Director & Seiyuu Connections

[totoum]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I read that recently somewhere myself though I cannot recall where. (Probably either here or ANN.) It might represent a division of labor between a director who focuses more on storyboard and animation and a sound director having more responsibility for casting. I suspect choosing the leads involves the director, but perhaps he or (rarely) she plays less of a role in selecting the supporting cast

I suspect it all really depends on the director and as relentlessflame pointed out, the production environment,afterall if a drama cd came out beforehand there's plenty of times where the anime will keep the same cast.

Some directors are indeed more involved in animation , Mizushima Seiji (gundam 00,FMA,un-go...) said in an interview he was more hands off when it came to seiyuus and let sound directors handle things.

While others can be much more hands on,not sure if it's still like that but in the 1990s Toei had it as a policy that episode directors should be present during voice recording so it's not surprising to see former Toei staff members be quite involved with the recording process.
For exemple Ikuhara Kunihiko directed Mawaru Penguindrum but is also credited as a sound director. Juninchi Sato shares a screenwriting and sound direction credit on Ikoku Meiro no Croisée. Mamoru Hosoda movies don't have a sound director credit (just a "sound effect" and "recording" credit) and looking at behind the scenes footage he's definitely quite involved in the dubbing process.


But to get back on the subject at hand, since there's many factors if a director does want to work with a seiyuu he might have better odds of getting to work with him or her if he gives the seiyuu a supporting role rather than a leading role.
Take Kishi Seiji , you tend to see familiar names pop up in supporting or cameo roles. For example there's Kobayashi Yumiko who's shown up in Angel Beats,Kami-sama Dolls, Carnival Phantasm , Persona 4, Jinrui and the upcoming Aura movie.
There's others as well,he also always works with the same sound director except on Kami-sama Dolls where he did the sound direction himself.

[Kanon]

The only connection I can think of other than the one mentioned in the OP (particularly Shinbo and Nakamura) is between Type-Moon and Jouji Nakata. He always plays a major villain in anime adaptations of their works. Not sure if that counts.

How do voice actors get cast exactly anyway? Who has the power to make the final decision? The director or the sound director?

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Kanon

How do voice actors get cast exactly anyway? Who has the power to make the final decision? The director or the sound director?

I think it probably depends a lot on the production, and also probably on how major the character is. There are of course cases where the cast was chosen by the original rights holders before the anime (particularly with anime based on games). Even when that isn't the case, given the involvement with overall franchise promotion and marketing, I assume the original rights holders probably at least get "veto rights" for all the major casting decisions, and may still exert some influence. Other than that, I assume the overall director would be able to trump the sound director if it really came down to it, but more often than not I expect it'd be a team decision. (The sound director is unlikely to be in that role if the director didn't trust him or her.) For the more minor roles, I imagine the sound director will have more control (because the "higher ups" won't care as much).

[Coldlight]

Originally Posted by Dawnstorm

Actually, if I think Shinbou and female seiyuu, my first association would be Chiwa Saito:

- Zetsubou Sensei series
- Monogatari series
- Madoka
- Arakawa - Under the Bridge
- Dance In the Vampire Bund
- Sasami San
- Negima

You can also add Katte ni Kaizou to that list. It's a Shaft comedy OVA directed by Akiyuki Shinbou and has Chiwa Saito voicing a male character.

A number of the main seiyuu in that work also did roles in the Monogatari series:

Takahiro Sakurai: Kaizou Katsu - Meme Oshino
Eri Kitamura: Umi Natori - Karen Araragi
Chiwa Saito: Chitan Tsubouchi - Hitagi Senjougahara
Yui Horie: Yamada - Tsubasa Hanekawa

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

I think it probably depends a lot on the production, and also probably on how major the character is. There are of course cases where the cast was chosen by the original rights holders before the anime (particularly with anime based on games). Even when that isn't the case, given the involvement with overall franchise promotion and marketing, I assume the original rights holders probably at least get "veto rights" for all the major casting decisions, and may still exert some influence. Other than that, I assume the overall director would be able to trump the sound director if it really came down to it, but more often than not I expect it'd be a team decision. (The sound director is unlikely to be in that role if the director didn't trust him or her.) For the more minor roles, I imagine the sound director will have more control (because the "higher ups" won't care as much).

there is also that murky relationship between the Seiyuu's company and their relationship with the directors, original rights holder and the money people on the production committee.