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A seiyuu (声優, seiyū — both singular and plural; or sometimes ボイスアクター, Boisuakutā or wasei-eigo for "voice actor" ) provides voice-overs for characters and narration for various types of media, including anime, video games, audio dramas, live-action stunt and puppet shows, and commercials. A voice actor also provides dubbing for non-Japanese television programs and films. The initial term for voice actors in Japan was "koe no haiyū" (声の俳優), but was later shortened to a compound word to make the word "seiyū" (声優).

There are three historical main factors that set voice actors in Japan apart from their equivalents in the rest of the world:

  • Their professional upbringing by the Tokyo Broadcasting Drama Troupe (東京放送劇団,[1] Tōkyō Hōsō Gekidan), formed by NHK[2] and other private networks during the golden age of radio dramas.
  • The lack of Japan-made movies and dramas forced TV networks to air foreign shows, which raised demand for voice actors.
  • The boom in the anime world market, which produced a wave of young talents who wanted to become voice actors, rather than actors.

Additional recent factors:

  • The anime market in Japan is growing very fast[3] due to more international interest and income generation. The amount of anime produced every year is accelerating and more money is being supplied by international sources[4] such as Netflix and Disney.
  • While the original TV drama market in Japan is relatively large compared to many countries,[5] it is not growing as fast as the anime market and TV drama markets[6] in other nearby countries, especially South Korea,[6][7] Taiwan, and Thailand (the mainland Chinese market is also growing even faster, but caters less to international fans). The smaller market compared to the supply of actors makes the competition more fierce and there are less roles to go around. Also, since actors have to travel to locations/sets and cannot necessarily work separately or asynchronously, which makes the logistics more difficult.
  • The animation aspect of anime production can be distributed to non-Japanese companies, but voice acting requires native or near native Japanese speakers. So scaling animation production is less limited by actual Japanese workers, but it is far less likely a non-Japanese person will be cast for anime roles as the industry expands, thus increasing demand and opportunities for seiyū.

Besides acting as narrators and actors in audio dramas and radio plays, as well as performing voice-overs for non-Japanese movies and television programs, the seiyū are extensively employed as character actors in anime and video games. Popular voice actors — especially voice actresses — often have devoted international fanclubs.[8] Some fans may watch a show merely to hear a particular voice actor. Some Japanese voice actors have capitalized on their fame to become singers, and many others have become live movie or television actors.

There are around 130 voice-acting schools in Japan.[9] Broadcast companies and talent agencies often have their own troupes of voice actors. Magazines focusing specifically on voice acting are published in Japan, with Voice Animage (Icon-japan-22x22Wikipedia (ja) 『ボイスアニメージ』) being the best known and longest running. Starting in 2004, Seiyū Animedia magazine, the sister magazine to the more general Animedia, covered voice acting in Japan for 20 years until its recent ending in June 2024.[10]

The English term character voice (or CV), has been commonly used since the 1980s by such Japanese anime magazines as Animec (Icon-japan-22x22Wikipedia (ja) 『アニメック』) and Newtype (Icon-japan-22x22Wikipedia (ja) 『月刊ニュータイプ』; specifically VOICE Newtype, Icon-japan-22x22Wikipedia (ja) 『ボイスニュータイプ』), for a voice actor associated with a particular anime or game character.

Voice acting in Japan[]

Voice acting in Japan is an industry where actors provide voice-overs as characters or narrators in media including anime, video games, audio dramas, commercials, and dubbing for non-Japanese films and television programs.

Voice acting in Japan has far greater prominence than in most other countries. Japan's large animation industry produces 60% of the animated series in the world; as a result, seiyū are able to achieve fame on a national and international level.

Dubbing into Japanese[]

In the case of foreign dramas, movies, cartoons, news and documentaries, the localization voice-over requires more exact timing in relation to what appears on the screen. In order to perform voice-overs, the volume of the original language voice track is lowered, leaving only a faint sound remaining or, in some cases, no sound at all except for the music-and-effects tracks. Voice-over work is primarily performed for news and original foreign dramas. Auditions are held in order to determine who will take on the roles.

