Thread by @LauraPostVoice

You may (or may not) have noticed that there is a cool new Tower of God game coming out!

And you may (or may not) have noticed that the cast (full of totally awesome people who have our blessing) is different from the anime!

Would you like to know why? Well, STORY TIME: (1/?)

FIRST THINGS FIRST:
As you may have noticed in the first post, ALL THE ACTORS INVOLVED ARE GREAT PEOPLE. So many people reached out to the original cast when the auditions went out, and every single one has the original cast's blessing. Support them. Cheer them on! (2/?)

The English production team? Studio? Director? Also great!

So then, you may wonder, who is responsible for this situation?

Well friends, they go by the name of Crunchyroll. (3/?)

*shocked Pikachu*

Yes. You see, when the client making the game approached a studio to begin recording the English localization, CR went directly to the client and told them they "owned the voice prints" of the original cast (they do not.) (4/?)

They went on to say that the videogame client could legally not use ANY of the cast in the game in *any* capacity. Not even as new characters or different characters than we originally played. We could not even *audition* for new or different characters. We were blacklisted.(5/?)

What CR said is completely, 100%, untrue. Not only did I personally review my contracts to be sure that there was no such clause (some jobs do actually have clauses where you can't perform a character outside of "official capacity" - it's why I don't do voice requests) (6/?)

In addition, I also had MULTIPLE LAWYERS look over the contract, and they agreed. There is nothing in there to stop us from being part of the project, at the very least as new or different characters. (7/?)

CR was completely out of line, not just ethically (like come on, your actors need to pay rent) but also legally. They have no ground to stand on to prohibit us from playing different or new characters. (And any ground they have to prevent us from reprising is weak at best.) (8/?)

But the damage was done. The client was too scared to get involved in an overseas legal battle, so they would not entertain the idea of including any original cast members in their game. They thankfully decided to do their own thing, and not try to voice match us. (9/?)

Moral of the story? We already knew CR was not actor friendly, but in my opinion this was a whole new level. They obviously have no problem going to potential future clients *without your knowledge* and robbing you as an actor of the opportunity to even audition for work. (10/11)

Personally, I will not be working with Crunchyroll on *any* future projects without the protection of a union contract. I strongly encourage other actors thinking about working with Crunchyroll in the future to consider that as well. (11/11)

I've seen a few people ask, reasonably: Why would CR do this?

And I realize I didn't make it clear. The game is union.

And well, we all know how CR feels about the union. (12/11)