Anime has really gotten big in the U.S. in recent years, changing the face of popular culture as people are more in sync with the anime world. This isn’t a new phenomenon in Japan, of course, where animation has been a part of everyone’s lives since the old days of Mighty Atom, Giants no Hoshi and the original Gegege no Kitaro.
One thing I’ve often noticed is that the voice actors — seiyu in Japanese — in anime are often extremely famous in Japan, with many of the top stars essentially becoming household names.
When legendary voice actor Yasuo Yamada, who provided the voice of Lupin III, died in 1995, it was a national tragedy, and everyone grieved to lose the original voice of Lupin. (He was replaced by a comedian who did Lupin III impersonations on variety shows.)
Some other voice actors who are well-known to the average Japanese person include Akira Kamiya, voice of Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star, the muscular Kinniku Man, and Ryo from City Hunter, and of course Tohru Furuya, who’s played Amuro Rei from the iconic Mobile Suit Gundam along with a host of other roles.
Perhaps the most famous voice actor of all is Nobuyo Oyama, the voice of the lovable robot cat from the future, Doraemon. When she retired in 2005, my kids stopped watching the show entirely, since they couldn’t accept Doraemon with any voice other than the original.
My wife watches lots of American TV dubbed into Japanese, and it’s quite fun to play “pick the anime voice actor” while watching an episode of CSI: Miami with her. Oh, that’s Inspector Zenigata!
I’ll know I’m fluent when I can say this in Japanese:
“Those cameras watched her every move.”
“Every move… except her last one.”
“YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!”
[…] Naachgaana.com 2.0 estyle wrote an interesting post today on Japanese voice actorsHere’s a quick excerptAnime has really gotten big in the U.S. in recent years, changing the face of popular culture as people are more in sync with the anime world. […]
Just about the only famous seiyuu I know is Aya Hirano, of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu fame.
I feel so young… heh.
So now let’s play “chicken-or-egg”:
Are English voice actors unappreciated and that’s why dubbing in English is so awful? Or is the dubbing awful and that’s why no one cares about English voice actors?
One strange thing I noticed when watching Lilo & Stitch (for a job) is that - in that movie at least - it seemed that a deliberate effort had been made to ensure that the ethnicities of the voice actors roughly matched those of the on-screen (human) characters.
“Are English voice actors unappreciated and that’s why dubbing in English is so awful? Or is the dubbing awful and that’s why no one cares about English voice actors?”
If this is in reference to English-language versions of Japanese animated films, then I can’t say that I’ve seen such versions to make a comment. Are these versions really that bad? (If so, it could just be a matter of something becoming lost in translation prior to the dubbing stage.) But with Pixar films at least, the English dubbing is pretty good, in my opinion.
I think the idea of voice acting, as a whole, is just under-developed in the English-speaking world.
But that’s just because no other country in the world adores their animated entertainment like Japan. It’s because anime is such a Japanese TV staple that the whole voice-acting industry is legitimised there.
Or maybe it’s just me; I don’t know of any nationally renowned voice actors/actresses from outside of Japan. If they are famous, more than likely it’s due to their acting or singing career - they just happened to be cast for, say, a Pixar film to lend their recognisability to the movie.
“Or maybe it’s just me; I don’t know of any nationally renowned voice actors/actresses from outside of Japan. If they are famous, more than likely it’s due to their acting or singing career - they just happened to be cast for, say, a Pixar film to lend their recognisability to the movie.”
Known as the man of a thousand voices, Mel Blanc was one of the great voice actors of his time. And though primarily famous as founders, Jim Henson and Walt Disney were pretty well-known for their voice contributions as well. From what I understand, the voice actors for The Simpsons command hefty salaries and enjoy a relatively high profile among their fans. (And who can forget Phil Hartman’s characters on the show.)
Maybe this is part of the problem. In the US, there seems to be a gap between voice actors who work in English-language productions (i.e. Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, the Simpsons cast) and those who dub foriegn films (can’t name a single one). I don’t think that all English voice actors are awful, but I have yet to see any film dubbed into English and turn out halfway decent in comparison to the original.
Here in Japan, there’s a large number of voice actors who do it all. Broadcast TV channels tend to air Hollywood movies on weekends and I usually watch them with the Japanese audio on since I’m usually familiar with the movies already and I enjoy hearing them in a new light. I often hear familiar voices who turn out to be successful voice actors in animated features.
That’s interesting feitclub. The situation in Japan with respect to the dubbing of imported works (as you described it) could be likened to the situation here in Quebec, at least as far as I can tell. (I’ve only recently moved here and my French is atrocious.) I’ve seen, from the outside, a giant complex studio where I’ve been told that they dub everything - movies, television shows, TV commercials, and more - that is imported from English-speaking countries and regions (Hollywood mostly). (I’ve always wondered what it must sound like to a native French speaker’s ears to hear a black comedic actor’s voice rendered in French. Or how regional accents are handled. Or how French, when spoken in the original, is dubbed to sound, well, foreign.)