Often times, a particular seiyū will be the primary voice-over representative for well-known foreign actors and will dub most of their roles in Japanese. For example, Ebara Masashi is the primary dub seiyū for Tom Hanks, Bill Murray, Robin Williams, Wesley Snipes, and Eddie Murphy. Matsumoto Rica is the primary dub seiyū for Sandra Bullock, Drew Barrymore, Renée Zellweger, and Patricia Arquette. Kaida Yuko is known for dubbing all of Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman roles (and a few others).

In anime and games[]

A voice actor's role in anime often consists of providing voice track before the production is finished. In Japan, the most popular method is to perform before the anime has already been completed. The artist then later draw in every expression to the key of the seiyū reading it off. This is the more popular way of prerecording in Japan. Famous and young voice actors are used in both the anime, OVAs, and anime commercials. However, in fan-oriented productions and products they use famous voice actors, famous voice actors are often used as a selling point.

Video games[]

Unlike in anime or dubbing roles, in a video game the voice tracks are often recorded separately due to the way individual voice tracks are selected and played depending on a player's progress. Typically a voice actor uses a script with only a single part's lines and matches it to the timing of the recording. Because of this, many collaborating voice actors in a production may never see each other in person. Popularity rankings may play a role in video game casting, but it is also possible to negotiate fees when a client requests a particular cast. Also due to the often much larger cast of characters and larger possible range of situations for main characters,[11] video game roles can be more lucrative for seiyū.

History[]

Voice acting has existed in Japan since the advent of radio. It was only in the 1970s that the term seiyū entered popular usage because of the anime Space Battleship Yamato. According to a newspaper interview with a voice talent manager, "Since the Yamato boom, the word 'seiyū' has become instantly recognized; before that, actors and actresses who introduced themselves as seiyū were often asked, 'You mean you work for Seiyu supermarket?'"

Early history[]

The earliest Japanese animation would predate the introduction of audio in film by at least a decade. Much like their live-action contemporaries during this period, screenings would have musical accompaniment and oftentimes include a benshi (narrator, 弁士; or 語り手, katarite). The benshi would fulfill a role similar to ones in the Japanese puppet theater and magic lantern shows, where the narration would fill in dialogue and other story elements. With the introduction of sound in film, voices were often pulled from the available staff. For example, in Benkei tai Ushiwaka animator Kenzō Masaoka cast himself and his wife as the titular Benkei and Ushiwaka, respectively.

Radio drama era[]

In 1925, the Tokyo Broadcasting Company (predecessor to the NHK,[2] Japan's public broadcasting system) started radio broadcasts. In that same year, twelve students who were specializing in voice-only performances became the first voice actors in Japan when a performance of a radio drama was broadcast. They referred to themselves as "seiyū", but in those days the term "radio actor" (ラジオ役者, radio yakusha) was used by newspapers to refer to the profession.

In 1941, NHK opened a training program to the public to prepare actors to specialize in radio dramas.This was called the "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). Then in 1942, the Tokyo Broadcasting Drama Troupe[1] debuted its first performance. This was the second time that the term "seiyū" was used to refer to voice actors.

There are several theories as to how the term "seiyū" was coined. One theory is that Oyhashi Tokusaburo, a reporter for the Yomiuri Newspaper, coined the term. Another theory is that Tatsu Ooka, an entertainment programming managing producer for the NHK,[2] came up with it.

At first, voice actors, like those at the Tokyo Radio Drama Troupe and similar companies specialized in radio dramas; with the advent of television, the term took on the additional meaning of one who does dubbing for animation. Television broadcasting aside, when radio was the leading mass medium, actors who played in radio dramas were not without their fans; for example, actors in the Nagoya Radio Drama troupe who played the lead love interest roles often received many fan letters.

1950s: First voice actor boom[]

Starting in the 1950s, a rise in the popularity of radio dramas as well as foreign television and film created many new opportunities for voice actors. After the 1950 Broadcasting Act, the Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (NHK)[2] began public broadcasting. Among these new broadcasts were several radio dramas, such as the 1952 drama Kimi no Nawa (Your Name [Icon-japan-22x22Wikipedia (ja) ja]), which would receive several adaptations on film, television, and stage due to its popularity.

Actors that were famous for their roles in dubbing and radio were used for their star power to voice similar characters in several anime productions. For example, Yasuo Yamada, who was famous for his Japanese dub of Clint Eastwood, was chosen to voice Arsène Lupin III for the Lupin III series.

