Naruto x Boruto voice actors may have been replaced with AI

According to Reddit and some fans speculating on X, it seems like some of the Naruto x Boruto Storm Connections voice actors may have been replaced with AI. This originated from a back and forth with Maile Flanagan and other actors being visibly confused by how bad some of the takes sounded. "I screamed for hours and they chose to go with that?".

Storm Connections features scenes from past games, but apparently the line deliveries are completely different. Fans even went back and compared the same scenes in the original games with the fresh ones, and the original takes are fine, while the new ones are slightly jarring and feature odd pitch shifting.

The Naruto's English voice actor replied to one of the clips with "I can guarantee I did not say that line that way. What’s that from? And I guarantee no voice director of Naruto or the games would have me do that in that way".

Apparently, Flanagan would later change position, saying in a post about having "no problems with the games" and to stop. That doesn't seem to be a position shared by Micheal Schwalbe, the actor voicing Kawaki. He took to X to say that he shared the clips with a friend to check, with a tool, if the clips used AI or not. Apparently, both of the clips returned positive results to the use of AI voices.

Schwalbe would also add in the post that Naruto X Boruto "was a union game. Generative AI use is supposed to be forbidden", especially because AI voices cannot be used, at least not in a way that is “unknown to the talent involved.”

While Bandai Namco has still not weighed on the matter, the fact remains that the dubbing in the game sounds strange even to the voice actors that should have been involved in the recording. Perhaps it was simply the VO director sleeping on the job, but still, one can't help but think there's something fishy going on...