Hopefully it sounds authentic enough.

I always found it odd that they went with a Southern accent for Kansai. It's a major metropolitan area, so wouldn't a Boston accent be more appropriate as an analogue. (Vote Quimby!)

I guess it's just that the dubbing studio only had people that could do Southern accents at the time, and now it's tradition, we're stuck with it, but it seems like it gives the wrong impression...

NWSiaCB said:

I always found it odd that they went with a Southern accent for Kansai. It's a major metropolitan area, so wouldn't a Boston accent be more appropriate as an analogue. (Vote Quimby!)

I guess it's just that the dubbing studio only had people that could do Southern accents at the time, and now it's tradition, we're stuck with it, but it seems like it gives the wrong impression...

Mostly because Houston shares many similarities with Osaka. Also, people with a Kansai accent tend to be perceived as hicks in Tokyo, similar to how people with a Southern drawl are stereotyped as rednecks even if they come from a metropolitan place like Houston.

Generally, Kansai is treated synonymously with Osaka, 'though it does have some variation, with Kyoto-ben being the most famous. Kyoto-ben tends to sound posh (due to association with the 'court dialect' spoken back in the time when Kyoto was still the capital). This can also be approximated with a Southern-Belle accent.

Dubbers on the East Coast like to use a Brooklyn/Bronx accent. Both Brooklyn and Kansai have sounds which are more nasalized compared to their standard counterparts. I don't prefer it, but that's mostly because of the "Brooklyn Rage" image it can invoke.

The Southern drawl is also arguably the most easily-identifiable non-standard English dialect among English speakers (RP can be argued to be more so, but it's a 'standard' accent). Ask most non-native English speakers, and they can probably identify it as "that cowboy slang".

The Boston accent has a problem here as it can be easily confused for a 'British' or Australian accent (due to the dropped 'r's) by someone who's not familiar with either. Especially the Boston Brahmin variant.

Personally I think Brummie is a much closer match, but well, most people are not familiar with English dialects. And friggin' Cockney is just annoying.

TL;DR: osaka

All hail Kasuga "Osaka" Ayumu