1960s[]

In 1961, during the early days of commercial television broadcasting, the Five-Company Agreement (Gosha Agreement) caused the supply of Japanese movies that were available to Japanese television stations to dry up. As a result, in the 1960s many foreign dramas and other foreign programming was imported and dubbed into Japanese language for television broadcast.

At first, the NHK[2] subtitled most foreign shows; however, shows dubbed in the Japanese language soon became the standard. At the centre of the first voice acting boom were actors like Nachi Nozawa, who dubbed the same foreign actors, in Nozawa's case Alain Delon, Robert Redford, and Giuliano Gemma. Because of problems with pay guarantees arising from the Gosha Agreement, cinema actors were prevented from dubbing foreign movies for television. Television actors were also prevented from dubbing because of a similar agreement. This caused studios to turn to actors from the radio age and actors from the Shingeki style of acting. Around this time dubbing of foreign animation was done by Rakugo story tellers, Asakusa comedians, and the like, and voice actors were called "dubbing talents" if they specialised in dubbing, while those giving voice to a character went under the name of "ateshi". It is during this golden age for dubbing that the Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society was founded. Later, Haikyo voice acting managers left and opened their own management agencies. Voice actors in Japan also voiced anime.

The first dubbed show broadcast in Japan was an episode of the American cartoon Superman, on October 9, 1955, on KRT (today TBS), and the first non-animated dubbed show broadcast was Cowboy G-Men, again by KRT, in 1956. Both were dubbed live; the first show to be broadcast with pre-recorded dubbing was The Adventures of Television Boy (テレビ坊やの冒険, Terebi Bōya no Bōken) on April 8, 1956.

1970s: Second voice actor boom[]

During the late 1970s, Akio Nojima, Kazuyuki Sogabe, Akira Kamiya, Tōru Furuya and Toshio Furukawa were the first to unite into a band, Slapstick, and perform live. Many other voice actors released their own albums. At around 1979 the first anime magazines began to be published. The then editor-in-chief of Animage, Hideo Ogata, was the first to publish editorials on the ongoing transformation of voice actors into idols. Following his lead, the other magazines created "seiyū corners" with information and gossip about voice actors; this was one of the main causes of young anime fans yearning to become voice actors. This period also saw a gradual split of anime voice actors from their roots in theater. With the rise of voice actor specific training centers and audio-only productions, voice actors could start their careers working full time without any association to a broadcasting theater company. The term "seiyū" emerged to describe these voice actors who focused solely on voicing for anime productions. This boom lasted until the first half of the 1980s.

1980s[]

In 1989, the voice actors of the five main stars of the animated television show Ronin Warriors (Nozomu Sasaki, Takeshi Kusao, Hiroshi Takemura, Tomohiro Nishimura and Daiki Nakamura) formed an all-male singing group called "NG5". The group was featured as the subject of a special documentary program on MBS.

During this period, voice acting production companies also began to provide specialised courses at on-site training schools specifically for training in animation dubbing.

1990s[]

The 1960s and 1970s booms were centered on media, such as the TV. In the 1990s, a new boom centred on more personal ways of communication, such as radio shows, Original Video Animation, television quizzes, public events and the Internet, gave way to the publication of the first dedicated voice acting magazines, Voice Actor Grand Prix (Icon-japan-22x22Wikipedia (ja) 『声優グランプリ』) and Voice Animage (Icon-japan-22x22Wikipedia (ja) 『ボイスアニメージ』). Voice actors acquired many new fans thanks to the radio, and their CD sale figures increased. Concerts began to be held in the bigger halls. While the second boom also saw the voice actors become DJs, this time the recording houses backed the voice actor radio shows as sponsors, and large sums of money began to circulate. Megumi Hayashibara, Hekiru Shiina and Mariko Kouda are the first examples of this new trend. Recording companies and voice acting schools began to devise new ways to raise young voice actors.

When voice acting was introduced in television games, the same voice actors would perform in a series of events related to the television game world, making appearances and participating in radio programs based on the television games to attract the fanbase.

In the second half of the 1990s, the boom in the animation world led to the increase of anime shown in the Tokyo area. With the Internet, gathering information on their favorite voice actors became easy for fans, and voice actors began to appear in Internet-based radio shows.

