Seiyū

The seiyū Mamoru Miyano, one of the most renowned and popular in this area.

Seiyū (声優, '' Seiyū''^?) is the name given to a voice actor in Japan. The work of a seiyū is mainly concentrated in radio, television and dubbing of foreign films, providing narrations and working as voice actors in video games and anime series. The most characteristic use of this term in the West is referred to as the voice actor or dubbing actor within anime series.

Japan produces about 60% of the world's animated series. Due to this development, seiyū must work full-time to meet demand and achieve international fame, a recognition comparable to that of actors and artists from other countries. countries. In Japan there are about 130 seiyū schools, several employment agencies and talent search companies. South Korea is the only country that has a similar system of employment for voice actors, where different television networks hire several seiyū for their programs.

Seiyū often dabble in music, film, and television roles, where they regularly have fan bases who follow the show just because of their participation. When the anime series they star in has worldwide broadcast, the fan bases usually spread all over the world. The acronym "CV" is commonly used in Japanese publications to denote who does the "voice of a pcharacter" ("ccharacter voice"), for papers listed in magazines. This term was first used in the 1980s, in anime magazines like Animec and Newtype.

History

Maria Yamamoto, one seiyū at the reception to their fans.

Voice acting has existed in Japan since the introduction of radio in the country. However, it was in the 1970s that the term seiyū entered the popular vocabulary thanks to the hit anime series Space Battleship Yamato. According to a newspaper interview with a voice actor manager at the time, he stated that "since the Yamato boom, the word & # 34; seiyū & # 34; she was instantly recognized. Prior to this, actors and actresses who introduced themselves as a seiyū would ask them, "I mean, do you work for the seiyū supermarket?"

Radio dramas

In 1925, the Tokyo Broadcasting Company (predecessor of NHK) began broadcasting on the radio. That same year, twelve students who majored in voice acting only, became the first voice actors in Japan when they performed a radio drama. They referred to themselves as seiyūs, but in those days, the term "radio actors" (ラジオ役者, radio yakusha^?) was used in newspapers to refer to the profession.

The next era began in 1941 when NHK opened a training program for the public to train actors specializing in radio dramas. This was called "Tokyo Central Broadcasting Channel Actor Training Agency" (東京中央 放送局専属劇団俳優養成所, Tōkyō Chūō Hōsō Kyoku Senzoku Gekidan Haiyū Yōsei Sho^?). In 1942, the Tokyo Broadcasting Drama Company debuted its first performance. This was the second time the term seiyū was used to refer to voice actors, and the word has been used ever since.

There are several theories as to how the term seiyū came to be. One theory is that Oyhashi Tokusaburo, a reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, coined the term. Another theory is that Tatsu Ooka, a producer for NHK, was the one who coined the term. Originally, the Tokyo Radio Drama Company and other similar companies specialized in radio dramas; however, with the advent of television, the term seiyū was used for dubbing in animation.

First rise of seiyū

In 1961, during the early days of commercial television, a five-company agreement caused very few Japanese movies available on network television. As a result, in the 1960s, many foreign series and shows were imported and dubbed into Japanese for broadcast.

In the beginning, NHK subtitled most foreign programs. However, Japanese dubbed shows became a standard. This increased the popularity of seiyū. At the center of the early seiyū boom were actors like Nachi Nozawa, who gained fame by voicing actors like Alain Delon, Robert Redford, and Clint Eastwood. Due to the problems to pay the guarantees by the Gosham Settlement, the film actors were advised of the dubbing for foreign films. Television actors were also warned of dubbing by a similar agreement. This caused television studios to start looking to radio voice actors and shingeki style actors for their shows. At this point, the dubbing of foreign animation series was done by Asakusa comedians, rakugo storytellers, and seiyū, who were known as "voice talent" since they specialized in dubbing.

The first dubbed TV show in Japan was an episode of the Superman cartoon on October 9, 1955 on KRT (now TBS), and the first non-animated show was Cowboy G-Men, in 1956, by KRT. Both shows were dubbed live. The first voice-recorded program was Terebi Bōya no Bōken (テレビ坊やの冒険, lit. The adventures of the TV boy^?) issued on April 8, 1956.

