Seiyuu (voice actor) Discussion

[Yui Is My Wife]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

It's called sexism.

Or rather, strength of voice.

The sad biological reality is that voices which stay Sweet and Angelic into their Fifties like Inoue Kikuo and Nozawa Masako (of Ah My Goddess and Dragonball Z fame respectively) and Julie Andrews (a Western Example) are the exceptions rather than the norm and rule.

Even if you actively train your voice, male or female (moreso the latter) nine-times-out-of-ten a subtle yet invariably-present "croaky rasp" will invariably crawl into your natural voice that will betray your real age.

One of the more painful recent examples was 2004's "Shuffle", in which Itou Miki of Project Ako and Android 18 (of Dragonball Z) fame in the 80's, now pushing 45, tried to pass off herself as the bright and perky 18 year old Asa-Sempai.

You could almost hear every agonizing effort as she STRAINS to pull off the perkiness that was so natural to her back in even the 1990's, especially in her "tender romantic scenes" with Sugita Tomokazu, twenty years her junior, when she has to pull off the "vulnerable inner little girl" under Asa's cool big sis facade.

Even the voice of Asa's MOTHER is played by a young lady 20 years Itou Miki's junior (Yuria, who probably only got the role because she sang the opening for Suffle), and SHE has to strain also to make herself sound stronger and more mature like the mother she should be. What the HELL, casting directors?

Though a commendable effort, notice how EVERY role after Asa-Sempai, Itou Miki sticks to the "comedic older woman" or "stern humorless mother" roles like the un-feminine and coarse Tiger Sensei of the Fate Stay Night franchises, where she no longer has to force herself to excavate the young cuteness she simply can no longer pull off.

There's gender equality, and then there's accepting cruel reality.

The directors of Suffle did not do the latter, and the otherwise bright, adorable, complex and likable character of Asa-Sempai suffered as a result.

[Key Board]

I'd say that voice is part of Asa's charm
It's distinctive like Miyuki Sawashiro or Nabatame Hitomi in that they don't have to force themselves into a cute voice template.
That raspy flavor itself is the appeal

[RichardFromMarple]

Originally Posted by GDiddy

I remember that episode.

I always wondered why male seiyuu continue to get cast even in their 40s as these romantic leads, but yet you dont hear too much from female seiyuu once they hit a certain age. I mean, I know Kikuko Inoue still does roles, as does Aya Hisakawa, but for example, I haven't heard anything about Ogata lately. Or even Hayashibara.

Kikuko Inoue came to mind when I saw older seiyuus mentioned, with the joke she's forever 17.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by RichardFromMarple

Kikuko Inoue came to mind when I saw older seiyuus mentioned, with the joke she's forever 17.

She voices the idol also named Kikuko in Horie Yui's vehicle, Miss Monochome, and performs the insert song "Endless Seventeen" in some of the episodes. Horie is also a charter member of the Forever 17 group.

As for their voices needing to be "sweet and angelic" that's just fanservice. Can you imagine that type of voice for Kiryuin Satsuki or Matoi Ryouko? The problem is that anime, like Hollywood movies, rarely have major female characters over the age of twenty-five. If more shows were made for older audiences, there would be more parts for older seiyuu, and a greater demand for older voices.

[Darthtabby]

Kikuko Inoue is actually really versatile. She may have gained a reputation for doing sweet characters like Belldandy, but she's also done badass and even evil characters. Apparently in one of the series she played a villain in she kept apologizing to another voice actress for what her character was doing, but when she ran into the series' writer she kept asking him "Does she get any worse? She gets even worse, right?" with a happy note in her voice.

I have to say, that while I like to see new talent given a chance to succeed, I also like to see older voice actresses who are still going strong. Yukari Tamura (another of the "Cult of seventeen year olds") is one of my favorites but unfortunately it seems that she's planning to retire from voice acting soon. Pity -she's awesome at voicing batshit crazy characters.

[AntonKutovoi]

I'd say Kikuko Inoue's best perfomance was in Gankutsuou (same goes for her co-stars Jouji Nakata and Juurouta Kosugi - incredebly powerful perfomance). But my favorite character of her is Lobelia from Sakura Taisen series.

[GDiddy]

-I actually forgot about the fact that Ogata was in Danganropa. I wonder if she'll be in SM Crystal since it seems like they're probably going to do the entire manga....At least she still gets around, unlike Hayashibara whom I haven't heard other than the billion Evangelion movies out there.

