Seiyuu Wiki:Seiyuu skills

Seiyuu have a variety of skills they must pick up as they advance in their careers, many of which may not be immediately apparent, even if you see them doing their job in the studio.

Social skills

Interacting with other seiyuu

• Awareness of seniority hierarchy (mostly senpai/senior & kouhai/junior)
  • This can be tricky, because there is an age hierarchy and a professional experience hierarchy
• How to address other seiyuu at various levels
  • Usually this follows normal Japanese honorifics.
  • Seniors may start with more casual forms of honorific with kouhai.
  • Friends or frequent colleagues may use nicknames

Interacting with technical staff

• Greeting (there is probably an expected order; TBA)
• Different staff levels have different honorifics (TBA)
• Asking for advice

Public speaking

• Engaging the audience
• Natural feeling interaction while on stage
• Master/mistress of ceremonies
• Radio shows
• Seiyuu group panels
• Video live streams

Other

• Order of arrival?

Technical skills

Preparation

• Fast reading comprehension of Japanese (and knowledge of lots of Kanji characters)
• Knowing the source material (if necessary)
• Physical foundation
  • Building lung capacity
  • Facial muscle training
  • Throat care
• Physical vocalization practice
  • Abdominal breathing
  • Humming
  • Lip rolling and vibrating
  • Nasal sounds
  • Non-verbal sounds
  • Varying pitch
• Articulation and pronunciation
  • Conversational response practice
  • Practicing tongue twisters
  • Using dialects correctly
• Conveying emotions
• Home dubbing practice
• Annotating scripts

In the studio

• Silent page flipping
• Moving quietly
• Seating order and position
• Mastering mic rotation and position
• Positioning relative to the mic
• Syncing voice with video
• Responding to advice
• Recovering from mistakes
• When to cough, sneeze, or otherwise make a noise when you need to
• Dealing with need to go to the bathroom

Specialty

• Anime dubbing
• Game dubbing
• Live-action dubbing
• Narration
• Singing while dubbing
• Voicing older or younger characters
• Voicing high energy or subdued characters

Other

• Motion capture
• Skills related to virtual idols