Seiyū's second rise

At the end of the 1970s, the boom in animation worldwide allowed seiyū to attract particular appeal to become popular actors. Akira Kamiya, Tōru Furuya and Toshio Furukawa were the first seiyū to join a band (Slapstick) and perform live. Other seiyū released their own records. In 1979, radio shows featured seiyū as DJs, just as Animetopia became widely popular, and with it, the first anime magazines began to be published. So, Animage's editor-in-chief Hideo Ogata was the first to publish publishers to transform seiyū into idols. Following these ideas, other magazines created specialized seiyū magazines, with information and intimacy about their lives. For this reason, many young people wanted to be seiyū. With all of the above, students increased in seiyū schools, with which they began to specialize in a single field. At this point, and for the first time since the beginning, ordinary people wanted to be like the seiyū, something that had not happened with the actors of radio dramas. This boom lasted until the mid-1980s.

An Intermediate Period

In 1989, the group of seiyū and singers NG5 was formed, made up of (Nozomu Sasaki, Takeshi Kusao, Hiroshi Takemura, Tomohiro Nishimura and Daiki Nakamura), who dubbed in the series Ronin Warriors. The group generated such excitement that it was the subject of a special documentary on MBS. NG5's atypical popularity, however, was not present in other seiyū groups.

In this period, production companies began to specialize students from seiyū schools for roles in dubbing animation.

Third rise of the seiyū

In the 1960s and 1970s, the boom centered primarily around types of media, such as television. In the 1990s a new boom centered around more media, such as radio shows, OVA making, TV shows, public events, and the Internet, giving way to the publication of the first specialized seiyū magazines, Seiyū. Grand Prix and Boys Animage. The seiyū gained new fans due to the radio and their music CDs. The concerts began to be held in large spaces. While in the second boom, seiyū became known as DJs, around this time, record labels became advertisers for radio shows, and large sums of money began to circulate around this boom. Megumi Hayashibara, Hekiru Shiina and Mariko Kouda are the first examples of this new process. Recording companies and seiyū formed schools to spawn new talent throughout Japan, another sea change from previous booms, and incidentally, became a foundation for the ultimate transformation from seiyū to idols.

With the irruption of voice actors in video games, the existence of seiyū spread to the entire country. As a consequence, the same seiyū could hold related events in the world of the TV game, making appearances and participating in radio shows based on the TV games to attract fans. In the second half of the 1990s, the boom in animation increased the amount of anime broadcast in the Tokyo area, with the Internet, the sharing of seiyū information became easier, and seiyū began to make productions for the Internet. Currently, the seiyū market and the productions for which they work remain solid, and the followers of the voices of their favorite anime characters are increasing day by day.

Agencies

Relations between seiyū and music, film, and anime companies are regulated by seiyū management companies, each specializing in an area. In exchange for a payment by the seiyū, the agency manages all business, engagements, and promotional sales. Those agencies are also the bridge between entertainment companies and private agencies with which the seiyū can be affiliated. Sometimes, producers allow agencies to recruit some seiyū for minor roles, or manage their schedule.

A seiyū's job opportunities depend on the agency they choose, even if they are very popular as anime seiyū. For example, voice-over jobs are unlikely to be done if the agency doesn't specialize in that area.

Here are some agencies and their specialization:

• Anime: Arts Vision, I'm Enterprise, Aoni Production
• Foldage: Mausu Promotion, theatrical companies (Bungaku Company, Seinen Company, Theatrical Group EN, Troupe Pleiades, etc.)
• Narration: Aoni Production, Sigma Seven
• NHK Programs: 81 Produce
• Commercials: Studio
• Announcers at train stations: Haikyo

Seiyū for child roles are generally taken from theater groups like Troupe Himawari.

Trajectory

Dubbing

This is the main job of a seiyū: to play a role and it is recorded, either for television or radio, similar to a radio drama.

Anime

The role of a seiyū in anime is to synchronize the voice of the characters with the visuals of the series. Before completing the recording of the paper, there are two different methods of pre-recording. In Japan, the most popular method is to perform dubbing after the animation series is finished. If not, depending on the production schedule, dubbing may take place before the entire series is complete.