From 1994 to 2000, the world's first digital satellite radio broadcaster, St.GIGA, transmitted episodic video games with voice acted overdubs in a separate and continually streaming vocal track (a technique called SoundLink), to be played in Japan on Nintendo's Super Famicom video game console with its Satellaview peripheral. BS Zelda no Densetsu was identified by Nintendo as the world's first integrated radio-game.

2000–present: Idol and real-life crossovers[]

During the mid-to-late 2000s, voice acting talents began crossing over with the Japanese idol industry. Prominent examples include Koharu Kusumi and Nana Mizuki, all of whom were established actors or singers in mainstream entertainment before entering voice acting. While character song tie-ins were already common in the film industry by then, some voice actors also began making crossover television, stage, and concert appearances as their characters as well, leading them to be closely associated with one another. The term "2.5D", which picked up frequent usage in the mid-2010s, was used to describe voice actors who would portray their characters in real life, such as television or stage plays. Over the mid-to-late 2010s, multimedia projects where the voice actors would appear as their characters in real-life became popular, such as The Idolmaster and Love Live! The magazine Seiyū Grand Prix noted that over 1,500 voice actors were active in 2021, compared to 370 voice actors (145 men and 225 women) in 2001.[12]

Crossover[]

Seiyū to other parts of entertainment industry[]

Radio shows

The most popular crossover for seiyū that also fits their talents are radio shows. Most popular seiyū have their own radio shows or appear often on other seiyū's radio shows. Suzumura Kenichi is known for his daily early radio show 『ONE MORNING』. The crossover is so common that the Seiyu Awards has a "Radio Program" category for its awards (although it is not always given out).

Other well-known seiyū radio shows:

Singers

Many seiyū are known to engage in other entertainment activities, but the most common is becoming a singer. This usually starts with being asked to sing an opening or ending theme song for an anime they are a seiyū in or their agency is affiliated with (usually based on a partnership with a music label). They also will often be asked to sing character songs, usually in character, but sometimes not.

Well-known seiyū singers:

Dancing and Singing

Some seiyū start out with a role specifically intended to utilize their singing skills with the voice acting as a somewhat secondary skill. Some seiyū are recruited to be in idol anime where they are expected to perform in character at live-action tie-in events such that dancing ability is also needed. For dancing and singing situations, seiyū are often given lead time to train with choreographers, dancing coaches, and singing coaches.

Well-known seiyū (usually idol) groups:

Master/mistress of ceremonies

While most larger anime promotional stage events (5 or more participants?) have a non-seiyū MC/Emcee, many smaller events use seiyū as MC where they greet the audience, describe the event, and prompt other seiyū to talk about the event.

On-screen talk and variety shows

A common crossover for seiyū is TV talk or variety shows like Uchida Maaya who did a talk show about movies call Movie Favo (2018 -) with actor Itō Kentaro.[13]

Probably the most well-known TV variety program to feature seiyū lasts 2 hours per episode and is also about seiyū called Say You to Yo Asobi (声優と夜あそび) which started on the streaming service Abema TV on April 2, 2018 and completed its 4th season as of 2021.

A TV drama called Scary Stories Told by Seiyū (声優が語る怖い話 , Seiyū ga Kataru Kowai Hanashi) features seiyū telling stories of fear and horror that has lasted 3 seasons. Each season has 12 or more episodes of about 5 min each.

A short lived, but well-known variety show called Seiyū Variety SAY!YOU!SAY!ME! (『声優バラエティー_SAY!YOU!SAY!ME!』) on TV Aichi was broadcast primarily from spring to fall 2011 and lasted about 26 episodes. The show also featured MCs from the idol group SKE48. It had some spinoffs and specials broadcast in 2012.

Some recent seiyū idol-based TV variety programs include 22/7 Calculating (22/7 計算中) and its successor 22/7 Checking (22/7 検算中) which both feature the group 22/7 (a seiyū idol unit produced by Yasushi Akimoto of AKB48, Aniplex and Sony Music Records).

Live-action acting

More rare, but sometimes, seiyū will try out acting in live-action dramas or movies. The most common crossover is in tokusatsu series (like Kamen Rider or Super Sentai) where they might do the voice acting for the in-costume version of the character and play the out-of-costume version for other scenes. Seki Tomokazu has done voice work for many tokusatsu shows. Inada Tetsu has done many, many tokusatsu voice-over roles, but very few non-voice roles in live-action.

