Voice actor stepped down from Genshin Impact game earlier this week
The official Japanese X (formerly Twitter) account of Chinese developer Hypergryph‘s Arknights mobile game announced on Friday that voice actor Showtaro Morikubo will step down from the role of Elysium in the game due to “various circumstances.” Hypergryph apologized to fans and stated that it will announce a replacement of the existing audio for the character at a later date.
© 2017 Hypergryph Co., Ltd. © 2018 Yostar, Inc.
Chinese developers Studio Montagne and Hypergryph released the game in China in May 2019, and then Yostar launched the game worldwide in January 2020. The game then inspired several animated promotional videos since 2019 and a nine-minute animated “Holy Knight Light” short in December 2021 to mark the game’s first anniversary.
The Arknights: Prelude to Dawn anime premiered in October 2022 and had eight episodes. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired in Japan. The Arknights: Perish in Frost television anime debuted in October 2023 and had eight episodes. Arknights: Rise from Ember, third television anime season, will debut this year.
On Wednesday, the official Japanese X/Twitter account of Chinese developer miHoYo‘s Genshin Impact game announced that Morikubo was stepping down from the role of Ifa in the game due to “various circumstances.” The game’s staff apologized to the companies involved and to the players for any inconvenience the decision has caused. The game’s staff had announced on October 15 that Morikubo would voice the character Ifa (a character who has so far only appeared in the game vocally).
In September 2022, HoYoverse announced it is collaborating with anime studio ufotable for a “long-term collaboration project” for the game. The game has inspired several animated shorts by the in-house miHoYoAnime studio.
Neither game’s developer has made an official statement on the reasons for Morikubo’s departures this week, aside from citing the “various circumstances,” and Morikubo’s management has not issued an official statement on either matter.
Sources: Arknights‘ Japanese X/Twitter account, 4Gamer (Igarashi) via Yaraon!
