The Curious Case of the Omnipresent Johnny Yong Bosch

What is with this guy? He is everywhere. Everywhere, I tell you.

I was recently on a JRPG kick. I knew Gamefly was never going to send me the two games I really was curious about (because that's just the way it works): Final Fantasy XIII and Resonance of Fate. So, I threw a bunch of JRPGs on the queue to ensure I got at least one of them. I ended up playing Magna Carta 2 and The Last Remnant back to back. (Although "playing" might be a bit of an overstatement. I couldn't finish either of them. While I appreciated Magna Carta's non-loading screen, real-time, military campaign-ish fighting, relatively easy-to-follow plot, and Rue who, though officially labeled a "lightning wizard," was actually a ninja (with the shuriken, clones, and katana to prove it), it was repetitive and easy to the point of brain-oozing boredom. And while I appreciated Remnant's relatively innovative, mass battle formation fighting, I couldn't tolerate its laugh-out-loud clunky mechanics, dialogue, plot, characters, world, etc. etc. etc. Hey JRPGs, here are some things I never want to see in you again: amnesia, absurdly big swords, loading screens before and after fights, walking, hammer-wielding fish, women fighting in severely less-than-practical armor, boss fights in which you just have to keep hitting the bad guy and stay alive until he falls down: no matter what you think, this isn't hard, just tedious. Anyone listening? SQUARE ENIX? Sega?) And what do you suppose the protagonists of these two games, the amnesiac Juto and the dumb, plebeian Rush had in common? Why there were both voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch, of course.

This is not the first or second or fifth or probably even the tenth time I have stumbled across Johnny Yong Bosch's voice while gallivanting through the realm of animation. Just off the top of my head, I have noticed that he also plays: Ichigo Kurosaki in Bleach, Viscount Albert de Morcerf in Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, Vash the Stampede in Trigun, Fugue in Eternal Sonata, and Genma and Sasori in Naruto. This is not to mention, of course, his run as the Black Ranger in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. I have a certain fondness for Johnny Yong Bosch's voice, even if I loathe the innocent, naive, happy-go-lucky, goody two-shoes characters whose throats that voice often emerges from. But what is up with this? Is it written in the man's contract somewhere that he has to have a part in every single piece of Japanimation that gets dubbed in English? How did he become that guy? How can I body snatch him? What a freaking dream job.

In knitting news: I have completed the garment I have affectionately termed "stripy," which is really Lion Brand's Raglan Tee.

I pretty much hate the way the underarms and the transition to the collar look when laid out, but it looks good and is super comfortable when worn, so I consider it a success. Onward to the "razory"!