Even more rare are the seiyū who act directly in main roles for normal dramas or movies. Recently, Kaji Yuki actually starred as the main lead in a 2020 Japanese drama, Piple -I married an AI- (ぴぷる~AIと結婚生活はじめました~).[14][15] Most seiyū only act in supporting roles like Miyano Mamoru in the 2019 drama I Was Looking Forward to Last Night (ゆうべはお楽しみでしたね)[16] or Tomatsu Haruka in 2008's RH Plus (RHプラス).[17]

The most prominent seiyū to work regularly in live-action is Toda Keiko (main voice for Anpanman for over 30 years) who has had regular supporting roles in live-action since 1999 and even a few main roles.

Other seiyū who regularly crossover to live-action:

  • In the last 6 or 7 years, Nakagawa Shoko (although primarily a tarento and singer) has gotten about 1 significant support role a year plus a main role.
  • Park Romi's husband Yamaji Kazuhiro is an active seiyū, but even so he only gets significant live-action roles every couple of years.
  • Inuyama Inuko gets meaningful drama roles (not just bit parts, cameos, or guest roles) every couple of years on average for the last 20 years.
  • Takagi Wataru has gotten meaningful roles roughly every year since 2016.
  • While his seiyuu active period was almost all in the late 80s to late 90s, Furumoto Shinnosuke continued to get guest and a few support roles in live-action dramas and movies from the early 2000s to a few years ago (2017), so may have effectively switched to live-action acting.
  • So far, while not a super successful seiyū, Someya Toshiyuki has balanced live-action versus voice roles consistently from about 2015 to 2020.

Other entertainers becoming seiyū[]

Actors

It is rare for primarily live-action actors to switch to being primarily seiyū, but they do crossover frequently, usually in anime movies. For example, the very well-known actor from the live-action Rurouni Kenshin movies, Satō Takeru, did some voice acting for the recent anime movie BELLE (2021) as The Dragon / Megumi.[18]

Other well-known actors who have done voice acting of main roles in anime movies:

  • Aoi Yū portrayed Shiro in Tekkonkinkreet (2006).
    • She also played Woman in Penguin Highway (2018), Tetsuko "Alice" Arisugawa in Case of Hana & Alice (2015), and Sonoshee McLaren in Redline (2009).
  • Ashida Mana portrayed Annie in Magic Tree House (2012)
    • She also played Yui in the anime movie The House of the Lost on the Cape (2021), Lubicchi in Poupelle of Chimney Town (2020), and Ruka Azumi in Children of the Sea (2019).
  • Ayase Haruka portrayed Haruka in Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror (2009).
  • Hoshino Gen portrayed Buddha on Saint Young Men (2013).
    • He also played Sempai in Night is Short, Walk On Girl (2017).
  • Haru protrayed Flora Dragon Quest Your Story (2019; Satō Takeru also portrayed the main character Ryuka in this anime film) and Runda in Anpanman: Nanda and Runda From the Star of Toys (2016). She has many, many well-known TV drama credits to her name, but broke out in the asadora, Asa ga Kita (2015).
  • Itō Kentarō portrayed Kawamura Wasabi in Ride Your Wave (2020).
  • Kamishiraishi Mone portrayed Miyamizu Mitsuha in Your name. (2016).
    • She also plays Natsume Amano in the anime movie Yo-kai Watch Shadowside The Movie: Wrath of the Demon King (2017).
    • She returned as Miyamizu Mitsuha in a guest role in Weathering With You (2019).
  • Kamishiraishi Mokaja (younger sister of Mone)portrayed Kun-chan in Mirai (2018).
    • She also plays Koko in the anime movie Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle (2020).
  • Kitagawa Keiko portrayed Jack in Magic Tree House (2012).
  • Kiyohara Kaya portrayed Noruda in Typhoon Noruda (2015).
    • She also played Josee in Josee, The Tiger and the Fish (2020).
  • Kuroki Haru portrayed Mirai-chan in Mirai (2018).
    • She's also had some significant supporting roles in the anime movies Boy and The Beast (2015) as Ichirohiko (Young), Case of Hana & Alice (2015) as Satomi Hagino-sensei, and Wolf Children (2012) as Yuki.
  • Matsumoto Honokaja portrayed Hinageshi Yōko in Ride Your Wave (2020).
  • Ishihara Satomi portrayed Mizuha in Legend of the Millennium Dragon (2011).
  • Nakagawa Taishi portrayed Tsuneo Suzukawa in Josee, The Tiger and the Fish (2020). He is known for live action roles such as Shu Onotora in Hitman in Love (2021), Rihito Kase in You and I on the G-String (2019, Haru also portrayed the main character Yaeko Kogure in this series), Tenma Hase in Hana Nochi Hare: HanaDan Next Season (2018, semi-sequel to the famous Hana Yori Dango), Yuiji Kira in the film Closest Love To Heaven (2017), and Shunichi Minami in My Little Lover (2015).
  • Oguri Shun portrayed Captain Harlock in Harlock: Space Pirate (2013).
  • Yamazaki Kento, Arata Mackenyu, and Nagano Mei portrayed Yū, Haru, and Kotona respectively in Ni no Kuni (2019)

