Who is Jacob Takanashi? New Genshin Impact Kinich VA drama explained

Recently, Genshin Impact's X community — including its official English voice actors — has been embroiled in the controversy of Jacob Takanashi being hired as a new English voice actor for Kinich. For those unaware, most voice actors based in the US have been on strike for quite some time, demanding protection against AI unethically replacing their voices and taking away their jobs, and Kinich's original English voice actor John Patneaude was one of them

After six months of Kinich being unvoiced in the game, Jacob Takanashi replaced Patneaude. Since then, some of Genshin Impact's English voice actors have criticized Takanashi on for taking up the job, with the playerbase also having divided opinions regarding which party is right.

Read on to know more information about Jacob Takanashi, John Patneaude, and the current overall scenario regarding the former's appointment as Kinich's new voice actor in Genshin Impact.

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Genshin Impact community conflict over Jacob Takanashi recast as new English voice actor for Kinich

Following the release of Genshin Impact 5.5, recasting Kinich's English VA was announced by HoYoverse via the version's patch notes. A short while later, Jacob Takanashi posted on X saying it was a privilege to join the Genshin Impact cast as Kinich, and that he was "grateful for the opportunity to carry the flame from the previous flamebearer John."

However, this apparently didn't go over very well with John Patneaude — the previous VA for Kinich — posted on X to say "a recast was not what he wanted" and that he had hoped he could "come back safely."

Following his post, many other English voice actors for Genshin Impact, including those of Paimon (Corina Boettger), Keqing (Kayli Mills), Candace (Shara Kirby), Caribert (Corey Holland), and Hu Tao (Brianna Knickerbocker) came out in support of John and severely criticized Takanashi for taking the role of an artist who was currently on strike. Corina responded to Takanashi directly by telling him,

"this wasn't a passing of the torch."

Meanwhile, the general playerbase is now divided into two groups, one supporting the English voice actors and their criticism of Takanashi and the other insisting the way the English VAs "ganged up" on Takanashi and "bullied" him was extremely unprofessional.

The situation is currently at a standstill, and we'll have to wait and watch how this scenario further unfolds in the upcoming days.

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