Forum - View topicAnswerman - How Popular Are Japanese Voice Actors?
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SweetCoconut
Posts: 44 Location: Philippines |
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Well, at least even though they are not popular in the streets, they can live normally there.
Unlike some seiyuus. I remember reading an article here talks about the seiyuus life and wow, thats sad. If you break a fan's "trust" it can scar your life (like in Ayana Taketatsu's pic, if someone whose popular then they will have some issue, it could lead to this) Thats life, ladies and gentlemen. I'm glad animes like Sore ga Seiyuu! shows whats inside of a seiyuu's life. And man, I couldn't attend Otakuthon, didn't had the chance to see Rikiya Koyama 
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1259 |
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I remember a few years back, some wide show was counting down the top 10 albums for the week (by what metric I don't know), and a just-released CD by Ma'aya Sakamoto was #1. From the way they struggled to find anything to say anything about it, it was clear that the people doing the countdown had never heard of her. Her whole fan base must've turned out the first week.
As for voice actors regular people have actually heard of, I'd say you've got the cast of Sazae-san, and not a whole lot else. Maybe a few others like Lupin III's original VA； people who played really popular, memorable characters over a looooong period of time in series that very large numbers of people remember fondly. Obviously, they aren't going to remember more than the name and the in-character voice, though. Edit: I haven't seen this "Seiyuu's Life" program, but was the slovenly voice actress -- by any chance -- slovenly in a cute way? I ask because those people's images are so carefully fine-tuned and managed, a warts-and-all sort of program is a little hard to imagine. Last edited by vanfanel on Wed Aug 19, 2015 11:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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CCTakato
Posts: 514 |
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How big is May'n in Japan? I thought most of the Macross idol girls' seiyuus made it fairly well as idols in their own right after getting famous through Macross?
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FD2Raptor
 Posts: 100 Location: Viet Nam |
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To add to this, the author did get on the "Yahagi Sakura no Chotto Ojikan Yoroshii desu ka" radio show a few weeks back and explained that all cameo sections were not written for the real-life seiyuus; they are actually interviewed and their dialogues in the show are based on what they would say if they find themselves in the corresponding situations that the anime depicted. |
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Actar
 Posts: 1074 Location: Singapore |
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So the fact that popular voice actresses can make 70,000,000 yen a year is a lie? |
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GalicianNightmare
Posts: 124 |
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@Actar That's obviously a lie, so that's not a fact, it's a misconception.
Speaking of lies, it's a bit misleading to say that JP VAs make more than their American counterparts. Based on that figure you showed, it shows that they make no more money than their DUB counterparts, but you even said they can and do make more than AMERICAN (being general) VAs, which is wrong. Union US animation VAs on scale pay make $800+ per session, but the big shows like Spongebob and Simpsons have they VAs getting 5-6 figure salaries per episode. Even Kirk Thornton, who has never done a US animated show said that he got double scale for Kingdom Hearts. But even if these JP VAs got a lot of money, it would still be relative to Tokyo, which is more expensive than both LA and New York. |
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Afezeria
 Posts: 817 Location: Malaysia, Kuantan. |
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Probably. Is that picture legit? Seen it everywhere and people constantly used it to mock somebody, and I'll doubted its legit. |
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Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
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If we look at the sales charts that are posted weekly, most animes open the sales charts with 3,000 on average, while Japan's population is about 126 million by 2015 estimates (on a side-note, that's some 2 million lower than 2010's estimates, which were about the same as the 2005 estimates). That's about %0.02 of the population buying anime in home-media formats, and that's the top of the chart. On the other hand, manga sales usually cross over the 100,000 weekly copies quite easily -- and I'm not including One Piece or Shingeki no Kyojin, since they have an unusually strong pull in the charts.
As an outsider looking through the data, anime's market share looks very small, and as such the respective popularity of those who are in the industry.
The thing with Shirobaku (and even Bakuman.) is that this is, first and foremost, an entertainment show, whose purpose is to attract viewers and be appealing and interesting, not to be 100% factual. Shows of this kind were never meant to be taken as a documentary, but more of a commentary with certain elements modified (expanded and exaggerated or diminished) to draw an audience. While those numbers do appear to have been exaggerated, the overall statement, as answered in this column a few times, is true. |
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2034 |
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I know the Lupin III actors were the highest paid seiyuus in Japan once upon a time, which is why they couldn't return for The Fuma Conspiracy, they were too expensive.
I've also heard Megumi Hayashibara was really popular back in the 90s, but then again she was also a singer. 
In the US, the only pro (non-celeb) voice actor I can think of being a famous "household name" is Mel Blanc. Even legendary American VAs like Don Messick, June Foray, Daws Butler, Frank Welker, and modern big names like Tara Strong, Grey DeLisle, Tom Kenney, and Rob Paulsen are only known in certain circles, but they're slowly getting more recognition, I guess. People like Vic Mignogna, Crispin Freeman, Cristina Vee, Monica Rial, and Bryce Papenbrook are at least celebrities in the anime community here! I would imagine most of that is true in Japan too with their actors. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6900 Location: Kazune City |
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Drac
Posts: 165 |
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That's funny because, clearly due to fan interaction, American voice actors are under the impression that Japanese voice actors are far more famous in Japan then they themselves are in the US. I know I've heard John DiMaggio, maybe a few others but I can't remember who, mention it on a few occasions.
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SHD
Posts: 1759 |
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Suwabe Junichi (not exactly an unknown) mentioned on Twitter the other day that even though he's most well-known as a voice actor, his "main job" is actually narrating. ("Narrating" includes actual narration like in documentaries or TV dramas, but also being the announcer in live or prerecorded TV shows, and being the "voice" of entertainment shows like cooking shows and whatnot.)
A number of seiyuu who are rarely heard in anime roles anymore are still active in dubbing and narrating. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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Yes, the most recent episode of Sore ga Seiyuu showed that there are other jobs that seiyuu can get work with, like dubbing foreign movies or recording audio books.
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13615 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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To compare, I have heard many YT videos of dubbed VA panels about how doesn't pay well and that they are constantly searching for voice acting jobs.
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vonPeterhof
Posts: 729 |
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