Op-Ed: How Billy Kametz Left a Positive Impact on My Life

It was 2019 and I was on a leave of absence from my job for mental health reasons. While feeling down I would usually try to lose myself in some anime. As you know I love me some isekai and one of the more interesting shows airing at that time was The Rising of the Shield Hero. I was into anime but didn’t really follow voice actors much at all then. I related to Naofumi’s struggle, not in the same ways obviously but I think we can all understand some mental anguish. Come to find out, Billy Kametz was the English voice actor for Naofumi.

He did so amazingly as Naofumi that he left a huge impression on me. Billy had done shows before and would do more after but I really started to take notice after that. The way he would yell and scream was very unique. In the world of anime that’s kind of a big deal because there is no shortage of yellers. But he did more than yell, he could also be soft and comforting.

Then July came along and I played my first Fire Emblem game, Fire Emblem: Three Houses.  If you’ve played the game I’m sure you’ve seen the “I am Ferdinand von Aegir!” memes. Almost every time you selected Ferdinand he would say that and I remember thinking “Hey that’s Shield Guy!” but eventually it became “Hey that’s Billy!” I loved hearing him in anime from then on. Sometimes if I found out he was the voice actor in an anime or game it would make me want to experience it.

Any time I was waiting on an English dub of a show, Billy was at the top of my fan castings more times than I would care to admit. I probably annoyed a lot of my friends because anytime they would ask me who I think would be a good voice for a particular character I would always respond “Billy Kametz… duh”.

When I saw Billy’s health update video I was really upset to hear one of my favorite VAs was going through something so terrible. If there was any bright side to it, it was the outpouring of support from both his fellow VAs as well as the fans. I’ll be honest, part of me was worried that people would not do well with other actors taking over his roles. I have never been happier to be wrong.

Big shoutout to Stephen Fu, Alejandro Saab, and Aleks Le who stepped up to fill some of his bigger roles of Naofumi, Yukimura, and Shin respectively. You can’t really replace Billy but they really did an amazing job of sounding as close to him as possible. They and others would hold down the fort until he got better I was sure of it.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and we lost Billy Kametz last week. I was absolutely devastated when I found out. I’m just a fan but I can tell we lost a truly, genuinely kind soul in the anime community. I can’t imagine what his family and friends are going through. I hope they can feel all the love and support we fans had for Billy. The gofundme for Billy officially closes on Tuesday, June 14th but there is a link to give the family well wishes so I will include the link here.

You may have noticed the quote I chose. Billy did a lot of memorable characters but this one from Shinei Nouzen of 86 was really poignant to me. It was one of the last characters he did but one of my favorites because I absolutely adore that series. When Billy was cast as the lead I lost my mind. Finally! I got a fan-casting right!

What I’m trying to say in a long-winded and nonsensical way is that voice actors do a lot for us without even knowing it. We don’t get to “see” them the same way we do with other actors. They have to give us a ton of emotion with just their voice. Few were as good as Billy Kametz at that but in a lot of ways, this goes out to all VAs. I honestly don’t know if I would still be here if it wasn’t for Billy and so many others. You all make the world a little bit brighter. That shine may have dimmed a bit with this loss but we will smile and keep on because I truly believe that’s what Billy would have wanted.