Well-known actors that have done many anime roles, but are primarily live-action actors:

  • Fukuhara Haruka is known for doing a hybrid live-action and voice acting role as a child in Cooking Idol! Ai! Mai! Main! (2009) has portrayed about a dozen characters in anime films and series. She has appeared in over 10 live-action films with 3 lead roles and over 20 TV dramas with 7 lead roles through 2021.
  • Matsumoto Marika has focused mostly on live-action, especially later in her career, but has had a few significant voice acting roles from around 2000 to 2015. Her most notable anime role is Miwako Sakurada in Paradise Kiss (2005), but she is still active voicing Maya Tōmi in Fafner of the Blue Sky (2004 to 2020) and Princess Sharon in Tropical-Rouge! Precure the Movie: The Snow Princess and the Miraculous Ring (2021) anime film.[19]
  • Ibu Masato has been an actor for 50 years, but was quite active as a seiyū for around 20 years from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s (almost all Space Battleship Yamato roles). Since then, he has focused almost exclusively on live-action roles.
  • Kamiki Ryūnosuke has portrayed over a dozen characters in anime films and starred in over 20 movies and over 30 TV dramas through 2021.

Actors who started in live-action, but have done significant roles as seiyū:

  • Komiya Arisa was well known as an actress for the Super Sentai series Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters (2012, as Yellow Buster / Yoko Usami) and followup appearances. She has also appeared in the Kamen Rider series as well (guest appearances in Kamen Rider Ghost <2015> and Kamen Rider Zero-One <2019>). However starting around 2015, she is now equally or even more known as Dia Kurosawa of the 2nd generation anime Love Live! Sunshine!! of the Love Live! mixed media franchise including the main seiyū idol unit Aqours and its subgroup AZALEA. She continues to do live-action roles, but at possible a slightly less active pace than before her seiyū involvement.
  • Hashimoto Shohei is actor (born late 1993) who has shown good balance between live-action and voice work after starting an acting career around 2013 and seiyū career later at around 2019. Through 2022 he's gotten 2 main movie roles and 1 TV drama main role whereas he has had 2 TV anime series main roles and 2 anime movie roles. It remains to be seen if he can maintain that balance as his career goes forward.
  • Morita Junpei started mostly as an actor in the 1980s, but started regularly doing seiyū work around the 1990s. While primarily working in tokusatsu for live-action, he otherwise has a diverse body of work.
  • Yamazaki Shigenori is a successful actor (mostly known supporting roles and for 3 seasons of the Tokyo Little Love shorts in 2010) interestingly has had a repeated supporting seiyū role in Prince of Tennis for over 10 years starting in 2001 and also in Eureka Seven for just over 10 years, but otherwise does only a very view voice roles.