To stay within cost limits, lesser known seiyū or young talents are used for supporting characters. However, for the OVAs and the productions for fans and commercial products, the most famous seiyū are used as a sales pitch.

Japanese dubbing

In most foreign dramas, movies, newsreels or documentaries, the voice of the seiyū should be as accurate as possible in relation to what appears on the screen. To carry out dubbing, the volume of the original language voice is decreased, leaving only the background or ambience sound. The dubbers worked at first for the news and some foreign series. Auditions are held to determine who takes the roles, and the popularity of the role to be dubbed may determine who is hired for it.

Video Games

Unlike anime and dubbing roles, in a video game, the voice channel is recorded separately to individualize the voices, to be played depending on the player's progress. Typically, a seiyū uses a script with a few lines and says the lines of it to match the timing of the recording. Because of this, many of the seiyū who participate in a project rarely see each other in person. Popularity can make a seiyū get hired for a role, but it is also possible to negotiate the payment when the client requires a particular character.

Radio drama or CD drama

With a radio series or drama CD, there is more freedom because you don't have to sync the voice with any element, be it actors or animation. If the series or CD is based on an anime or manga series, the seiyū of the anime is used. However, an original drama that is based on a book rarely hires well-known seiyū or young talent. It is very rare to have auditions for this type of work, because the characters are selected by the production team of the series.

Kigurumi puppets and presentations

In puppet performances, the seiyū must synchronize their voices with the puppet's movements. While the kigurumi shows, the voice of the seiyū is recorded in advance and the performance is based on the movements of the doll, according to the narration.

Narration

The seiyū are generally employed as narrators in radio and television commercials, television and radio programs, videos, and other types of media in which a voice actor is required to read text that Clarify what a program is about, which is written in a script. The narration fails if the seiyū does not have the area of knowledge of the program, so famous seiyū, young talents and announcers are not considered in this way of working. Pay is proportional to the person's popularity rating, and veterans are generally preferred for this role due to the high degree of knowledge required for voice acting. Candidates must send a small sample as a demonstration, which allows determining the best in a large selection process.

Theater actors

It is not common for shingeki actors who perform roles in small theater groups to take courses in drama schools and then become seiyū, considering the small differences between an actor and a seiyū.

Singers

Some seiyū enter the world of music, release productions and albums under their name and become full-time singers, leaving aside their dubbing activities.

However, it has become common for seiyū to sing the opening (opening) and closing themes of the series they dub, or participate in non-animated projects, such as drama CDs, where the characters from the series get hooked on new stories, or image song CDs where a character not included in the anime sings, but will be included in future productions. Due to this workload, several seiyū make music their main activity, which mainly ties them to the person they play. The limitations imposed on a seiyū who sings by their recording companies are less strict than those placed on singers. This allows the seiyū to edit and release CDs with their character's name with different companies.

Radio personality

Talk shows on radio is a space where the popularity of seiyū is increasing. Initially, the vast majority were broadcast by local radio stations, but after the communications boom of the 1990s, radio stations in the metropolitan area began to hire seiyū. While some programs analyze and publicize an anime or a game that is popular, which does not exceed a year, other stations broadcast the lives of the seiyū who have more than 10 years of experience, so that they know to the person who gave the voice to your favorite characters.

To lower costs and increase audiences, most radio programs are broadcast over the Internet.

Other jobs

There are other types of jobs that seiyū can do, such as press conferences, anime news shows or talk shows, company training videos, supermarket announcers, transportation routes, etc. buses, announcers in professional wrestling and other combat disciplines and even announcers at train stations. These jobs are performed by professional advertisers, whose names are not released to the public.

Ways to Become a Seiyū

Watching the careers of the most popular seiyū in Japan, most have become famous in any of the six ways described below:

From a talent academy

They are trained by a theater group from a television company, being specialized in roles such as announcing or acting in radio dramas.

Ryō Kurusawa, Kazue Takahashi, Masato Yamanouchi, Hisashi Katsuta, Akira Nagoya, and Kiyoshi Kawakubo are the founders of this type of entry into the world of dubbing.