-I thought Horie was still in her 30s?

-I like Hayashibara though. I used to like reading her column she had when the American Newtype was around.

It's called sexism.

One of the glories of the casting for Kill la Kill was the choosing of a number of experienced seiyuu in their forties. Koshimizu and Suzaki were the young'uns at 28.

The past decade has also seen the rise of female seiyuu who have parallel "idol" careers like Hirano or Kanazawa. I don't see that happening as much for the men.

Also the audience has been dominated by males for a very long time.

There's a blossoming market though for female fans. Just look at all of the otome based stuff that's come out in the last few years...or even series like Durarara or all of the sports anime that's been out like Free, Haikyuu, KuroBas or that bike anime, where the majority are female fans.

And there's male VAs/Idols: Mamoru Miyano says hi. Daisuke Ono has a band, as does Tatsuhisa Suzuki.

I think I read that the actors who voice the characters in UtaPri actually have pulled off concerts..and most of those dudes(Suwabe and Toriumi anyway) are in their 40s

And now apparently Japan's starting to publish fanmags with male seiyuu.


Offtopic rambling: my boyfriend LOVES Kikuko Inoue. That's like, his dream woman

[AntonKutovoi]

Originally Posted by GDiddy

I think I read that the actors who voice the characters in UtaPri actually have pulled off concerts..and most of those dudes(Suwabe and Toriumi anyway) are in their 40s

Not really surprising. I've seen some events, where seiyuus in their 60s were singing.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by GDiddy

-I thought Horie was still in her 30s?

She turns 39 in September.

There's a blossoming market though for female fans.

I could have added the disclaimer that the composition of the audience is changing, but I'd be surprised if women compose more than 40% of the fans who buy BDs and merchandise.

If you compare series that target women with those targeting men, you'll see a higher proportion of DVD sales in the first group. Japanese women just don't seem as eager to invest in new video hardware and more expensive content as the men do.

For example, these figures come from the DVDBD sales thread:

Free! 11,560+17,473=29,033 (6) (Kyoto Animation)
Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken *3,554+16,123=19,677 (9, not including recaps) (david production)

The first number is DVD sales; the second is for Blu-rays. Aside from their unusually high sales volumes, these results are pretty representative when comparing shows that primarily target males with ones that primarily target females.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

She voices the idol also named Kikuko in Horie Yui's vehicle, Miss Monochome, and performs the insert song "Endless Seventeen" in some of the episodes. Horie is also a charter member of the Forever 17 group.

As for their voices needing to be "sweet and angelic" that's just fanservice. Can you imagine that type of voice for Kiryuin Satsuki or Matoi Ryouko? The problem is that anime, like Hollywood movies, rarely have major female characters over the age of twenty-five. If more shows were made for older audiences, there would be more parts for older seiyuu, and a greater demand for older voices.

Well, seiyuu use the type of voice that's appropriate for their character. Ami Koshimizu's voice for Ryuko isn't dissimilar from the voice she used for Kallen Kozuki in Code Geass, since both fit that tough, tomboyish, and kick-butt personality type. In contrast, her voice for, say, Persona 4's Yukiko or the Demon King from Maoyu is quite different because those characters are quite different in terms of personality. Same goes with Ryoka Yuzuki and some of her roles.

Lots of seiyuu get their own typecast, but there's almost always a chance for them to break out of it and do something different, be it as a more mature role or something totally different .

Originally Posted by Darthtabby

Yukari Tamura (another of the "Cult of seventeen year olds") is one of my favorites but unfortunately it seems that she's planning to retire from voice acting soon. Pity -she's awesome at voicing batshit crazy characters.

Wait, she is !?

Man, that would be disappointing. Tamura is an awesome and impressive VA, and it would be a shame to see her quit when she's still capable of getting prominent and semi-prominent roles in the industry despite being 39, same as with Yui Horie. The past few years they've both been fairly successful, from what I've seen them in, and I'd hate to see Yukari Tamura retire .

[GDiddy]

I wonder sometimes if those two actresses, along with other actresses still maintain their careers because they're not married?

But then again, Sawashiro, Shiwa and I think Kana Ueda(Rin's VA) are all married...*shrugs*

[Key Board]

Typically, voice actors/actresses aren't allowed to be in a relationship if they also double as "idols"

Of course, "is this person going for the idol appeal or not?" is a tricky question to answer.

