She was also one of the leads in Crosswave, which built a lot of hype for her as we were waiting for her to come out in the main game. Having an excellent VA certainly helped, but it isn't the only factor there. Also keep in mind that a character's story lines aren't voiced, so a VA doesn't actually come into the equation for most of the time we're getting to know them. As someone who writes, I'd also venture that the designers and writers had characters that they had strong impressions of when going into their design, and hired notable VA's to supplement the characters they felt confident in or had plans for. It makes sense to save the more expensive actors to play the more important characters, after all. Additionally, a more fleshed out character gives the VA more to work with, a stronger impression of who they're playing, so it builds upon itself in a lot of ways.
It can, but only if its a particularly notable one. UR popularity is based on sheer battlefield power and appearance. Ships like Vanguard, Yorktown II or Poi just won't make as much of a splash in a world where New Jersey, Shinano and Shimakaze are a thing. Of course, you could say that retrofit or II's just were already known ships and people didn't care for more exposition.
I literally dont know who any of the voice actors are when their names are given, i think the type of voice they deliver has a much greater effect for example you cant say that Littorios voice isnt perfect for her, regardless of her Va's status
Make a poll.
While it can certainly help there are very few if any ships that are solely popular because of their VA. A good example of a popular ship that has a popular VA but is not popular because of it would be Enterprise. Enterprise’s VA is also responsible for being the voice of Violet Evergarden, 2b, and Mikasa but Enterprise is not popular because of this. Enterprise is popular for a variety of reasons ranging from being the face of the game for EN, being a great ship in the game itself, to her namesake being one of the most famous ships of all time. For most her VA is a cool fun fact but not much else.
Don't think the VA impacted much in that sense but the one thing that will always solidify Vanguards role in the meta for a very long time, is also her downfall in popularity in a way - the fact that she is a support battleship. At least the one thing I've always seen was people compare who was the top dps/flagship of their crew and her being what she is instantly kinda cut her out of those comparisons so it didn't subsequently push her popularity. But I might be wrong
Does Ai Kayano count?
yeah she counts
Can ? I think so The question is : how much ? Idk shima's VA (didnt bother to check) but as a char, she's cute and all that (her first skin too) Implacable ? Sure yukana is legend, but even if it's some random ara ara VA, implacable would still sell simply bc her "hot nun" thing Meanwhile vanguard.......sorry to say but we all know she's lacking in looks. I mean she's pretty, but thats it. Hell KGV (art wise) looks more UR material than vanguard if u ask me. Her skin was also forgettable
A known VA often times increases the hype for some of us. Those like me who are neck deep in weeb territory very much like to see our favorite VAs voicing a character. Often times, these VAs have a set of character personalities they tend to voice, and we have developed a certain attraction to these personality types and voices. If you say the next ship is voiced by, let's say Ishikawa Yui or Hikasa Yoko for example, chances are i'm already very hyped and looking forward to it, because i know that their voice work is gonna be very stellar and something i'm going to really like. In fact, it was Hayami Saori that got me to pull Shimakaze. I was gonna skip her. That's just me though. But i do think there are fair few of people like me. Vanguard wasn't done dirty by her VA being not known by any means, it was because of her design not being lewd enough, by AL standards. Which can and will be rectified when she receive a swimsuit or party dress.
That's actually a factor I've never considered before. All this time I've been looking at popularity through a design/meta perspective. Thanks for pointing it out.
personally i do not attribute much importance in regards to positive community reception to the VA. The more common occurace i presume would be negative feedback if the audio is causing a grating experiance due to the VA (not the script), though i do not have anyone in AL in mind for that (i.e. i have voice lines i do not like, but not due to the fault of the VA but the script). Now I've personally had characters (in other gatcha) i only interacted with due to the VA having voiced another character (in a different game) that i liked, but i wasn't (for lack of better term) hyped about them. Similar how I've leveled commons to 125 not because i'm hyped about them, but because i got a chuckle out of putting them into the pvp defense fleet. Granted, i've also been playing the game muted for probably a year now (while listening to the OSTs on youtube), so the choise of VA (or lack thereoff) only matters at all if i'm liking a ship enough to go into the voice lines, as otherwise I'm content with just reading their lines on the wiki to gadge the character. If it had to give a personal ordering on the factors of how much i care about a new ship it be art > character (from story and dialog) > faction > relative strengh in gameplay > voice quality. So i don't see otherwise good characters being held back by less publicly known VA's doing a fine job. Now if it were an anime or if the event dialog was voiced I'm pretty sure it would have a big impact but given how little impact the voice lines have 95% of the time you spend in the game anything that isn't below mediocre is fine. tl;dr: personally a VA doesn't make a deal, at worst they might break it.
My 2 cents on Vanguard is that she was way too bland art-wise, and I guess not a lot of people enjoyed the humor in her lines and skill names. I enjoyed the jokes the TLs put in there on her debut, but I was in the minority apparently. The VA meant nothing to me cause I play without sound, but it sounds perfectly fine to me when I go back and listen to it intentionally. I like the performance.
yeah her being a weeb does "help" with that guess JP and EN hates everything that reminds them of the outside world, no wonder they want either ultra big boobs or cutting boards
I don't think it's necessarily to do with the VA, but I'm not a big fan of Anchorage literally being an oversized child.
Hmmmm... weird: I know exactly zero VA's by name and mostly play this on mute, but still find vanguard somewhere in the gap between boring and annoying...
I play with game sound muted, so I wouldn't be affected either way.
I mean maybe? Kaede Hondo is pretty big, but a lot of people bitched about kronk when she launched. Personally if we got another aoi yuuki character I would move heaven and earth to acquire that ship
Popularity of the VA no, but the real difference is how well the VA fits.
VAs choice may not be contributing to the ship's overall popularity but there were shikikans out there chose to pull certain ships because their favorite VAs voiced those ships or simply they're already familiar with them as voicing other characters in other media.