Comments on: Seiyuu Keep Quiet and Like It – Young Magazine

By: Tyrenol

Tyrenol — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:05:00 +0000

A long time ago; a ruckus had been made when one of the Beatles said that they were better than, or as good as, God. And it seems that some of the seiyuu don’t know where the line is between “talking about the characters they play” and “acting like some butthole.”

But to this day, major respect goes out to Kenichi Suzumura (Shinn Asuka of Garbage Seed Destiny) for stating that Chiaki Morosawa is a garbage writer. We need more people like him to help keep anime from being reduced into “enima.”

By: albert_2mb

albert_2mb — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:58:41 +0000

haha, well in short:
“but you didn’t create the character, did you?”
nope, they ARE the characters, lol.

By: Karasu-kun

Karasu-kun — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:19:42 +0000

Agreed, Hokuoholic, it is really a non-issue. Also, I’d rather someone be passionate and vocal about their work/roles (pardon the inadvertent pun there) than someone who refuses to comment and seems disinterested in what they do. Voice acting/direction can really make or break a series, and seiyuu are absolutely involved in the process, so it’s nice to hear their thoughts as well. I don’t think that anyone’s trying to “throw their weight around”, or make a character out to be their own invention or anything as bad as all of that.

By: C.I.

C.I. — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:22:33 +0000

I agree with all the above, the article’s a tad harsh.

After all, voice-acting is still acting, despite directors giving Seiyuus directions, they still need to get into the feel of their character and give them dimension by via roleplay (or rather, acting).

So, all in all, Seiyuus aren’t randomly commenting or anything, (even though authors themselves DO put in a fair share of creative work behind the character they created) they’re people who’ve spent time and effort getting to know how to portray their character, and their comments therefore MUST carry SOME weight.

By: omo

omo — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:02:54 +0000

Agree with Houkoholic.

In my own experience, these voice actors take their roles personally and as a general rule they act by internalizing the character. There is a balance between being a professional but also the act of displaying their genuine emotions through their performance.

Just like a live-action actor that perform based on a script or even improv acting, voice actors invariably create dimensions to their manga/written characters in ways that’s beyond the scope of the original work. Often times I think their interpretations are improvements over the original should they be markedly different (and obviously the director/ADR person would agree).

By: houkoholic

houkoholic — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:31:48 +0000

You mean like how movie actors constantly get asked about how the character they play feel or what sort of personality their characters possess during interviews?

This is a non-issue at best. The seiyuu all had to act according to the directions given by producers and directors, whom themselves are interpretating the scripts and story if they didn’t create the original story themselves. Even the seiyuu’s reasoning for how the characters feel are based on these directions, it’s not like the seiyuu make up random comments or anything.

By: Nemo_N

Nemo_N — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:28:48 +0000

I think the author is being too harsh.

Voice acting involves, well, acting, therefore the seiyuu must, at least at some level, understand the character to be able to portray it.

Yes, authors and creators should be the final authority here, but I think seiyuu are in a very good position to, potentially, understand and then talk about the characters’ feelings and background.