Some examples of this way of starting out as seiyū are Tōru Ōhira and Tadashi Nakamura who come from the Tokyo Radio Station Drama Cast (ラジオ東京放送劇団, Rajio Tōkyō Hōsō Gekidan^?), Junpei Takiguchi, Nobuo Tanaka, Mariko Mukai.

Local broadcasting companies have also helped many seiyū in their early careers, before the era of television and the advent of foreign dramas, most of the businesses of the Seiyū were in the Tokyo area.

From an underage actor

Some seiyū were discovered in high school, who joined youth theater companies, such as the Komadori Group's Himawari Company, and they have shown talent by acting in groups, then have adopted a career as a full-time seiyū after graduating from high school.

The first to follow this path were Ryūsei Nakao, Tōru Furuya, Shūichi Ikeda, Yoku Shioya, Hiromi Tsuru, Miina Tominaga and Katsumi Toriumi, who was the first seiyū debutant while still in high school, but he continued only after his graduation.

Among the most recent seiyū we find Daisuke Namikawa, Maaya Sakamoto, Mayumi Iizuka, Akeno Watanabe, Saeko Chiba, Yūka Nanri, Kaori Nazuka and Rio Suzuki.

There are also cases of young people who began appearing in seiyū roles while still in high school. Miyu Irino, Kana Hanazawa, Eri Sendai, Ayaka Saitō, Aya Hirano, Subaru Kimura, and Miyū Tsuzurahara are some examples.

From a stage actor

Sometimes, stage actors who are in high school or middle school, college, college, or have graduated have found a way into the anime industry to become a seiyū. This happens to actors who are affiliated with large theater companies, including Bungaku Company, Seinen Company, Troupe Pleiades, Theatrical Group EN and Theatre Echo.

Actors who perform in small theaters sometimes need to be recommended by the theater's production team or a manager associated with a seiyū agency. Some of the main companies in the management of seiyū are Rose Company (by Nachi Nozawa) or 21th Century Fox Company (by Kaneta Kimotsuki).

To name a few cases we have Romi Paku, being discovered by animation creator Yoshiyuki Tomino; Fumiko Orikasa, a graduate of the Super Eccentric Theater troupe; and other seiyū discovered by Kazuya Tatekabe: Sanae Kobayashi, Gō Aoba, Tetsu Shiratori, Akino Murata and Rieko Takahashi.

A notable race is that of Hitomi Nabatame. Before joining Dorikan Club, he was part of the aniradio show SOMETHING DREAMS Multimedia Countdown (SOMETHING DREAMS マルチメディアカウントダウン, SOMETHING DREAMS Maruchimedia Kauntodaun^?, reduced to ドリカン Dorikan), at the Nippon Cultural Broadcasting station, where he showed all the potential he had acquired in the talent school for seiyū, performing the role of Maburaho within the program, while doing his theater presentations.

From a seiyū school

Many seiyū debuted upon graduating from one of the seiyū schools after several years of study. This is the most common and easiest way used by young people who watch anime and want to become a seiyū, but the chances of reaching this goal are slim. For example, each school is affiliated with the Yoyogi Animation Academy which has a special talent department with hundreds of new students each year, but only a small group of them will become a seiyū.

Notable examples of this style include Megumi Hayashibara, Kōichi Yamadera, Kikuko Inoue, Kotono Mitsuishi, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Ai Shimizu, Rie Tanaka, Shizuka Itō, Yukari Tamura, Mai Nakahara, and Kenichi Suzumura.

Some of the youngsters have become seiyū after winning a contest held by some magazines or production companies, being sent to academies for seiyū where they perfect themselves. Some winners are Asami Sanada, Masumi Asano, Yui Horie, Miyuki Sawashiro, and Sakura Nogawa.

From a role in show business

Junko Iwao and Noriko Hidaka are some idols who have become seiyū after their experience as actresses in their childhood. Other examples are reporters Yumi Kakazu and Yuki Matsuoka. Some owarai return to the show as seiyū, the case of Yūko Saitō being prominent. Yūichi Nagashima was an actor most famous for his role as "Chō", the main character in Discovering My City (たんけんぼくのまち, Tanken Boku no Machi^?). Another example was the actor Jōji Nakata, known for having played the Great Professor Bias, the main villain of the tokusatsu Chōjū Sentai Liveman series.