My name is Joanne Raithby and I have been a fan of pokemon since the start, I have heard that there is talk about changing the current voice actors and have written to you to explain why the majority of fans feel like this would be a hugh mistake and would have dire conciquences for the program as a whole.

To begin with it would disrupt the continuaty of the characters,especially for the younger viewers who find the sound of the voices both interesting and fun to listen to,It would also make the characters harder for them to relate to as most children have there favourite and would notice straight away if the voices where to alter.

An example of this is when I was watching an earlier episode with a younger cousin,who told me almost immediatly that james sounded strange and that he liked his 'other way of speaking better', just because the later voice 'Eric Stewart' performed the voice with much more humer then the previous actor.

So if you think that the younger viewers wont notice or care about the change then i'm afraid that is'nt the case at all.

The second reason which I would like to bring to your attention is that the voice actors give the character there personality, and although there may be actors that can 'imitate' there way of speaking (Forgive me when I say that most fans,including myself very much doubt it) , They will not be able to deliver the lines with the exact same presicion and expertise that the original cast has been honeing for the past eight to ten years, This particular skill comes from experiance and being able to 'know your character' so completely that you are able to play off past experiances to be able to give the best performance which suites your characters situation, This i'm afraid can only be learned through experiance, and to start now with a completly new cast would not only disrupt the voices, but also the personalities of the chracters would change as each actor and actress would bring in there own interpretations to the character and would stray from the original.

And if the punch lines are not deliverd exactly then the whole animation will be ruined.

I'm sure you understand how important the fans are to a show so I hope that you will consider the points which I have highlighted in this letter, A lot of fans feel happy about the show having new script writers ect: but feel that changing the voice actors is going a bit to far, Because without them the show would'nt have been nearly as successfull as it has become and many feel that without them the show will, unfortunatly loose a lot of it's audiance as many of the fans continue watching pokemon just so they can hear there favourite voice actors perform.

I hope that you will take these points in to carefull consideration before you make up your minds about this as I speak for all the fans worldwide.

Yours faithfully Miss Joanne Raithby.