I'd say that if you're a popular voice actor/actress that has a side career releasing singles, than yeah, you probably want to hide the fact that you are in a relationship

[judasmartel]

Well, let's just say being an idol seiyuu in Japan is suffering.

[Frontier]

Originally Posted by GDiddy

I wonder sometimes if those two actresses, along with other actresses still maintain their careers because they're not married?

But then again, Sawashiro, Shiwa and I think Kana Ueda(Rin's VA) are all married...*shrugs*

Who's Shiwa ?

But going off what Key Board posted, I don't think Sawashiro has ever gone for the "idol appeal" as a VA. Not that she's not very attractive or can't sing, but just not in the same way that you might see for current idols. Same with Shizuka Itou and Hitomi Nabatame, who are also married. I wonder if it's also partially because they're in their 30s now, with Nabatame close to 40, that they can get married without worrying about that kinda stuff, but Sawashiro's still 29 .

I also don't recall reading about Kana Ueda getting married, but I might be forgetting .

To show a contrast though, I think Aki Toyosaki is considered as a VA with "idol appeal" and I remember reading about a big controversy over her living with her boyfriend. Then there's that big controversy that happened to Aya Hirano .

Though someone like Maaya Sakamoto is also a fairly popular singer, but I don't think she really counts as an idol compared to the normal view of that profession. I think her husband, Kenichi Suzumura, appears more like an idol than she does .

So, yeah, I think there is a general rule that seiyuu who have the appeal of an idol and market themselves as such can't date or be in relationships just like traditional idol groups can't. There might be cases where they still have relationships in secret, but I imagine a lot of them would probably try and avoid the risk considering past examples of what happens when it gets out. But in general seiyuu remain pretty tight-lipped about their relationships until you they end up being married and reveal it publicly.

[AntonKutovoi]

Another seiyuu marriage. Takeshi Kusao (Trunks in DBZ, Sakuragi in Slam Dunk, Shinoda in World Trigger) has married Yuka Saitou (Tamamo Sakuraba in Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai, Chizuru Akaba in Seitokai no Ichizon)
http://ms930.blog95.fc2.com/blog-entry-358.html
http://ameblo.jp/yukke1113/entry-12028854804.html

What's funny is that they both starred in Sengoku Musou, where Kusao played Sanada Yukimura, while Saitou played young Yukimura. So now we have a married couple, who plays the same character.

[totoum]

Originally Posted by Frontier

Who's Shiwa ?

But going off what Key Board posted, I don't think Sawashiro has ever gone for the "idol appeal" as a VA.

Probably meant Chiwa Saito, one of Shaft's go to seiyuus.

And yes, a long long time ago when she was still a teen they tried the idol path with Sawashiro Miyuki for a little while with things like this

Once upon a time she was known for high pitched cute characters like in Di Gi Charat or Galaxi Angel, then her voiced dropped allowing her to expand her roles (though she can still go pretty darn high when she wants to even if it's rare these days, but I doubt she can reach what she could when she was 15)

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by totoum

And yes, a long long time ago when she was still a teen they tried the idol path with Sawashiro Miyuki for a little while with things like this

Thank goodness she moved along!

[Cloudedmind]

Originally Posted by totoum

Probably meant Chiwa Saito, one of Shaft's go to seiyuus.

And yes, a long long time ago when she was still a teen they tried the idol path with Sawashiro Miyuki for a little while with things like this

Once upon a time she was known for high pitched cute characters like in Di Gi Charat or Galaxi Angel, then her voiced dropped allowing her to expand her roles (though she can still go pretty darn high when she wants to even if it's rare these days, but I doubt she can reach what she could when she was 15)

OMG, what baby did they get to sing that song. xD But no seriously, I'm so glad her voiced dropped quite a bit.

[SeijiSensei]

I didn't really know about this early phase of Sawashiro's career, but I can see how those experiences as a teenager might have come in handy when she mentored young Aoi Yuuki during Kurenai. Aoi was about fifteen at the time and had worked in TV off-and-on since she was a kid. The two of them probably had some similar experiences they could share.

[GDiddy]

Originally Posted by totoum

Probably meant Chiwa Saito, one of Shaft's go to seiyuus.

I did mean her. I couldn't remember her last name

I remember when Sawashiro was in DigiCharat!!! I'm glad her voice dropped though. We got enough high pitched girls.


I'll be so sad if Sakamoto and Suzumura ever break up.