atashinchi

Senin, 22 Oktober 2007

Actors and seiyū

Initially, dubbing and doing voice-overs was nothing more than the performance of an actor who used only his voice. When doing this job, they would usually be called "voice actors" (声の俳優, koe no haiyū?). For convenience, the term was shortened to a new compound consisting of the first and last kanji to make seiyū (声優, seiyū?). It was only after the seiyū booms however that this word became widespread. For this reason, elderly voice actors resent being called seiyū, because during their time the term had a different (and minimizing) connotation. For example, the renowned Chikao Ōtsuka, who dubbed Charles Bronson among others, was quoted in a special issue of Animage saying "We are actors. Even if a performance only requires the use of our voice, we still remain actors, and it is therefore incorrect to refer to us as just voice actors, isn't it?". He was strongly opposed to the new trend of separating actors and seiyū, even in the face of emerging seiyū like Genzō Wakayama, who only learned how to act using their voice and never set foot in a theater.

There are three main causes that set seiyū and actors apart.

1. Their professional upbringing by the Tokyo Broadcasting Drama Troupe (東京放送劇団, Tōkyō Hōsō Gekidan?), formed by NHK and other private networks during the golden age of radio dramas.
2. The increasing popularity of the television: due to the lack of Japan-made movies and dramas, TV networks were forced to air foreign shows, and that demand for seiyū raised exponentially.
3. The boom in the anime world market, which produced a wave of young talents whose aim was to become a seiyū rather than an actor.

by Novie at Senin, Oktober 22, 2007.