Actors who started in live-action and switched to being a seiyū:

  • Fujii Yukiyo started as an actress around late 2008, but then switched to being a seiyū full time after 2011. She has become a pretty successful seiyū since the switch in her mid-20s. She is mostly known for voicing Zhi Lao in New Cooking Master Boy (2019), Inuyama Mana in the 2018 reboot of GeGeGe no Kitaro, Hotaru Tomoe/Sailor Saturn in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal Season III (2016), Rebecca Rossellini in the Lupin the Third franchise starting in 2015, Latifa Fleuranza in Amagi Brilliant Park (2014), Tetora in the Log Horizon franchise starting with the 2nd season, and Patema in the Patema Inverted (2013) movie.
  • Yamaguchi Megumi started as a child actor at the age of 5, but around age 11 got a supporting role as Lulu Lima in the anime Michiko & Hatchin (2008) and seems to have largely switched over to being a seiyū after 2014. She got her first main role portraying Ao Manaka the anime Asteroid in Love (2020).
  • Ishii Momoka is a child actor who has had over a dozen live-action TV drama roles, but seems to making an attempt to switch to being a seiyū in her late teens (after 2018).
Announcers

Well-known announcer Ogami Izumija is known for playing the occasional recurring character Kagura in InuYasha although she has done very few voice-acting roles.

Other entertainers
  • Successful screenwriter Watanabe Kei (渡辺 啓; known for the High&Low franchise) interestingly has had a repeated supporting seiyū role in Prince of Tennis for over 10 years starting in 2001, but otherwise does only a very view voice roles.

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Icon-japan-22x22Wikipedia (ja) 東京放送劇団
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Wikipedia NHK aka Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai
  3. Cartoon Brew - Anime Industry Grew To Record $24.1 Billion In 2019, Says Trade Body By Alex Dudok de Wit 11/27/2020 2:34 pm
  4. Crunchyroll News - Overseas Demand is Driving Up the Amount of Money Anime Studios Are Making by Daryl Harding August 22, 2020 10:51am PDT
  5. C21Media - Japan targets global market with fresh content 15-02-2021
  6. 6.0 6.1 Hollywood Reporter - South Korea and Japan Emerge as Key Battlegrounds in the Streaming Wars by Patrick Brzeski April 16, 2021 6:00am
  7. Hollywood Reporter - “Our Ambitions Are Large”: Disney’s Top Asia Executive on Streaming Strategy and China Challenges by Patrick Brzeski October 20, 2021 3:53am
  8. Onegai-Kaeru.jp - JAPAN FAN CLUB PROXY SERVICE - VOICE ACTORS' FANCLUB
  9. Terumitsu Otsu and Mary Kennard (April 27, 2002). "The art of voice acting". The Daily Yomiuri. p. 11.
  10. Anime News Network - Seiyū Animedia Magazine Ends Publication After 20 Years by Rafael Antonio Pineda 2024-05-28 00:08 EDT
  11. Twitter - @GWRJapan (Guinness World Records Japan): 声優の松岡禎丞さんがダンメモでのベル役のセリフの数が #ギネス世界記録 『一人の声優によりモバイルゲームに提供されたセリフの最多数』に認定㊗️
    ただいま開催されている #ダンまちFES2019 にて、ダンメモと松岡さんに公式認定証が贈呈されました!おめでとうございます😆💕🎉 #danmachi #ダンメモ (Voice actor Yoshitsugu Matsuoka's number of words in Bell's role in DanMachi : Memoria Freese Guinness World Records "The Most Number of Words Provided by Mobile Games by Voice Actor"
    The official certification certificate has been presented to DanMemo and Matsuoka at ダンまち/DanTownFES2019, which is being held now! Congratulations)
  12. "声優人口、男女ともに増加で"史上最多" 「声優名鑑」20年で370人→1500人超と4倍". Oricon (in Japanese). 2021-02-20. Retrieved 2021-02-21.
  13. Crunchyroll News - Voice Actress and Model Team Up to Talk Film in "Movie Favo" TV Show by Paul Chapman April 17, 2018 5:35am PDT
  14. Anime News Network - New Cast, Visual Revealed for Yuuki Kaji's 1st Live-Action Drama Piple by Lynzee Loveridge 2020-03-12 17:45 EDT
  15. MyDramaList - Piple: AI to Kekkon Seikatsu Hajimemashita (2020)
  16. MyDramaList - Yuube wa Otanoshimi Deshita ne (2019)
  17. MyDramaList - RH Plus (2008)
  18. Anime News Network - BELLE (movie)
  19. Anime News Network - Toei Reveals Tropical-Rouge! Precure Anime Film With October 23 Opening by Rafael Antonio Pineda 2021-07-13 20:56 EDT

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